AIS SIM cards deactivated

[xcell]

I just returned back to Thailand after 7 month - to find out that both my (prepaid and registered) SIM cards have been deactivated by AIS...

Since 16 years I had no issues after returning - AIS staff told me that their prepaid cards are only valid for 90 days. 

Thank you AIS! - making me change to TRUE - no limit as long as there are sufficient funds on the card... at least I got the ones from AIS back!

Edited October 27, 2016 by xcell

[VBF]

@xcell  I'm in UK so when I saw your topic I  checked my AIS phone which hasn't been topped up since April 2016 when I left Thailand. At the time I topped it up so as to keep it active for 12 months.

Still roams to TMobile in UK; Called *121# - it still has the same balance - that also proved the roaming was working

 

Made a very quick call to my UK mobile - still all OK.. BUT...... before I left Thailand I topped it up (via my SCB account) leaving over 300 Baht on it. This is good to April 2017

I also logged in to https://eservice.ais.co.th/eServiceWeb/ and told it to send me an OTP  my balance was as I expected.

 

Therefore I assume that you didn't have enough of a balance on yours when you left Thailand 7 months ago  - that might be why they deactivated them...however AIS do some odd things from time to time.

You don't say where you are but if you happen to be in Pattaya, AIS have an office in Central Dept Store and they are VERY helpful. You could try visiting them (with your passport!) and they might be able to help.

Good luck 

Edited October 27, 2016 by VBF

[dbrenn]

Lots of small 20 Baht top ups each give 1 month validity up to 1 year maximum . 

[daveAustin]

If it helps, my prepaid Dtac stayed alive for 9 months with something like 10 baht on it. Perhaps things have changed very recently though.

[elgenon]

I know with Dtac and probably AIS you can buy an extension of validity. Very cheap. Why would they keep a number alive if they don't know if you will ever use it again? There are a limited amount of numbers.

 

Probably a good idea to learn your options.

[whatproblem]

20 minutes ago, elgenon said:

I know with Dtac and probably AIS you can buy an extension of validity. Very cheap. Why would they keep a number alive if they don't know if you will ever use it again? There are a limited amount of numbers.

 

Probably a good idea to learn your options.

Cannot buy on AIS

[Don Mega]

6 minutes ago, whatproblem said:

Cannot buy on AIS

Cannot buy what ?

[whatproblem]

1 minute ago, Don Mega said:

Cannot buy what ?

Extension of time on AIS ,can get transfer of time from friend but not buy it same you can with dtac 

[Don Mega]

2 minutes ago, whatproblem said:

Extension of time on AIS ,can get transfer of time from friend but not buy it same you can with dtac 

Really, when did that happen ?

[lomax1000]

It could be that you have a 2G SIM Card ( AIS changed to 3G about December 2015 )   AIS will give you a new 3G SIM Card with your original phone number. ( No Charge at AIS Office )

[dotpoom]

8 hours ago, VBF said:

@xcell  I'm in UK so when I saw your topic I  checked my AIS phone which hasn't been topped up since April 2016 when I left Thailand. At the time I topped it up so as to keep it active for 12 months.

Still roams to TMobile in UK; Called *121# - it still has the same balance - that also proved the roaming was working

 

Made a very quick call to my UK mobile - still all OK.. BUT...... before I left Thailand I topped it up (via my SCB account) leaving over 300 Baht on it. This is good to April 2017

I also logged in to https://eservice.ais.co.th/eServiceWeb/ and told it to send me an OTP  my balance was as I expected.

 

Therefore I assume that you didn't have enough of a balance on yours when you left Thailand 7 months ago  - that might be why they deactivated them...however AIS do some odd things from time to time.

You don't say where you are but if you happen to be in Pattaya, AIS have an office in Central Dept Store and they are VERY helpful. You could try visiting them (with your passport!) and they might be able to help.

Good luck 

Just a little tip about topping up with the machine at the AIS store in Central Festival. Let's say you wanted to top up by 100 Baht...if you do you will get an extra month on the "life" of your Sim card. If you top up with 100 Baht by doing it 20 Baht at a time (5 times) you will get 5 months extra life, ie., a month's life for every transaction, up to a maximum of one year.

[khunano]

You can register an account with AIS online and do a top-up with your credit card before the number expires. If I remember correctly you can also do that with a transfer from a Thai bank account.

[Jedsada3]

 

13 hours ago, xcell said:

Thank you AIS! - making me change to TRUE - no limit as long as there are sufficient funds on the card...

 

Prepaid cards from TRUE will also be cancelled after the due date is over, EVEN IF YOU STILL HAVE MONEY ON IT ! (you can see the balance and the expire date when you dial #123#)  . Your number is than lost and can't be retrieved.

 

You can buy 30 days by typing *934*30#. It will cost you a few bahts.

[geriatrickid]

Someone did not provide his Thai ID or foreign passport information.

Telephone numbers  were being disconnected  as of Jan. 2016.

 

Also, AIS has been replacing phones as it changed over to the new system. My phone just stopped working last April. I had no idea what went wrong. Turned out, that I had an old phone that was no longer compatible with the new  AIS system. They gave me a nice new  Chinese phone for 250 baht. Works like a  charm, 

My friend who's phone was 1 year less old than mine was told to go away as the promotion did not apply to his phone since his was compatible with the 3G/4G setup. (Boy was he  annoyed. I never say a guy sputter so much,  no fair no fair, me Thai, no get, not correct. Stooopid peeples. hehe.)

[Mangostin]

They are a bunch of hopeless morons, their services as everything else it's a it and miss, but lately they seems to have been recruiting or just training their staff to be simply horrible.

They'll not admit their fault, stop your service without reason and when you contact anyone they'll simply reply that they don't know anything on how to fix your issue and they'll pass it on on their bosses, which guess what? They will never get back to you or leave alone fix their krapp krap krap, absolute krapp! This is AIS, a total and utter disgrAIS

[Asiang]

Any prepaid SIM card is valid 12 months as long as you refill it. Not rocket science :-)

[Fairynuff]

2 hours ago, Asiang said:

Any prepaid SIM card is valid 12 months as long as you refill it. Not rocket science :-)

But being polite seems to be....for you at least

[mercman24]

just love AIS love it, love it, love it, had some spam calls , nice lady operator sorted it straight away.

[NoBrainer]

5 hours ago, whatproblem said:

Cannot buy on AIS

 

 

 

*500*9# – Add 30 days validity for 30 THB

Works for me

 

 

[KhunBENQ]

1 hour ago, Fairynuff said:

But being polite seems to be....for you at least

If you find the referred post impolite you missed a lot in TV.

 

Multiple reasons are possible for the termination, one of them having missed the registration (with passport). In this case the number is gone and forgotten (will be reassigned sooner or later).

 

As far as I remember:

"90 days" sounds like credit expired for more than 90 days.

When you check the balance you see the due date after which credit expires.

A further 90 days on the SIM is terminated.

And it's indeed not that diffucult to extend validity.

Having been discussed over and over in multiple threads.

Every provider has to take measures to terminate inactive prepaid SIMs.

At a price of 50 Baht they would otherwise run out of number space sooner or later.

 

Edited October 28, 2016 by KhunBENQ

[seancbk]

14 hours ago, VBF said:

@xcell  I'm in UK so when I saw your topic I  checked my AIS phone which hasn't been topped up since April 2016 when I left Thailand. At the time I topped it up so as to keep it active for 12 months.

Still roams to TMobile in UK; Called *121# - it still has the same balance - that also proved the roaming was working

 

Made a very quick call to my UK mobile - still all OK.. BUT...... before I left Thailand I topped it up (via my SCB account) leaving over 300 Baht on it. This is good to April 2017

I also logged in to https://eservice.ais.co.th/eServiceWeb/ and told it to send me an OTP  my balance was as I expected.

 

Therefore I assume that you didn't have enough of a balance on yours when you left Thailand 7 months ago  - that might be why they deactivated them...however AIS do some odd things from time to time.

You don't say where you are but if you happen to be in Pattaya, AIS have an office in Central Dept Store and they are VERY helpful. You could try visiting them (with your passport!) and they might be able to help.

Good luck 

Great info you've given there.

If I ever have issues I just call 1175 then follow the voice prompts (2,1, 0) which will get you an English speaking support person and they are always very helpful.

I've been a very happy user of AIS in Bangkok for 8 years now, still using the same pay as you go sim that I bought when I first arrived here.

I have multi sim service so my ipad, phone and portable hotspot all have sims in that use the same data package - 1200 THB a month for 5 GB of 3G data and unlimited reduced rate data.

I use about 400-500 THB a month for calls.

 

[Skeptic7]

11 hours ago, elgenon said:

I know with Dtac and probably AIS you can buy an extension of validity. Very cheap. Why would they keep a number alive if they don't know if you will ever use it again? There are a limited amount of numbers.

 

Probably a good idea to learn your options.

Yes on Dtac...No on AIS -OR- should say NOT cheap on AIS. 

Edited October 28, 2016 by Skeptic7

[Dumbastheycome]

It seems AIS is  currently having some  problems  with  many aspects involving sim  card validity of service. The  micro micro sim  cards would appear to be problematic. Until recently I have found  AIS a reliable provider but  more recently  have  had issues that have  even confused them. It  has occurred to me that in  order to offset the cost of the acquisition  of   4G rights they have abandoned a  reliable sim card manufacturer in favour of  .....

 

[Mangostin]

To put it into simple terms, AIS it's NOT honoring what they promise to their customers, and when someone make them to notice, they simply don't care.

[xcell]

On 10/28/2016 at 0:05 AM, VBF said:

...Therefore I assume that you didn't have enough of a balance on yours when you left Thailand 7 months ago  - that might be why they deactivated them...however AIS do some odd things from time to time.

You don't say where you are but if you happen to be in Pattaya, AIS have an office in Central Dept Store and they are VERY helpful. You could try visiting them (with your passport!) and they might be able to help.

Good luck 

Thank you indeed for your advice. I thought I wouldn't get surprised with AIS after 16 years of being a customer with no problems. Unfortunately my card was deactivated although I had over 300 THB on the card which I got finally back after waiting 45 min at the Central AIS office! the same thing happened with my guest's AIS card which showed over 1'000.- THB balance... AIS told me that there are new regulations - unfortunately,  I was not informed of..

I now choose the 300.-THB package from TRUE with unlimited internet and xxx free calls and SMS - mai pen rai ;-)

Edited December 20, 2016 by xcell
correction

[FritsSikkink]

4 hours ago, xcell said:

Thank you indeed for your advice. I thought I wouldn't get surprised with AIS after 16 years of being a customer with no problems. Unfortunately my card was deactivated although I had over 300 THB on the card which I got finally back after waiting 45 min at the Central AIS office! the same thing happened with my guest's AIS card which showed over 1'000.- THB balance... AIS told me that there are new regulations - unfortunately,  I was not informed of..

I now choose the 300.-THB package from TRUE with unlimited internet and xxx free calls and SMS - mai pen rai ;-)

"AIS told me that there are new regulations - unfortunately,  I was not informed of.."

Not that strange if you were gone for 7 months.

[xcell]

On 12/20/2016 at 0:54 PM, FritsSikkink said:

Not that strange if you were gone for 7 months.

You are right - in 7 month many things can happen in Thailand!

Edited January 9, 2017 by xcell
finding the right words to be understood