A few weeks after I arrived in Thailand two years ago, Bauj and I went to sign up for internet with TOT(Telecommunications Of Thailand). All fine and dandy, only when we finally got it up and running, we realized that they had switched our names on the accounts, so my name was on her apt's account, and vice versa, so we received each other's bills. We thought it would be easier to just pay each other's bills than try to get the Thais to fix it, so that's what we did. It worked smoothly for the first year. Then last April my apt got termites, so I moved to a different building, but took my internet with me, still in Bauj's name. When Bauj went home in May, Stephanie took over her internet, which was still in my name. Then Stephanie left in October, and Bob took Steph's internet that used to be Bauj's with my name on it, but was able to get it changed over to his name, and I still have my internet with Bauj's name on it. So my name was....nowhere. And after moving buildings, I stopped receiving bills every month. The other account continued to receive bills regardless of apt number, but mine stopped.
Now, if you don't pay your bill for 3 months, they shut your internet off until you pay. So that's what happened last July - I called my landlord(who incidentally WORKS for TOT, so this shouldn't have been an issue in the first place), and after a week of them trying to figure out what the problem was, they gave me the amount I owed, I paid it, and my internet was back in under 10 minutes. But I continued to receive no bills.
I assumed the same thing would happen in another 3 months, but October came, and November, and December, and then January, and my internet was still going strong. I thought I had achieved the impossible - free internet! I thought since my name ceased to exist in their system that my account had somehow flown under the radar, and they'd forgotten to shut it off or bill me, and was beginning to get excited about the idea of free internet for the remainder of my stay in Thailand.
But then I came home Wednesday. Something felt wrong..and I looked down at my router to see that horrid little red light, mocking me from behind the couch.
It's now been 6 months since I last paid for any internet, and I'm not only dreading dealing with TOT, but I'm irritated that this is still a problem. I TOLD my landlord that I wasn't receiving bills, and now they're going to want 6 months worth of late payments, which should total around 5000B. Having already budgeted out my cash for this month(booking flights and trains for March), I'm not in a place to be throwing that kind of cash at something that isn't my fault.
"Well why didn't you call them sooner?" you might ask. Really? Would you have? "Hello, TOT? Did you know I'm getting free internet from you? You didn't? Could you start charging me again? Because I really miss paying.."
Yeah, right. I don't think so. And don't lie. You know you would've milked it for as long as possible just like I have. So don't judge.
Needless to say, I now have no internet, and the internet cafe in our apt complex seems to have disappeared. I hope to have this all straightened out by next week sometime, but no promises. Sunny told me I should just call TOT and throw a fit so they'll make a deal with me(such as paying just two months worth instead of 6 months worth for THEIR mistake), and that it should work because, as a foreigner, I pose a huge threat for a massive confrontation, and not only is Thai culture extremely NONconfrontational, but they just simply wouldn't want to deal with me. I'm hoping it works.
Fingers crossed.
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