BEWARE HUTCH SCAM!

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huahinsimon
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BEWARE HUTCH SCAM!

Post by huahinsimon »

Just got a 1068.93THB surprise from the Hutch wifi folks. I signed up for their USB Huawei wireless MBI UNLIMITED 999 6 FREE BILLS, after that the cost is 999 a month.
When I get my 6th bill it's for 999 plus vat = 1068.93. I take it to the Hutch office in Market Village and say there is a mistake. This is my 6th bill and it should be free. "No," the agent says,"this is your seventh bill. The first one was for the 8 days till we set up your account on a monthly basis" :D
Say what, says I. I didnt get any such bill for 8 days. :shock:
'Well, perhaps it didnt get delivered," says the agent. Anyway says I, I signed up for 6 months of service. "No," says the agent, "you signed up for 6 Free BILLS, NOT 6 MONTHS." She shows me my contract.
Yes indeed it says "Free 6 bills." :shock: This is your 7th bill. :D The first was for 8 days." She shows me my account on the computer. Yes indeed there is a bill for 8 days, a bill which I did not get. :shock: Strange the post office didnt deliver this one but managed to get all the others safely in my post box.
"But I didnt get this bill so how am I to know the first bill is for 8 days, AND you didn't tell me the first bill would be for 8 days or I wouldnt have purchased the package! and you told me the cost is 999 per month, and the literature says 999 a month, so I figure I'm on a monthly billing. :roll:

"Sorry sir, its 6 free Bills not 6 free months. :D
But the 6th bill I got is this one for 1068.93 so I do not want to pay it. Hutch did not send me the first bill for 8 days. Hutch made a mistake and I should not be penalized. So lets show some customer service and cancell this charge because this is the 6th bill I got." :) :)

Sorry sir, cant do that she says.
She gives me the customer service number in BKK and I spend 45 minutes on the phone. No way do they want to credit me the 1000+ baht. Finally the "we offer no customer service" agent tells me they will do an investigation and someone will call me within 7 days. . . . yea right! :wink:
Of course no one calls. I go back to the Hutch office. "no need for an investigation, we know your complaint," says the agent. and you must pay and resign from the service. If you dont pay and resign you will get another bill for 999 for this month. :shock: :shock:

But I now use Sunshine cause its half as expensive and faster than Hutch, I admit. :cuss: under my breath. But being all smiley :) I point out that the agent did not tell me the first bill would be for 8 days and the bill did not come, and the second bill did not say this is your second bill. BUT LOOK AT THIS, here on page 3 of the, according to you, 7th bill its says.
MBI Unlimited999 free 6 bills
Wireless Hi Speed internet Unlimited- -06 MONTHS (emphasis mine) Rental Free Package.

"There you have it," says I, it says "6 months" right on your bill. :guns: :guns: :guns:

:? :? :? This calls for another investigation says the agent. I will hear from her shortly. I dont know what a Thai 'shortly' is, but no word in 3 days.

I hate being scammed by the obvious bait and switch of 999 a month for 6 free bills and no explaination that the first bill will be about a week long and it suspiciously does not show up in my post box so I can find out I've been scammed. :cuss:

Anyone else have this problem? Did you expect 6 months or 5 months and a week? Did you try to resolve it or just pay up because they make it so :cuss: difficult?


HHS





How am I to know if I dont get the first bill.
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Post by Jim »

That's a really impressive case of teddies and prams over a thousand baht, mate.
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Post by john bell »

do u really want to spend all that time for the sake of 1000 baht, just except the fact uve been conned and move on
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Post by Farang »

Good on you HHS that you go not give up. Just keep on fighting.
And thanks for telling us, now we can avoid that scam.
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Post by Wanderlust »

Jim,
To be fair I think its the principle, not the amount in question, but I don't think he is going to get far with his complaint. It is nice of him to warn others about this though. I experienced something similar when I cancelled my TT&T internet service and rather than just paying up to the date i cancelled (which was about the 6th of the month) I had to pay a full month (to the 30th). Unfortunately these things happen all the time here, a bit like they used to in the UK with places like banks for instance. As Thailand develops these sorts of practices will probably disappear as they have done gradually in the UK.
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huahinsimon
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Hutch Scam

Post by huahinsimon »

"the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Now this scam does not reach the level of evil, or does it. 1000baht X 50,000 farangs, plus 1,000,000 Thais and you're talking some money.

Wanderlust: I got caught in the TT&T "scam' too. Same thing 5 days past the new billing period and they wanted the whole month. I pissed and moaned and held up the service line. A Thai guy helped me out, AND HE TOLD THE TT&T AGENT, it wasn't fair. She partially backed down and charged me for 10 days. I accepted that compromise. I made a Thai friend in the process.

If everybody who gets scammed makes it difficult for them, they will get the idea. :guns: There are two kinds of people in cases like this, those who are shortsighted and figure their time is more valuable than principle, and those willing to sacrifice some time for the good of self and community.

Where do you draw the line Jim and John? 200 baht on your restaurant bill? 400 baht on your bar bill? 600 baht on your Tesco bill?

One of the interesting things about public forums is that those with so little to say are so willing to say it. :mrgreen:

HHS
The devil made me do it the first time.
The second time I did it on my own.

When I finally got to the land of milk and honey, the milkman shot me

Happy wife, Happy life!
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Post by buksida »

Good on you Simon for having a rant and posting this, as said its not the amount its the principle.

Though I don't think "scam" is the right word for it, more of a case of typical Thai lack of communication and even more typical non existent customer service.

I had similar problems with TT&T and their Maxnet service, I logged it being offline for over 50% of the month with technicians often taking a week to reconnect it so refused to pay the final bill and cancelled the service.

They blacklisted my phone number and prevented me using another provider until I'd paid that last bill.

:cuss:
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
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Post by john bell »

fair point simon, so u probably did the right thing, i just know i dont have the patience to carry on and put it down to experience but u posting does alert a lot of people so fair enough
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Post by barrys »

Another scam - but this time from AIS

I just had our two numbers changed from prepaid 1-2-Call to a monthly account.

After the changeover, we could hear Thai songs programmed in as so-called calling melodies.
I phoned the AIS Call Center to find out why. I was told it came with the service.
When I asked whether it was included in the price of the service, I was told "no", it costs an extra THB 30 per month per phone.

I inquired why I was subscribed to this extra service without my knowledge and why I wasn't asked if I wanted it and then maybe even given the chance to choose my own melody if I really wanted it.

I was told to complain to the girl in the Telewiz shop that dealt with the changeover application.

It sounds more like AIS company policy to me - a pretty good additional profit at THB 30 per month when you consider how many subscribers they have.

The final outcome was that I managed to get it cancelled within about 10 minutes.
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huahinsimon
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scams

Post by huahinsimon »

good on ya, barry, :cheers: take that you corporate scammers! :guns:
there is victory for the little guy. :D and the taste is sweet, aint it?
:thumb:
HHS
The devil made me do it the first time.
The second time I did it on my own.

When I finally got to the land of milk and honey, the milkman shot me

Happy wife, Happy life!
fach3003
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Post by fach3003 »

Scams,

I remember my first time going to Kick Boxing in BKK
A queue for Farangs and queue for locals...

I on purpose (for a laugh) tried to convince
the ticket guy i was a local... It was light hearted
humour....I coughed up....

I know its normal but couldnt get my head round it
Same Same but different?.....

Was worth every Baht though.....

Happy xmas to all if i dont get the chance :D
The only Geordie in sleepy Cha am since 2009 :cheers:
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huahinsimon
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TASTE/SMELL OF VICTORY

Post by huahinsimon »

Follow up on Hutch Scam

Well folks, the little guy won one. :mrgreen: :thumb:
after 3 months, many phone calls :banghead: :cuss: and emails :banghead: and seeing the bill almost double to 1800 :shock:

got this from Hutch:

We are very sorry to learn that you’ve been inconvenienced in this matter.

After checking the 7th bill of Hutch number 08-6332-5943, it’s found that no usage since November 9, 2007. The two following bills (amounted to 831.05 Baht) are about prorated monthly package charge and monthly suspension fee (270 Baht exclusive VAT) due to a request of service cancellation was not made.

However, in order to facilitate this matter, we’re pleased to waive the whole outstanding balance of three bills (no.22340971, 22768355, 23205576) We hope that the arrangements we have made will satisfy you and we look forward to receiving your kind subscription of exclusive offer for current Hutch MBI subscriber.

I won't be kindly subscribing, thanks :P got TOT, a lot faster but goes down a lot. now dont go there :) could offend someone.

I hope this will encourage those similiarly abused. As the bard asked:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?

Ok a bit over the top, I admit, But you can prevail with a lot of persistance. Life is a one act play. I need all the little victories I can muster.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning,
It's the smell :rasta: of VICTORY. :cheers:

SEMPER FI

HHS
The devil made me do it the first time.
The second time I did it on my own.

When I finally got to the land of milk and honey, the milkman shot me

Happy wife, Happy life!
lomuamart
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Post by lomuamart »

Just blow them up.
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Post by repsol »

Here is a scam from TT&T:

I got a letter from TT&T last year that they would DOUBLE my connection speed for FREE!

They did even more, I got 2,5Mbit (instead of 1Mbit) for 999 Baht!!

A couple of days later I could not access my webserver. I called in and asked what is going on, they said they are having difficulties with the indy package and the International link, and it should be fixed in about a month!

So I waited and used my mobile as a GPRS modem whenever I needed to administrate the webserver.

The MONTHS!!! passed by and every time the deadline was reached I was told that they are having problems with the International link and it would be fixed some couple of weeks later.

In February, I finally got the "right" person on the phone. He told me to get the Premier package, it is a 1MBit line for 1090 Baht AND it has a good International link.... WHAT?!?!?! I screamed in the phone, man I was fuming!! I asked him WHY they didn't send me a letter 6 months ago, to tell me that my 1Mbit Internet is going to cost 91 Baht more?! If they would have contacted me and said: sorry, we need a bit more money for this nice 1MBit line, or you WILL HAVE a "2.5MBit" line which only really works for website hosted IN THAILAND... what you think I would have chosen?!

What a scam!!!

IF you need wireless Internet in Hua Hin, I think Sunshine is the best (and only one I think, hehe), unfortunately they don't cover ALL of Hua Hin, but are even available in Khao Takiab.

For a land line Internet (ADSL), I can really suggest the TT&T premier package, with 1 MBit for 1090 Baht. It has a very good ALL day fast and working International connection. It is hardly ever down, and if it is - all I need to do is switch off the modem for about 10 minutes and turn it on again.

If TT&T wouldn't be blocking veoh[dot]com, I would not switch to the 2MBit CAT line for 2600 Baht, as I think that is very expensive.
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