So about two months ago Tawn and I decided to take advantage of a promotion offered by his American Express card: we could arrange to use the card for automatic bill paymet of our home telephone and DSL service, our mobile phone service, and a few other companies.  In exchange, we received some sort of fantastic deal.  I can’t remember the details of the deal, but perhaps it was a percent or two off the bill?

It seemed like a fantastic idea: fewer payments to make each month and greater oversight of expenses.  Until our home phone and DSL was turned off because of non-payment.  Unlike utility companies in the US, you don’t get a second warning or any sort of a notice.  You just wake up to find your DSL dead and a recording on your phone saying, in Thai and English, to please contact your telephone service provider.  Of course, you can’t very well use your home phone to contact them.

The first opportunity we had to get down to the enormous Telephone of Thailand (TOT) headquarters on Sukhumvit was first thing Saturday morning.  The bill payment office is in Building 1, which is at the back of this huge complex, quite literally a 5-minute walk back from the street.  Thankfully the payment center was well air conditioned and in just a few minutes, after confirming that we were indeed signed up for the American Express automatic bill payment plan (beginning with the next bill, of course), our debts were paid and we were promised that our service would be restored the same day.

Interestingly, although TOT doesn’t give any additional warnings or notices like a utility in the US would, TOT also didn’t charge any sort of penalty or reconnection fee, which I would expect from a utility in the US.

So on Sunday morning I once again find myself with DSL.