For about a month, the service provided by 3BB for a telephone line and Internet has been pretty dreadful, with it getting progressively worse as the weeks wore on. I know that it is often pointless in simply calling them and asking them to investigate their network, as any opportunity to dismiss the possibility that they are at fault, is normally grabbed by both hands. So I gathered as much evidence as possible to prove that the fault was indeed with their network and not my router, cabling or PC configuration, the three favourite places where they choose to believe the fault lies.
I used a tool from WhiteShark, which monitors the performance and internet connection between the PC and the ISP network. It is free, easy to use and is very handy to locate network faults. I gathered data over two weeks, even going to the length of removing the Ethernet connection and went to Wi-Fi, and I was delighted when the results gathered by WhiteShark were near identical, and both showing further decline in performance and stability.
So we got 3BB to send out an engineer to have a look at what was going on. To my dismay, he didn't not want to check the data I had obtained, and said he was there has been a problem with the network in this area! Okay, so why was it not fixed before? A question to which no answer was forthcoming (a face saving strategy).
Anyway, he confirmed that the problem was not with the router, my PC of cabling between the two and promptly disappeared out side to perform checks along the length of the overhead cables out in the street. He eventually arrived at a point some 150m away from the house and id a little fiddling around. He came back and said he had repaired the line. The 30 minutes of so was fine, at not once did the connection breakdown (it had been breaking every 2-3 minutes before) so I was happy enough, but then all of a sudden, the connection was lost twice in the space of 5 minutes again.
The wife called the engineer to explain the connection was not stable at all, to which he responded "I though that might happen, I only twisted two wires together", "I will come back and fix it properly this afternoon" - Say what??
Why the hell did he not fix it properly first time? Another question to which an answer will never be offered. It is sadly a fact that this is how many of the local's Thai's work and think. Any shortcut that can be used to do a job will be taken, especially if it saves money. For us ex-pats, it is bewildering and cannot imagine a company such as British Telecom acting in such a manner.
Without a doubt I will see more examples in the coming months that will test the patience and make me wonder just a little more about the crazy Thai's.