Today, TOT had present its usual 7 staff. The company certainly is strong on employee welfare because, as usual, two of the girls had reluctantly turned aside from the pc terminals to enjoy the morning's noodle break. I believe that it is one of several. Ever security conscious, two other young ladies were deployed in front of the television screen to make sure that it wasn't stolen by a customer. Another lady is continuing her word processing training - her progress over the year has been very slow. The remaining members of staff were attending to the queue of customers. There is always the low priority task of collecting money to perform and the same two ladies share it between them every day; one works and the other doesn't.
This TOT office is a treat to visit and a surprise always awaits the customer. Sometimes the surprise is quick service. On other occasions the noodle wagon appears and then there is no service at all for a while. Today, the pleasant surprise was a rather fine TOT desk calendar for 2010/2553. Thai business publicity people have quite a skill when it comes to leading farang up the garden path. You must have noticed the literature that has bold headings in English that catch the farang eye but, when you look closer, all of the text is in Thai. Look at the magazine rack in any major store. '2010' on the front of the calendar looked promising. There's an introduction page inside in Thai, but never mind because a calendar doesn't really need an introduction page.
January: Ahaa, English language month and days and a footnote headed 'Third Generation Mobile Phone Service:3G'. The rest is in Thai. Are we promised a 3G service in January, I wonder?
March refers to 'TOT hi-speed Internet'. Great, I can wait until March! Again, the note is in Thai so I don't know whether we are promised a hi-speed (what's wrong with 'high speed'?) internet or not.
By August, the footnotes have strayed into the realms of fantasy and fiction with 'We Dancing online'.
Come to November and any pretence at customer care that may be tucked away in the Thai text has been abandoned. There in the footnote is the written version of what goes on in the heads of any cashier when a customer voices a complaint or asks for some help when calling in with his bill - 'Just Pay'.
The final page is a puzzle to me. It's filled with push-out stickers depicting leaves. There's shamrock, maple leaf, rubber plant leaf, heart shaped leaf that I can't identify and cannabis leaf - 24 of each, in fact. Perhaps TOT has connection with Ireland, Canada, Mayanmar, Jamaica and a country that has plants with heart shaped leaves. But why would I want stickers of these things?
I mean no offence to you good folk in my local TOT office. You are very friendly and I enjoy my visits. You have had fun with my internet speed for many months; please allow me my little bit of fun now.
TOT TIT
News
Site map
SitemapIndex
RSS Feed