Despite the recurrent cable problems that slow Internet speeds in Vietnam to a snail’s pace, subscribers always have to pay their bills fully and on time, while the service providers do not bother to consider compensating their customers. Local Internet service providers (ISPs) are willing to suspend services over payments that are even one day late, but do nothing when they cannot ensure service quality, many readers have complained to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. Internet users in Vietnam had to suffer snail-like speed between June 7 and 12, when the Asia – America Gateway (AAG), the submarine cable system that links Asia and the U.S., underwentmajor maintenance. The Internet in Vietnam returned to normal on Saturday as the maintenance was finished ahead of schedule. The AAG system has suffered seven glitches since last year, with three in the year to date. Even though the repairs caused troubles for many users, they still had to fully pay for Internet bills as the ISPs did nothing but ask for sympathy from subscribers because the incident was out of their control. Khong Minh Tri, who works in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, said the Internet maintenance left everyone at his company scratching their heads as their job relies heavily on online communication. “We were unable to access the email service to read messages sent by our partners, while deadlines were drawing near,” Tri told Tuoi Tre. “I’m not sure if the ISP will recompense us or not, but the company still has to pay employees for the working days when they almost did nothing.” For those whose jobs cannot be done without the Internet, the snail-paced speed put them on the verge of dismissal for failing to fulfill their assigned tasks. “I need the Internet to look up information, search images and communicate via email,” Tieu Quyen, who works for a media firm in District 2, said. “But the slow Internet reduced my productivity by 50 percent and many of my colleagues now face lay-offs as they failed to meet targets.” Luong Hai, an employee of a mobile phone firm in District 3, had to look for places with a “better Internet connection” than his workplace to get his tasks done. “I could not access my Gmail, failed to get on Facebook to run ads and it was impossible to send my files to partners via the Internet,” he lamented. “So what was left to do?” Hoang Huynh, director of a tech firm in Phu Nhuan District, said he was driven crazy by the poor Internet service. “I was stressed waiting for the websites to load,” he said. “We never pay the bill late but the ISPs just kept silent over the poor service they provide.” 'Force majeure' Whenever the AAG system suffers an issue, all local Internet service providers just say they “sympathize with the damage caused tosubscribers by the unstable Internet quality.” But they all dodged responsibility when asked if they would ever take any specific action, such as cutting fares, to compensate customers. “The Internet cable incidents were caused by force majeure, which is unpredictable and unavoidable,” a representative of an ISP told Tuoi Tre. He added that both the Internet firm and its subscribers had to suffer from the incidents. “Customers had their work and communications affected, whereas the ISPs had to spend money on the repair jobs, and had their reputation affected too,” he said. Lawyer Nguyen Van Hau, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Lawyers Association, said that the ISPs will not be held responsible for damages caused by such unavoidable circumstances. “But it is stipulated in the civil code that customers have the right to cut the price they pay for the service if its quality is not as committed in the contract,” he said. “In this case, the speed and quality of the Internet [during the incidents] are worse than what the two parties agree to in the contract, which can be interpreted as violating the interest of consumers and the lack of responsibility of the ISPs.” The lawyer added that Internet users can sympathize with the ISPs, but the firms themselves must have “fair treatment” for their customers. “The ISPs should have exempted or reduced the service fares during the troubled Internet times, and apologized to customers,” Hau said.
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