Swiss1960

Turn the radio on...is there a charge for that ??

The same music is available on the radio for free.....say it is copied from there.

I don't know in Thailand, but I assume it would be the same as in Europe: If you have a shop and you play radio => you pay a tax for that. You download music from any place (radio, CD, Internet) and use it not for private but for commercial use => you pay a tax for that.

Give you one example: I am playing in a marching band and for every peace of work that we play publicly (no matter whether we get paid for the concert or ask for donations or ask for nothing), we must report theses works on a form to the Swiss Music Copyright Agency and we get invoiced for this.

Well, good idea... but you should know why it works:

she: "what is he law? why I have to pay now?"

police:"it is law. you must pay."

she: "why I must pay? who receive money?"

police: "you must pay. we collect money, send to headquarter"

she: "who I must ask about law?"

police: "not know... call headquarter... I only follow instructions"

she: "I not want to pay, if you not show me why"

police: "no problem... will confiscate all music systems... then you go to court"

she: "how much I must pay?"

as shop owner, you just have no choice... except you want 5 policemen to come to your shops and tear out all the cabling and take all speakers and players with them... and of course find other things that they will fine you for... court procedure will take months, specially if they collect this "tax" widely in all shops at the same time...

Don't misunderstand me. I don't say that such a tax is not valid, the same applies here in Europe for every shop, collect by GZS in Germany or Billag in Switzerland... every shop that plays music, every shop that has TV or - since few years - even only Internet access that would allow to play music on a computer must pay this tax...

it's more about why they now start to collect it and how they collect it...

Hi All

I just received a call from my friend who is owner of some massage shops in Pattaya. Last night, police showed up in her shop and told her, that the music she plays in her shops is deemed illegal and infringing copyright of the authors... she copied the music from various CD to a USB stick and of course plays it all day for customers to relax.

Options: either go to court... or pay 20'000 Baht per year to cover copyrights for the music in all of her shops together... police told her that they started this new source of income just right now and over the next days, they will fine every shop where they hear music playing...

Anyone heard from other places where this happens now?

Good Morning,

We are very concerned to hear that some members have been disappointed with our service. If you have a complaint please reply to your order receipt that you received immediately after purchase (ensuring order number is included). Our customer service staff will then immediately investigate your complaint and report back to you as quickly as possible with a full explanation, resolution and compensation. Please rest assured we take every complaint very seriously and all issues will be resolved as quickly as possible.

Thank you.

Forever Florist Thailand Management

Well, dear Forever Florist Thai Management... NOTHING can be resolved, if Valentine Flowers are not delivered on Valentine's day...

Myself, I placed my orders with another company, one for Laem Chabang, Si Racha and the other for inside Pattaya... and guess what, the delivery to north into Laem Chabang worked on time, the one for Pattaya arrived on 15th at 19:30.... Both deliveries were ordered on 8th, so well in advance of any cut-off date...

That is why I agree with all those people who say: You, Florist Managers, you KNOW how busy you will be on 14th, so why the heck do you not have enough staff available to uphold the promises for which we pay a lot of money????

Fly Swiss business to ZRH, arrives 06:10 morning on 16th and you connect to D. Business class seat turns full 180 degrees into bed.

Who says it's a terrorist attack? Who says the bomb thrower is a suicide bomber? Why not just a "normal" dispute between Mafia clans over money, drugs, women, influence in the crime scene...??? Maybe one mobster ordering a hit on another one and the hitman was just too dumb to throw the second bomb and killed himself...

Speculations about ANY possible reason behind this killing is just MUCH too early IMHO! First the victims and the hitman should be identified and background checked.

It sounds like they will never catch up to demand, even with the self-serve gates for Thais. Maybe they could re-assess the need for the Inwards Fast Track immigration channels. The last time I went down Fast Track there were 2 Immigration Officers there with no customers. They were dozing off! Meanwhile an Air China flight had just also landed, and there were thousands of people at the normal immigration channels. Fast Track is nice when you can get it, but it is not a fair and balanced use of resources.

Exactly. Some sort of pre-screening, and maybe even a premium for fast track. Not the ridiculous 2 million baht scheme aimed at billionaires, but one for successful people willing to pay some sort of premium to avoid the immigration nightmare. Same for departure clearance, which is usually much worse than arrivals. Thailand needs to get its act together, if it is entertaining any prospect of competing on the world stage. Pretty soon, most of its neighbors will pass it by, as Thailand has no concept whatsoever of the definition of progress.

Have to say that I like the Fast Track very much, as my airline offers me the voucher since I pay a higher fair already flying business class... saves me one hour entering or leaving this beautiful Land of Smiles...

But I agree: Most Farang have machine readable passports, mine is even biometric now and pre-checks could easily be done for verifying identity, reading the data into the computer instead of typing it in, machine coule even issue all kinds of short term Visa (i.e. 30 / 90 day tourist)... however, I have to say that I have not seen such procedures at any airport I ever passed through...

This is the place with no bathroom for customers, right? The customers must walk into the mall or over to Soi 8 to relieve themselves. Never quite sure which is closer, but the mall is cleaner.

Not true, bathroom upstairs, when it first opened above statement was true, bathroom added later. They have one of the highest lease rents of any restaurant on beach road, I guess they don't want customers who nurse a cup of coffee or bottle of beer for an hour or so while looking out at the beach and passer by's.

Great Burgers though.

Yes, high prices for everything, but that's the location. They do however have good food, I like their chicken winges, garlic bred, fries etc. etc... and staff is very nice, English capable for some small talk when they have no customers... and sitting outside and watch people stoll by is relly interesting... I like the place despite their high prices. And Ken (manager) is a great guy who always has a recommendation when you need something.

There are many variables. 1) does the Euro survive? 1a) European political stability 2) Does the US Fed to more Quatitative Easing? 2a) US economic recovery 3) Middle East oil and political stability. 4) US economy 5) Thai economy. 6) World economy.

Many more things to consider, pick some of your own.

Roll the dice. My thoughts are QE3 will hurt, as will the Middle East. If the Euro goes down, it may cause a panic up or down, depending on how well the European banks have prepared to issue new currencies and deal with bond and financial instruments, and how well non-European countries and banks can tolerate the "event".

The US is in a very slow recovery, as is much of the world. The primary job loss is in housing, construction and financial. Unfortunately, high unemployment is found in young in-experienced (high school dropout) 18-25 year olds (25%) and 18-25 year old high school grads (15%). While the government claims 8.5 % unemployment, one has to look at how unemployment is calculated. If you're working, you're employed. If you're collecting unemployment, you're unemployed. If you're neither, you're not counted. The US Laborforce Participation rate is down to 64% from 67% in 2001, the lowest since 1980. that means there are millions of people not working, and not collecting unemployment. This will continue to be a drag on the economy. Deficit spending is at an all time high, with the National Debt exceeding GDP. In essence, the US (like many countries) is broke.

The flood hurt many aspects of electronics around the world. How badly this hurts Thailand's economy will remain to be seen. Its possible it could help with new equipment investments or upgrades.

My $.02, which continues to devaluate.

Good thoughts, would add two more factors:

6a) what will the Chinese do with their currency, open it up more and more as dealable curreny? This would drop US$ in a minute...

7) what will happen during the presidential elections in the US... depending on who is front runner, some people might withdraw from US stock exchange...

Thanks for the info.

As you have studied massage techniques, can I ask a couple of questions:

I'm doing quite a bit of running at the moment, 6-7 times per week on a treadmill. Quite often my leg muscles get a bit stiff (particularly the calf muscles) and generally tired. I'm 48 so this is probably to be expected.

Do you reckon a post-run massage would help reduce tiredness in my legs ? (I've read different reports on this).

If so, could you recommend a "type" of massage as there seem to be several options available.

Simon

I would assume that you do quite a bit of stretching after you are finished with the treadmill, yes? Why do you do that? BECAUSE your muscles are still strained and hot and need relaxing and of course, you know that your muscles will continue to burn energy for at least another 1-2 hours after you finish your training.

so this should answer your question about the kind of massage you could get after training: first, you need to wait 1-2 hours to allow your muscles to relax and then you need a massage for relaxation with slow and flowing movements but NOT a traditional Thai body or foot massage. The acupressure from such massages could cause considerable pain or even damage to your muscles while still hot from your training.

I am just back from 3 weeks in Pattaya and I had my daily massage, either foot or traditional Thai or oil massage. I could easily name you 5 different places, from Pattaya Klang to near Walking street to Jomtien, where all girls will provide you on request with their official certificate of education, whether Wat Pho or other... and all shops will NOT provide ANY additional services but ONLY massage.

I am also not sure, how much you know about "real" Thai massage? It is a healing therapy and acupressure with palms and fingers is an integral part of that kind of massage. And also, you should not think that small girls can not provide enough pressure for that. With their body weigth, they can apply enough pressure also for very muscular men.

If however, you are looking more for flowing pressure over your body, then you need to tell them / show them if you don't speak Thai and that can mostly be found when you ask for an oil massage. But again, this is not any more the traditional Thai massage with healing elements of acupressure.

I personally find the traditional Thai massage very helpful for my back and my shoulders (eliminating the calcification of my shoulder blades from my office work), but also can't do it every day, so I switch between Thai and Oil massage to get both the healing and the relaxation effects of the massages.

Should you need any adresses, PM me and I will provide you with locations where I think you can find what you want.

A lawyer will cost money, but if there are a few easy questions she might send them an email. Somtimes they do give simple advise that doesn't require any research.

In Switserland there might be free legal aid availelble. The child will probably have Swiss ationality also and must be registered ith the Swiss embassy. It is important to realize that the child has its own rights and can make a claim on child support (or somebody else will do that on its behalf). If the mother can not get free legal aid, the child itself might be able to get free legal aid.

For the child to have Swiss nationality, paternity will need to be established, he obviously doesnt want to know....doubt he will submit to a DNA test

She is in Thailand....Swiss legal Aid wont apply to her

For the mother to receive child support.....Paternity will need to be established.

Her options are extremely limited......None

They are married, the child will automatically be considered to be fahtered by the husband. It is up to the father in this case to proof he is not the father.

The child is a Swiss citizen and can lay a claim on the father.

Even if she or the child cannot get legal aid in Switserland, a Thai court can establish child maintenance. By international treaty such court order can be effected in almost any country in the world.

Your comment on enforcement in Thailand is misplaced. If a fahter has a job a Thai court can and will have the child maintenance deducted from the fathers salary. Problem is that many people have no official job and pay taxes etc and thus it is difficult to enforce.

The main issue - also mentioned in other posts - whether the marriage has been officially registered and acknowledged by the Swiss authorities. Then the child will automatically have Swiss citizenship. The Swiss law says this in BüG Art. 1 Par. 2: The underage foreign child of a Swiss father, who is not married with the mother, does receive Swiss citizen as if it would have been received through birth, through the declaration of the relationship of the child to the father.

What this means is the following: if either the marriage or the paternity were registered with the Swiss authorities, then the Swiss authorities will provide help to find and identify the father and will make him pay. They will do this based on the UNO treaty from June 1956 about Recovery of maintenance abroad which was signed by Switzerland.

If neither is registered, then it will be more difficult but not impossible and the Embassy will provide help with that regards. Thus, the best advice for the Thai woman is to have all her documents translated (and from the marriage, she would have a copy of the passport of the Swiss citizen) and approach the Swiss Embassy for advice and help.

thanks for the exception and your translation, 7by7. Think I should also switch to Microsoft translator... having used google, half of the text still was German and the whole text made no more sense at all...

And, 7by7, sorry if I missed some of the posts, but please look back and take note that I replied to ths posts of swisstouristpattaya and beano2274 who wrote "Get married and try taking your THAI wife to Switzerland, then you will see how difficult it is."

So - without knowing the details - I assume the OP has the main problem to have his marriage recognized under UK law, after that, he could sue any VISA refusal for his wife as violation of EHRC which the UK also recognizes.

His marriage is recognised under UK law. The Foreign Marriages Act of 1892 (yes 1892) says that any marriage which is recognised as legal in the country where it took place is also recognised as legal in the UK.

You say "without knowing the details." I suggest that you read through the topic, especially Kobrien's posts, properly. Doing so will show you that the problem is a financial one; nothing to do with the validity of his marriage in the UK.

Well, dear 7by7, I was writing this, because the Swiss law about legal foreign marriages says the same... but with a nice amendment that the paperwork must be entered through the Embassy (with proper translations and certifications) and any paperwork missing under Swiss law must first be added to the stack of paper... and finanlly it states that the Swiss Civil Registry department CAN decide not to recognize the marriage if the financial situation does not look proper of if the Civil Registry department thinks that the marriage is only to circumvent the Immigration VISA regulations... but once the marriage is recognized, the VISA for the spouse MUST be given independent of the then financial situation, their are sufficent such judgments from the Swiss Federal Court.

Have done some more googling but also can't find the form anymore. What I found however on the homepage of the EDA is this text:

Die Verpflichtungserklärung (ehemals Garantieerklärung) ist ein offizielles Dokument, welches ausschliesslich durch die Schweizer Vertretungen nach Einreichen eines Visumantrags (sofern eine Garantie als notwendig erachtet wird) ausgehändigt wird.Somit verfügen wir über kein Muster. Eventuell kann Ihnen die zuständige Schweizer Vertretung weiterhelfen.Das Einladungsschreiben, welches auch verlangt werden kann, wird vom Gastgeber in der Schweiz verfasst und ist formlos, sollte aber Aufenthaltszweck, Dauer des Aufenthalts und Angaben dazu enthalten, wer für den Aufenthalt in der Schweiz aufkommt.

This explains why you don't find the form any more. Hope this hels you and - to the Admins - sorry for not translating this to English

The guarantoor's letter is a free-form letter that must be signed by the guarantoor and sent to the embassy. What I did on previous occasions was saying:

I, xxx xxx, citicen of Switzerland, birthday nn.nn.yyyy, from "Heimatort" herewith guarantee

- the visitor is living in my house (or I pay for the hotel)

- I guarantee for all cost of living

- I guarantee for all medical cost that might not be covered by the required insurance

- I guarantee that no overstay and VISA violations will happen

then I add where from I know the visitor, for how long, how many times I was visitied without any violations etc.

Embassy will then decide whether to trust my letter (they can see it as an affidavit) or whether they will require the official guarantee form to be processed:

- the guarantee form will be given to the Visa applicant to send to the guarantor.

- the guarantor must fill it out, give it to the local authority (normally Einwohnerkontrolle => residency department of the city the guarantor lives in)

- the city will check the last income tax forms, whether taxes are paid, whether there are any unusual debts on the income tax filing)

- the form will be sent to the district Visa department (depending on the Kanton can be differen authorities, i.e. in Aargau it is the Migrationsamt)

- the district Visa department will send it back to the Swiss embassy with a recommendation about the Visa approval / denial

I don't know whether it is a rule, but I realized in the past that the official guarantee check had to be renewed every 3 years. Be aware that this process described above can take 4-6 weeks (normally stated on the Embassy web site), but by entering the guarantee form personally with your local Einwohnerkontrolle and few very nice telephones with the discrict migration department, I normally shortend the process to two weeks.

I'm going to Din Daeng next week, however my entry expires before x'mas, I just need 10days more... If i over stay and pay penalty, is this sound an good idea?

Very good idea indeed... if you can live with the risk that your future Visa applications (for whatever reason you will enter it) will be refused for the previous violations of the Visa regulations...

I though wife has visa automatically?i mean wife must follow husband. When you get married you say for the best and worse, if you divorce I would ask government to pay me back.

sent from tapatalk :-)

Sorry but where do you get your ideas from?

Wife does not automatically get a visa, that is why they applied for one.

Get married and try taking your THAI wife to Switzerland, then you will see how difficult it is.

This is not true about Switzerland. The problems you have are only within the area of getting your marriage recognized by the Swiss authorities. Swiss authorities can hassle you for months about paperwork, proving the financial ability to support your family or just claim that the marriage is only about circumventing immigration laws...

Once the marriage is legally recognized by the Swiss Civil Registy Office (paperwork can be filed through the Swiss Embassies), then your partner automatically - in line with par. 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights - gets a resicence permit for Switzerland. This is even true for a foreigner living in Switzerland on a valid resicency permit who wants his foreign wife to join him in Switzerland. This is all about the right for Family Reunification in par. 8 of the EHRC (EMRK in German abbreviation).

So - without knowing the details - I assume the OP has the main problem to have his marriage recognized under UK law, after that, he could sue any VISA refusal for his wife as violation of EHRC which the UK also recognizes.

Condolences to the husband and the whole family of the poor woman. RIP.

As with every such post, I can only note with disgust the various comments... Thai bashing in 90% of all posts... "Thai to be blamed for accident".... "would be treated differently if it would be a Thai"... "would be treated differently in Europe"... "no money to be made, case closed"....

I'd like to ask a question to the Admins: Why do you allow comments on such "news" items? You know what will be coming... you could as well add the standard blaming comments yourself and close the item for comments.... did not see a single comment that add value to the post... probably mine included...

My tip: http://www.jomtienbeachpenthouses.com/

price a little higher than you currently pay (30K on long term for 2 bedroom), but I can recommend the place as quiet, clean, well managed, ok security (including car park). On Jomtien Soi 9, 1 minue walking to the beach. I spend all my holidays there and never had any issues.

You're really stretching now, Fletch... All kinds of corporate sites carry standard disclaimers, as I suspect you know.

But regardless of what VISA says or does, the U.S. federal law on consumer liability for fraudulent charges still applies nationwide, one version for credit cards, and slightly lesser protections for debit cards.

And none of that is anything like the policies employed by the Thai banks.

I think you are still missing the point, which is that VISA zero liability policy does NOT mean zero liability for the cardholder. Of course VISA writes "Your peace of mind and protection are paramount to Visa. Visa's Zero Liability policy is our guarantee that you won’t be held responsible for fraudulent charges made with your card or account information.¹ "

BUT THEN please read this disclaimer:

¹Does not apply to ATM transactions, PIN transactions not processed by Visa, or certain commercial card transactions. Individual provisional credit amounts are provided on a provisional basis and may be withheld, delayed, limited, or rescinded by your issuer based on factors such as gross negligence or fraud, delay in reporting unauthorized use, investigation and verification of claim and account standing and history. You must notify your financial institution immediately of any unauthorized use. Transaction at issue must be posted to your account before provisional credit may be issued. For specific restrictions, limitations and other details, please consult your issuer.

With all these restrictions and limitations, the whole zero liability policy is worth as much as saying "if you don't report your card stolen on time, you don't get any money back. And by the way: If we don't like the history of your account (i.e. too many claims, not enough turn-over, not enough profit to your bank), we might limit or refuse any such claims in line with the Issuers internal policies"". Thai banks might just say it directly and not cover it in such nice disclaimers as the US do...

And not surprisingly, it's the same as most of the other Thai banks thus far and has nothing to do with "zero liability":

Sorry, John in BKK, but now i HAVE to ask you to really read what the US zero liability policy says, see http://usa.visa.com/personal/security/visa_security_program/zero_liability.html and read the footnotes:

Individual provisional credit amounts are provided on a provisional basis and may be withheld, delayed, limited, or rescinded by your issuer based on factors such as gross negligence or fraud, delay in reporting unauthorized use, investigation and verification of claim and account standing and history. You must notify your financial institution immediately of any unauthorized use. Transaction at issue must be posted to your account before provisional credit may be issued. For specific restrictions, limitations and other details, please consult your issuer.

Do you realize how many if's wnd when's and reservations these footnotes contain? May be withheld for delay in reporting, i.e. delay reporting loss...Policy maybe not valid based on specific restrictions defined by your issuer... By no way this is a zero liability policy, those footnotes put you in almost exactly the same situation as a Thai cardholder.

And it is in line with i.e. Swiss credit card general conditions, as one example I quote this one:

Until the Card is blocked, the Cardholder is responsible for all transactions authorized in accordance with usage policy. The risks arising out of misuse of the Card are thus borne by the Cardholder unless a complaint is filed within the stipulated period. Where a complaint is filed within the stipulated period, Bank shall assume responsibility for loss or damage resulting from misuse of the Card by third parties, provided the Cardholder has in all respects complied with the General Terms and Conditions (in particular the duties of care) and to the extent that he/she is not in any way to blame.

Interesting, is it? In no way are Thai policies different from policies in other countries. It might be that Thai banks have less interest in resoving fraud (customer focus might be lower), but the rules are not that different from the rest of the world.

What Ian calls ranting and negativity is simply asking legitimate questions that any responsible bank cardholder ought to know the answers to...yet BKKB refuses (at least in this forum) to answer...and instead engages in personal attacks...

Yes, your questions are legitimate and yes, BKKB should answer them... but...

Have you ever thought about the fact that these two members here (Ian and Dave) are answering the questions with regards to their bank's policies in their free time? Have you ever thought about that they might not be working in the relevant departments and thus need to collect information from other departments but might themselves have troubles receiving the information? Have you ever thought about that all their answers here must stay as un-personal as possible, as they might want to help but have no legitimation from their bank to answer questions as bank employees but only as private persons? Did you ever see people from other banks trying to answer questions re their policies here on TV?

As I am working in the credit card area of a Swiss bank, I do fully understand the balancing act those two TV members must do in order to answer questions but not put any liability on their bank for the answers they give. They might be risking their jobs by giving out any specifics that their employer might see as internal use only information...

From some of your postings, I must say that for me, they come across very negative and personal. Please think about what might be the result, if both of them would say "F*** this forum" and would stop giving answers at all??