dave111223

I'm looking to get satellite TV hooked up. I want to be able to see premier league matches. Some movie channels or discovery channel would be nice too.

Is there anything else apart from Truevision that offers this? I just plain don't like True, they seem dishonest to the core and i'd prefer something else?

For example they show this pricing for the Gold Package on their website:

But when you actually call them up this is not the real price. The real price is 1568baht, and additional box is 432baht...<deleted>! Not to mention that HD is another 290 on top of this.

We have a materials list and it's pretty detailed, for example:

American Standard Toilet XYZ

Cotto Sink model ABC

etc...

but it doesn't mean they couldn't say something like "we only included 1 toilet, not 1 for each bathroom" or "We don't include the toilet seats, or the workings..." these are the kind of things i thought were a no-brainer and assumed...but now I'm a bit worried. And obviously it would not be possible to have materials list which listed every item down to toilet flush handles...

I don't have the experience to handle just buying the materials myself and hiring laborors. I previously renovated a townhouse buying the materials and then just hiring local builders and even for that fairly small scale project it was a total nightmare; i can't image doing a whole house that way. The workers walked off the project about 75% the way through because the main guy who we'd been paying, had not been paying them in full. Also the quality of work was pretty sh*t; it didn't really matter that much because it's a commercial building.

Most of the workers were straight up dumb, for example I told them about 10 times to make sure the toilet was in the right position before pouring the concrete floor...nope they poured the concrete first, then spent 2 days cutting the concrete out to move the toilet pipe because it was too close to the wall to fit a toilet. It was like this every single day. I think i'd go crazy if I had to do that every day for a year on my own house.

We went through all the steps in choosing a builder: went to expos, visited current projects, talked to old customers, read reviews, got quotes, etc...but you never really know until the rubber hits the road.

Was going to move into a house but the owner wants me to pay 20000 baht to paint the interior and fit new shower unit

Seems like a weird request?

Do you mean that you demanded new paint and shower units before you move it, and the owner says "Well you can pay for it then"?

Or they literally out of the blue demanded that you pay for this stuff or you cannot rent it?

The government land department places a valuation on land for tax purposes.

Generally (in my experience) people do not like to sell below the government valuation. So if the sale price is around or below the government price, as a rule of thumb you are probably not getting ripped off.

This doesn't mean that if the price is way over the government valuation that you are automatically getting ripped off...some properties do have a real value much higher than the government valuation.

Also just drive around the area looking for other land for sale and see what it's going for.

Hopefully he doesn't have any special tools.

I work from home which allows me to see my son and daughter all day, every day; wouldn't change it for the world...certainly wouldn't "give my hind teeth" to go months without seeing them.

Forget the job; you will never get this time back, better to live poor and be with ones you love...

But sorry dude. How can you do it when you don't have a job in this country??? You should understand that it's a different ballgame when times are changing and you DO HAVE TO MAKE MONEY TO SUPPORT YOUR LOVED ONES....

As I said i work from home.

And when I say "Forget the job", i mean "Forget this job" (a job that keeps OP away from family), and find a different job which allows him to see them. Not just "stop working completely"

Just to clarify the money is being asked by the company (not by crew/labors/foreman etc..) we have no money dealings with any of these people. All money is paid directly to the building company.

It sounds like your full service company is purchasing the material. Is that correct? If so, it might be reasonable for them to charge more for changes or for discoveries in the build process. Thai builders are usually very experienced so the outer deck changes might be required based on real needs. Have you asked them for their reasoning on the changes?

Yes company purchases all the materials, we just pay them total XX baht amount for the whole house. They have given a million bullsh*t reasons as to why the additional charge.

Is the contract and schedule in english? Is it a fixed price contract or is there room to move on some things written in?

If they hit you up extra for hot water taps despite specifying hot water plumbing then you may be in for a long ride.

"Oh, you wanted light switches that go on AND off? That will be extra, glass in the windows? extra.

Contract is in Thai, it's like 50 pages long and wife and I have gone over it all but there is always ways to pick it apart or find a way to say something is not included if you really wanted...ie "We said we'd provide light switches...but the faceplates cost more..."

In years gone by I probably would have fought it all the way, and seen how far they'll take it, but I just don't want to end up with really sour relationship with the builder, so I've agreed to pay up.

Although i've essentially gone belly up, hopefully i've pissed and moaned about it enough to avoid these "extra" charges coming up too frequently, i guess time will tell.

The surveyors are a joke really.

First time we had a survey done they showed up with a metal rod with a pipe welded across the top as a view finder (this was their level/angle finder...lol)

They could not find several markers so they used the neighbor accross the street wall as the starting point...there was no investigation as to whether that wall was in the right place.

Seems to me that as soon there is a wall up...that's where the boundry line is...

When an landowner request an survey the survey report which will created has the signed and accepted by the neighbors.

In my experience this was not the case. They just post the survey results on a "survey pending" type of board at the land department, neighbor has about 30 days to complain/appeal the markers, after that waiting period the new markers are registered as permanent.

http://www.crystaldesigncenter.com/

If you want to pay 200K for a table.

If you havent already paid too much, cancel contract and cut your losses?

"2nd best time to plant a tree is today." Sent from ThaiVisa app.

I have only paid the initally deposit (5%) so not much money on the line yet...but we have WAY too much time/emotion tied up in it to just walk away from the whole project. Already spent a year shopping different builders, researching builders, going to home builder expos, then 6 months with this builder doing plans, contracts and going over all the materials blah blah etc...

Isn't there a schedule of inclusions?

Sounds like you are being taken.

The quote for deck has all the materials listed such Smartwood, concrete type, pile types etc..but does not have a quantity of each of these materials. They say they need to put in more piles than they "planned" (quote did not specify the number they "planned on").

Basically in my opinion the request for additional money for this baseless and their reasoning is non-sense. Which is why i'm concerned because if they can request extra money for this, they can pretty much request it for anything, even if they specifically cover it in the contract.

ie "we only planning on using 10 screws, we had to use 12"...

I'm building a house through a full service house building company.

We have just started and already there have been several "extra costs" above the signed contract. These costs have all been kind of gray-area as the contract is not really clear on these issues. For example they decided they actually wanted to put longer piles, or they had only included cold water taps (despite including hot water piping in the build).

I feel i've been pretty amiable and paid these costs without much fuss; as I felt there was reasonable doubt; I also know that if I want extra stuff installed (extra plug here, extra light here) i know i'll have to pay more for this.

However they have now said the deck area needs to be structured differently and it will cost more (they planned the stucture, all I did was tell them the size). We have a clear layout of where the deck is and how much it costs. The money is fairly insignificant (a few thounsand baht) but I'm worried that if i agree to pay this it will set a precedent that i will pay extra for anything ("oops we needed more concrete, pay more", "oops we need another roof beam, pay more"...etc...this is exactly why we used a full service builder so that we wouldn't get sucked into some kind of unknown money pitt situation.

I basically said "Either build the deck for the quoted contract price, or don't build the deck at all". It seems like they are inclined to take the "Don't build it at all" option; which is a pain for me as I then need to find someone else to do the deck later.

Would you either:

A) Cave to their demands, set a precedent of paying extra that could potentially cost a lot more as the build goes on.

B ) Stick to your guns, but end up with a pain in the ass finding someone else to build a deck; and maybe I can't find anyone with a similar deck price.

How is the landlord supposed to be responsible for noticing a leaking pipe in your bathroom?

Maybe you should suggest he install some CCTV cameras in the bathroom so that he can monitor for leaks in the future?

Sounds like "fibrocystic breast disease" http://www.ncbi.nlm....lth/PMH0001910/

Which is a common problem even in young women. It is not dangerous; just unconfortable and worrying because everyone automatically thinks "Breast cancer" went they feel a lump (but it is not breast cancer).

It would be best to get the removal done at a hospital which specializes in plastic surgery... that way they will be careful not to leave any ugly scars etc..

For example: http://www.yanhee.net/

P.S. This type of surgery does not require overnight stay at hospital.

If he has a computer with a scanner/printer connected, it can't be too hard.

If

No he didn't. But reading between the lines (farang member 1 post, meets teerak in Thailand, goes back home and wan't to send her a letter). I could be wrong, but my money is on this scenario.

Maybe he is unable to legibly copy the Thai alphabets onto a new envelope.

I really hate forced "Strong Passwords" these days...must have uppercase, lowercase, numbers, sybmols, no dictionary words, 10 characters etc... you end up with something you can never remember (unless of course you write it down somewhere kind of defeats the purpose)

You can get real brand names from the "Export Shop" at most big malls. These are factory rejects/excess and they have the labels (inside) are cut. Prices are reasonable.

Does anyone know if there is a translation company within the Chaengwattana government/immigration building?

Or is the closest place the translation company across the street?

Now I am thinking of going the VoIP way all the way to the phone, i.e. the Swiss number will be a Skype entry number, and I will hook my smartphone in Thailand to Skype, using one of the 'unlimited data' plans available.

Calling to Thai phones from Skype is rubbish. I bought one of the worldwide unlimited subscription plans with skype on a smart phone, with the view to replace my standard DTAC mobile service, with ASDL wifi at home and office i thought it would be fine....WRONG, quality was terrible compared to a standard mobile call; I canceled it after 1 month.

This is easier said than done as neither marker is visible from the other and their are trees and long grass that "could or could not be" encroaching on the land.

Obviously, I cannot go hacking down trees to get a clear line of site only to find out I have hacked my neighbours trees down (I am however pretty sure that some of their trees are on our land)

That is exactly what you do.

Get some laborers armed machetes and they hack through a path between the markers. Unless there are some thick old trees that are on the border or something?

Maybe run a bit of rope between the 2 markers first so that it keeps them roughly on track.

I've had similar experiences at hairdressers here. Seems like many of them just hate cutting my hair...? Maybe because it's thicker than normal Thai hair, i notice that always want to use those thinning scissors to crop half your hair off at the root before they even start.

I used to go to my local hairdresser up the street every few months. The women who works/owns it always has a face like a smacked-ass when I go in there, but she does a half decent job so I kept going in there. I don't know what her problem is, I never say much, just politely ask for a hair cut in Thai, then explain the hair cut style in Thai (always the same style). She'd then makes a face like she just sucked a lemon and begins cutting, and all the way through the cut she'd be make "annoyed" grunts and sighs. I always left a 20-30% tip on top of the normal price.

Finally one day I went in there (no other customers) and she makes her smacked ass face and says the electric shaver is broken (I've seen that she has 3 or 4), no haircut... i figured that was the not-so-subtle hint not to come there any more.

Went out and bought my own shaver and never looked back.

I would have not clicked on this link.

The modded ink kits seem to dry/clog up a lot more than the factory ink cartridges.

I had a kit on my Canon MX318 but it kept drying up all the time, or getting bubbles in the ink lines and i'd have to bring it in for repair. In the end i just ripped the ink kit off and put in standard cartridges (which cost way too much) but have not had a problem since.

Also don't get an expensive hi-res photo printer (the ones that take like 7 different color cartridges), these ones seem to dry up a lot quicker than the more standard printers.

Folks drip a solution they call juice into a chamber in the device.

It is heated/vaporized into a smoke/vapor

The juice is available in various strengths flavors & does contain nicotine.

I thought they took nicotine cartridges? Never heard of ones where you drip the "Juice" into them and then cook it...; I can only imagine what that looks like?