Jonathan Swift

20 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

What year did the frozen pension policy come into effect ?

 

During the ice age no doubt

1 minute ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   Why did you want the airfare refunded ?

I was entitled because they had changed the flight schedule. Also other issues of crookedness, misleading baggage policy etc. The airline and the booking agencies gave me a runaround for 2 days and then I said, not gonna play this, we'll do it the hard way. Wasn't my first rodeo, I'm 67 and have collected from a lot of bad guys over the years, I can do it in my sleep. Same thing happened during Covid, the airline promised the refund but wouldn't deliver, I sent a letter and notice of intent to their Bangkok office and the money was in my bank the next day. I told them I had spoken to Siam Legal who would represent me (that was a bluff) You have to know how to play the game, which is basically let them know that it will cost them a lot more money to try to cheat me than to just pay me. It's poker and chess. The advantage is always mine because I do it all myself and it costs me nothing.

They do this all the time. Booking, Priceline, agoda are all under the same company, Booking Holdings Inc in Norwalk CT USA. Expedia and Hotels dot com also did it to me. They HAVE to refund your money. If they don't you can have your credit card or whomever you used report it as fraud and claw back your money. If you're in the US you can sue them in small claims court, slam dunk win. They will call you and negotiate a settlement, don't take any less than $1,000.00 US, I've done it twice. 

Booking dot com is owned by Booking Holdings Inc in Norwalk, Connecticut, USA, not far from the house I own and stay in the summer. I have sued them twice for refusing to refund airfare. The airfare was $165.00 US. To settle the lawsuit it cost them $1000.00 US. It was easy, I got a phone call from their negotiator whom I told I would be happy to drag all of them in front of a judge to explain themselves. Nah they didn't want to do that and spend $5,000.00 US on attorneys plus pay me. So, $1,000.00 it was. They also own priceline and agoda. back to court this year because agoda refused a refund after the airline (Thai) tried to cheat me on baggage and a guitar. I'll probably talk to the same guy as last year, whom I will tell to clean up his act or he will likely hear from me on a regular basis. 

4 hours ago, petermik said:

13,000 baht for a 59 night stay....that should have raised a red flag from the start

Booking dot com is owned by Booking Holdings Inc in Norwalk, Connecticut, USA, not far from the house I own and stay in the summer. I have sued them twice for refusing to refund airfare. The airfare was $165.00 US. To settle the lawsuit it cost them $1000.00 US. It was easy, I got a phone call from their negotiator whom I told I would be happy to drag all of them in front of a judge to explain themselves. Nah they didn't want to do that and spend $5,000.00 US on attorneys plus pay me. So, $1,000.00 it was. They also own priceline and agoda. back to court this year because agoda refused a refund after the airline (Thai) tried to cheat me on baggage and a guitar. I'll probably talk to the same guy as last year, whom I will tell to clean up his act or he will likely hear from me on a regular basis. 

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

The policeman seems to be enjoying watching the guy trying to dig himself out.

Bit mean to be laughing then handing out a fine.

You were there? You know what he was smiling about? You were in on the joke? You're psychic and know what he was thinking? My experiences with Thai police, even on rare occasions when I was guilty of something, is that they are quite good natured, and I sure would prefer a jovial cop to a mean one. And I think if you or I were there the sight of the guy digging would likely have been pretty funny. The guy was a fool and deserving of being laughed at, if that's what it was. But how do you know the photo wasn't staged? It doesn't look like he was digging near the wheels. It looks like the car was already out of the rut, likely pushed out by whoever was gathered around. 

Does greed make people stupid? Or is the greed a byproduct of stupidity? The risk of incarceration in a Thai prison isn't worth any amount of money. When I first came here, before weed was legal, I wouldn't set foot within a hundred yards of anyone with a joint or weed pipe. I knew before I came here about the little circles of corruption where the cops would wait for the hippies to buy weed from the farmers in Pai on the way to the waterfall, then get busted on the way back, with a percentage paid back to the farmers who SURPRISE ratted out the hippies. Before I came here. So when I ran into one of those "roadblocks" on my way up I was smiling and smirking because I knew what was up and I don't even smoke the stuff. 

6 hours ago, Bert got kinky said:

 

What a tool, everyone knows that you cannot sell drugs in Thailand.

Drug dealing is an occupation that is reserved for Thai police nationals only

 

There it is again, the same old refrain, "wahhh, they're picking on foreigners, racism, while Thai people get away with murder". I've got my mini violin out, playing to your song and dance. Why do you people even come here when all you do is complain about things that are out of your hands? TIT, ever hear that?  

Obvious mental illness. Hope she gets help. But once again, bare female breasts pose a great threat to humanity - forget about the fact that for the whole first year of our lives we stare at them constantly as we feed. Near as I can tell no one has ever been assaulted or harmed by a breast, or driven to insanity by the sight of them, notwithstanding Austin Powers's machine gun jugglies. Although there is the occasional juvenile gawking and commenting, but that comes from the imposition of our hypocritical sexual values. Strange world, strange values.

6 minutes ago, mran66 said:

555 - to expect respectful behavior from Russians is about same as expecting Norwegians to have brown skin and thick curly black hair, or say a  bird move around by walking instead of flying i.e not impossible but fairly rare occurrence statistically.

As a Norwegian with brown skin and thick curly black hair I resent that. Funny how you happened to choose to describe Black people as your example. A Freudian slip? You could have chosen any kind of example. So you don't like Russians, and you don't like Black people. Another run of the mill racist who just can't avoid wearing it on your sleeve, can you?

2 hours ago, mania said:

 

Just out of curiosity I wonder if that is true? Since a new passport has a new PP number..  not that it matters was just wondering. I guess these days the biometrics page has all the info regardless of PP number

A new passport might have the same old number, depending on when it was issued. My last 3 all had the same number, but this year the passport design changed and so did my number. Subsequently I presume I will keep the same number with each replacement, should I live so long. 

15 hours ago, Jack1988 said:

I am asking for a friend of mine! Does it worth to make a new passport if the current one has too many stamps but it still has many free pages? My friend would like to come back to thailand but he is afraid that immigration officer could deny him to enter because of too many stamps on his passport. By the way he is abroad right now and it's already 6 months that is out of thailand

Stamps are not what matters, the number of remaining pages are all that matters. 

2 hours ago, MartinL said:

So now even "resembling foreigners'  is a potential offence, is it? There seems to be no end of ways they're trying to finger foreigners for Thai crime. Surely, if the thieves definitely were foreigners, it would have been one of the first things used to describe them by the shop staff.

Wahhhh racism wahhhhhhh. Nothing in the article suggested any sort of prejudice. Is this your theme song everywhere you go? Picking on the poor foreigners again wahhhh? All the article said was they were "dressed like foreigners" which was simply the way someone described them, no more, no less. What if they were dressed like clowns? Would you cry bloody murder about clown prejudice? Probably if they were dressed like foreign clowns, Ronald McDonald maybe. They probably were dressed like foreigners as the average person might observe, even if their features were Asian. I see Thai people dressed in western fashions all the time, and that's how I would describe them. I actually often laugh because of what's on t shirts that they themselves can't even read. BTW would you have us believe that there are no prejudices or stereotypes in your country? Lastly, you weren't there, never saw the video, all you see here is a blurry still frame, but boy you sure pile it high and deep based on virtually no information. You must be psychic. If so, why don't you help the cops solve this? 

20 hours ago, Nowaythatsreal said:

With regard to Dr Jack54 comment are you saying that there is no way I can successfully renew my retirement visa on my own without going through the agent. Notwithstanding the alternative of starting the process in the UK? 

I have never entrusted this to an agent for the reasons you have clearly demonstrated, plus it's an unnecessary cost, it's easy enough to do on your own. Anyone who says you can't do this on your own doesn't know what they're talking about. I've been doing it for eight years. Thousands of people do it on their own. You search out the requirements online, download necessary forms from the immigration website. If there are any errors you can just come back the next day and correct them. You can make an appointment online 3-4 weeks in advance. Rather than keeping a small fortune uselessly parked in a bank just for this purpose, why not use the income method of showing 65,000 baht per month deposited in your bank? Do you not make at least that month? To reiterate what has been said, if you get this in your country it will be the O-A with insurance requirement. If you convert here in Thailand from the tourist visa you get the O. On the other hand, most agents get the job done without any mishaps, and if you're not motivated to do the work there is likely a reliable one somewhere. 

7 hours ago, sumongkhwai said:

One night, many years ago, my wife and I were walking along the beach walk in Pattaya back to our hotel. It was super late. We saw a farang getting into a fight with a motor bike taxi driver. The motor bike taxi driver got on his phone. My wife and I both looked at each other and said the same thing, "there's ten guys coming round the corner". Nothing good happens early in the morning with a bunch of booze on board. Just my opinion.

You are correct sir

"professionally but spasmodically,"  Guy gave you cramps and back pain?