Mark123456

Lost all confidence in them. Tried several times to order goods COD they accept order then after two weeks they say there carrier can not find our house as there is no road name!! Strange as the carrier is Thai Post and we get letters every other day. Anyway ordered it to MIL's house (two doors away only diffrence is house number still no street name guess what delivered two days after. Rang them explained but they just blame the carrier constantly. I buy of eBay again now no problems at all

I find eBay just as annoying. Too much stuff I want to buy goes via the Global Shipping Program, which I refuse to use, and they removed the ability to filter results based on whether the vendors would actually delivery to your country, which I thought was ridiculous. Now I have to wade through hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of results, most of which are completely irrelevant to me.

(Sorry, this is not a reply about Lazada, but it may be useful to some people)

Why would you refuse to use the eBay Global Shipping Program? Sometimes it the only way you can get an item shipped from the USA or UK.

I used the eBay Global Shipping Program last month to have a large and heavy piece of gym equipment delivered from the US. I was very impressed - it was quick and there wasn't an cent extra to pay. I'd rather know exactly what I'm up for including customs duty and have it cleared for me and delivered to my front door than have to visit customs up north (I'm in Pattaya) - which could cost at least 2000 in taxi fares and a lot of wasted time... and pay the customs officials whatever they want. A clearing agent isn't cheap either.

The Global shipping agent asked me for a scan of my passport and an explanation of what the equipment was for.

Sure, for small items there probably isn't going to be a customs hassle, but for big items you can't avoid it. I will most definitely be using them again.

Amazon have a similar shipping program where you pay for customs up front. I had an item delivered last week - it was lightening fast from the USA.

If you want to import decent gym equipment, there aren't many choices other than from the UK or USA. Australian merchants won't ship here.

In the past, I have refused to use it because the shipping and duty charges were far higher than they would otherwise be. For example, I just looked at a turntable on eBay that, including shipping charges, comes to around $600. The import duty quoted is $296, which is nearly 50%. Unless I'm very much mistaken, that's way above the actual import rate + VAT. Even at 30% (and some musical equipment only attracts a rate of 10% duty) + 7%, it should come to around $234, not $296.

Why such drama? Seems the solution is simple: never shop there again.

And as far as the Mars bar, the Coke can, and all the other items from yesteryear, learn to read the label and make a judgement. Take a look around you and learn everything costs more compared to 25 yrs ago.

It's a scam when the label says beef but only horse meat can be found in the bag.

It's maybe not a scam when, for example, a packet of crisps is reduced in size from 80g to 77g, and this can only be seen by reading the small lettering at the bottom of the packet, but it's certainly deceitful. It's just an underhand way of raising prices by 3.75% and while you may think buyers should be more educated and more aware, some people still cling to the ideal of honest companies and individuals providing quality goods and services and being rewarded appropriately. It may be standard practice in the modern world to try to deceive consumers in order to make greater profits without providing anything extra but that doesn't mean we have to like it.

I'd much rather use eBay and PayPal as a buyer, I must admit.

Edit: I mean rather than as a seller, not rather than Lazada.

I know what you mean, I find the attitude in many shops exasperating. Perhaps I'm becoming paranoid but they often seem to enjoy telling you they don't have whatever it is you want to buy and if you ask for anything even slightly out of the ordinary, they react as if you've just asked for a pony made of chocolate (or something similarly ridiculous).

The USA is much more corrupt. #1 in the world I think.

Sorry, but after checking a number of corruption rankings, your opinion is apparently worthless.

One source, Fortune Magazine:

The most corrupt countries:

ImageUploadedByThaivisa Connect1464785566.620212.jpg

The 12 least corrupt countries.

ImageUploadedByThaivisa Connect1464785617.184323.jpg

You can check out similar results with quite a few studies/sources. Google it.

So where does that leave our poster? Just another garden-variety America basher; a common troll on TV who only knows one tune to play for nearly every topic.

The fact that the UK appears in joint 10th position in the list of the 12 least corrupt countries in the world and the USA didn't even make the list does little to support your position. In fact, it would seem to support bkk6060's assertion that the USA is in fact more corrupt than the UK. Did you even look at what you were posting?

Try to enter the Thai Post International EMS Tracking # into the British postal service (whatever it's named) online tracking service. It works when I EMS to the US and enter the Thai Post EMS tracking # into USPS.com. it shows article arrival stateside and each waypoint until final destination delivery.

Alas, I've seen no evidence that this works when going from the US to Thailand. EMS is a worldwide system, and the US postal tracking system is 100% compatible. Thai post seems not to enter the tracking info upon receipt of anything here in LOS. Once it leaves the states (or wherever?), you get nothing, unless and until it shows up at its destination. Many times, for me, nothing arrives.

Outbound EMS tracking may work, assuming the receiving country bothers to track the package. But for mail inbound to LOS, it's expensive and worthless, so save your money. Sending something to LOS registered, or via UPS, would likely be more reliable.

it's only expensive and worthless when you use the US Postal Service. They used to offer end-to-end tracking on cheaper services but now they only offer it on their most expensive offering - International Priority Express is it? The Royal Mail charge just £9.75 for small parcels that are tracked from the moment they arrive in Thailand until they reach your home. I think the USPS charge around $50 for a similar service. No idea why because they don't do any of the work once it's been loaded on a plane to Thailand. I realise the fact that the Royal Mail in the UK offer a much better service is of little use to you but you did say that the Thai post don't enter tracking info for anything received in Thailand and it's simply not true.

I agree with Mangostin, I'd be really annoyed with this too. No need to make pathetic comments about lending him money, some of you just don't have the intelligence to get the point. If I was overcharged by 300% I'd be furious whether it was over 20 baht of food or a large property development. I do have to say though, Mr Mangostin, why don't you actually ask the vendor what he thinks he's doing rather than never going back? That would be taking a more proactive role I think. It may be futile as far as some are concerned but I always take the time to tell people exactly why I'm upset with their products or service, if I am.

Do you mean you ask 3 sellers who don't advertise they ship to Thailand and ask them if they will? I've only tried that once because I assumed that people who decided they only wanted to deliver within the USA (for example) would not be interested in sending something to Thailand. In my case, it was a vintage razor from a French vendor and they were quite happy to send it to me. Makes me wonder why they don;t say so in the first place -they could attract a lot more bids. Is it maybe because they have to work out the shipping charges for each country they list?

I want to pay COD, because I don't trust the seller to post it to me, or the Thai post to deliver it to me.

This isn't rocket science, but no money until I see the package, understand or not?

One of Lazada's other selling points is that I pay Lazada, not the vendor. It appears that Lazada pays the vendor only after they get confirmation that my goodies have been delivered, and within 14 days. So instead of filing a complaint with PayPal and hoping they'll claw the money back from an errant EBay vendor, Lazada controls the money until the deal is done and dusted and everyone's satisfied. Kind of like an escrow service.

I've never had a non-delivery or quality problem, but I suspect my odds of getting a satisfactory result are better trying to get a refund from Lazada, than from the vendor or from the payment service (example- PayPal) who then has to get it back from the vendor.

I haven't used COD since my 2nd Lazada transaction- because I don't like carrying a bunch of cash around waiting for the delivery guy to get there- plus, I'm usually gone out to lunch when he arrives.

I'm pretty sure that PayPal operate in much the same way as banks - they reverse the charges, i.e. they take the money from the vendors account and pay it into yours. I don't think they refund you and then hope they can get the money back from the vendor.

Lost all confidence in them. Tried several times to order goods COD they accept order then after two weeks they say there carrier can not find our house as there is no road name!! Strange as the carrier is Thai Post and we get letters every other day. Anyway ordered it to MIL's house (two doors away only diffrence is house number still no street name guess what delivered two days after. Rang them explained but they just blame the carrier constantly. I buy of eBay again now no problems at all

I find eBay just as annoying. Too much stuff I want to buy goes via the Global Shipping Program, which I refuse to use, and they removed the ability to filter results based on whether the vendors would actually delivery to your country, which I thought was ridiculous. Now I have to wade through hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of results, most of which are completely irrelevant to me.

If you do want to buy a product that is imported you can just print off the receipt and pay the bill at a 7-11. Pretty much like COD as you do not need to use a credit card.

Don't mean to doubt chowny77 but is this correct?

I want to pay COD, because I don't trust the seller to post it to me, or the Thai post to deliver it to me.

This isn't rocket science, but no money until I see the package, understand or not?

Can't you use a Visa debit or credit card? The couple of occasions I've had problems with ordering goods online (not from Lazada), my bank reversed the charges as soon as I opened my dispute.

A British retiree who started living here 10 years ago would have seen (and felt) the direction the currency was headed and would have (or should have) made contingency plans

Furthermore, to have made irreversible plans solely on the basis of a pension income is foolish, to say the least.

For those that took the second option of having Thb 800k in the bank, presumably they would have a source of income for day to day living as well. If this happens to be the British pension, then a 10% reduction is easy to deal with - just cut back on some items.

tell me oh learned guru what direction of GBP/THB you would have felt during the last 7 years

GBPTHB.png

Whenever somebody starts talking about predicting the direction of currency movements you know they were never a trader, or certainly not a successful one.

Sterling down further in Asian markets Monday morning. The expat guys here seemingly happy with sterling's drop (assuming that they aren't the usual resentful crowd who have already been forced back home) apparently a couple of planks short of a full floorboard. Are they all from Sunderland? (who we can only hope are relegated next season)

Sterling's fall is what it is. There's no point in being emotional about it. Not all of us British expats receive all of our income in GBP and not all of us are stuck on a fixed pension. Some of us can actually take measures to cope with the devaluation and those who can't may be well able to cope with a fall in income without being 'forced back home' as you put it. I'm not happy with it but I'm not devastated either. I see some posters moaning about British expats for 'whining' about the result and others moaning about British expats who aren't whining about the result. Seems like some people just want to take the opportunity to have a pop at the British whenever they can - a regrettable attitude really. I'm not living on the breadline so a 10-12% drop in my income wouldn't cause me any financial distress anyway, even if you wish it would - sorry to disappoint.

Of course not all do, but most do (have incomes based in sterling that is) and as for the 10-12% drop in sterling, well Hello Boys! Now throw in the rout in the FTSE and those who are approaching retirement with investment pensions are going to get royally stuffed. I at least don't confuse my own position with others' or the general situation. And how many times do I have to point out to Brexit guys who seem to have a poor grasp of maths that it doesn't matter whether your pension is indexed (against inflation?) it isn't indexed against currency moves. So there we have it, a brilliant contribution above calling sterling's awful (Brexit caused) drop 'is what it is'. The dead cat blandness of response is staggering.

You're still assuming that most British expats are so short of money that they will be seriously troubled by a dip in sterling's value. I was merely pointing out that many British expats, retired or otherwise, are not living on such a tight budget that a devaluation like this will send them running for the hills, and that being happy or unhappy about it will change nothing. My response may have been bland to you but your apparently gleeful enjoyment of others misfortunes is disgusting to me and frankly, I'd much rather be bland than disgusting.

As an aside, I would challenge your assertion that most British expats in Thailand have incomes in GBP. Most retired expats maybe but certainly not most expats.

Sterling down further in Asian markets Monday morning. The expat guys here seemingly happy with sterling's drop (assuming that they aren't the usual resentful crowd who have already been forced back home) apparently a couple of planks short of a full floorboard. Are they all from Sunderland? (who we can only hope are relegated next season)

Sterling's fall is what it is. There's no point in being emotional about it. Not all of us British expats receive all of our income in GBP and not all of us are stuck on a fixed pension. Some of us can actually take measures to cope with the devaluation and those who can't may be well able to cope with a fall in income without being 'forced back home' as you put it. I'm not happy with it but I'm not devastated either. I see some posters moaning about British expats for 'whining' about the result and others moaning about British expats who aren't whining about the result. Seems like some people just want to take the opportunity to have a pop at the British whenever they can - a regrettable attitude really. I'm not living on the breadline so a 10-12% drop in my income wouldn't cause me any financial distress anyway, even if you wish it would - sorry to disappoint.

And many people on here are trying to play up the devaluation of the GBP as a plus.... but the fact is that history has often pointed out that you cannot devalue your way to prosperity.... in fact often it is a race to the bottom caused by economic problems. Sometimes these economic problems leave countries no option to devalue their currencies...

Why does devaluation not work well? Often because things that "could be helped" by devaluation such as manufacturing are dependent on external trade itself which means most of the inputs prices get inflated due to a weak currency, the cost of living goes up as imports of basics rise ... oil & food .... which then trickles through the economy and workers get upset because their wages are not keeping up and labour unrest disrupts the economy and inflation rises.... eventually forcing interest rates to rise to stop the fall in the currency and keep inflation in check. If left too long the medicine becomes incredibly expensive and hurts etc. etc. etc. What is needed is really currency stability.

History shows you cannot devalue your way to prosperity because countries that try this do so by printing/issuing more money, so causing high inflation. However, the point you seem to be missing is that the UK is not trying to devalue its way to prosperity so there won't be an accompanying rise in the money supply as far as this particular devaluation is concerned. A lot of amateur economists on this board.

It was also quite clear that the London-centric favouritism, in particular the finance industry did not sit well with the poorer regions of the UK. I am personally not convinced that the majority of the finance industry in its current state is even beneficial to the country. A lot of it is pure rent-seeking, and concentrating the wealth of the nation into a couple of square miles.

The poorer regions of the UK don't seem to mind the fact that London contributes 22% of the national GDP and therefore funds their benefits to a certain extent. On that note, I've never heard a northerner complain that unemployment benefits are not weighted according to the region in which you live. The cost of living in London is higher, the salaries are higher, which means the tax and national insurance contributions are higher, yet the benefits are the same. Perhaps everybody north of Birmingham could join Scotland and leave the UK - then we might have a viable country once more?

I would also like to bet good money (not GBP now of course) that when the north/south divide was the other way around, i.e. during the industrial revolution, there were not many northerners heard to be complaining about how unfair it all was.

I think it would be unwise not to let people to vote again. Each UK-citizen have the same voting right as they did before.

If the UK folks still wish to exit, we'll shake hands and say goodbye for decades of co-operation. I think that is fair for both UK and EU.

What do you think? Fair, not fair?

What do I think? I think your idea is bonkers.

We've had four months of campaigning and a referendum. The majority of 52% prevailed.

It's not hard to understand, is it?

I really don't care about you old geezers. I don't. You are the reason I wish EU would eject the UK from our map as soon as possible. Old geezers have nothing to offer to the EU.

However there are plenty of smarter folks in UK, the ones who wish to stay and who wish to make EU a community for us all, which functions better in the future. These people are the majority in UK as we all know. These, smarter folks, were sleeping during the election day and have awoken since.

I'm a lazy person and tend to react to events, only when it's really necessary. I don't like to participate to discussions, which I feel that are just a silly talk. Most of the discussions are like that.

The younger generations are even less interested to participate to the hideous voting polls, than I am. If the vote is going to be a done deal, they and I would not bother to go to the polls and place a vote. Why bother the effort?

Now, if anyone would have predicted that the Leave EU would have won, there would have been plenty of reactivated youngsters who have gotten to the polls. They would have made the difference.

So, what is more important? To win this poll or to represent what people actually want?

I wish the real voice of people to be heard. What they really think.

Edit: Grammar etc.

So the younger, 'smarter' people waited until the result of the poll went against them and then, when it was too late to do anything about it, wished they'd got out of bed and voted? I don't wish to sound rude but that doesn't sound very smart to me at all. They sound like lazy, feckless fools.

You would think that they were smart enough to make up their mind,,,But we are talking about the UK,,, they don't know what they are doing,

can't make up their mind,in one day out the next,,,Oh shit ,,running scared can't stand on our own two feet,,back in

Whinging undeceiving Poms,,,They will Never change,,,

I thought generalised attacks on a single nationality were not allowed on TV? What does 'undeceiving poms' mean anyway - English not your native language? This is about an online petition that could have been started by anyone, not a decision by the British government or nation - why don't you put a sock in it?

I was completely for remaining in the EU but the more ridiculous comments I read from foreigners who have no business meddling in the affairs of the British, the more I am coming around to the idea of leaving being a jolly good idea. Britain may not be a big player on the world stage nowadays but we've had more influence globally than any other country in the history of the world so bring your petty comments on - you're typing them all in our language anyway (more or less).

I wanted to remain, but I can't see what the big deal is.

I don't understand why it spells economic disaster. Why is it any number of smaller economies do ok as sovereign nations, but a big economy like the UK can't? Why will the EU make trading difficult for UK, which is important to them? Likewise Britain won't be imposing tariffs on EU goods will they?

I guess we have to accept the Scots will want out the Union, that is likely to be the major disruptor, not the EU.

57% of British exports go to the EU and 55% of imports come from it. Now that's all in jeopardy to an extent that's really hard to estimate. The Germans are likely to be punitive toward the UK just as they have been toward the Greeks who also threatened the union out of which the Germans have been the big winners.

So that's all in question. And for what exactly? To make sure there are no more Polish plumbers?

Neither the UK or Germany will want to engage in a disasterous trade war. Both are heavily dependent on one another. I don't see the big deal at all.

I guess there will be big swings and roundabouts, but it will even itself out.

It's very bad for me I must admit, as it will be for all expats, but not for the UK I suspect.

British exports to Germany have been rising while German exports to all of the EU have been falling. Since German exports overall have been increasing that means that more it goes to Asia and other regions than the EU. So, it would appear that the UK needs Germany more than vice versa.

But you could be right. Let's hope so since you have bet the British economy on it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/9816643/Britain-becomes-Germanys-biggest-trade-partner-as-Berlin-London-pact-deepens.html

Value of British exports to Germany: around $46 billion. Value of German exports to the UK: around $100 billion. Your schadenfreude is touching but you are ill informed (or uninformed). If you want to talk percentages then sure, at 10% of total exports, the UK's exports to Germany may be more valuable than the German exports to the UK are to them (at around 7%). But you should also consider that 10% of the Netherlands exports (by value) go to the UK and around 7% of France's. Also, in common with Germany, UK exports to the rest of the world have been increasing while its exports to EU countries as a whole have been declining. I don't think the UK or the remaining EU countries will be keen to lose their cross border trade though.

I wasn't in favour of the UK leaving the EU and the pound is falling again this morning in Asian trading (GBP/USD currently 1.3421) but posting nonsense helps no-one.

Weak Pound is good. Good for foreign direct investment. Good for getting a proper trade balance back. Good for re-balancing the economy back to real production. Good for diminishing our enormous debts.

To avoid confusion pleas read

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_national_debt

Debt versus deficit

<......>

The UK national debt is often confused (even by politicians) with the government budget deficit (officially known as the Public Sector Net Cash Requirement (PSNCR) ......

<..........>

........ As of 2011 around 35% of the national debt was owed to overseas governments and investors. ........

read in: http://www.live-counter.com/uk-national-debt-clock/

By 2011, the British national debt amounted to £940 billion, with most of the money, 35 percent in total, being owed to other governments and investors. On this debt interest alone cost more than £42.9 billion annually. By 2012 the national debt amounted to £1,278.2 billion. Currently, Great Britain's debt clock keeps ticking and adding more and more numbers to an already high amount. Every second Great Britain increases its debt by £5190 and every day by £448.500,000 as can be seen on the debt clock. Over the course of a year that implies a new £163 billion that the government owes to other people, governments and institutions, marking a solid £1,471 billion on the national debt clock above. Interestingly, the Bank of England still contributes its fair share to the debt – a rocking £42.4 billion, which is more than the national defense budget. Network Rail also contributes £33 billion to the total amount, which is the same amount the entire country of Uruguay can show for its GDP. Great Britain struggles to remain as great as it once was with so high a debt burden on its shoulders.

Now to your "Good for diminishing our enormous debts."

One example for paying US$ debts:

1 billion Dollar =

• Yesterday the exchange rate was 1 GBP = 1,485814 US $ 731.977.613 GBP
• Today the exchange rate is 1 GBP = 1,366862 US$ 677.592,113 GBP

difference: 54.385.450 GBP

What does it mean?

To pay back only 1 billion (1.000.000.000) US$ wouldn't diminish the debts for England, but increase it by more than 54 million US$. I guess Johnson didn't tell you.

Did anyone tell you that as of 2015 only around 25% of UK government debt was held by overseas investors? Have you also considered that most of it will be in the form of UK government bonds (gilts) which are denominated in which currency do you think? Not sure what you mean by the BOE contributing to the debt, they actually own around a quarter of UK government debt so it goes both ways.

Dont forget that London is the worlds number one financial centre, that is not going to change.

But it is already changing, friend.

Do you think the financial moguls will make any gift to Britain just to ridicule?

Do you think they will ease the pain to encourage other countries reject their plan in the same way?

No, of course.

This vote was brave but it will cost dearly British. This, I am absolutely certain

My experience tells me a different story to the one you paint and the money moguls are not as big as the city nor are they vindictive, they just want to make money.

All markets are currently down, everyone with interests financial wants things to return to stability so their portfolios can rise also, spiteful thoughts only enter into the minds of people who are losers and have to find someone to blame.

Do you think the big American banks who will no longer automatically be able to offer their financial services to countries in the EU will stay in London then?

I'd be interested if the participants on this forum would tag their comments to indicate:

a) if they have an economics A'level or Degree and are aware of different economic theories.

the last year they contributed to the British economy.

c) if they voted to join the EU and then voted out this time.

Economists look at the long-term benefits/costs to the economy (some economic cycles take 50-75 years) and us little people live with the reality of short term benefits, I know. And we all live in our own little worlds, don't we? Be honest!

I realise that people get emotional about these things, but look at German reunification and how much that COST the west German economy in the years following - 100 billion euros a year for 20 years. I wonder if Brits realise that they have a far higher average standard of living than say, the French and Italians...

I'd be far more incensed by how the banks have completely messed up the British economy and added 100k+ pounds per capita to the national debt, yet still take 4 million pounds per annum in bonuses - and that's a small British bank not an international one!

So my conclusion is: We ought to be looking at the balance sheet in the long term and basically.... get rid of all the bankers (that's a joke, by the way...it's not a fatwa!) on arbitrary bonuses that are not related to performance and are robbing the public year after year!

The Banks? Guilty. How many years are you going to scapegoat for bad government policies? National debt is run up by government. UK debt is worse than the US. People quote the US because it is astounding large figure, % of GDP other countries are worse. The world is on its last credit card and cannot cover the interest on previous cards.

UK public debt to GDP = 89.2%, USA public debt to GDP = 104.17%. How is the UK debt worse?

Congratulation to Britain; most are proponents either politically informed completely wrong or just plain stupid. Good Luck GB

You should get the facts right, England voted to leave, Scotland and Ireland voted to remain, just happens there are more people in England.

Scotland will now pursue a second referendum and Ireland wants integration not separation, the UK/EU border is not going to help the political process.

It is a historic day, the beginning of a Dis-United Kingdom.

You should check your facts too. Ireland is not part of the UK and did not vote. I think you mean Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK and not part of Ireland (politically speaking).

This,

eu.jpg

The taxpayer has saved 8.5 billion pounds a year, imported goods will be 8% cheaper, our fishing fleet can fish where it likes, farmers can produce milk again, we can stop Syrians, Turkish, Polish and Greeks freely entering the UK, etc.

a overall weaker Pound will make imported goods 8% cheaper?

Now at 49.2, in a week it will be stronger than before.

It's 48.4 against the THB and that's after a retrace. It's lost nearly 9% against the USD. If you really think these losses will be reversed in a week, you have no idea. Look at how much the GBP lost against the dollar during the credit crunch in 2008. 8 years later and that was never recouped. Half of the great British Public may be rejoicing now but the next time they go on holiday or buy a new TV and wonder why everything is more expensive, they probably won't be quite so happy.

Boric acid powder mix with water, seal all cochrocher hiding places with silicon pasta, darns cover, pipes inlets regular insect spraying. Poisonous Roach Baits. Door/floor flap seal in all doors.

You can also just put the Boric Acid powder in something like a small empty washing liquid bottle and puff it around the perimeter of all your rooms, under the furniture etcetera. if you do it finely enough, the cockroaches walk right through it, pick up the powder on their legs then ingest it when they clean themselves. As other cockroaches eat their dead friends, the poison can spread far and wide. I think this is more effective than making bait and killing the roaches in your house. I never liked the idea of laying bait in any case, as you are basically encouraging cockroaches to enter your home.

I used to find one or two every couple of days in my house until I realized they were entering through the washing machine waste pipe (or more accurately, the water pipe into which it is stuffed). The pipe from the washing machine is just stuck into a blue plastic water pipe, which runs outside. After I put putty all around the waste hose so there was no longer a large space between the hose and the water pipe opening, they stopped coming in. If you read articles on cockroaches written in the West, they will tell you that cockroaches do not climb up through the drains, which is quite true in the West. Here, where water traps under shower drains seem to be missing in many homes, they do indeed get in through the drains. The big greasy American roaches generally live outside in the sewers/storm drains etcetera, and scavenge in houses at night. The German variety, which are much smaller (around 1/2 inch compared to 1 1/2 inches for the American) are more likely to make nests in your house.

That's my experience of roaches here anyway. I'm sure somebody will come along to correct me!

P.S. If you want to kill the live ones you see and you don't like the idea of spraying half a can of poison on each one as it makes your whole house stink, you can use the little battery-powered mosquito tennis racquet style things to kill them. Hold the racquet against the roach and press the button - if you can manage to flip the roach on its back, this works much better. The legs stick to the wire mesh of the racquet (through which the electric current is running) and the roach starts to smoke! Personally, I then take it outside and do my impression of an Andy Murray serve as I release the power button, to fling the roach across the road.