JBChiangRai

There are lots of different types of scams around COD. Another doing the rounds on Lazada is you buy something COD on Lazada, the seller ships you some rusty nails outside of Lazada’s system and never marks the item “shipped” on Lazada. You pay COD, the freight company pays the scammer and Lazada eventually cancels the order because it wasn’t shipped. You have no recourse through Lazada. Never order anything COD, you can’t check the parcel before opening it and there is now way to get a refund from the freight company or Lazada. Suppose you accept a parcel COD you haven’t ordered and it’s drugs, the moment you sign for it the BIB arrive and you get a few years complimentary stay at the Bangkok Hilton. It happened to a girl in Phuket. COD is a mugs game.

Mine is adjustable up to 2M per day (Kasikorn).

We just fitted one at a house in Chiang Mai for my daughters at university there. The salesman in HomePro tried to upsell me to a one with a copper chamber over the cheaper plastic Chinese one. I went next door to BigC and bought the cheapest one there (3.5Kw Sharp), I saw the guy wiring it up and it had a copper chamber. It was 1,900 baht.

The electronics in a saltwater chlorinator is basically a constant wattage device. If there is a lot of salt in the pool, the voltage it kicks out will be low, if there is only a little salt in the pool then the voltage it kicks out will be higher, but the energy deployed through the salt cell will be the same. If it is operating within the range it can cope with, adding more salt won't achieve anything and usually they will tell you if they have salt concentrations outside of their operating parameters. Be careful adding Copper Sulphate, it can stain hair green, can stain the pool and if you get low on salt it can plate your chlorinator cell with copper. Occasionally you need to superchlorinate a pool, it's another of the reasons why I use a 50g/hr chlorinator in a small (45m3) pool instead of the recommended 15g/hr. Another tip I would give anyone planning a pool is don't tile it, instead use granite flooring. Granite will last the life of the pool, doesn't cost any more, never needs regrouting either, just ensure you have a waterproofer in the concrete mix. Never use marble, it will dissolve. If the electronics in your chlorinator fail and it can't be repaired, you can get another few years life out of the salt cell by using a 1,300 baht adjustable battery charger, the type that does 6, 12, 18 & 24v with a 1-10 adjustable knob. Just remember to reverse the polarity every week and check the Ph regularly. 2 of my friends are into their 3rd year doing this and I did it with 2 pools for a couple of years until the salt cells started to wear out. You need to be able to see the salt cell so you can adjust the charger to get an approximation of the chlorine output you had before.

I paid for an MG EP+ for my daughter yesterday, it's coming next week. I paid from my mobile phone in the dealership. We ordered it in March or April on the government contribution scheme (22.5% discount). I did check the payee was MG Lanna. We are a two EV car family now with only my youngest daughter at university costing me 1,500 baht a fortnight when she calls and says "Daddy, send me 1,500 baht, I paid for petrol". I live in hope she will call me for some other reason, perhaps a chat, or to tell me she loves me, but I'm not holding my breath.

As a developer, I have done this but 5% interest over a specified longer period. All the documents are in escrow with the buyers lawyers. There are lots of things that could go wrong if the seller is dishonourable. It’s highly risky for the buyer, I think it depends how honourable the seller is and also that the seller is financially sound. If the seller goes bust then you will lose your house. If the seller is super honourable and wealthy, you’re ok (I’m both), if the seller is a corporation then don’t do it, they inherently don’t have a conscience.

With a saltwater pool the Ph will drift up, you correct it by adding acid, preferably hydrochloric which doesn’t increase any dissolved solids in the pool. If the water is not staying clear I suspect the electric chlorinator is not doing its job, either insufficient salt in the pool, or it’s undersized, or it’s not run long enough. I have built lots of pools and currently maintain 2, I always ignore the sizing requirements for chlorinators and fit double the recommended size. You need the extra capacity when you have a lot of swimmers and when the house is unoccupied you can save a lot of electric my minimising the pump running time. Bear in mind, sunlight burns off chlorine, so your best time to chlorinate is dusk and if you still have a decent level of chlorine in the pool at dawn, the chlorine did its job overnight. Then you can think about how much to run during the day.

In Thai culture, it is considered impolite. You would probably get a few looks and a policeman might ask you to cover up.

This is a well known scam according to my son in the UK police who is involved in this. The cars are never stolen, they are reported as stolen by their Thai owners in the UK but in reality handed over to the Thai sponsor who gave them the deposit to finance the vehicles. Insurance pays out the Thai owners in the UK (usually HiSo students) and the vehicles are shipped to Thailand with all the documents “conveniently” left in the glove box. They are then registered here as new. The authorities in the UK became suspicious because so many of these virtually new cars were registered to HiSo Thai students in the UK. Never buy a luxury grey import in Thailand without sending the VIN number to someone in the police in the UK to check if it’s stolen.

It's down to all of us to help provide the education, safely of course. I do my bit by stepping onto Zebra crossings and making cars stop, when I'm fairly sure I can jump out the way if I need to. Motorbikes still don't stop, they just ride around me.

My car wash of choice is run by a Chinese guy who is anal about how a car should be washed/protected and he offers a 48 hour warranty, if the car gets dirty in 48 hours, he washes it again for free but that doesn't extend to redoing the interior. He jet washes the car first to remove dirt, then some kind of detergent is manually applied before an automatic contactless car wash rinses the car and blow dries it. I have learned a lot from him, for example the first thing I do at any other car wash is check the staff, if they are wearing rings, watches, belts, necklaces they get a lecture from me and I leave. He put a ceramic coating on my last car from new, a Benz E class, I paid 9,000 baht for it and he also did my daughters Kawasaki Ninja 400 for free. Every 3 months he topped it up for free. I wash my car every time it gets dirty, sometimes 2 or 3 times a week. Ceramic coating helps with swirls, but it doesn't stop them, it doesn't stop stone chips/scratches at all. If I remember right he used Kinsho Japanese Ceramic coating, I did some research and unsurprisingly, it came out as one of the best. After 2 years he told me it was wearing off because the car was washed so often and wanted to renew it, I passed because I had plans to change the car. On my current car, a Porsche I went to another guy here in Chiang Rai who fitted Rhino Self-Healing PPF. More expensive at 65,000 baht but if you want to preserve the paint, nothing else comes close. You can remove the film after a few years and the paint underneath is still new. Fitting it is a PITA, it's quite thick and it probably took him 4 or 5 attempts to get it right. It will peel and it's important that the installer offers a warranty to replace any section that peels, typically tight bends. There are 2 ways of fitting PPF, computer cut or manually cut. Computer cut will make the pieces applied slightly smaller than the cars panels and at the edge of each panel there will be a lip where the film is slightly smaller than the panel, typically 1mm. Over time you will get a black line there as dirt accumulates. Manually cut, the film will cover the panel, wrap over the edge and impossible to tell it has film unless you look under the panel (door, bonnet, trunk etc) where you can see where it finishes. I paid extra for self-healing PPF, you can scuff it up with a wire brush and the scratches disappear in the sun. On reflection, I wouldn't pay the extra for that. I did have to pay 6,000 baht for where a motorcycle tore the film with a foot stand, and a large piece needed replacing, fortunately the paint work was undamaged. The self healing film appears to stop swirls in the film as it repairs them, but whether it's worth the cost, I'm not sure. The finish with self-healing PPF is not as good as the original paint, on sharp bends in the bodywork, the film is stretched and if you look closely you can see it. My intention is to remove the film after a few years to either renew it with a colour change or sell the car. If you have an expensive car and want to get top dollar for it when you sell it, or you drive fast and want to avoid stone chips (I don't) then I'd say it's worth doing. The main benefit is when you remove the film, the car paintwork is still brand new. Some people even put ceramic coating on top of PPF, I don't think it's worth doing that, certainly self healing PPF will never swirl.

8 year old Colorado LTZ air conditioning control unit, not available to order through dealer channel in Chiang Rai. My friend’s car, he had to source a 2nd hand part. I think you will find it is not actually in stock.

Electronic control unit for the air conditioning. Not available new at any price.

The parts situation for Chevrolet is dire, some parts cannot even be ordered and have to be sourced second hand. I would avoid Chevrolet like the plague.

Fernandes should shut up and keep a low profile, he and his airline publicly backed that kleptomaniac Najib Rizak and he had to publicly beg for forgiveness when Rizak lost the election and was arrested for one of the biggest frauds in history. Air Asia has to be Asia’s worst airline, good luck getting a refund!

An update… I just sold something on Lazada, they gave me the address of the buyer and told me to take the item to Flash Express with a shipping note I printed through the Lazada seller app.. So what I think happened to the OP, he bought something COD on Lazada, the seller didn’t ship the item through Lazada, he just shipped direct the fake item COD, and waited for the OP to pay COD and collected his ill gotten gains. The lesson to be learned here is never order COD.

A few years ago, when they first came out, I bought a Samsung S9+ on Lazada with my debit card. When it arrived, it was obviously a fake. Returned it via Kerry Logistics and received a refund. My experience has always been good on refunds and I have had lots of them, but in every case, I paid through the Lazada payment channel and they were therefore holding the payment before giving it to the seller. If you pay COD, they are not holding any payment to refund you. Further, you don't know who sent it, it could be Lazada/seller through Lazada, it could be Scammer & Sons Ltd. If you have a busy household with maids and gardeners like mine, and you're out with your family, do you really want them paying COD on your behalf? You may not even have ordered anything. Never pay COD, you've lost most of the protection you have when Lazada are holding the money. Laada won't release payment to the seller until the returns window has expired.

And you wonder why Anutin diss's us. We are all guests in this country, and it's incumbent on us all to set a good example.

Spot on, paying COD is a mugs game.

Bad advice, Never order COD, you cannot check the package before paying and then your cash is with the courier who will give it to the sender, which may or may not be Lazada, and if it's not Lazada then you're stuffed.

It’s clear the seller sent the parcel to you directly COD without involving Lazada. You paid Best and Best paid the seller directly without Lazada being involved at any time. You never paid Lazada so they can’t refund you. The seller probably asked you to confirm your address and you gave it to him. We have a rule in my household, absolutely no COD shipments, EVER! Anything arriving COD is never accepted here. This is just one of many types of COD scams, there are others, always, but always pay through the Lazada payment channel at time of purchase.

As a property developer, I concur with that, you will always see an outline where old meets new plaster.

I enjoy a glass of wine. I don't see a problem with sensible alcohol consumption. Actually, I don't have a problem with people smoking cannabis, if it doesn't cause them a problem. The problem I have with cannabis is the people who develop a problem with it (by that I mean triggering metal illness), they generally think they can smoke more to alleviate the symptoms, and that doesn't work, it's a downward spiral. The issue is how do we know which category a new user of THC is going to be in? I am also against the young with still developing brains taking it.

Can you read? I said I used a little in 2004, not that I "smoked a joint". I smoked a few times a week after work for a few months. I stopped because the mental tasks I had to do at work, I couldn't complete without reverting to the computer. I noticed I had "lost my edge". Of course I do go around with my clipboard asking everyone I meet if (a) they are depressed, and (b) do they use marijuana (not!). I came to the conclusion my cannabis use may have been responsible for my depression after reading "Cannabis Pharmacy, the practical guide to medical marijuana" by Michael Backes, Andrew Weil M.D. & Jack McCue M.D. where it states there is a biphasic (a big word for you) link between depression and getting high and I test that hypothesis (I know it's probably another big word for you) when other people tell me they suffer with depression. I never said my friend ate "a couple of space brownies", reread what I said. I gave no indication of how many she has eaten. It was her choice to go to a health farm at great expense for her. I was simply travelling down to another of my homes in Thailand and gave her a lift. Judgmental aren't you, magistrates are arrogant and hypocrites, actually we volunteer our time unpaid to give something back to society. Life has been particularly good to me, I've been most fortunate and I really enjoy giving something back. Most magistrates fall into two categories, they have either been extremely successful in business and can both afford the time out their business and want to give something back, or their employer recognises the good they are doing and continues to fund their salary for the time they volunteer. I can see why defendants up in front of a magistrate might consider them arrogant, perhaps that is where you formulated your opinion?

Yes I did see a lot more from alcohol, mostly fights and drivers. It's not really valid to say cannabis is ok because alcohol is a lot worse, it's a bit like saying you can stick your fingers in that 220v outlet because it's not as bad as jumping off that high building.