wpcoe

A lot depends on how well you know and like your neighbors.  How well do they maintain their own house/yard?

But, as @trogers said above, renovations often run beyond estimated date of completion.  I did a not-so-extensive renovation, other than gutting the bathroom, on my one-bedroom condo with a promise from the (farang) construction firm that it would absolutely not go beyond seven weeks, and it took *thirteen* weeks before I could move back in.  They are still not done with fixing/repairing things that weren't done properly, but at least I was able to move in.  Think through how you think your situation would go if something like that happened with your neighbors living in your house.

13 minutes ago, Sumarianson said:

Some providers may use fibre optic cables in the country if they are a good company and some may use old copper phone lines.

I wonder if the reason AIS usually gets good marks for its fibre service is that the entire infrastructure is new.  They only joined the market in the past couple years so there are no, or at least far fewer, weak links in the distribution chain with no (few?) copper lines involved.  I just they would break ranks with 3BB and True and be willing to install service in condos.

12 hours ago, jphasia said:

VAT refund worked for me. I am on Non O 1 year multi entry (based on Thai child). I came back to Myanmar today where I am working and got the VAT refund at the airport. I got back 5,700b (Surface Pro I7 500gb).

Interesting.  I'll approach this with more optimism, but whatever happens at the airport happens.  One reason I didn't pay in full on Friday (18-Aug) is that I'm planning to depart Thailand on 19-Oct and the VAT refund form is only valid for 60 days.

12 hours ago, jphasia said:

As for the cover, actually for me, my wife has my Surface Pro 3 with black cover but she want a blue cover. For me, for my new Surface, I want a red cover. There was blue cover in stock but no red. So i bought the blue cover for my wife and took her black cover until i find a red one...

If the red cover isn't available where you bought the blue cover when you get back form Myanmar, check with IT City.  I'm pretty sure they had all colors available, it's just that for anything in the Pattaya store they had to get it from Bangkok.  If you went to a bigger IT City store in Bangkok they might have them?  Also, IT City has online ordering with free delivery so you might be able to get it without visiting Bangkok.

PS:  The mods can delete the above post.  The quotes got hopelessly mangled and I couldn't get them straightened out.

12 hours ago, jphasia said:

3 hours ago, jphasia said:

To give you an update, as I was in Bangkok this week end, i bought the new surface Pro.
It was more complicated than expected. Despite telling me last month that all models will be available on 15 August, i had to try many shops in Bangkok before finding what i was looking for. I was interested about the I7 model. All shops have only few I5 in stock and no accessories at all. I finally found one I7 in Emporium and I bought a SP4 cover and separate mouse.

I ordered the i7 model at IT City in Pattaya (Tukcom) on Friday, and they called today to say it was here for pickup.  I plan to get it tomorrow.  I also got an SP4 cover -- the one with the fingerprint reader.  Never used one on a computer, but I really like using it on my phone, so thought I'd give it a try.  The new keyboard/covers don't have a fingerprint reader, which I thought was an odd step back.

I doubt this will work, but they said that when I make final payment (I put 20% down) to ask for the VAT refund form to get the 7% VAT refunded at the airport.  I have a one-year retirement extension and am pretty sure the refund is only for folks on Tourist Visa or visa-exempt entry, but I'll see how it goes.  That would be a nice little bonus, if it works.

I've tried to make sense of Sophon's various channel numberings, but it still seems a mystery.  Earlier this year while my condo unit was being renovated I rented a room three doors down (i.e. same building, same floor) and the Sophon channels were entirely different.  Someone has even commented that different TVs in his own home had different channels.  Someone posted a link to a Sophon chart of digital channel numbers and it was way different that the digital channels I get.  Go figure.

1 hour ago, musiclover said:

I have Sophon also in East Pattaya and Sky news has gone !!!! Eurosport instead 

How are you receiving it !

Sky News showed up a week or so ago to replace Fox News.  On my digital-ready TV (i.e. no converter box):

Channel 700 = Bloomberg

Channel 701 = BBC

Channel 702 = Sky News (previously Fox)

1 hour ago, Asiantravel said:

As of this morning Sky News Channel also seems to have disappeared and been substituted with Euro sports.

So now it appears they have dropped BBC, Fox and sky

I don't know if they're just trying to economise or what but I'm glad it's at least provided free in my apartment

because I wouldn't be happy to pay this outfit a single cent for their service

That's odd.  I still have BBC and Sky (which replaced Fox recently) on Sophon.

I wonder if this somehow ties in with the again-functional pedestrian crossing signal by Wat Chai.  When I was there around 100pm here were a half dozen police officers along the side walk where the baht bus queue is and they were talking to (lecturing?) folks.  Seems like maybe some mini-clean up of the area of some sort?  Wouldn't this be wonderful if it were the beginning of a project to spread throughout the city to enforce laws of all sorts?  (Wake up, Dorothy!   You're not in Kansas any more!  <sigh...>)

This may be old news as I haven't been into town for a while, but walking on Pattaya Tai from Second Road to Tukcom today I noticed that the pedestrian crosswalk traffic light by Wat Chai is operational again.  On my return to Second Road I saw someone actually use it and they weren't mowed down by traffic .  Folks stopped/slowed down enough for the man and his school age daughter to cross and then continued through even though the signal was still red.

Are there other lights that have been resurrected?  This crosswalk light used to work (a few years ago?) when it was first installed, but it didn't last long.

7 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

Personally, I wouldn't purchase Surface Pro in the U.S. if I lived in Thailand, unless I was prepared to deal with a DoA. I seriously doubt Microsft/THL (or their representative) would replace the item; they might try to repair it, which might take a few weeks. (Read the warranty pamphlet which will detail how you would get warranty service in Thailand; you might have to ship the item to SIngapore, Hong Kong, or even back to the U.S.A.)

How would it work if I bought from IT City online (free delivery)?  If I opened the box and it were DOA, would IT City exchange it for a new one or would they subject me to the Microsoft repair process?

With the new and improved Amazon "Import Fee Deposit," it's actually cheaper to buy it here now:

• Price at IT City = B49,900
• With the new, higher import fee, Amazon = $1521, or ~B50,560

If I get the time today, I'm going to go to the local IT City store (Pattaya Tukcom Center) to see if they can order it (assuming they don't have it in stock) and pick it up there.   Presumably I can unbox it in the store and at least make sure it boots up and if it doesn't, can persuade them to exchange it?

2 minutes ago, WorriedNoodle said:

Q. If using Amazon Global and the product turns up from the US bricked, what are the options then?

Microsoft one-year warranty is worldwide and item can be serviced in any country that the model is sold.  

On 8/2/2017 at 3:58 AM, wpcoe said:

The computer I'm considering is US$1300.55 including shipping.  They add on an "Import Fee Deposit" of $99.15

Hoo boy.  The Thailand seller raised their price slightly and Amazon lowered their price slightly, so I went to order on Amazon.

The "Import Fee Deposit" went from $99.15 (on the old US$1300.55 price) to $242.92 (on the new US$1278.54 price).

What the heck???   From 7.6% to 19%?  

Another thought about running down (under) the middle of the road:  Are they also running the TV and telephone cables with it?  If so, it might not be so easy to get a new ADSL or fibre optic cable run to an address on that street -- will they need to dig up the road to do so? 

4 hours ago, giddyup said:

I have Fox back on TMN now.

What channel number?   I still have Sky News on channel 702 (digital) where it used to be.

Seems innocuous enough, right?

It was the lead-in photo for an online news article about people who hurt themselves while grooming their pubic hair.  

On 8/2/2017 at 11:36 AM, Dickygozinya said:

Got a box from Sophon Pattaya - NOTE they are not ALWAYS in STOCK.    Great 150 digital channels.   If your condo uses standard cable splitters - channels may not work.   Splitters we have are able to support 5mgz - 250mgz.    here is site for movie listings in ENGLISH for Movie channels TWO  FOUR  SIX  -   http://www.pattayamail.com/stv/wednesday.html     Attached is list of channels as of the date of this post available for viewing in pdf printable.       

SophonDigitalTVpattayaChannels.pdf

On 8/2/2017 at 7:20 PM, wpcoe said:

 

I'm confused.  I have Sophon cable TV in my Jomtien condo and probably get about 150 channels (never counted...) and some of them are ID'd as being HD, but the channel numbers are nothing like the .pdf file that you shared.  They are grouped in series:  Non-Thai news channels are in the 700's (starting with Bloomberg at 700), foreign non-news channels (movies, dramas, etc) are in the 600's (starting with a movie channel at 600), etc.

 

While my condo was being renovated, I stayed in a unit down the hall which had fewer channels, none of the HD ones, and different channel number.  When I asked at the front desk they said it may be because my TV (a Samsung "smart TV") is able to decode the digital signal whereas the one in the rental was older and only got analog.  I have no converter box of any type.

1 hour ago, Dickygozinya said:

Hi WPCOE -  I agree with JohnG   if your TV is analog you will get the Sophon 75 channel analog lineup as attached 

My confusion is not about the analog channels.  It's about the digital channels I receive vs the digital channel numbers shown on SophonDigitalTVpattayaChannels.pdf

2 hours ago, LammyTS1 said:

This is not unlimited. Read the small print about fair use policy.

 

True is the same. Advertise unlimited 3/4G but once you've reached a limit, it drops to a snails pace and impossible to steam anything. 

As @Jdiddy said, it is only limited/shaped for 3G usage.  4G data usage has no cap/maximum.  Read the small print about fair use policy.

Interesting.  I never gave it much thought, but I assumed the cables would be under the sidewalks where easy access would be.  Live and learn.

You need to apply for the extension *within* the 90 days permission-to-stay of that the Non-Immigrant O, not "after the 90 days."

If you want to make a trip out of Thailand during the 90 days and return before the 90 days are up, you need to pay for a re-entry permit before you depart.  There is no multi-entry version of the Non-Immigrant O visa issued within Thailand which is used to change from a 30-day visa exemption to a retirement extension.

@Pib:  3BB offers VDSL service in my condo building.

Hence, I'm baffled why they don't suggest (when asked for fibre service) FTTB and then <75Mbps via VDSL wire to the condo rooms.  The building will string new wires to the rooms if paid for.

3 hours ago, randymarsh said:

Do they have to see cash?  Bank statement or online banking screenshot not ok I'm guessing?

3 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Yes 

Only cash or travelers checks will be accepted for finanical proof.

FYI, any foreign currency you carry can be counted toward the B20,000 cash.

That sounds almost too good to be true!  I was ready to challenge that such a plan was not possible in Thailand, but I found:

source:  http://www.ais.co.th/postpaid/4gmaxspeedunlimited/en/

The only potential "gotcha" is that only 4G data is unlimited.  3G data is limited to the plan to which you subscribe and then drops to 384k for the rest of the month.  Do you get a reliable 4G signal at your house?  If so, you're golden!

2 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

The way I read it is that there is no "free trial period", once you open it you own it, unless one of the other reasons listed applies.

 

If you have read the description, and the item doesn't match the promises "not as advertised" would be the way to go.

It's a tablet computer and I'm not sure which model to buy.  I'd like to buy the middle one (price-wise) but if it's not as fast as I hoped, I'd like to exchange (refund-and-buy-again) for the higher priced one.  (I would do a factory reset to be able to do that with a clean conscience.)  In the USA, and I think in some other western countries, there are vendors who let you do that on a routine basis.  Oh, well.  Thanks for confirming what I thought was the case.