Ecky

I am currently on extension of stay based on marriage and have recently started working abroad on 3 month 2 weeks home basis. I wanted to continue with long term stay visas in Thailand as it may be beneficial when applying for future long term stay visas. Since the marriage extension takes one month to process i thought i would contact an agent to switch the extension to retirement as processing time was only a day or two. However the agent informed me that all visas including retirement now take one month to process but Chonburi immigration could provide a "special" service and turn it round in a few days for THB 18,000 (this information obtained by the agent via direct call with immigration) !! The agent advised that rules had recently changed! Is this correct, does anyone have any experience of these "new rules"!?