teacherc137

Correct. And they've already been over here and done the flick on, flick off, check the meter game. Without a mention of a deficit in payment/electrical units being expended so it feels very out of the blue (dodgy).

Yeah, they came and did that a couple of months ago when we found another charge on our bill. Thought it was sorted out, no one mentioned that that the unit was still using more electricity than was being paid...

Thanks for the suggestions, we don't want to move out but this feels dodgy. And, again, we're far from the first tenants to find a discrepancy with the electricity output (yeah, yeah, fool me once/glutton for punishment - our electric bill once remained virtually the same after we went on vacation for nearly a week), but this feels even dodgier and I just want to make sure I don't have any other avenues to pursue before we move out as I'm assuming the bill is gonna skyrocket, as it tends to here.

1 minute ago, Morch said:

How many rooms do you have? Not exactly getting why there's a need two meters to begin with, let alone a third. Not sure if you suspect the building staff is trying to pocket extra money or that some other apartment is leeching. Should be pretty easy to check if the meter in indeed connected to your room/apartment, and whether it runs when no electricity supposedly connected to is on.

Bedroom, living area, and an office. There's 3 a.c. units but we never run two at once. Not sure what to suspect, but it's dubious because don't run that many electronics at once. Everyone complains about the building's mysterious electric accounting system, and we kind of accepted that they're gouging us a bit (we get a discount for having referred other tenants, but somehow our other bills cancel out those discounts). But finding another meter after we've been living in this apartment for months is...well, that's why I'm posting. This is not a new building. By far. I'm not sure how you misplace something like a meter, but here we are. My only thought is it goes to the outdoor lights. But perhaps that's wishful thinking.

It's a bedroom, a living area, and an office. And we paid a similar amount when we had a smaller place at the same complex. So either way, it doesn't add up. And our concern is more the discovery of a meter that they somehow didn't know applied to the room, because it's not going to be 3k very soon.

As the title says, our building's handyman just "discovered" a new meter that they believe is attached to our room. For context: we already have 2 meters and pay over 3k. The place is big, but not that big and we only run 1 a.c. at a time. Our super is being evasive about how many units aren't adding up, but they've already been over to check the place when we questioned what the second charge was for, which made sense, sort of (yes, it's connected to a room of of ours, no, that room doesn't use that much electricity). Does anyone have any advice? We love our place but paying 1/4 of the rent in electricity isn't gonna happen.

Do we have options besides a) sucking it up and paying. b) moving out?

It should be noted that we pay month-to-month and don't have a contract.

Any help would be much appreciated.

5 hours ago, Mr Derek said:

I had a similar issue with a bank account at HSBC in Hong Kong. I was locked out for about two years. No amount of phone calls or letters was any help. There is no branch in Bangkok so I was told I had to go to a branch in Hong Kong to fix it but I refused to make a special trip on principle.

They offered one solution to reactivate which was for me to make a payment into the account by cheque, but I didn't have a cheque book and the only way I could apply for a cheque book was by letter, and when I did that, their system didn't recognise my signature.

 

In the end, I had to go to Hong Kong and yes I was <deleted> furious about it. Especially when they compared my actual signature to the signature on their system and admitted it was exactly the same.

That sounds like a nightmare. My eyes bulged when I saw "two years." Frankly, it's not the only problem I'm having with a Thai bank. I had another accoutn that got hacked, most likely by skimming, took half my balance. That bank has been "investigating" for almost a year now. I don't expect to get that money back but I can't afford to lose what's in the frozen account.

On 4/4/2022 at 6:10 PM, simon43 said:

OP, do you have their mobile banking app? You could send your money to another account.

Yes, not working cuz the account is frozen. Although they said the card and account is working, but the ATM machine automatically declined me when I tried. Thanks for the suggestions, as always. I'm grateful that people here are at least trying to help.

@Caldera They froze the account and with it the debit card. They claimed the account and the card is active.

@bbko They hung up on me befroe I even got a chance to talk to them. Then I called from a different number and was able to talk to them.

Yeah, I'm waiting to hear back from them. Thanks though @mtls2005

And @simon43 the mobile banking app is no help. @scubascuba3 Yes, going back to Thailand would be the ideal solution, however it's really not financially viable because money is to tight. I'm apprehensive to "escalate" because I don't want them to get defensive and have the process come a strand still. It's why I sough out advice, I'm never sure how hard to push, how assertive to become before making them "lose face" etc.

Thank you everyone for you advice though, I appriciate it.

I've already had friends wire me money, but I need acess to this account and have maxed out a credit card waiting to resolve the issue. Part of the problem is they didn't unfreeze the account in time for me to have my job transfer my next paycheck to a different account. Further, that I have a lot of bills right now and I really need the money that my job just paid me.

I have recently travelled to another South East Asian country after staying in Thailand for several years. I alerted Bankgok Bank to my travel plans, but after a week in the new country they froze my account citing "suspicious activity." At first, they said I had to go back to Thailand to fix it, but this wasn't feasible, for starters, they froze my account which would provide the money for the flight, etc. Then, they had me electronically sign documents to verify my identity. They said they'd get back to me in 7 business days. They didn't I called them and finally got them on the phone. They said the IT department would investigate and it would take another "5 days" and they'd call back. They didn't. When I got them on the phone again (after they kept hanging up on me) they claimed they'd already tried calling, which my phone has no record of. Shortly after that I receieved an email saying the problem was fixed, thus they had "closed the case." I tried my debit card and it still doesn't work. Does anyone have any ideas how else I can approach them? The local branch in this country says they can't help because it isn't where i opened the account. I really need that money like 3 weeks ago. It seem like they're just trying to stall me untill I leave them alone and they get to keep the money. I'm also worried that by "closing the case" it will be another month of them giving us the run around. 

I am indeed confused. My coworker got his work permit, ok that's always done in-country, but he also just got some sort of extension, seemingly for a year, as it says in the work permit, and his passport has that little white square TM 7 paper that says he has to check in again in December. So that isn't a 30 day extension, clearly. But what is it and if he didn't have to leave the country, doesn't that mean they are now doing, at least sort-of, in country visas?

My school down south just had us cancel our old work permits visas, get a stamp and then come back to town. One of my coworkers has already gotten his new work permit and expects to get his non-b soon. So some places are doing in country work permits and our visas are now fine? I didn't see this anywhere on the news. Not sure what to make of it as this seems like big news. And obviously if its not quite true, I will need to get the extension immediately and things have run less than smoothly up til now so, again, I am skeptical. Thoughts?