Felton Jarvis

Good....it's not like they ever DO anything.

There is not a place on the planet more gay-friendly than Thailand. I am puzzled by what more the LGBT bunch could possibly want.

Your logic is deeply flawed. Thailand is internationally famous for incompetence and poor service. My Fedex experience bears this out. Definitely NOT "blaming Thailand"....they can't ALL be stupid. Kneejerk defense of shoddy service is just evidence of being a "Thai-O-Phile".

Of course. I forgot that if I had not been in Thailand this never would have happened.

Long story short, my Thai GF got on the phone with Fedex and apparently has arranged a delivery. No clue as to why there was no attempt before. TIT?

The Thai men do not seem to be interested in the same women that we are. However, that wouldn't stop them from complaining. Anything to flog the farang.

Even worse with my American credit union. They won't use anything but Fedex and the average time it takes is one month. If not for my girlfriend, I would starve to death.

Thanks for helping out. In the nine years I have lived in Pattaya, I think I have visited Naklua exactly twice. I have terrible luck giving instructions to taxi drivers unless I can use Google Translate. Even then, they manage to take me to the wrong place. 😞

Weird indeed. As far as I know, there was no attempt to deliver it. They could have left a note. The messages they sent ended up in my spam folder. Terrible service, consistent with the standard of the country.

Thanks guys. I can't find anything about it on Google Maps. Local taxi drivers don't know what I am talking about. The only chance I've got is to get my girlfriend to call them. Sheer insanity.

The Fedex office in Naklua is holding my replacement debit card for some reason. As far as I can tell, they never attempted to deliver it to Jomtien. The office is located in Windmill Plaza. How do I find this place???

As many problems as I have, AT LEAST I don't have THAT problem. I truly feel compassion for your situation. It is amazing how Thai wives will ruin their marriages over money, especially a relative's debt. It's just plain immoral.

As a foreigner, he would have been "condemned" regardless of what he did or didn't do. It is always OUR fault, regardless of circumstances.

Of COURSE he did. Teflon Thai.

For clarity's sake: Hanlon's Razor: As stated by Robert. J. Hanlon, a heuristic telling us to “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

Fakes, but they apparently can't do anything to stop them. Truly incompetent and corrupt.

The usual insane reply. There is no rhyme or reason within Thai Immigration. They enjoy treating the farang as their whipping boy. I have filed applications online which left boxes unchecked and several other errors and gotten approval. Your experience validates my theory that they just enjoy playing with us.

In my experience, CBD is worthless both for sleep and pain relief. An unforgivable waste of money.

Does anyone know whether this also applies to one-year extensions? I've always extended my Non_O Retirement visa at Jomtien, several weeks before expiry.

It's worth remembering that it is IMMIGRATION which makes the agent/bribery situation possible. If none of the officials took bribes, there would be no way to pay them.Expats are merely the customers, Immigration calls the shots.

The implication is that the two cases mentioned could have been avoided with extra scrutiny. The truth is that neither of the expats arrested had any outstanding warrants from their home countries. This new initiative by Immigration is just more harassment aimed at the expat community.

My credit union provided a way out of this debacle. After speaking to a Manager, they are sending me TWO debit cards. Only one will be active at a time, but if I lose one, I can activate the other with a phone call or an email. Apparently, my situation was unique enough that they made an exception to the way they usually issue these cards. As long as I can have a spare in reserve, I should be okay.

That is incorrect, READ what I wrote. The money goes directly into my credit union account from Social Security, Alabama Teacher's Retirement and a TIAA annuity. The payments to my credit card accounts were set up online. There was NO "deposit" from Thailand. I access money for living expenses with my credit union debit card.

I DO have online access to my credit union account. Wire transfers cost 40 USD. In addition to local fees, the bank also charges a fee for debit card transfers which esceed three transactions a month. They are totally inept and really don't give a damn about their overseas customers. I doubt that I am the only one. They also want complex Docusign arrangements which do not accept foreign addresses. I nearly always have to talk to a manager instead of a telemarketing turd who does not even know about the basic rules of international transfers. Average waiting time for overseas calls is between 30 minutes and an hour.

They don't care about business. Knowledge of even basic economics is sorely lacking here in Thailand. When they tank the economy, they will just blame the farang.