gtm2k

I think the OP meant something like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQeanpujmuM

..and it does seem like a job for the skilled one !

you are a lucky man indeeed.

When i cancelled my truevision subscription for the same reason as yours, i was offered the freebies as well. But i had service issues with them too, and during my outstanding payment being made over the counter, i did ask the cashier to offset the deposit - leaving me to pay only baht 700.

But then that was back in early january - true call center guys have called me on three occasions trying to tell me that someone will turn up to collect the dish and the STB - but it hasnt happened so far.

I reckon this matter of receiving good customer care is probably not consistent over all coverage areas.

Enjoy your 2000 baht !

Kaspersky internet security, nothing just beats this.

I run a software company - 3 machines at home , and another couple in the office. I put kaspersky on every single one of em.

Its costs about a 1000 baht and its worth every penny. You could get it online , use it free for 30 days and then buy it online as well.

IF anyone checked out the video - 1:26 "I have a good life in thailand"

BUT - i want to go to UK to fight a case (even if it takes selling my house and car)

BUT - I want to showup and cause traffic at sathorn road to come at a standstill

BUT - I want to kill myself with a knife

Fully agree, true has become a marketing gimmick now. Their services have taken a steady decline over the last 3 years to be specific - be it UBC / Internet / Phone.

Equally declining has been their CS department, it feels they have robot talking out of programmed scripts sitting in a call center !

I have 1 month 7 days exactly remaining on my True acct, and will be moving to TOT asap !

We don't get snakes around our house all that often. These two were more interested in their loving embrace than us.

btw - this is rare to see ! You;re the lucky one to get a snap !

im planning one for the missus.. and its going to be the fiesta.

Generally better specs and one fun to drive car !

Install teamviewer (its free), however both machines (yours and the one you want to view), should be able to connect to the internet

The murderer was released.

Cant be bothered reading anymore.

Enough said; I thnk.

no driving around pracha-uthit anymore...

<br />its not 10l/100km.. its km's per liter in thailand.<br /><br />10 is pretty bad for a 105hp car with absolutely no accel.  I test drove 3 mazda's and had a hard time getting to 60kph<br />

I seriously would want to debate this over a quarter mile drag.... what do you drive ?

Smallbear !

I just bought a full-option mazda 3 back in dec. I booked it during the motorshow. The thing about the mazda is this - if you make an opinion by looking at the interiors - you just missed the best part - go and drive it. Mazda puts a lot of signifance on the test drive exp of its prospective clients.

Just like you - when i was hunting for a car - i was stuk on the civic (i already test drove the altis, lancer, civic) for its lovely blue interiors . But all my love was taken away by the mazda the day i drove it !

Hi !

I run an IT Consulting business here, but mostly on the software side. Do very little of hardware / networking. However, being part of the ecosystem here's what I can tell you -

Any consulting work here is mostly costed by project, not by the hours delivered. At the moment, certain implementations get paid by man-days delivered, but again - the clients expect the man-hours put in for each man-day to be flexible / as the job demands.

There is plenty opportunity in the area of infra / nw-solutions / security /servers - but the real challenge is to develop , retain & maintain a good support team as this job is so support intensive. As long as you can sustain a small sales team of 2-3 guys giving you fresh leads, and a "skilled" team of network engineers - you'll do just fine.

Do not depend on freshers for this - as most of the IT degrees dont touch too deeply on data communications subjects. Or, I have never come across a single candidate who had his basics right in this area.

Presently, i do address certain clients with their networking / infra needs - and depend on third parties to do this for me. At the end of the day - I think you should consider doing this as a registered business, or a partner to another business rather than trying to market yourself as a consultant. Remember - Thai's dont pay for consulting !

Cheers,

Gautam

Look up Siam house , the gardens at Puthha monthon sai -3. I got married in Feb this year, and we got it done here as well.

Happy to share the photos - PM me an email address please.

Cheers!

G

National? &lt;deleted&gt;? Haven't they heard of clusters and san's? I'd be happy to install some proper systems for them.

cluster ! c'mon !

I remember last year, a thai accountant telling us how effective her ERP system was - when asked which one - she replied "Excel with internet" !

I am married to an educated thai, educated because her degrees are way ahead than what an average thai would have the ambition to acheieve. However, i am extremely concerned on how to provide a good moral environment for my children as they grow up. The neighbourhood where i live, has about 8-9 houses (of about 40) dedicated to be known as "mia-noi" houses. The kids in the locality are a bunch of robotic humanoids... and any kid in the age range of 15-19 is a complete nuisance to man-kind.

Plus - the thai soap opera's ! Frankly - i cant seem to find one thai show which is worth the time for kids. I often tutor my sis-in-laws kids (eng+maths)... and often treat them to animal planet / discovery / CN.. and they seem to have developed a somewhat dis-taste for thai TV !

Long story cut short - thai's are a mother load of creative skills... and its time the folks running the parliament did something about their education system. At the end of the day - Education improves society.

Well if you are tutoring them in English I hope you lean how to distinguish between the plural form (Thais) and the possessive form (Thai's), and that the word is a proper noun that requires capitalisation (Thais not thai's).

R

So you finally found something to make a point about.....

I am married to an educated thai, educated because her degrees are way ahead than what an average thai would have the ambition to acheieve. However, i am extremely concerned on how to provide a good moral environment for my children as they grow up. The neighbourhood where i live, has about 8-9 houses (of about 40) dedicated to be known as "mia-noi" houses. The kids in the locality are a bunch of robotic humanoids... and any kid in the age range of 15-19 is a complete nuisance to man-kind.

Plus - the thai soap opera's ! Frankly - i cant seem to find one thai show which is worth the time for kids. I often tutor my sis-in-laws kids (eng+maths)... and often treat them to animal planet / discovery / CN.. and they seem to have developed a somewhat dis-taste for thai TV !

Long story cut short - thai's are a mother load of creative skills... and its time the folks running the parliament did something about their education system. At the end of the day - Education improves society.

What went wrong is the question?

Drivers in bangkok have this habit of tailgating... i frequent the bangkok-chonburi highway and every time come across 5-6 drivers (at least), who tailgate for getting a pass. Pass / no pass, its a dangerous habit, leading to serious consequences, sadly 9 lives lost !

What went wrong is the question?

It's not the event that ought to be scrutinized, but "the way" of Thailand. Few if any laws are enforced, and practically no police departments in any district can be classified as protecting and serving the citizens - similar to politicians and other power brokers here. It's (not the loss of life or living under these conditions) - the way of Thailand- is a JOKE folks, that's why so many are constantly smiling in Lack of Sanctions/ Land of Scams (LOS).

"Well the rule here depends on the "nationality" of the business owner (americans, europeans for example have investment related privileges as compared to indians)."

= absolute rubbish ahmmm... i mean incorrect information.

Expecting 100% foreign ownership is also subject to treaties and agreements between countries, if at all "nationality" is not an issue here.

@India, look up the "how to do business" section in http://www.boi.go.th. Best way to educate yourself with up-to-date info.

Usually I do all the fixing myself. But the last time my notebook needed a fix, it went to the shop without the hard-drive. I asked them slot in a spare-drive in case they needed to boot-up.

Cheers

Gautam

Sammy,

Reading your post i am still unclear about what is your proposed business area ? Language, cultural knowledge and investment are the three most important things to run any business in a non-english speaking foreign country, but every expat business owner (here in thailand) has these things in varying proportions (still being successful).

If your intention / plan / idea is to throw money and get involved part-time, then you will lose everything, irrespective of the business you get into. And, i feel at this point of time you are unclear about what is your investment going to be, ie, money, time / involvement & commitment.

Getting down to what you asked in your first post -

1. Alternative base in Thailand without moving their completely at present - You will need a trustworthy indian in thailand to keep your involvement to the minimum.

2. The business should be low risk and should be such that can be monitored form my home country India - My ten cents .. this is an imagination. There is no business which is low risk & on top of that which can be monitored from 3000kms remotely.

3. Here is what you will need - i will explain what is easier to do -

A. You will need a thai business partner who will hold 51% of your company shares - convince yourself for this first. This practically means that you being the owner of the business can get kicked out anytime. And this is exactly where "trust" plays huuuuuuuuuuge a factor.

B. For a thai+foreign shareholding setup - you will need to register for at least 2 Million Thai Baht of registered capital ( Thats approximately 24 Lakh Rupees ). This will enable you to get yourself a work permit and make regular travel into thailand easier. Again, convince yourself about your pockets.

C. Any business will need a bare mimimum of -

# Accounting services - About Baht 5,000 - 10,000 Per month, annual audits and closing extra.

# At least one Sales Person - At least Baht 10,000 - 15,000 per month, depending on what you are trying to sell, experience level requested.

# An office, bare minimum - about Baht 20,000 pm -- i am not talking about an office in a CBD area, but somewhere you can sit.

# Be prepared for another Baht 200,000 on misc setup expenses such as travel, agent fees, paperwork, translators, office fixtures etc etc.

For a small expat business, a monthly expenses of Baht 35,000 - 40,000 is the bare minimum. (again this is about 45,000 Thousand Rupees per month).

You may want to ask, what if I dont want to have a thai business partner ? Well the rule here depends on the "nationality" of the business owner (americans, europeans for example have investment related privileges as compared to indians). But to go this way, you will need to be probably more than the average SME category, meaning you wud'nt have posted here !!!

Hopefully, this has answered some of your "questions".

Cheers,

Gautam

Dear All,I would like everyone & anyone's suggestion on the following .. .my overseas customers pay in USD's to my local (bangkok) Kasikorn FCD Account. I have contractors to who I have to make payments too (they hold local FCD accounts too in Kasikorn Udon Thani) to make use of floating USD rates.Now kasikorn tells me that they cant simply find a way to transfer FCD-to-FCD between two provinces, however the same is possible within bangkok. My last attempt - they took out the system manual and started reading it to find out how to make the transfer. Eventually, in a bid to not delay the transfer, I was forced to withdraw in THB and make my payments.Has anyone gone through something similar ? Any advise would be helpful. I have to do this every month...Thanks to all in advance,Gautam

Which bank was this ?

I find non-thai media the most unbiased in reporting what goes on out here. This is a good example of who's doing what !

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/05...land.mayhem.cnn

Trouble is next time "things"happen BOTH sides will be armed ....then it might be considered a fair fight and all because they wouldnt arrest "Thug-su-ban".....So SAD.......

for one despot ......a country will die......

I have been troubled by viruses , malware , trojans , spyware for months. At a point of time, i was running adAware, SpyBot and a registry cleaner but it never helped. Point is, these programs cannot provide preventive maintenance. Such as, visiting an infected site and the software telling you in big red bold capitals "STOP".

However, i invested a 1000 bucks in Kaspersky, have been using it for 3 months now, regularly keep it updated (actually it updates on its own), but my notebook is now absolutely usable.

You should do the same.

Does it have a happy ending facility?

Haaaaaa hahahH !!!