TallGuyJohninBKK

With the episodes above relating to the UK, I'm guessing that Amazon customer service is specific to the country / Amazon country website where the order was placed. I've never dealt with Amazon UK. But over a couple decades, I've probably bought thousands of items from Amazon U.S., and rarely have had any problems. On the very few where there was a problem, Amazon generally has been pretty good about coming to a fair resolution, especially if you avoid their Philippines based CSRs and instead insist to speak with a rep, or even better a customer service supervisor, based in the U.S. -- which you have to specifically request if you find yourself speaking to a PH rep. In general, though [not commenting on Amazon here], I've found that the quality of online/phone customer service overall seems to have suffered considerably over the duration of the COVID pandemic... Dunno why... if it's because of staff turnover and new, inexperienced people in the jobs, reductions in staff, who knows what.... But I find myself have to fight and insist on speaking to supervisors much more often these days than I had to in the past when front-line reps prove to be useless.

I bought a new electric water boiler from a Lazada vendor some months back. What arrived, as soon as I opened the box, looked like a factory seconds unit that had been poorly assembled with big, uneven gaps in the assembly seams. I never turned it or tried to actually use it, since I figured that would make the return even more unlikely. But I couldn't find a clear basis under Lazada's rules to justify the return. In the end, after consulting with them, they advised to use the "item not as described/advertised" basis. After some back and forth with the third party seller, they finally ended up agreeing to accept the return. But Lazada kept assigning the return pickup to the wrong area office for my home, which meant the courier ignored the request, and thus the whole return process dragged out to almost a month. Not fun.... but I did finally get my refund.

I didn't see if we had a related news thread on this news re JD.com planning to exit Thailand soon.... (A couple of forum searches find nothing...) China's JD.com to shut e-commerce sites in Indonesia, Thailand JAKARTA/BEIJING, Jan 30 (Reuters) - China's JD.com (9618.HK) is to close its e-commerce services in Indonesia and Thailand, retreating from Southeast Asia after a bruising year for China's retail and technology sectors. JD.com will end its services in Thailand from March 3 and in Indonesia from the end of the same month, its local websites showed. Both units will stop taking orders on Feb. 15. (more) www.reuters.com/technology/indonesian-unit-jdcom-discontinue-all-services-end-march-jdid-website-2023-01-30/ Will leave Lazada and Shopee as what I believe is being called a duopoly...

The first time around, if I recall correctly, it was the local home country foreign chambers of commerce and business groups that helped advocate for getting the mRNA vaccines donated here... and calling attention to their governments back home about the inequity of the original mRNA vaccines being available to their country nationals back home, but not to their expat citizens living abroad. In the case of the U.S., I believe, that cause was helped at the time when it was revealed that U.S. Embassy/Consulate staff here had all been offered/given the original mRNA vaccines by the feds, at a time when American expats here remained without. AT present, however, there doesn't seem to be the same urgency as there was the first time around, and the update of the newer bivalent vaccines has been low even in places like the U.S., where it's only about 15% of the population thus far, and that skewing heavily to the older age groups. And yet, from the reports I saw this week, still more than 500 Americans are dying every day on average from COVID.... But it just doesn't seem to get attention or focus anymore..... sadly. World: "At a WHO executive board meeting today, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said, the world is in a better place entering the fourth year of the pandemic, but he aired concerns about increasing deaths, with more than 170,000 reported over the past 8 weeks." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/who-covid-still-emergency-inflection-point U.S., per the CDC: "The current 7-day [daily] average of new deaths (537) decreased 4.9% compared with the previous 7-day average (564). As of January 25, 2023, a total of 1,103,615 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the United States. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html

For Americans registering a marriage here, the Embassy/Consulate form still requires the person to list BOTH a U.S. address and the names and addresses (not phones) of two references in the U.S. I think the references can be almost anyone, but you do have to list two "someones". Obviously, they don't contact them prior to issuing the freedom of marriage affidavit, since they issue those on the spot. So I have no idea what practical purpose listing those is supposed to serve. Nor for that matter, the sense of requiring a U.S. address for an American citizen applicants who may have been making their full-time home in Thailand for many years, even decades, and perhaps not even traveled back to the U.S. for many many years.

I ran into the same "wait wait wait" answer at the couple of Bangkok khet offices we checked with lately, including Bangrak. So we ended up going thru a visa/translation service agency here in BKK, for a fee of course, that will handle the required translations, MFA certifications and then arrange and facilitate the trip to their chosen khet (amphur) for registering the marriage. When we did our divorce late last year, we went on our own to Bangrak and were told completing the process with them likely would take some weeks. Then with the agent, we went to a different khet office and were in and out on the same day we first inquired of the agent and presented them with our various documents. So if getting the marriage done sooner is a higher priority than spending some added cash, then there's certainly ways to get that done more quickly -- although our agent told us that MFA for translations also these days is requiring advance appointments and their turnaround might run a week or so.

FWIW, got my new affidavit of freedom to marry from the US Embassy/Consulate in BKK today -- $50 USD for the affidavit, and another $50 to certify a copy of my US passport, which is being required by the khet (amphur office) we're dealing with in Bangkok. No witnesses required at the U.S. Embassy/Consulate, as reported above, just me. Entire process once inside took about a half hour, no problems. A couple added points: 1. In the past, they used to have one type of affidavit form if you were marrying for the first time, and then a second, added form if you previously had been divorced somewhere/anywhere. Nowadays, they've combined those previously two forms into a single affidavit that covers both first-timers and repeat marryers. Also, the Embassy/Consulate doesn't ask to see any legal documentation of any prior divorce, although the amphur/khet office might ask when you go to register the new marriage. 2. The BKK Embassy/Consulate these days seems to have a somewhat peculiar scheduling system for notarial services.... I first started looking online just before mid-Jan., and wasn't able to book ANY appointment for ANY date for almost two week until a couple days ago, when I was finally able to get one for Jan. 31/today. So in essence, they seem (and confirmed this over the phone) to only be making a new set of appointments available at the very end of each month for the following month... And once those are booked up (which this past month occurred before mid-January), they apparently won't make any more available until the next month's cycle. Thus, from mid January to almost the end of the month, it was impossible to book ANY notarial services appointment for ANY data via their online system -- even though during the same period there were numerous passport-related appointments still open and available. But they don't seem willing to repurpose those, when the notarial appointment slots run out.... Just fyi.... so if you know you'll need a notarial services appointment upcoming, start looking especially toward the end of the month for appointments listed for the ensuing month. Their notarial appointments system right now doesn't go any further out that one month at a time.

Yes.... "foreign residents such as businesspeople, workers, and diplomats, as well as their family members, can still receive free vaccination." https://www.facebook.com/thailandprd/posts/pfbid0oDDbWRVWdcdytcjNMhStWoQj3xnS3iuhjjQRUF3TKqCMDgRXsReGkaPgmsNAgihHl

This is one of the last public, national COVID vaccination rate chart issued by the Thai MoPH for Sept 29 2022 before they ceased routinely reporting that data. As I said, less than 80% being two-dose "fully vaccinated" -- meaning there's still a lot of non-"fully vaccinated" Thais wandering around. And less than half of the population got to the point of being 3-dose boosted, at least as of the date of this report.

You're entitled to your opinion, but frankly, neither you nor I have any idea on the point, because the government no longer releases the current data... Though, IIRC, one of the government's final detailed vaccination reports only showed the national two-dose vaccination rate at less than 80%, meaning more than 20% of the population never even got to the two-dose point, which would suggest your claim above is likely wrong. And these days.... the term "fully vaccinated" itself is pretty meaningless... because it's typically used to mean the person got just TWO original vaccine doses, which may have been given in many cases more than a year ago.... And for Thais, a lot of those two original vaccinations may have been the early-on Thai issued Chinese Sinovac or Sinopharm non-mRNA varieties, which have been shown to be less protective than their mRNA counterparts.

Most of it is false and unsubstantiated rubbish misinformation. You have far more to worry about from getting sick/ill from COVID than you do from getting a COVID vaccine that largely prevents serious COVID illness.

Meanwhile, the latest weekly update from the Thai MoPH on new COVID deaths and new COVID cases (which in the government's current scheme, means new COVID hospitalizations, since they no longer publicly track just COVID infections): Officially, 196 new COVID deaths since the start of the calendar year, and 3,065 COVID hospitalizations. The government no longer publicly reports either the ages of the cases/deaths or their vaccination status. https://www.facebook.com/thailandprd/posts/pfbid0hbSk36ku9WGi4zJpHL4PXsd9Cp9UWaA99q9Zx5hmAuHUeEGXatn5qFZYG5CzRT5Gl

fyi.... update today from the Thai government's PR folks on the various tourist vaccine locations: PS - the Pfizer doses mentioned here are the original version, not the newer bivalent version that's not available in Thailand at present. COVID-19 vaccination available for foreign tourists nationwide COVID-19 vaccination centers for foreign tourists are currently open in various areas in Bangkok, including Bang Rak Medical Center in Bang Rak district, the Institute for Urban Disease Control and Prevention in Bang Khen district, the Institute of Dermatology, Rajavithi Hospital, Lerdsin Hospital, and Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital. Centers are open in other popular tourism provinces such as Chiang Mai, Chon Buri, Phuket, and Songkhla. The prices of vaccines are 800 baht for a vaccination of AstraZeneca, and 1,000 baht for a vaccination of Pfizer. Another 380-baht medical service fee is on top of the jab cost, while foreign residents such as businesspeople, workers, and diplomats, as well as their family members, can still receive free vaccination. https://www.facebook.com/thailandprd/posts/pfbid0oDDbWRVWdcdytcjNMhStWoQj3xnS3iuhjjQRUF3TKqCMDgRXsReGkaPgmsNAgihHl

No, it's not.... not as far as the WHO is concerned, not as far as the U.S. CDC is concerned. Not yet. WHO says Covid-19 remains a global health emergency, but pandemic is at a ‘transition point’ https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/health/who-covid-public-health-emergency/index.html AND Biden intends to end Covid-19 and public health emergencies on May 11 https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/politics/may-11-end-of-covid-and-public-health-emergencies/index.html So if any U.S. folks here are thinking about trips back to the U.S. that would include getting the free bivalent vaccines being offered there by the federal government that aren't available in Thailand for now, better plan on doing so prior to May 11... Because after that, unless something changes in the meantime, recipients will either need U.S. health insurance coverage or have to pay out of pocket.

It's indeed true that SOME of the very early studies (based mostly on blood serum levels only) done on the newer bivalent vaccines raised questions about whether they were more effective, and-or meaningfully more effective than the original mRNA vaccines in protecting against the currently circulating COVID virus strains. However, as the bivalent vaccines have rolled out and come into broader use around the world, there have been numerous studies reported more recently that consistently show the bivalent vaccine CLEARLY and substantially outperforms the original vaccine against currently circulating versions of the virus. Some of those studies are also blood serum studies, but others more recently are instead real-world follow-up comparisons (old vs new vaccines) looking at what actually happened with vaccinated people post vaccination. Here's a sampling of those, as reported earlier this week: COVID bivalent booster appears to offer added benefits against Omicron January 28, 2023 A trio of new studies concludes that the COVID-19 bivalent (two-strain) vaccine booster offers added protection against infection with the Omicron and its major subvariants and against severe illness. ... [In one study] Vaccine effectiveness (VE) against severe infection resulting in hospitalization 15 to 99 days after receipt of one monovalent booster dose was 25.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], -0.2% to 44.2%), and the corresponding VE for a bivalent booster dose was 58.7% (95% CI, 43.7% to 69.8%). ... In a UNC at Chapel Hill press release, senior author Zack Moore, MD, MPH, state epidemiologist at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, said that the increased VE in the study shows why it's important for people to get the bivalent booster, even if they originally received one monovalent dose. (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-bivalent-booster-appears-offer-added-benefits-against-omicron The full article above lays out all the details and vaccine comparisons in the three cited studies. I'd offer more details here about those, but am limited of how much I can quote by the forum's fair use quoting policies.

People should remember, Thailand also was slow and behind the curve in administering the original mRNA vaccines against COVID... at a time when they were already being used for the publics in the U.S., UK and elsewhere. Thailand originally put its vaccine eggs in the Chinese produced Sinovac and Sinopharm vaxes (marginal), as well as later the locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine....for well-known and obvious reasons... And what's become of all those three vaccines these days? Left behind in the dust. Right now, Thailand is repeating the ill-advised vaccine policy decisions that characterized their original go-round with this... But last time, they ended up getting bailed out in part by the original mRNA vaccines donated to Thailand by the U.S. and others. This time, there's no indication I've seen anywhere thus far that 2nd gen mRNA vax donations are coming Thailand's way... And there's currently no public indication that Thailand on its own is planning to acquire the newer vaccines. Thailand's leaders are great at spending government funds on things that end up benefiting them or those around them. But not so much when they're not directly benefiting and it's just the common Thai citizen who stands to benefit, as history here has shown.

Your above comment is not factually correct, although vaccinations in the U.S. are heading in that general direction (that is, the newer bivalent vaccines replacing the original versions of the COVID vaccines). A U.S. FDA advisory panel just this past week RECOMMENDED phasing out the original COVID vaccine versions in favor of using the newer bivalent vaccine formulations for ALL future vaccinations, not just as boosters after the original version vaccines were used as the first and second doses, which is the current U.S. policy. However, for right now, that's just a RECOMMENDATION in the U.S., and the original versions of the vaccines are still available and being used right now.... although that may not be lasting for much longer into the future. CNBC had a good article on the FDA panel's recommendation, which still has to be acted on by the FDA agency and then by the U.S. CDC before the change can come into effect: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/26/fda-advisors-recommend-using-covid-omicron-shots-for-all-doses.html

The effectiveness of the COVID vaccine doses wane (lessen) after several months post-injection, especially against merely being infected, although the protection against severe disease and death is more long lasting. There's really no such thing as "fully vaccinated" any more... although that was a term used in the early going. Not to mention, you were "fully vaccinated" with the original version of the COVID vaccines that weren't designed to fully counter the currently circulating, newly emerged COVID virus variants like BA5 and XBB, because those didn't exist back then at the outset of the pandemic.

I've used a couple cans of Nivea bought on Lazada lately... Although I generally prefer shaving gels from the U.S., I thought the Nivea foam gave a comfortable shave and was fine, despite being pretty pricey.

The original version of the mRNA COVID vaccines is headed toward being entirely replaced in the U.S. by the newer bivalent versions: A key FDA advisory panel voted to use the same formulation for all COVID-19 vaccinations. "The Food and Drug Administration’s independent vaccine advisory committee voted unanimously on Thursday in favor of having all COVID-19 vaccines in the United States use the same formulation as the two-strain updated [bivalent] boosters. This change would make vaccination less confusing to both patients and healthcare workers, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) said. The committee voted 21-to-0 to direct vaccine makers Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Novavax to update the primary series of their vaccines — the initial doses that people receive — to match the updated bivalent booster doses which target both the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and a newer Omicron strain. (more) https://www.healthline.com/health-news/covid-19-vaccine-key-fda-panel-recommends-annual-updated-shots

The "vaccines for tourists" program being implemented by the Thai government, I believe, is one where the tourists would be charged for the original (and now heading toward obsolete) version of the original COVID mRNA vaccine, and NOT the newer bivalent version of the vaccines that Thailand has yet to acquire. And also unlike the original government vaccine rollout that gave donated supplies of the original mRNA vaccines to long-term expats for free.

This study below by the U.S. CDC is one of the two summarized in the above news report and post: January 25, 2023 CDC publishes first estimates of bivalent boosters’ effectiveness against XBB.1.5 The CDC for the first time has estimated how effective the bivalent COVID-19 vaccines have been against the newest dominant omicron subvariant of SARS-CoV-2. The subvariant, XBB.1.5, which has been described as the most transmissible SARS-CoV-2 subvariant yet, was responsible for around 49% of new COVID-19 cases in the United States last week, according to CDC tracking. ... Although prior studies have shown that the bivalent boosters have provided added protection against symptomatic COVID-19 and reduced the risk for severe outcomes from the disease compared with receiving two to four doses of monovalent mRNA vaccines, only around 15% of the eligible U.S. population has received one of the shots, according to CDC tracking. Poster's note: Note that the above protection levels against the XBB variant are based on protection against the very common/routine COVID infection with any symptoms, and not measuring against the more rare and severe COVID with hospitalization or death, where the vaccines usually provide even higher levels of protection. (more) https://www.healio.com/news/infectious-disease/20230125/cdc-publishes-first-estimates-of-bivalent-boosters-effectiveness-against-xbb15

Two new studies paint encouraging picture of Covid-19 vaccine’s performance Two new studies published Wednesday report good news about the updated Covid-19 vaccine, with one suggesting it is more effective than the previous monovalent vaccine and the other showing that even though it targeted an earlier strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, its protection is holding up against current variants. The findings suggest the updated vaccine, which targets both the original SARS-2 virus and the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, is performing better than some critics of the decision to update the vaccine concluded, based on studies that only compared the levels of neutralizing antibodies each induced. ... “It’s clear from this study that the bivalent booster, in that short term following administration, provides additional protection above and beyond that of the monovalent,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy. (more) https://www.statnews.com/2023/01/25/updated-covid-19-booster-still-providing-strong-protection-against-newer-variants-cdc-study-finds/

Tone deaf Thailand -- The U.S. is likely headed toward totally discontinuing use of the original COVID vaccines and making all future vaccinations (for now) the newer bivalent variety: FDA advisors recommend replacing original Covid vaccine with bivalent omicron shots for all doses The Food and Drug Administration’s independent advisory committee on Thursday recommended replacing Pfizer and Moderna’s original Covid vaccine used in the U.S. for everyone’s first two immunizations with the new bivalent omicron shots. If the FDA accepts the advisors’ recommendation, the U.S. would likely phase out the companies’ vaccines developed in 2020 against the original Covid-19 strain that emerged in Wuhan, China. Instead, the drugmakers’ bivalent omicron shots that target the omicron BA.5 subvariant as well as the original strain would be used for the entire vaccination series. (more) https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/26/fda-advisors-recommend-using-covid-omicron-shots-for-all-doses.html

The Thai government had talked last year about plans to acquire the newer bivalent vaccines for use by early 2023... But those plans appear to have fallen by the way. And from the various reports here, there have been no public statements or news reports with any promised availability for Thailand...at least thus far.