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Cloggie

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Posts posted by Cloggie

    Sudden power drop

    in IT and Computers

    Posted

    Have a look at your UPS, make sure your PC is NOT connected to the printer power outlet as the printer power outlet is surge only!

    Happens many times at my work that people connect the PC to the wrong power outlet of the UPS.

    Better business potential in Thailand than Canada or modern countries?

    in Jobs, Economy, Banking, Business, Investments

    Posted

    Personally, and as a business owner in the USA, I think the potential is far far better in N. America than in Thailand.

    My business is a service business, but not one with $0 investment. In my case, I own and operate an environmental analytical laboratory. Equipment investment alone ran into millions.

    I looked at opening a lab in Bangkok, but very quickly decided it was a no go, mainly due to corruption. Never mind the whole Thai partner aspect.

    Perhaps you need to look at something other than franchises.

    As you are American, you do not need a Thai partner to setup a company, or do I miss something?

    Transfer money Singapore => Thailand

    in Jobs, Economy, Banking, Business, Investments

    Posted

    Answer from HSBC Singapore:

    If you are debiting from your HSBC Singapore account in foreign currency account in the same currency, the charges are:
    Commission 0.125% (min. S$30, max. S$200) + Cost of cable S$35 + Commission in lieu of foreign exchange 0.125% (min. S$50, max. S$500)

    The Telegraphic transfer charges quoted here are not inclusive of the overseas paying bank’s charges.

    The maximum transfer amount per day is S$50,000 or S$25,000 via PhoneBanking and OnlineBanking respectively. There is no limit for instructions submitted at branch or via mail.

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    assessing a condo's condition (structure, leakages,etc)

    in Real Estate, Housing, House and Land Ownership

    Posted

    Summary from previous postings:

    ===================================

    - Check what the process is to buy supplies etc., for the building (should be by three quotations and need written approval from two members of the owners committee - in some condos the owners have installed rules that these signatures must rotate across the committee (i.e. cannot be the same two committee members each time and must change where there are regular purchases from the same suppliers (E.g. cleaning supplies), and check there is separation between approval to buy and who can sign cheques to pay for the supplies.
    In my old condo (downtown Bkk) the same company had been engaged for about 8 years for servicing of the 3 lifts. One condo owner (same building) was the major shareholder in the lift company. Service was poor. At one meeting a new committee member asked whether there were three quotations for the annual renewal of the lift contract which was on the meeting agenda. Answer: no.
    New committee member demanded that the contract renewal be postponed and three quotations gathered, each quotation gathered by different committee members. At next meeting each contender presented their credentials, references, capabilities, experience, etc. Contract was then given to a different supplier at a 50% cost saving.
    - Check when the accounts for the whole building were last audited.The accountant for my old condo passed away and a new accountant was appointed, the new one a sister of a committee member. The new acct., presented the accounts, P&L etc., for the first time at the next AGM. Within a within a few minutes there were numerous queries from the floor of the meeting. Simple mistakes in arithmetic, important items just missing. Her response: 'ohh your too serious, it's just not important'. Next comment from the floor 'unacceptable and the accountant should not be paid any fees'. A vote was taken and almost every owner agreed. Sacked on the spot.
    - Check if there is sufficient insurance coverage.
    - Check if there is a sinking fund and how many Baht in the sinking fund and where are the funds lodged.
    I forgot one important item - security.
    - Take a good look at how the building security is set up / works:
    - Is the main door left open all day with no security in terms of access to the upper residential floors?
    - Is there a magnetic lock system on the main door to the main residential floors, but in reality the door is seldom closed.
    - Is there any security on the car park floors - from the car park to the residential parts of the building, is it ignored by the owners (owners deliberately leave all the doors open)
    - Is there any camera system around the building? Is yes, is it working, who is responsible to monitor the screens, and do they actually monitor the screens, etc., who is responsible to contact the police if needed etc?
    - Can delivery men (Pizza Co., / KFC etc) just walk in and out and go to the residential floors without lodging an ID card with security? (Some condos have rules saying delivery men can go to your room without lodging ID card with security, some have no rules - just open access with no controls whatever, some condos have rules that owners / residents must go to the lobby to take delivery of food etc. And is there a security protocol for workmen coming into the building, e.g. plumber, renovations etc.
    Years back in my building there was a break in and a wife and two young children beaten up. This was the catalyst for a long overdue review of security and (because of the incident) most other owners became much more serious about their own actions to close doors etc. It was also the catalyst for a review of the insurance on the building.
    The insurance company did a comprehensive analysis of the building then refused to renew the insurance.
    Why? The review revealed that the owners / occupiers of the penthouse (25th floor) were actually running a printing factors inside their very big unit, with very big stocks of flammable paper and very flammable inks, etc. , all brought in through the cargo lift that was out of sight of the main residents lobby area. The owners initially refused to remove the printing factory and the committee had to take legal action and get something like a court order to have it forceably shut down.
    - Or is security well set up and security staff active to keep the building secure.
    - And who does the outside security company who provide the security staff report to? When I bought my condo the outside security company reported to the 'Managing Director' (a self appointed title the admin./ building services supervisor had given herself - and in reality she had no authority to do anything - and was totally incapable).
    The outside security company owner (an army general) just laughed at her when she tried to discuss security issues with him. The internal staff in the condo (small maintenance man / cleaners etc.,) also laughed at her.
    After the incident I mentioned above this was changed and the chairperson of the owners committee was then responsible for security matters, and he did a good job and was unafraid of the army general and in fact sacked the security company (after a committee discussion) and found a replacement company owned by civilians. The internal supervisor mentioned was also sacked because of collusion with the company supplying the cleaning products to the building, let alone the fact that she paid no attention whatever to the items listed in the Job Description and was often quite rude when owners
    attempted to speak with her.
    • Like 18

    Transfer money Singapore => Thailand

    in Jobs, Economy, Banking, Business, Investments

    Posted

    For more than 10 years I have worked in Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore.

    I was paid in Thailand TB 55.000 so I could get a work permit and the rest of my salary / bonus was paid offshore at HSBC Singapore in my US$ account.

    Now I want to transfer US$ 65.000 to my Thai Bank account (THB) at The Bank of Ayudhya.

    I want to use it first for 'time deposits' - 3 months - and later use it to setup a Thai company and if it fails well, lesson learned...


    I do not trust banks very much as I am sure they will give me an answer that will have benefits for them and NOT for me.


    What is the best way to transfer the money from Singapore => Thailand with minimal cost and maximum 'freedom'.


    The example below is the transfer cost just to send US$ 7.500 to my Thai UOB account a few years ago (2011).


    Transfer HSBC => UOB Bank (Split cost)

    Commision SGD 30.00 $24.09 THB 747.15

    Cable SGD 35.00 $28.11 THB 871.83

    ------------ ------------ ------------

    Total SGD 65.00 $52.20 THB 1,618.98


    UOB CHGS THB 319.00

    ------------

    Total cost THB 1,937.98


    Hopefully somebody can point me in the right direction what to do.


    Thanks for your help and advice..

    Is there still hope for me...

    in Thai Language

    Posted

    For those interested, started yesterday again with Thai lessons and with help of my teacher I made some progress and according to her "there is still hope"....

    A few things I learned:

    - prepare Thais that you will speak Thai, just tell them first "Sawadee khap" and then most likely they will expect that you will speak Thai otherwise they think that you will speak English...

    - information is in the tones low / falling / high / rising so you need to practice, practice, practice etc etc

    - speak s.l.o.w.l.y so you have time for all the tones, I try to speak to fast and as a result a lot of information is lost.

    - some people can't read or write but can speak, they only rely on memorizing - nothing wrong with that - but if you can read you don't need to memorize everything

    If you want to know - I paid TB 10.500 for 30 hours private lessons at home.

    Anyway lets see in a few weeks time if I made any progress.

    Will keep you updated

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