Steiner

I guess it all depends on the people you hire. Hire a Chinese-Thai from a middle or upper middle class Bangkok family with half decent English and you'll undoubtedly receive a much more motivated, hardworking person who doesn't make excuses for every little thing (I realise there are exceptions here too, especially if we're talking spoiled men who never had to do an honest day's work in their life). Hire an ethnic Thai or Lao from Isan whose family struggled to get through university at some mediocre upcountry Ratchaphat campus and their attitude will still be the same as if they never left their village in Ban Nohk nowhere.

Wrong. Best employee we have never finished school past 14, comes from a rural village, works well by Thai standards and she's trustworthy.

Your comment on Thai Chinese from 'middle upper class' families is laughable. They are the section most likely to be there to learn how to do it then start their own business.

Pay peanuts get monkeys

Stupid comment, he stated 65k a month, is that peanuts for a Thai?

I have had various different pay scales over the years, and people who would be considered 'qualified' and on a suitable remuneration, almost all have been a disappointment.

A statement should be based on some fact that is relevant to this post, yours isn't.

Pretty standard practice here, had droves of them disappear.

first indication is usually that they 'unfriend' the other staff members on facebook.
Had a number of them leave and never ask for their due salary.

In my experience Thai staff have a shelf life, they are OK when they arrive, although productivity around 20% of a western office is the best you can hope for.

Fast forward 6 months and they get surly, disinterested and the excuses start for days off or lateness.

Complete lack of ambition as a people: had people join as sales staff with an uncapped earnings structure and realistic minimum earnings of 50k if they put any effort in, then after 2 weeks they come and ask to be transferred to admin with a 10k salary.

Reasons have been: the office has aircon, I can eat with the other workers at lunchtime, I get a chair and a cushion (I shit you not), I only need 10k, and many more.

Had one girl who we had let stay with us until she got a place, when she split from her husband as she had no local family. Asked her to wipe a bird crap off the office window one day; "oh so that is my job now?" Never saw her again.

Asked one to empty the waste bin, never saw her again.

Told them that one person would have to stagger lunch one week in 5 to man the reception, 2 left next day saying "we can't eat lunch alone."

Had 14 people say they were coming to start on a Monday, never seen or heard of them to this day.
Had 12 leave without any warning in the 1st 2 weeks, never say a word, just disappear.

Almost every one of them has tried to steal data when leaving or by contacting staff after the fact.

When I first arrived and was asked what I thought of Thais, I used to say people are people: now I say lazy, often a bit stupid and untrustworthy.

Before the Thaier than Thai brigade pipe up about that last sentence; when I was starting the business my Thai wife, a graduate who had a good job in a successful Thai company, said it wouldn't be easy to run a business here. Her reason, and I quote "Thai people are F*****g stupid and lazy!"

It is common for agents to add a lot onto the asking price, either in an attempt to pocket the difference or to allow room for negotiation, though they dont seem to understand that both are counter-productive.

When dealing with property in Thailand you can expect to be lied to constantly by everyone connected in any way with the sale. Trust no one.

Completely misinformed answer.

As an agent we have to talk owners down to a reasonable and competitive price every day.

If they don't accept a sensible valuation, we don't push the property as it would be a waste of our staff resources posting it on 40 3rd party websites in addition to our own websites and keeping those posts active.

They generally come back and accept our valuation, through gritted teeth, after a few months of sitting in a sales desert with an overpriced property.

Why would sensible business owners lie to people? We live in an age of transparency and reviews, childish and uninformed statement.

One is much more likely to be ripped off by a 'one time only owner sale,' than a sale involving a company and a lawyer.

People getting ripped off is usually the result of using freelancers in a misguided attempt to save money.

If people are prepared to buy property through a noodle seller or a part time whore, really what do they expect?

People need to ask themselves, would they buy property from the local hot dog guy or a hooker in their home country?

Stupid is as stupid does...

Only buy from 2012 onwards, especially if you live in Bkk. Many cars got flooded in the 2011 floods. They could have hidden damage that would be hard to find. Look for cars with a full service history. Many badly damaged cars are repaired here - they would often be scrapped in a foreign country. You wouldn't be able to tell if they have been repaired or not.

But if you really want a city or vios, get a new one. These car hold their value really well. A 10 year old jazz/city can still fetch 200K. Unless you are on a budget, it's really not worth buying second hand here. You can also get a new manual ecocar for about 400K or so.

what good would that do? Many cars here are driven on red plates for years and then registered.

Also many of the 2011 cars, flood or not, wouldn't have arrived in showrooms until a year or even 18 months later.

Seriously, what percentage of cars were immersed in water here? I imagine it was a very small amount.

Paranoia.

I don't get peoples problem with criticising what is unacceptable behaviour.
Why is it deemed acceptable to complain about unacceptable behaviour in one's home country but considered 'Thai bashing' when voiced here.
i think most people who complain are frustrated by the fact that the country has so much potential but is constantly shackled by ineptitude/laziness/stupidity.

Walk near any beautiful beach and the smell of rotting refuse in bins is overpowering, it really isn't that difficult to manage basic infrastructure.

What is the problem with plumbing? For a people who have lived on water since the inception of the cities, how have they not mastered the art of managing drainage and smells, it is an issue in almost every condo and house!

Cut up or block ambulances to make a green light, third highest road deaths in the world.

Treat dogs in a way that would get them arrested in civilised countries.
ZERO social conscience, impressing people with an oversized SUV or pick up, is way more important than conserving energy.

Unfortunately the longer people stay the more they see of the Thai psyche.

For me I take the good from living here and try to ignore the muppets as much as possible.

I use the mantra from that lyrical poet Jay Z "What you eat don't make me sh1t!"

Not the Mrs but a FWB when I was single once commented on the fact I had a lot of women around.

"Ah but you don't get to be an expert in food if you eat in the same restaurant every night" I Said.

She replied "Darling, if you eat that way you are bound to get food poisoning!"

That always made me chuckle.

Universal Tailors at Silom, almost the corner of soi 18.

Perfect English, literally thousands of good reviews on trip adviser.

I have had clothes made there and the difference is obvious, their fabrics wear well and don't stretch even in this heat and the moisture it creates.

I used to work in the fashion industry in Europe, I was really surprised by the level these guys worked at.

You'll be dead in a week.

A visual representation of your business idea, start to finish.

Microsoft insisting that we provide them with a phone number before we can sign in! I have 5 ms accounts I will never use again, they can stick them.

Two factor-authentication is there as a security feature to protect people who routinely click on any old link going without checking what it is.

However, I don't remember giving them a phone number, and I logged into MSDN this morning without being asked for one.

I was asked for the phone number after I had entered the name and password.

I don't see how someone could click on 'any old link' and go to someone else's email account.

Authentication my ass they simply want more information so they can sell it or use it.

Another screwup.

Win 8 - 8.1 is very unpopular and is used by only about 20% of business applications. 7 is still the favorite OS and more still use abandoned XP than 8. All this according to the article.

Now MS is trying to save itself by adding a start menu when many of us already use the proggy to make 8 look like 7. But 10 still looks like 8 and I don't want all of that crap on my desktop. I want icons of my own choice.

MS needs to admit it screwed up and make an OS that looks like 7 but has 8's superior kernel.

If I hadn't needed a new laptop and found that all good choices were already loaded with 8, I'd still be using 7 across the board.

We bought 5 computers for the office, stripped that farcical windows 8 out and replaced it with 7.

We use a lot of images and 8 is absolutely rubbish for working with images and generally slower to perform the same tasks than in 7.

I personally trialed 8 for a week to be sure it wasn't just an acclimatisation issue, after 7 days I had 8 removed, staff were very happy and productivity, which had fallen steeply during the time we were using 8, improved again instantly.

Why do all of these organisations feel they can impose things we don't want.

Facebook and it's ridiculous messenger system that can take photographs, video and sound from the phone even if it is in standby mode.

Microsoft insisting that we provide them with a phone number before we can sign in! I have 5 ms accounts I will never use again, they can stick them.

I don't get it, give customers what they want not what someone thinks they should have.

Not listing worktop jig's on their list of products.

No Problem, thanks for replying.

Don't suppose you know where to get a jig here?

Been to a lot of timber and supplies yards and show them a pic of a jig, 'mai mee, homepro' is the usual answer, of course they don't stock them.

Bangkok, Pattanakarn.

Fitting a new kitchen but having difficulty finding someone to miter the worktop!

It is only a standard postformed worktop, asked a few Thais who say they can but then disappear.

Tried to buy a jig to cut it, can't find one anywhere here.

Anyone used a local that knew how to do this?

If there is any farang with the skills and the tools give me a shout.

Mango Sauce was the best Bkk based website ever to grace the internet, hilarious, well written, can't believe it closed.

Good riddance to Stickman and his mildly pornographic posts that left one shifting uncomfortably in your seat.

Humorless drivel, glad it's gone.

The real fine for no licence is 1,500 Baht.
Saw it one the list of the official fines cards a copper showed me for reference while we were negotiating for me speeding.

Just go to the TOT office somewhere like Pattaya on any day and have a seat for 10 minutes, you will see just how pathetic TOT service is, you will see a procession of irate people.

If you have a problem with True they are on it immediately, may have a tech call you back within an hour and will have someone out next day latest.

For TOT you best not hold you breath for any kind of back up service.

Example #1. We had TOT at the office, checked with them if our phone number was portable to our new office, told it was and arranged an installation date for the day before we moved.

No show.

Called them, 'tomorrow.'

No show.

Eventually discovered that the number WASN'T portable and it took them 5, yes 5 f*#kin weeks to fit a phone line.

In the meantime we had True come and install phones and internet within 36 hrs.

Example #2. We bought a condo outside Bkk near the beach, only provider in the complex was TOT **facepalm!

4 weeks and 17, yes I did just say 17 calls, later they installed it, ip tv box took 9 weeks and when the internet failed it took 3 days to get it working.

Engineer said the couldn't take the stress, everyone hated him because they overloaded his workload and every install was late.

Also missed a bill as we were out of the country, had of been True we could have paid it and back on, with TOT we had to waste time going to their office.

Do yourself a favour and stay well away from TOT!

Hipflat http://www.hipflat.co.th/en will give you some of the info you are looking for. Their "automated system collects and processes offers from the agents, owners, online classified and forums." The site will tell you for example if prices are rising or falling for a particular condo building and will list those for rent and for sale. It gives average price per square metre. It also provides a graph of trends of sale prices over the last few years. It's probably the closest you will get to what you are looking for.

This might be a better link to hipflat for bangkok http://www.hipflat.co.th/en/bangkok/condo

"Automated system" what are you talking about?

It is a property portal not the Starship Enterprise!

Hipflat is a paid service and is inaccurate as it takes an average of the prices asked for by the paid members.

Ask a knowledgeable agent, there are some good western owned and run companies out there.

and the info on real estate websites is incorrect also. maybe going to the land office and looking at records for sale prices.

as soon as you tell the real estate agent how much money you have to spend, like magic, that becomes the price of every property.

How would that work when 90% of the transactions at the land office are declared falsely low for some under the table financial grease.

Misleading headline, it should read: Man may lose leg because of stupidity of family members and lack of common sense.

I would be interested in a phone shop that has an decent English speaking salesman in it.

Have been considering an upgrade to a smart phone. But have little knowledge of them.

Try Target, 1st floor (English style) of Fortune IT Mall, 3rd shop before the tesco entrance.

Ask for Lee, speaks good English and great knowledge of smartphones and very helpful.

Also great for repairs, we have bought a lot of phones from him and he is good with maintenance issues.

That said smartphones are incredibly straight forward and easy to use now.

Just a wild hair suggestion:

When the driver pulls in to the queue to wait for his turn pick up his passengers, have (let's say) 1:1 of them blow into a breathalyzer, and maybe 1:5 of them pee in a cup.

I'm referring to: all van operators parked their vehicles at the Makkasan airport rail link station and at an area under expressway system near the Asoke toll gate and will drive out to pick passengers in sequence when enough tickets have sold for their route.

In any case, kudos for making progress.

Excellent suggestion, that alone would save a lot of lives each year.