New Visa Agency at Promenada Mall

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Well, that was fast. Out with the old, and in with the new.

 

For a brand "new" business and owner, based on the posts here, they certainly seem to have managed to gain quick acquaintance with their Immigration neighbors. Almost like, they had some connection together...

[NancyL]

8 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Well, that was fast. Out with the old, and in with the new.

 

For a brand "new" business and owner, based on the posts here, they certainly seem to have managed to gain quick acquaintance with their Immigration neighbors. Almost like, they had some connection together...

Hmm....   Excellent observation.  Yes, when I overwhelmed the nice receptionist with the question of how much they charge to do a medical extension she called her boss and soon someone from Immigration came upstairs with a list of the required documents.  Along with a message he wanted her to pass along to her boss about who was making the inquiry.    Hmm......  

 

 

[NancyL]

8 hours ago, evenstevens said:

perhaps    they do not    want  your  business    during their short break  they directly contacted  me  .  and said they will be opening shortly  which  has happened     and i posted such    on the other thread  a day or two back   and also gave me a contact cell phone number  to reach   if i needed them  before re opening

now that is very nice service is ,nt it  ??? now another crusade has been started by you   slating their services (above post)  thats  fine     thats your perogative  but  I.M.O . you should  show some dignity and compassion   and allow  the members of this forum to choose which route  they wish to take  this is your second swipe today relating to this visa agency  and T.B.H . it is not warranted at all , have a nice evenning

E/S, are you saying the "new" visa agency has contacting you by phone saying they are now open for business @Prom? 

 

If so, it would appear they are nothing more than G4T under a new name.

 

(P.S.  Could you please extend me the dignity to reply in complete sentences without any personal attacks, regional slang, stupid emoticons or superfluous reference to music?)

[amexpat]

7 hours ago, Dante99 said:

You are not required to be here just as you are not required to go to Disney Land.  

Pretty good. 23 posts before the old "love it or leave it" mentality surfaced. It takes me back to '70s construction workers with baseball bats.

 

 

7 hours ago, canthai55 said:

No one is holding a gun to your head to avail yourself of these services.

Do it yourself.

No gun but IM does limit the tickets issued and other tricks to steer you toward these $ervice$. 

 

Of course I do it myself. I hate seeing expats preyed upon because they are computer illiterate and can't figure out how to use the mail, or even when to show up at IM.  I'm done with the topic. Do it the hard way (show up before dawn) or feed the corruption if you can't figure stuff out. Up to you. 

[cyberfarang]

56 minutes ago, NancyL said:

E/S, are you saying the "new" visa agency has contacting you by phone saying they are now open for business @Prom? 

 

If so, it would appear they are nothing more than G4T under a new name.

 

(P.S.  Could you please extend me the dignity to reply in complete sentences without any personal attacks, regional slang, stupid emoticons or superfluous reference to music?)

I agree with E/S. I also don`t give a toss what it`s called now, what it was called before or what it maybe called in the future or who is running the show. If your meddling does throw any spanners into the works, it won`t be appreciated by me and many others. I am more then willing to pay that amounts to 19 baht a day for an easier life that involves less stress once every 90 days and once a year.

 

Please just get on with your own affairs and let us decide what is in our best interests without a busy body poking their nose in.

[cyberfarang]

12 minutes ago, amexpat said:

Pretty good. 23 posts before the old "love it or leave it" mentality surfaced. It takes me back to '70s construction workers with baseball bats.

 

 

No gun but IM does limit the tickets issued and other tricks to steer you toward these $ervice$. 

 

Of course I do it myself. I hate seeing expats preyed upon because they are computer illiterate and can't figure out how to use the mail, or even when to show up at IM.  I'm done with the topic. Do it the hard way (show up before dawn) or feed the corruption if you can't figure stuff out. Up to you. 

Right. It`s being caught between a rock and a hard place. We all know what immigration are doing, no need to explain. No one loves it, it`s a choice between what is considered the best of the worse. Correct, the choice is up to us. You`re done with this topic, so go and have a coffee or something and forgot all about it.

 

[NancyL]

Well, it's good to see that in one part of the country the ruling military is cracking down on Immigration on not doing doing their job.. I had hoped the "temporary" closure of  G4T was related to this news story, but I guess not.  Think about this guys, when you partake in corruption.  Take special note of the last line of the article.  They may be coming after old white guys next.

 

https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/thai-police-round-foreigners-overstaying-visas-visa-bribe-ring-exposed-phuket/

 

[canthai55]

My point is that corruption is endemic in all societies.

This coming from my lifetime of experience dealing with the Criminal Justice systems in various countries. But I digress ... and am off topic.

Thailand far better than many

[evenstevens]

3 hours ago, NancyL said:

E/S, are you saying the "new" visa agency has contacting you by phone saying they are now open for business @Prom? 

if so, it would appear they are nothing more then G4T under a new name

 

late last week  i sent them   a sms message asking for details on a particular visa , they within hrs  replied saying the are closed, ,but will be reopening early next week , and gave me another cell number to contact if needed, ,then a new thread was started on this forum saying  they had closed  ,and i decided to wait until they reopen again to take the small matter up with them,  no big deal  to me  just good friendly  prompt service, with a change of name 

really cannot come to grips with your motives, to have  sustained purge on Tian or G4T visa services ,where it has been confirmed on  this forum by  many members they are very happy to pay for their services  , again be so kind and let the punters decide  which way   they wish to go   they are paying for it

and quite frankly its none of your business either

[simoh1490]

"Tian" is the Chinese word for sky, loosely regarded as being related to air travel hence the drawing of the plane on the logo, certainly seems as though there's a Chinese emphasis somewhere either customer base or ownership.

[metisdead]

Off topic posts about corruption in other countries have been removed. 

[cyberfarang]

52 minutes ago, evenstevens said:

late last week  i sent them   a sms message asking for details on a particular visa , they within hrs  replied saying the are closed, ,but will be reopening early next week , and gave me another cell number to contact if needed, ,then a new thread was started on this forum saying  they had closed  ,and i decided to wait until they reopen again to take the small matter up with them,  no big deal  to me  just good friendly  prompt service, with a change of name 

really cannot come to grips with your motives, to have  sustained purge on Tian or G4T visa services ,where it has been confirmed on  this forum by  many members they are very happy to pay for their services  , again be so kind and let the punters decide  which way   they wish to go   they are paying for it

and quite frankly its none of your business either

Really E/S, no need to explain, it`s none of her business. Looked at the CEC website and her club is sponsored by one of those agents. So what does Nancy think the difference is between the agency she endorses and this new one or old one with a new name at the Promenada? How much do they charge and who runs it? What benefits are there to choosing her sponsor over the Tain?

 

In the past was able to book an appointment online with the old near airport branch, walked in 15 minutes before appointment time, was in and out of there within an hour. 90 day no problem, walked over to what was then a separate building for 90 day reports, no numbers required, in and out within 10 minutes. Then they took the 90 day reports over to the main building, had to get a number from a machine, that`s when the rot started to set in. Only so many numbers allocated for visa extensions and 90 days reports, but on average still not too much hassle. Then when immigration moved to Promenada everyone first thought it was going to be an efficient service, no one could had imagined it would turn out like this. So I`m not happy with any of it, either having to pay almost 4 times the price to an agency for convenience or having to waste hours of endurance lining up at immigration with the rest of the sheep. As I said it`s become a matter of having the option to choose the best of the worst.

[Dante99]

Hang in there Cyberfarang, when you reach 75 years you will get priority service which is excellent and free.

 

The glass really is half full, the new airport offices are going to improve things dramatically.

[Thailand]

14 minutes ago, Dante99 said:

Hang in there Cyberfarang, when you reach 75 years you will get priority service which is excellent and free.

 

The glass really is half full, the new airport offices are going to improve things dramatically.

We hope so but a somewhat forlorn hope, how is anything likely to improve unless there are more staff and more efficient systems in place.

I wonder if there will be a Tian coffee shop on site to help smooth things for some customers. 

[cyberfarang]

14 minutes ago, Dante99 said:

Hang in there Cyberfarang, when you reach 75 years you will get priority service which is excellent and free.

 

The glass really is half full, the new airport offices are going to improve things dramatically.

They said that about the Promenada. Who knows what`s going to be in store for us there. Have a long way to go before I reach 75 so being eligible for priority service won`t benefit me in the foreseeable future.

[canthai55]

8,760 hours in a year. If you are spending 8 hours a year at Immigration ...

8 is 0.091324200913242% of 8760

Compare that to the amount of time you log onto Thai Visa and complain about how long it takes.

My guess ...

[Fore Man]

I’d like to vote by simply saying that you get what you pay for. If shelling out an extra THB 5,500 over the course of a year to get a convenient agency to obtain for you an annual retirement extension, a multiple reentry permit and ostensibly four 90-day reports...then their fees amount to 15 baht a day over the course of that year. If the services do not include 90-day reports, then the tariff becomes 18.4 baht on a daily basis. Either way, peanuts, really. These economics versus undergoing the dreary waiting in long queues makes the decision an easy one for me.  I’m getting decrepit enough that I need to avoid standing or sitting on hard seating.  Yes, it irks me more than a bit that I must shell out 5,500 baht to get a service that should be performed at no cost and with efficiency by the Thai government.  But until they get their act together, and I’m not holding my breath either,  I consider the money as well spent and I will take the position that I’m receiving a worthwhile value in return for those funds.  It’s also my own private decision to make and nobody else’s business except my own.  

[KiChakayan]

21 hours ago, scottiejohn said:

Totally unwarranted ageist and sexist statements used to attack agent users!

We are not all in our dotage or looking for sex outside our very stable relationships thank you.

 

She didn't make any judgement though.. Don't want to get close any western woman, but Nancy probably has a sense of humor. 

 

PS. I am an old (fit?) western guy with a sexy wife 30  years younger then I, and together we have to adorable daughters, so adorable that I am contemplation getting my recent vasectomy reversed. Yes I try to rub it in...

[worgeordie]

Maybe G4T off loaded the business,knowing it will loose

some of it's edge when Immigration moves back to the old

site,as I am sure someone* will open up an office there,its

a real money maker,plenty space to put an office up in the

petrol station over the road,or in parking lot of the Spa.

time will tell.          *G4T ?  yes it's all assumptions  99

regards worgeordie

[jak2002003]

On ‎15‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 11:42 AM, NancyL said:

Hah, they need more Chinese signs in front of the place if the goal is to get the Chinese punters out of the queues and upstairs paying someone to fills out the forms for them.  Instead, all I saw were old white men who didn't want to wait in queues and wanted young Thai women to fuss over them, i.e. the usual G4T customers.

I also saw the old white men in there.... and some old white American busy body woman taking sneaky photos through the window, who seems to have some hang up or fetish about Prom immigration office...the kind of person who is probably living in some expat old folks non integrating snooty club and like to try to make everything over here into a mini America. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thailand]

47 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

Maybe G4T off loaded the business,knowing it will loose

some of it's edge when Immigration moves back to the old

site,as I am sure someone* will open up an office there,its

a real money maker,plenty space to put an office up in the

petrol station over the road,or in parking lot of the Spa.

time will tell.          *G4T ?  yes it's all assumptions  99

regards worgeordie

I think it is almost nailed on that the "new" one will have a "new" office in a suitable location. Would surely have been part of the deal when the "old" one was sold.

[NancyL]

I am no longer president or on the Board of CEC, so any assumption that I am cheerleading for their sponsors is totally out-of-line.

[scottiejohn]

3 hours ago, Dante99 said:

The glass really is half full, the new airport offices are going to improve things dramatically

How?

 

[Sparkles]

42 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

How?

 

Yes how ? Improved  service at CM Imm relates to more staff not a new building with limited parking.

 

At the risk of repeating myself,as I have said for years, it requires more staff requiring only  a  Batchelor Degree, some training, an understanding of English and basic clerical skills.Many Thai people would kill for job there.5 days a week, loads  of public/annual  holidays and a retirement package

 

Until there is the will from the decision makers to improve services by bulking up staff numbers nothing will change.

 

I am happy to continue to  DYI but when I see new arrivals non plussed by the process and the horror stories, or people who are incapacitated or busy in their jobs and having to turn to "Agents" its a sad state of affairs.

 

 

 

 

[KiChakayan]

26 minutes ago, Sparkles said:

Yes how ? Improved  service at CM Imm relates to more staff not a new building with limited parking.

 

At the risk of repeating myself,as I have said for years, it requires more staff requiring only  a  Batchelor Degree, some training, an understanding of English and basic clerical skills.Many Thai people would kill for job there.5 days a week, loads  of public/annual  holidays and a retirement package

 

Until there is the will from the decision makers to improve services by bulking up staff numbers nothing will change.

Adding staff that to a lame process will only bring more rot to the rot. Just some obvious IT enabled process improvement could work wonders. The 90 days reporting is sad example of how badly IT is managed at immigration, single production platform (I.E) haphazard deployment, unreliable production platform. Now if one wanted to reengineer the process, the first finding would be that the 90 days and TM30/TM28 flows a essentially redundant, can do away with one in no time at all.

[Dante99]

1 hour ago, scottiejohn said:

4 hours ago, Dante99 said:

The glass really is half full, the new airport offices are going to improve things dramatically

How?

The old airport office was to small to add staff and Prominada suffers the same problem.  The new offices will have much larger space so staff can be effectively added.  It only takes about 3 or 4 new service stations to significantly improve service.  Add two each to retirement and 90 day reporting and you have doubled the service and cut waits in half.  Those two seem to be the bottlenecks.

 

The systems certainly could be better but are really not that bad now for most things.  The hang ups mostly come from unprepared people coming for service and people coming in to bla bla bla wanting to know exactly what the rules are or whatever rather than doing their business and getting out.  

 

To think that they are building a much larger facility with no plans to improve service is a stretch.

 

You want to bitch about parking, you are barking up the wrong tree, it sucks almost everywhere in Thailand.  You want state of the art IT, you came to the wrong place and should have known it.  You want to make Thailand into Michigan good luck with that windmill.

 

 

[scottiejohn]

19 minutes ago, Dante99 said:

The new offices will have much larger space so staff can be effectively added.  It only takes about 3 or 4 new service stations to significantly improve service.  Add two each to retirement and 90 day reporting and you have doubled the service and cut waits in half.  Those two seem to be the bottlenecks.

But are they going to add staff?  Does anyone know?

 

The system has been total cr*p since before the year 2000 which is when I first started  using "Agents" (although they were not called that then) and until such time as I see reports that the new offices etc have drastically improved the service I will continue to use my "Agent(s)".

 

The agent knockers don't like them.  No problem just shut up about them and let all of us who WANT to use "Agents" (whether old, white, sex addicts, those who find it suitable, love the convenience of agents or whatever) get on with OUR choice.

 

Please stop bashing agents and their customers.

[bkk6060]

Seems so trivial for people to complain about 90 day reports.

There are so many other much more important issues here.  Health issues, road issues, fòod safety, water cleanliness, poverty, etc. etc.

Why is it so difficult for some to get off their butts for a few hours every 3 months and report?  

On the big picture of life, it is so no big deal just seems like a spolied complaint.

[Dante99]

31 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

 

Please stop bashing agents and their customers.

You are responding to my post?

 

Where have you seen me doing that?  It would be a surprise since I have used an agent a few times and never recall bashing any of them or their customers.

 

Nor have I ever bashed Chiang Mai Immigration in my recollection.

[scottiejohn]

6 minutes ago, Dante99 said:

You are responding to my post?

 

Where have you seen me doing that?  It would be a surprise since I have used an agent a few times and never recall bashing any of them or their customers.  

Sorry! 

 

No I was getting at NancyL  et al who cannot stop whinging at us agent users.  Why they do it I do not know.

 

I forgot I was quoting you at the beginning of the post.

Please consider your Halo as restored!