Kasikorn Bank Problems

[hank2800]

I was doing a phone number change on my K cyber account for transfers and had to go into my Kasik branch just north of soi 6 on the Canal to make the change. I've been there for 15 years and have had a few glitches with wire transfers etc and just lived with it. So I went in  1 week ago Monday, filled out the paperwork and the lady said it would be 3 days for the phone number changes to apply. By Thursday nothing had happened, so I emailed their trouble center, and no reply from them,Now Today I called the helpline which I believe is in Bangkok and the lady found that the paperwork that the CM branch submitted was wrong and I'd have to go back to the branch. We live 1 1/2 hours outside Near Samoeng so just going back to the branch is a pain and I told her I needed to get the phone number fixed todaY and their paperwork screw up shouldn't be my problem,,without having to drive all the way in again, but no ,,,can't be done on the phone,,so 8 days later and still have no transfer ability,, all this for a simple number change. I'll likely just say enough is enough and transfer to Bangkok Bank here in Samoeng and then be local although I do everything online so the branch is not important, just  hate changing everything over. Does anybody have any   recommendations on a"troublefree" bank or has this become the new normal in CM , grin and bear it?

[uncleP]

Bangkok bank has been terrible for me whereas kasikorn has been great but like you we do everything online, the one difference is my bank is 5 mins away. SCB seems quite modern but it helps if you have contacts within any bank you use.

[trevoromgh]

I faced a similar problem a few years back with KBank when my AIS mobile SIM expired and I had to change my phone number as a result.  I guess because the mobile is so key to their online banking security for OTP verification purposes they have to be very careful but the process did seem very long winded at the time.  Anyway, eventually it was done but since then I have vowed NEVER to change my mobile number and now use an AIS pay-as-you-go and ensure the 'expiry' date is at least 12 months by topping up the balance on a regular basis.  Apart from this glitch I've found KBank very reliable and easy to do business with whereas some of the others seem to suffer regular ATM issues.

You also mentioned having glitches on wire transfers so I'd recommend using a company called Transferwise who I've found to be fast, reliable and very cost effective compared with other money transfer methods.

[Bob A Kneale]

1 hour ago, hank2800 said:

Does anybody have any   recommendations on a"troublefree" bank or has this become the new normal in CM , grin and bear it?

I've never had any problems with any of my banks, Kasikorn, BBL, KTB, Krungsri or UOB.   I'd suggest that your having this one hiccup, changing your associated phone number, isn't really a case of Kasikorn being a troublesome bank. 

 

Travelling an hour or so to sort it out could be less trouble than opening a new account from scratch with a different bank of which you have no experience.

[1arry1iu]

After dealing with a few banks and quite some bank staff, I came to be conclusion that many times it is more of a people issue than a bank issue. Many bank staff I have encountered lack conscientiousness, professionalism, and know-how. This is, to my understanding, primary due to Thai education and culture, and the banks' (lack of) incentive systems. Hence, finding a bank clerk who is ambitious, meticulous, conscientious, and has a growth mindset became our first priority of our first few weeks in Thailand. We are fortunate to have found a relationship manager at Central Festival Branch of Bangkok Bank who is just like that. She now takes care of all our transactions and Bangkok/AIA insurance policies with 100% precision/0 hassle. One added advantage we have realized later is that we never need to queue any more. In fact, an interesting person at a well-known used-car dealership once told me that he would never trust the computers/system, but the best people since we are dealing with people here in Thailand. I think he spoke truth.

Edited June 3, 2020 by 1arry1iu

[Andy from Kent]

The banks are pretty much faultless when it comes to them screwing up something.

[Bill97]

14 minutes ago, Andy from Kent said:

The banks are pretty much faultless when it comes to them screwing up something.

As are you and your brother.

[chuang]

Nothing to do with thai culture and education.....if you are not happy withtheir services find another BANK...simple as that....????

[1arry1iu]

8 minutes ago, chuang said:

Nothing to do with thai culture and education.....if you are not happy withtheir services find another BANK...simple as that....????

We have tried SCB, Krung Thai, K Bank, and Bangkok Bank, and feel most of the clerks will not qualify working elsewhere but Thailand. I would say that is evidence for the correlation. In fact, we intentionally looked for staff that are behaviorally non-Thai. I understand this is stereotyping, but it has worked in our case. The relationship manager we use, for example, would scold her assistants and colleagues for incompetence harshly in front of us, which is not typical of Thai based on my understanding and according to my wife. Nevertheless, she did her work well for us, efficient and effective.

[Bill97]

2 hours ago, 1arry1iu said:

would scold her assistants and colleagues for incompetence harshly in front of us

Very poor management practice And a very rude behavior.  I would never have a relationship or support someone like that.

 

Should be reported to top management for firing or demotion.

[1arry1iu]

9 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Very poor management practice And a very rude behavior.  I would never have a relationship or support someone like that.

 

Should be reported to top management for firing or demotion.

The scolding took place when her colleague who was supposed be the expert to answered one of our questions vaguely, so we could not make a decision. I am certain we were not the first to have received an answer from Thais which starts with a big "maybe" or "about". The relationship manager scolded her for her lack of precision, and asked her to call her manager to have "a sure answer" immediately. She may not be a nice person to work with, but is damn effective. I think perhaps we are after different things. We want competence, which we find rare in Thailand. Everything else to us is secondary. 

Edited June 3, 2020 by 1arry1iu

[DaRoadrunner]

9 hours ago, Bill97 said:

12 hours ago, 1arry1iu said:

would scold her assistants and colleagues for incompetence harshly in front of us

Very poor management practice And a very rude behavior.  I would never have a relationship or support someone like that.

 

Should be reported to top management for firing or demotion.

I reckon the average Thai would benefit from a good scolding. I wake one of em up almost every day.

[impulse]

1 hour ago, 1arry1iu said:

The scolding took place when her colleague who was supposed be the expert to answered one of our questions vaguely, so we could not make a decision. I am certain we were not the first to have received an answer from Thais which starts with a big "maybe" or "about". The relationship manager scolded her for her lack of precision, and asked her to call her manager to have "a sure answer" immediately. She may not be a nice person to work with, but is damn effective. I think perhaps we are after different things. We want competence, which we find rare in Thailand. Everything else to us is secondary. 

 

Maybe effective in the moment, but it also may come back and bite your company in the butt in the long term.  It may be years, but sooner or later, the employees she belittles will take revenge and sabotage her.  And usually it will be at the expense of the company when they deliberately don't catch a mistake she made until it costs her job.

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by impulse

[samsensam]

On 6/2/2020 at 9:59 AM, uncleP said:

Bangkok bank has been terrible for me whereas kasikorn has been great but like you we do everything online, the one difference is my bank is 5 mins away. SCB seems quite modern but it helps if you have contacts within any bank you use.

 

first thing i'd suggest is having your account at a branch near your home. i have two kbank accounts and it while staff were generally ok it took me a while going round various branches before i found one with a great member of staff who is now my go to person for any issues. it is definitely worth building up such a relationship.

[Bill97]

2 hours ago, 1arry1iu said:

I think perhaps we are after different things. We want competence, which we find rare in Thailand. Everything else to us is secondary. 

I do not find competence rare in Thailand,  it is really not that difficult to find.  
 

I do find your attitude that everything else is secondary to be sad.  How about humanity? How about compassion? How about happiness? How about humor? How about health? How about friendship? Loyalty?

 

competence is God, what a life????

 

[balo]

Nothing wrong with Kasikorn bank, but some of the staff have issues. I would just try another branch if you want to change your phone number. 

 

[fcgprg]

16 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Very poor management practice And a very rude behavior.  I would never have a relationship or support someone like that.

 

Should be reported to top management for firing or demotion.

agree 100% this member of staff is so unprofessional.

[Olmate]

3 hours ago, balo said:

Nothing wrong with Kasikorn bank, but some of the staff have issues. I would just try another branch if you want to change your phone number. 

 

Your all missing the brown envelope!

[NE1]

Had a similar problem with BKK bank. 

I wanted a phone number change for OTP.

Went to the bank , filled forms in , copied passport , signed everything 2 or 3 times , " one week it will be changed "

I thought 10 business days should suffice . No.

Went back to the bank and there was another doc. I had to fill in , as they forgot about it first time .

Had to wait another 2 weeks before everything changed.

I don't think it matters what bank you use , as somebody earlier suggested , 

use the one closest to home , it won't stop them being incompetent ,

but it is less of a distance for you to travel when they are.

[1FinickyOne]

On 6/2/2020 at 2:55 PM, hank2800 said:

or has this become the new normal in CM

the new normal in the world... 

 

On 6/2/2020 at 2:55 PM, hank2800 said:

their paperwork screw up shouldn't be my problem,,without having to drive all the way in again,

but it is... and this is also part of the world today... if you rely on online banking, there might be screw-ups... and really best to deal with a bank as local as you can get.. I do understand the inconvenience but life is not w/o issues... 

 

I have had issues w/my bank in USA even when everyone was well meaning and competent and people who I know and have known for years... kept having trouble getting online access to my account and everyone patiently tried to assist... somewhere else in the chain, someone decided to block access to people in Thailand and none of us knew... things happen. 

 

Kasikorn has always been great for me - - but it is always good if you can have a personal relationship w/a manager in the bank... let them sort things out... 

[1arry1iu]

6 hours ago, Bill97 said:

I do not find competence rare in Thailand,  it is really not that difficult to find.  
 

I do find your attitude that everything else is secondary to be sad.  How about humanity? How about compassion? How about happiness? How about humor? How about health? How about friendship? Loyalty?

 

competence is God, what a life????

 

I do not think people go to a bank seeking most of the qualities you listed above. I think they go to bank to get things done. I could be wrong.

[1arry1iu]

7 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Maybe effective in the moment, but it also may come back and bite your company in the butt in the long term.  It may be years, but sooner or later, the employees she belittles will take revenge and sabotage her.  And usually it will be at the expense of the company when they deliberately don't catch a mistake she made until it costs her job.

 

I think personality studies might suggest the opposite. People high on trait conscientiousness and low on trait agreeableness, like the relationship manager, are less likely to be taken advantage of because they have competence, strategy, and teeth. Agreeable people, like her colleagues, tend to demonstrate obedience and followed instructions. The dynamic might change when her colleagues start to grow teeth, but the likelihood is low. Her dominance in the matriarchy, since there is only one senior male staff in the bank, will continue. In order for her to survive power struggles, she needs allies. She does. Three minutes after the scolding, she started discussing lunch with her colleagues, including the one she had scolded, and they decided to order lunch together.

[BigStar]

On 6/2/2020 at 2:55 PM, hank2800 said:

I'll likely just say enough is enough and transfer to Bangkok Bank here in Samoeng and then be local

Should have gone local before. It's likely in Thailand you have to visit the branch sometimes.

 

But oh, well. Mistakes happen. I banked at several branches at BBL over the years and all have been just fine.

[impulse]

17 minutes ago, 1arry1iu said:

I think personality studies might suggest the opposite. People high on trait conscientiousness and low on trait agreeableness, like the relationship manager, are less likely to be taken advantage of because they have competence, strategy, and teeth. Agreeable people, like her colleagues, tend to demonstrate obedience and followed instructions. The dynamic might change when her colleagues start to grow teeth, but the likelihood is low. Her dominance in the matriarchy, since there is only one senior male staff in the bank, will continue. In order for her to survive power struggles, she needs allies. She does. Three minutes after the scolding, she started discussing lunch with her colleagues, including the one she had scolded, and they decided to order lunch together.

 

Good luck with that.  Those studies were done in the west.  My experience over 20 years working in Asia is very different.

 

[1arry1iu]

13 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Good luck with that.  Those studies were done in the west.  My experience over 20 years working in Asia is very different.

 

Quite a lot done in China actually. While conscientiousness remains important, agreeableness does seem to be emphasized. However, there are more factors influencing the dynamic than just personality, e.g. social exchange, which, I would say, is true everywhere, perhaps more so in Thailand in its raw monetary terms. Hence, there is a reason for the relationship manager to be in that position at a relatively young age. 

 

Competence is a rarity, indicated too well, for example, by a tail of normal distribution. It is no wonder that it usually correlates with outliers of common personality. Hence, there is also a reason for the relationship manager to be able to give us answers that do not start with "maybe" or "about" in Thailand. As long as she serves us with competence, we are quite happy with what she is. 

 

Again, I think it is more of a people thing than a bank thing, and recommend finding competent people, evidenced by the results he or she produces for you, build rapport, and rely upon their competence for the matters you seek to deal with.

[deej]

On 6/3/2020 at 11:30 AM, 1arry1iu said:

We have tried SCB, Krung Thai, K Bank, and Bangkok Bank, and feel most of the clerks will not qualify working elsewhere

FWIW

Approaching 2 decades of dealing with any Thai banking branch in Chiangmai , have found their services and clerks  very efficent

Perhaps a couple weeks back, you opened a post on Primary Schools  which you in your opinion were  not up to your standard ????

From the above post now its the Banks turn????

[1arry1iu]

On 6/4/2020 at 1:39 PM, deej said:

FWIW

Approaching 2 decades of dealing with any Thai banking branch in Chiangmai , have found their services and clerks  very efficent

Perhaps a couple weeks back, you opened a post on Primary Schools  which you in your opinion were  not up to your standard ????

From the above post now its the Banks turn????

If waiting (15 minutes - half an hour) + changing the email (30 minutes - 1 hour, involving signing tons of paperwork) is efficiency, then yes, they are efficient.

 

I wish they could move everything online so that changing an email or phone number would take 1 minute. But hey, TIT. Let's ใจเย็นเย็น. Lol