10 minutes ago, steven100 said:

@Liverpool Lou .. why the sad reaction ? 

I wasn't aware that we had to explain our views here?

The OP is definitely not well travelled! ????

11 minutes ago, steven100 said:

@Liverpool Lou .. why the sad reaction ? 

AN should do away with the Sad and Confused reactions. 

 

If you're confused or sad reply with a comment. 

 

 

1 minute ago, Liverpool Lou said:

I wasn't aware that we had to explain our views here?

I was just curious ... lol ,   I need another drink  ... 

Quote

Why nothing works anymore in Thailand?

It never worked, it was simply all balanced out by extra tourism cash so nobody really noticed.

13 minutes ago, steven100 said:

@Liverpool Lou .. why the sad reaction ? 

 

2 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

I wasn't aware that we had to explain our views here?

Maybe he was reaching out to someone that is feeling down. 

 

How often do you feel sad in your life? What are the reasons for your sadness.

 

Open up. Talking helps. ???? 

Just had an issue with Lazada getting money back from a defective car camera. After going around in circles online with a Chat thing, I gave up and called them. Issue resolved with an email to me, sent back copies…..all done.

sometimes talking with somebody can resolve things immediately.

On the other hand dealing with the IRS in USA….Yikes! I’m still trying to get the 1,400 dollars Covid relief money from April 2021. Waited 50 minutes to talk with someone, explained everything, she said I’ll connect you and here is a four digit number to expedite things……connected me, and they said, “We are presently closed.” Now back to square A.

4 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Well I never have had problems and not being Thai I leave everything for my Thai wife to sort out. 

Great minds think alike, she see's my facial expression and comes closer to me, I take off her leash and after I say, go git em girl, all hell breaks loose.

 

She learned from the best when she lived overseas with me for 9 years, if I wasn't getting anywhere with some dipstick, I would ask for their supervisor/manager, if the problem wasn't resolved, I made sure they knew that I was going all the way to the top, and each and every time, they learned the hard way.

 

I am glad that is all behind me, because as you get older, you don't have the energy, so now I just take of the leash as mentioned ????

 

4 hours ago, Crossy said:

Of course there are two sides to every coin, there ARE things that are easier/quicker here than "back home".

 

Some years back we were living in a condo somewhat out in the sticks. I noticed in an advert that one ISP announced that they now provided ADSL in our area.

 

I called, they emailed me a form which I completed and emailed back along with my passport and WP copies. I completed this at about 10AM.

 

Just after lunch my wife called me and said there was a man there to install internet and did I know?

 

I had an similar experience. We had a call from a neighbour on a Thursday saying they wanted internet installed at the local village school but needed another five takers and were we interested? Yes please. 3BB came on Saturday and did the wiring and on Sunday returned to connect us up.

There was a problem - in Thailand there is always a problem - but they spent six hours and worked until 11.45pm to get it working - assisted by some Leo beer and potato crisps and the service has been 99% reliable in the two years since. Unlike the TOT government service we had before which often broke down and they didn't work weekends so when it went down at 5pm on a Friday - as it once did -  that was that until Monday. We also had a 100km round trip to their office, whereas 3BB is 10 minutes away.

Can you imagine getting anyone to work at a weekend, and until midnight, to install anywhere else? And no extra 'overtime' fee, nothing. Just normal, regular service. Many, many things suck about Thai service, but the internet rocks.

2 hours ago, MadMuhammad said:

I had to call my bank in Aus as they blocked my account for fraud. I actually spoke to a real person for a grand total of 11mins first call, 8mins second call. 
 

It’s not just Thailand I’m afraid……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Henricus said:

next time use Skype

I am facing exactly the same problem - I bought an Ebook from Amazon using my UK debit card, and when I tried to buy a second book an hour or so later Amazon ( they of the incomparable service!)

 decided it was fraudulent and my card was blocked. It can, apparently, only be unblocked by phoning a UK number - toll free within the UK but costing an arm and a leg to get to the UK. I did suggest to Amazon that since they had declared fraud wrongly and initiated the block, perhaps they should bear the cost of unblocking it, but they didn't think that was a good idea.

 

Anyway, is it possible to use Skype for the international part of such telephone calls?

4 hours ago, worgeordie said:

He forgot to mention Immigration problems , no problem at

all for me, but for many it seems

regards worgeordie

he's Thai thus don't have to deal with immigration 555

I  am guessing you never had to deal with China bureaucracy, compared to them Thailand is heaven

I have said for 12 years now that Thailand is the poster child for Murphy's Law....if anything can go wrong....it will! Nothing every goes as planned, so I have learned to never have any positive expectations when I go out to do any sort of personal business. I just expect things to go wrong, so I have a plan A thru C just in case. It is the most frustrating part of living here, so to protect my sanity I seldom will tackle more than two interactions with the locals in a given day. A trip to a hospital and a bank in the same day will generally just put me over the edge. I have an obsessive-compulsive personality, and I don't thrive well in an environment where there is chaos and disorder, so Thailand is very toxic for me and just drains the life right out of me. I have observed over the years that the general default attitude of anyone involved in customer service is to tell me every reason why they CAN'T do what I'm asking instead of finding a solution to a problem that I may have presented. It's the exact opposite of what it should be, and it makes me want to pull my freaking hair out!!!!!

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

I couldn't agree more .....  an example, I wanted to purchase a new mobile on Shopee .....  I chat with the sales staff and specifically asked him does the mobile phone have LINE app already installed  ? ......  he writes back and says '   yes,  comes with,    Then a day later I hit the buy now button .... and I asked again if LINE app is on the mobile already .... he says'  you have to install it yourself   !   huh !!  ,   I asked you and you confirmed it came , now you tell me it doesn't .......   sh eeeeee sh ...

Absolute Knuckleheads ... honestly  ...    

i canceled the buy.

 

 

You've been in Thailand all this time, and you STILL have not learned a Thai will usually tell you what he/she thinks you want to hear?

21 minutes ago, Mansell said:

Just had an issue with Lazada getting money back from a defective car camera. After going around in circles online with a Chat thing, I gave up and called them. Issue resolved with an email to me, sent back copies…..all done.

sometimes talking with somebody can resolve things immediately.

On the other hand dealing with the IRS in USA….Yikes! I’m still trying to get the 1,400 dollars Covid relief money from April 2021. Waited 50 minutes to talk with someone, explained everything, she said I’ll connect you and here is a four digit number to expedite things……connected me, and they said, “We are presently closed.” Now back to square A.

Yup, talking with Lazada cust serv directly on the phone is always successful, when the situation has become sticky.

 

That said, their automated process for returning improper items seems to accept my side automatically (photo always required) and the free shipping label is sent, and refund processed as soon as item is back in return transit.

 

RE IRS, went through the same 50 minute wait for the same issue, but then having the new Direct Deposit Routing number included in the very recent 1040 filed... simplified the issue for them, and they were able to directly deposit my rebate $$$ electronically, eventually.

ONE EXPENSIVE PHONE CALL, to be sure.

 

I do always wonder what had actually become of the original CHECK they had mailed me (which was never delivered, lol)

7 minutes ago, fittobethaied said:

I have said for 12 years now that Thailand is the poster child for Murphy's Law....if anything can go wrong....it will! Nothing every goes as planned, so I have learned to never have any positive expectations when I go out to do any sort of personal business. I just expect things to go wrong, so I have a plan A thru C just in case. It is the most frustrating part of living here, so to protect my sanity I seldom will tackle more than two interactions with the locals in a given day. A trip to a hospital and a bank in the same day will generally just put me over the edge. I have an obsessive-compulsive personality, and I don't thrive well in an environment where there is chaos and disorder, so Thailand is very toxic for me and just drains the life right out of me. I have observed over the years that the general default attitude of anyone involved in customer service is to tell me every reason why they CAN'T do what I'm asking instead of finding a solution to a problem that I may have presented. It's the exact opposite of what it should be, and it makes me want to pull my freaking hair out!!!!!

Jesus, same for me, except I frame my disorder as being high anxiety. ONE SITUATION PER DAY, is definitely they practical approach.

 

I ended up in Udon Thani too, btw, 16 years in the Land of 1 Smile, hehe.

Can't say I've had much in the way of problems here.

Everything was way harder back in the UK.

52 minutes ago, JeffersLos said:

The OP is definitely not well travelled! ????

That is such a cute observation, I imagined all sorts of deregatory comments by the always-know-better crowd, this one takes the cake. If you'd know, there's hardly a country on earth I have not been to. Or wanna, for instance, share your experiences in North Korea?

 

Whatever, this country is my home and I love Thailand, and if I'm not forced to waste more hours of my own time because officials, authorities, employees and such screw up basic tasks at the expense of the client / customer, well then we have heaven on earth, don't we.

5 minutes ago, heiri007 said:

forced to waste more hours of my own time because officials, authorities, employees and such screw up basic tasks at the expense of the client / customer

First time travelling without mommy? ????

10 minutes ago, heiri007 said:

That is such a cute observation, I imagined all sorts of deregatory comments by the always-know-better crowd, this one takes the cake. If you'd know, there's hardly a country on earth I have not been to. Or wanna, for instance, share your experiences in North Korea?

 

Whatever, this country is my home and I love Thailand, and if I'm not forced to waste more hours of my own time because officials, authorities, employees and such screw up basic tasks at the expense of the client / customer, well then we have heaven on earth, don't we.

Yup, posting OP material will generally release some toxic and snide replies... it's a pretty tough crowd here!

 

Hang in there...

5 hours ago, mancub said:

Fair enough. mothing wrong with a good rant occasionally ! 

Nearly got me started on repairing things every 6 months, that would last decades back "home! ????

OK, mothing wrong with a rant about spelling.   555

I agree with the sentiment of the OP. While most things go smoothly and well, the big problem is that the time and effort required to fix anything that goes wrong is often completely ridiculous.

 

I've spent hours to get problems fixed that should have been fixable in five minutes. There's a complete lack of training, thinking out of the box and basic problem solving skills pretty much everywhere.

Hey Hey Hey!! Lets get serious here. Let me tell you my rant about TIT!

I and the family went last night to see Top Gun 2 !!

We checked in early. The girl opened the seating chart and everything was open!  I pointed AND even touched the 3 seats right in the middle on the open aisle! MY favorite seats!!!

Well, let me tell you that there was a family already sitting there!!!!  We had to sit in the first row behind them with limited leg room!!!!! I was smoking!!!!!!

To make matters worse, (if that was possible) along comes a couple who HAS TICKETS TO OUR SEATS!!!

We checked and had to sit WAY down the line.!!!!!!!

I'm moving to Myanmar tomorrow and writing a letter right away!!!!!!

I never!!!!!!!!

1 hour ago, PJ71 said:

The companies take nothing, the bank send it.

 

You're stupid enough to have a thai bank account - lol 

Yeah without a Thai bank account my Thai employer would not pay me.

sucks but it is what it is.

 

For bill paying, it really is no bother to have the house maid sort them out at the 7/11 though.

6 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

Right around 2013, I got sick of the things the OP writes about, so I moved to Zihuatanejo , Mexico. A few months later I was back in Thailand with a renewed appreciation for the LOS. Sure, things are messed up here, but it's a helluva lot better than other places.

Whenever you find yourself in a situation you don't like, you have three options.

1) Change the situation (not likely gonna happen here)

2) Ignore the situation

3) Remove yourself from the situation

Up to you . . .

Sometimes the grass aint' always greener huh? Glad you made it back in one piece. I live n love it here and when the locals <deleted> me off I just get in my car, turn on some nice music, go home and lounge around my glorious pool with my beautiful garden around me, and when the want is there drink icy bevvies. So far no mass drug cartel killings like in Mexico, and living in fortresses to stop your family being kidnapped for ransoms. 

2 hours ago, steven100 said:

@Liverpool Lou .. why the sad reaction ? 

It comes as standard.

5 hours ago, PJ71 said:

you need to go to 7/11 to pay bills?? lol

I do all of mine except the electricity bill with online banking.

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

OK, mothing wrong with a rant about spelling.   555

Guess my spill-chucker wasn't up to it......or my eyesihjt ! 

4 hours ago, Eleftheros said:

Well, that is of course the problem. Bigger bureaucracy means more workers, and there is only a very limited supply of workers who know how many beans make five. So the proportion of bureaucratic workers who don't know enough to come inside when it rains, grows and grows, and so service goes down and down.

 

Not a problem limited to just Thailand, though.

Superb wording ????

You hit that right precisely on the head !

2 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

Iam not stupid enough to let a Thai company have access to my bank accounts to take monthly bill payments.

I bank with Kasikorn. I pay my bills online, transfer money online, I can even transfer money off shore, but for some reason the PEA doesn't want to do it the easy way (for me).  So once a month I go to the office and pay in cash and it isn't hard to do. I choose the day that I pay and no company accesses my account. When I pay a bill I get an SMS with an OTP.