Thai's Cutting In Line

[JimTripper]

Is this getting worse or am I just noticing it more?

 

Counted 3x so far today buying something or service oriented interactions where my transaction is already in process and someone (Thai) walks up, orders or requests while I'm standing there, and the person I'm with immediately serves them first and ignores me, sometimes with a drawn out conversation before they conclude, while I'm standing there waiting.

 

Is this disrespectful here in Thailand? I thought it was 🤷🏻‍♂️. Feels like a racist Thai first thing.

[stupidfarang]

normal, part of life here regardless if you are a thai or farang

[stoner]

i used to let this happen when i first came here. now not a chance. i care not if it is an old or young person i call them out every single time. i find that younger staff are changing with this as well though. a few times i have had a younger thai tell a budding customer to wait as i was there first.

 

make your voice heard in these instances regardless of how thai feel. stand with your own convictions of what you feel is disrespectful.

 

this is plain rude no matter the culture or what the locals feel or believe. 

 

 

 

 

[JimTripper]

7 minutes ago, stupidfarang said:

normal, part of life here regardless if you are a thai or farang

Why would they be getting served first??

 

Maybe they figure I'm already committed to the transaction so payment is guaranteed, while the person just approaching is not so they get served first?? 🤷🏻‍♂️

[richard_smith237]

I've also had this before...   But usually the staff are alert enough to deal with it appropriately and ask them to wait.

 

It has happened where the staffer diverts their attention, it is then that I speak up. 

 

Fortunately...  its a lot more polite here than I find in a lot of other areas (France is a shocker !).

 

 

[Woof999]

Happens often and it's frustrating but I'm starting to learn to just ignore it.

 

What does grind my gears though (and it seems to happen in 7-11 so so often), is that I'm being served on the till by one member of staff and all they have left to do is give me my change. Then the person on the till next to them has a problem, so the person serving me immediately hops over to help them for a couple of minutes until that customer (usually Thai) is done, and then comes back to me for the 5 seconds needed to give me my change.

[Tropicalevo]

15 minutes ago, JimTripper said:

Is this getting worse or am I just noticing it more?

 

Counted 3x so far today buying something or service oriented interactions where my transaction is already in process and someone (Thai) walks up, orders or requests while I'm standing there, and the person I'm with immediately serves them first and ignores me, sometimes with a drawn out conversation before they conclude, while I'm standing there waiting.

 

Is this disrespectful here in Thailand? I thought it was 🤷🏻‍♂️. Feels like a racist Thai first thing.

It's not a disrespect thing. Just normal for a lot of SE Asia.

Thais are not taught 'queueing'. It's a relatively new thing.

You can go with the flow or educate them one at a time. Up to you.

[worgeordie]

I am sure it used to be worse in the past , years ago before they introduced  ropes to

keep people in lines at the banks etc, then it was tickets , it used to be like a Rugby scrum 

trying to get your bank book in a basket on the tellers desk  , hands waving about pushing and shoving.

yes improved a lot now , Thai's are learning to que like the British .......

 

regards worgeordie

[Nick Carter icp]

13 minutes ago, Woof999 said:

Happens often and it's frustrating but I'm starting to learn to just ignore it.

 

What does grind my gears though (and it seems to happen in 7-11 so so often), is that I'm being served on the till by one member of staff and all they have left to do is give me my change. Then the person on the till next to them has a problem, so the person serving me immediately hops over to help them for a couple of minutes until that customer (usually Thai) is done, and then comes back to me for the 5 seconds needed to give me my change.

 

   How often does that happen to you ?

[Nick Carter icp]

31 minutes ago, JimTripper said:

Counted 3x so far today buying something or service oriented interactions where my transaction is already in process and someone (Thai) walks up, orders or requests while I'm standing there, and the person I'm with immediately serves them first and ignores me,

 

   Just say to both of them "Excuse me, she is dealing with me at the moment and she will serve you when she's finished serving me "

[Gecko123]

There is a pragmatic efficiency algorithm in play. The minor inconvenience of the customer already being served is weighed against the value of answering another customer's quick question. If the quick question devolves into a protracted problem, usually they're told to wait until the shopkeeper is finished with you. Foreigners sometimes interrupt a Thai person's transaction to ask a quick question, so works both ways. Thai person may sometimes be deferred to over a foreigner due to their status as a long time customer, known member of the community, friendship, or comfort level due to ease of communication, but have never felt this was due to racial discrimination. I've had lots of situations in repair shops where I show up out of the blue with my weedwacker or lawn mower and the mechanic will stop whatever they were working on and start diagnosing my problem. Some of it is they want to engage the customer so that they don't get frustrated, walk out of the store, and thus lose the sale. Hope this is helpful. I would not take the advice to become unduly assertive in these situation; there's a cultural difference which once you get used to it, makes a lot of sense. P.S. you are misusing the word racist which means a belief that a given race is superior to another.

[Yellowtail]

It does not really happen to me. 

[JimTripper]

2 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

Just say to both of them "Excuse me, she is dealing with me at the moment and she will serve you when she's finished serving me "

They usually don't speak english well.

[Mavideol]

18 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

I've also had this before...   But usually the staff are alert enough to deal with it appropriately and ask them to wait.

 

It has happened where the staffer diverts their attention, it is then that I speak up. 

 

Fortunately...  its a lot more polite here than I find in a lot of other areas (France is a shocker !).

 

 

Assuming u never been to China as they are the masters at cutting lines, going to a bank whereby they provide a ticket number to each customer, they don't care, still push their way through and the majority of the employees let it happen

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, JimTripper said:

They usually don't speak english well.

They don't have to; they'll know what you're talking about. 

[Nick Carter icp]

Just now, JimTripper said:

They usually don't speak english well.

 

   With  few hand actions, they do understand the meaning and you just need to say one word on Thai to the queue jumper and they understand ,  Wait/Logon

[stoner]

4 minutes ago, JimTripper said:

They usually don't speak english well.

 

you could always speak in thai. 

[impulse]

34 minutes ago, stoner said:

make your voice heard in these instances regardless of how thai feel. stand with your own convictions of what you feel is disrespectful.

 

But then watch them like a hawk, lest they spit in your drink or your dish.

[stoner]

1 minute ago, impulse said:

 

But then watch them like a hawk, lest they spit in your drink or your dish.

hehehe 

 

ewww i don't eat thai food. 

[JimTripper]

8 minutes ago, stoner said:

you could always speak in thai. 

There is this whole social embarrassment thing here that makes me reluctant to call people out. It feels like challenging someone for anything is overkill.

 

If it was in the Usa I would just call them out in it and see your point.

[thaibeachlovers]

It's nothing in LOS compared to Saudi. Just be grateful it's not as bad as there.

[HappyExpat57]

A couple of weeks ago I was at Makro buying some ground meat. There were 3 or 4 Thais who placed their bags up to be weighed and I placed mine behind theirs. The jerk weighing and pricing the meats did all theirs then stopped before doing mine. He started screwing around on his phone while looking me right at me. He wasn't answering a call, he was just playing around on the phone. I said "screw this" to myself and left the bag there, getting some frozen meat instead. Meh.

[JimTripper]

6 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It's nothing in LOS compared to Saudi. Just be grateful it's not as bad as there.

Is it done mostly among the poorer classes there, or the wealthy also?

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, JimTripper said:

Is it done mostly among the poorer classes there, or the wealthy also?

It's mainly by the better off Saudis who think they are "special". We are just infidels, so it's only right that they can q jump in front of us.

BTW, the "poorer classes" would be the "guest workers". Other than the Bedouin ( wonderful people ) I never saw a poor Saudi.

 

[OneMoreFarang]

It seems some Thais do multitasking like that. And other Thais are used to it.

 

Sometime when I go to my regular coffee shop and in front of me is someone who can't make up his mind which sandwich he should order, I use the same method. I tell them from the second row "a double espresso and a chocolate croissant". Then the people next to the cashier can prepare that already, and it's ready for me when I actually pay, after the person in front of me finally made up his mind.

Obviously some farang who needs 5 min to select a sandwich doesn't like that, but that is his problem, not my problem. ;) 

[KannikaP]

28 minutes ago, JimTripper said:

They usually don't speak English well.

Sign language, gesticulation....ME No 1, YOU no 2.

 

Happens in banks and hospitals. Sitting at a desk with the Bank girl  and someone comes and asks a question. They then have a 5 minute conversation. Or at the Doctors, in the middle of my talk with her, phone rings and she was on for 10 minutes, while still writing my diagnosis and prescription. I complemented her on her ability to multi-task.

[uttradit]

Never happened to me. 

[mokwit]

58 minutes ago, JimTripper said:

Why would they be getting served first??

Because they are Thai.

[OneMoreFarang]

I see something similar riding motorcycle.

Let's say I am behind a car and there is just no way to overtake it. So maybe I have 2m distance to the car.

Then some idiot comes with his bike from the back and squeezes into that 2m "gap" in front of me. Obviously he also can't pass the car.

If I see that happening, then I make sure there is no gap. Go to the back again! 

 

 

[Andre0720]

1 hour ago, JimTripper said:

Is this getting worse or am I just noticing it more?

 

Counted 3x so far today buying something or service oriented interactions where my transaction is already in process and someone (Thai) walks up, orders or requests while I'm standing there, and the person I'm with immediately serves them first and ignores me, sometimes with a drawn out conversation before they conclude, while I'm standing there waiting.

 

Is this disrespectful here in Thailand? I thought it was 🤷🏻‍♂️. Feels like a racist Thai first thing.

A few traits that are part of the culture in Thailand comes into play here.

 

First, Thais are very very selfish. The list of examples are just too numerous to make a list here now.

 

So this will make them just hijack the attention of a person, to affirm the selfishness.

 

Now the person whose attention has been hijacked, a salesperson perhaps, will automatically give his or her attention to the hijacker, because failure to do so would make the hijacker lose face. One heck of a no no here in Thai culture.

 

Then as foreigner, it is incumbent upon us to call out the hijack, since the Thai individual is more likely to take a bow, as he, or she, instinctively knows that foreigners are not part of this culture... And while doing so, they strangely still totally ignore the person that they are trying to sidestep...

 

Of course, for any foreigner, it is total lack of respect, total impoliteness.

 

Thais may never understand that....