Shopping For Electronics In Thailand

[kyb789]

Today I set my mind to go purchase of my first DVD entertainment system in Thailand. What an educational experience. Let me explain it by using a line-by-line comparison to a typical electronics shopping experience back home.

ME (pointing to a DVD system on display): "I would like this Sony DVD system."

Home: "OK, just one minute. Let me check our stock."

Home: "Sorry sir, we are out of stock. Just one minute. Let me see if any of our other stores can transfer it over here.

Thailand: "OK, just one minute. Let me check our stock."

Thailand: "Sorry sir, no have. Old unit. We have new model over here (pointing to one 5,000baht more expensive).

Me: "I don't want that one. I want this Sony unit. Can you order it?"

Home: "No problem. We can have it here in 3 to 5 business days."

Thailand: They call 3 more sales guys over to discuss. "blah, blah...'order' blah blah"

Thailand: "No sir, cannot order." (while all laughing in unison).

Me: "What about this floor model? I'll take it. Can you give me a discount?"

Home: "Sure. Let me talk to the manager and see what I can do. You get the same manufacturer's warranty"

Thailand (still laughing): "no sir, cannot sell floor model. No discount. . We have Pioneer, new model, over here."

The story goes on, but why depress you any further?

[lalatal]

Today I set my mind to go purchase of my first DVD entertainment system in Thailand. What an educational experience. Let me explain it by using a line-by-line comparison to a typical electronics shopping experience back home.

ME (pointing to a DVD system on display): "I would like this Sony DVD system."

Home: "OK, just one minute. Let me check our stock."

Home: "Sorry sir, we are out of stock. Just one minute. Let me see if any of our other stores can transfer it over here.

Thailand: "OK, just one minute. Let me check our stock."

Thailand: "Sorry sir, no have. Old unit. We have new model over here (pointing to one 5,000baht more expensive).

Me: "I don't want that one. I want this Sony unit. Can you order it?"

Home: "No problem. We can have it here in 3 to 5 business days."

Thailand: They call 3 more sales guys over to discuss. "blah, blah...'order' blah blah"

Thailand: "No sir, cannot order." (while all laughing in unison).

Me: "What about this floor model? I'll take it. Can you give me a discount?"

Home: "Sure. Let me talk to the manager and see what I can do. You get the same manufacturer's warranty"

Thailand (still laughing): "no sir, cannot sell floor model. No discount. . We have Pioneer, new model, over here."

The story goes on, but why depress you any further?

go to the "old" "Big C" in pratunam

all the shops in this building are dedicated to home electronics

[PattayaParent]

Not just electronics, just about anything.

How many times have you been buying clothes and aked the store assistant do you have this shirt / trousers (insert any other item) in blue? Only to be brought a compltely different style of shirt / trousers (insert any other item).

Or there's a coffee table on display, last one, cannot order, and cannot sell the store model 'cos it has no bar code on it!!

What do they do with all these display models that they cannot / will not sell? Besides leave them on display that is!

[h90]

yeah, everyone had that experiences. You should ask them some question about that system, you see only silly faces again.....

Solution: change shop! some small shops with chinese owner really know what they do and might be cheaper as well

[MrSnrang]

Or you could just spend the extra money and buy the newer model, unless it's sony because they suck regardless.

[Florin]

I vowed never to use Pantip again after 5 different stores could not sell me a boxed version of 5 different MP3 players they had in their windows!! It being for a gift, I couldn't take the window models, but come on, who the h_ell prominently displays stocks of 1(ONE) item??

Several other experiences before also showed me that it has really gone to the dogs, it's the Patpong of PC stuff.

Also (and this applies to pretty much any electronics store in TH), could they BE slower in processing the bill?? In so many places it's all well and good until you actually want to BUY an item.

[dave111223]

The problem is that all the sales reps. get paid commission by different brand names. So they have no interest in selling a brand other than that (and in most cases will be down right rude if you attempt to purchase another brand).

The worst part is my wife doesn't seem to grasp this so always spends like 20 minutes listening to the guy trying push his commission brand.

It's funny because if leave the store and come back an hour later you'll probably meet a rep. being paid by a different brand and he'll tell you the model the previous guy was pushing sucks, and only his brand is good.

I used to work at Staples in the US in the electronics department, and taking payoffs from brand sales reps would get you fired. Which makes for a better situation as you only push the brands that you know to be good as you have nothing to gain by sell one over the other.

Leaving models out of the shelfs which were no longer available would most likely have the department manager looking for a new job.

Seems to be common practice in all businesses here though.

The thing with electronics here that most annoys me is the price. I can put up with bad service as long as i'm saving on the price. If I go to a restaurant and food/service sucks but hey at least it only cost me $2, so no hard feelings.

But with electronics the prices are pretty similar to what you'd pay in the US anyways.

[siamesekitty]

Little hint to determine if the salesperson is being sincere in his praises of a certain brand or not:

take a peek at the shirt he's wearing. oftentimes it will be a polo shirt with the brand logo on the pocket. sometimes, esp in a BigC or other hypermarket, they will have a BigC (or whatever) vest over the shirt, but still you can often make out the brand that is on the back right under the collar

or peek at his badge, the logo might be there.

Edited January 7, 2008 by siamesekitty

[tattoodrob]

YEH SHOPPING HERE REALLY GETS ON MY TITS.......EVERYTIME.

THEY HAND OUT A LEAFLET AT DOOR WITH LOTS OF ITEMS ON SALE .......GO INSIDE....SORRY SIR WE HAVENT RECEIVED THIS ITEM YET IN STOCK OR SOLD OUT ALREADY OR THIS BRANCH NOT GOING TO HAVE THAT.....WHY HAND OUT THE <deleted> LEAFLETS THEN?? ALSO GO HOMEWORK PATTAYA....GET LEAFLET,KITCHENS ON SALE.GOOD I WANT A KITCHEN...SO FAR SO GOOD.....THEN PRICE 6000 HIGHER THAN IN LEAFLET....ASK....ANSWER ,THIS IS BANGKOK PRICE( IM IN PATTAYA),GREAT BANGKOK GET IT CHEAPER,,,WHY??? NOBODY THERE KNOWS.I COULD PAY SOMEONE TO DELIVER(ORGANISE IT MYSELF ,NOT THRU SHOP) AND STILL SAVE MONEY BUT WOULD HAVE TO GET SOMEONE TO PUT TOGETHER ETC SO IN THE END NEARLY SAME PRICE,BUT WHY HAND OUT THE LEAFLET.

ALSO I AGREE THAT WHY DISPLAY AN ITEM IN SHOP MONTH AFTER MONTH THAT IS NOT AVAILABLE ANYMORE...VERY HELPFUL.

GOT AN INDEX LEAFLET....I GOTO SHOP TO SEE IF I LIKE SOME ITEMS....NONE ON DISPLAY BUT HAVE IN STOCK....YOU HAVE TO BUY FROM PIC IN LEAFLET AND CANT TAKE BACK IF YOU DONT LIKE .....GREAT.....SO I DONT BUY.AND IT GOES ON AND ON.............GO TO SMALL SHOP,BUY PAINT....GO TO USE ....CANT AS BEEN STANDING YEARS AND OVER USEBY DATE BY AT LEAST 1 YEAR.GOTO LARGE SHOP,WANNA BUY CHEAP DVD PLAYER,OK NO PROBLEM....HAVE GUARANTEE ,YES,HOW LONG .....6 DAYS.........THEY HAVE A LOT OF FAITH IN THERE WORKMANSHIP HAHAHA.AND ON AND ON.GOD (BUDDHA)GIVE ME STRENGTH.COULD WRITE A NOVEL ON THIS SUBJECT!!!

[PaulUSA302]

A while back I purchased a DVD player from the MBK. This player was region code free and was able to switch from PAL to NTSC formats on the fly and the plug was to be self switching from 110v to 240v... It worked perfect in Thailand! At home I had to use a 220 to 110volt adapter and the player only played in PAL mode. I purchased the same unit through eBay for less money and it was shipped to me here in the USA from a seller in Canada and it did everything it was supposed to do.

I packed-up the one I purchased from the MBK and shipped it to a Thai friend.

I won't buy anymore electronics in Thailand unless they are only to be used in Thailand.

[torrenova]

Thais have made the decision to purchase by the time they get to the shop, they want to be "guided" by the "expert" to the "correct" item. Price is almost immaterial, they are buying the purchase as theatre and being treated as important by the sales assistant. The fact that the assistant is clueless or partial to one item is immaterial.

We, having more knowledge and being decisive, throw up a set of problems for which they have no solution other than to tell blatant lies.

[YoungAndRice]

what kind of questions do you ask about a dvd player? write the model down, go online and find out everything you want to know.

[jackr]

I just had a new stereo system fitted in the ute and they didn't fit a capacitor or extra/more powerful battery as clearly specified by myself so whenever the subwoofers kick in it drains power from the engine.

So you're the <deleted> down the road making all that noise?

[siamesekitty]

Thais have made the decision to purchase by the time they get to the shop, they want to be "guided" by the "expert" to the "correct" item. Price is almost immaterial, they are buying the purchase as theatre and being treated as important by the sales assistant. The fact that the assistant is clueless or partial to one item is immaterial.

We, having more knowledge and being decisive, throw up a set of problems for which they have no solution other than to tell blatant lies.

Um, I dunno what kind of Thais you hang around with, but the ones you mention seem very a)foolish or b ) filthy rich (or using other peoples' funds, perhaps? ) or 3) both.

Edited January 8, 2008 by siamesekitty

[crowbait]

I love going to Pantip although I never buy anything 'coz it doesn't seem to be much cheaper than in the UK but I enjoy window shopping. I don't think much of the food hall, although it's cheaper than the Emporium food hill the quality isn't as good and the accommodation isn't a patch on Emporium. However, just outside there's a beer stand with some satay and other munchy stalls just by, I have passed several pleasant breaks asippin' and achewin'!

[DavidOxon]

We went to buy a washing machine, big display outside enormous

store in CNX, spent some time checking all he brands and making our choice,

20 mins later it turns out we couldn't buy one because the price on the machine

was the pre new year price and they didn't have the new year price list available

so didn't know how much it was therefore we couldn't buy it!

This was my first Thai electrical shopping experience! Hope it gets better!

Having said this, we did manage to find a similar model at Big C duly delivered

the next morning. however, nowhere to connect it up.

Went to the Moo Baan office to see if someone could help us out.

By he time we'd got back to he house (10 mins?) there was a guy there

waiting for us to see what needed doing.

We agreed a price and he came back with plumber a bit later

and the two of them installed it, water, drainage and electricity supply

in a couple of hours and charged 1500bht including all the materials.

So a good experience to cancel out the bad one

David

[peter991]

I beg to disagree. Electronics in Thailand are much cheaper than Singapore. I read up on Sim Lim Square in Singapore and was most disappointed. Give me MBK or Pantip Plaza anytime!

Peter

[CymruAmByth]

Utilizing the same writing style as the OP:

Venue: Home Pro (Ploenchit)

Attempted Purchase: 2 (TWO) Flat Screen LCD TV's WITH CASH!

It went like this....

ME: Me AND my mate (the guy stood next to me) would like to buy TWO of those please (pointing)

SOMCHAI: Hang on, let me get Nemo (or other such hi-def cartoon, meant to impress us).

ME: No...no need thanks, just take this cash from us (waving it around) and kindly deliver the TWO tv's we want.

SOMCAHI: Hang on, I get free DVD player

ME: No...no need thanks. That DVD player is crap and we already have a DVD player each.

SOMCHAI: Hang on, I go get manager, he will give you free thing.

ME: No...no need, please simply take all this lovely cash off us, arrange a speedy delivery and we can all get on with our lives.

SOMCHAI: Oh...manager come now

MANAGER: Can I help you

ME: No...no need thanks. Everything under control.

MANAGER: Do you want free cordless keyboard?

ME: Why would I want a cordless keyboard for a TV?

MANAGER: Somchai, go and get the specially remastered Nemo DVD to show these nice people

ME: No...no need. We have been through this already. Just box a couple of these (pointing) puppies up and we can all go and eat.

MANAGER: You want buy massage chair?

ME: No...no need thanks, I already have a chair at home and someone to massage me, so let's keep this upbeat and just arrange delivery

MANAGER: You not ask discount?

ME: No...no need thanks. I have no desire for discount, I am after a decent service and will not demean this whole process by asking. Just box TWO of those up and deliver please.

MANAGER: Don't you want to ask for discount?

ME: Ok...seeing as you are pushing the point. May we have some discount please?

MANAGER: No, sorry sir, Mai dai!

ME: Why did you ask us then etc etc...

MANAGER: Well, you can have a cordless keyboard

MY MATE: OK!! ENOUGH!! WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HAD TWO PEOPLE IN HERE WITH 70,000 BAHT IN CASH EACH ASKING TO BUY SOMETHING??

MANAGER: Never hehe

MY MATE: WELL...YOU NEVER WILL IF THIS <deleted> IS HOW YOU OPERATE

At this point I felt it better to put the shepherds crook on my mate and drag him out of there before he pi$$ed his pants with rage. And actually the above conversation is a precis of about an hours worth of <deleted>.

PS - Upon leaving, the 'original' Somchai chased after us and gave us a brochure. We took it to be polite as it was not his fault the whole shop is fcuked up. On the bottom of the brochure was the name, address and phone number of the Thailand Distributor (based in Pantip).

One phone call to them and two tv's were delivered within 24 hours, fully installed and all for 59,000thb each. A saving of 10,000 per TV.

Thanks Home Pro for this abject lesson in retail therapy...I will NEVER be back.

Edited January 8, 2008 by CymruAmByth

[Zpete]

I beg to disagree. Electronics in Thailand are much cheaper than Singapore. I read up on Sim Lim Square in Singapore and was most disappointed. Give me MBK or Pantip Plaza anytime!

Peter

Do ya shopping rite, shop around if ya have the time, Singapore prices OK.

At least in Singapore your guarantee is wroth something.

Not so Thailand, speshully Pantip.

Hong Kong, is OK.

As a kiwi I get best deals at home, beat Honkers, Thailand and Singapore. Just use "Price Spy".

Better for guarantee too.

Edited January 8, 2008 by Zpete

[Onnutrd]

If you go to Pantip near Platinum mall, there's heaps of electronics for sale. Can't remember which floor is dedicated to home threatre (if there is such a floor), but they do have lots of electronics

If not, try Carrefour, or Seri Centre not far from Seacon. It has really good prices, and brand names (real ones). The mall is also good, it's not packed like most of them.

[kyb789]

PS - Upon leaving, the 'original' Somchai chased after us and gave us a brochure. We took it to be polite as it was not his fault the whole shop is fcuked up. On the bottom of the brochure was the name, address and phone number of the Thailand Distributor (based in Pantip).

One phone call to them and two tv's were delivered within 24 hours, fully installed and all for 59,000thb each. A saving of 10,000 per TV.

Thanks Home Pro for this abject lesson in retail therapy...I will NEVER be back.

Classic !! I don't feel alone anymore. Funny thing is that when I explained my own experience to my Thai friends, they look at me in disbelief. As if this would never happen in Thailand.

[Eff1n2ret]

Has anyone bought Bose equipment in Thailand? Is it cheaper than the UK?

[soundman]

Has anyone bought Bose equipment in Thailand? Is it cheaper than the UK?

Why would you want to?

Bose company motto: Better sales through marketing.