Company Of The Year

[UmpaLumpa]

i think HomPro should be Company of the Year. it must be great to work there.

you get paid a decent salary and get a nice clean uniform to stay all day in the fresh aircon and do nothing at all.

if you have no knowledge of anything it doesnt matter, when a customer asks you some information you can either pretend you dont speak the language (falang customer) or say you will come back and disappear (thai customer).

languages are not required , as isnt any knwledge of the products you sell and their purpose in life.

and if you are really, really lucky, you can work in the LCD plasma TV section - which seems to be the busiest -

here, among 20-25 other colleagues you can watch tv all day, for free, pump those stereos full volume, and learn how to ambush the poor innocent customers that dare come around this area of your workplace.

I Luv IT !!

[lazeeboy]

it gets me when you go in there for something ,say paint ,there atre 8-10 workers ready to jump on you ,when you want to order some paint colour not one can work the mixing machines.

[The Vulcan]

My biggest gripe is when they spend 30 minutes demonstrating something and then tell you it's either out of stock or not for sale - "just for see"

[lazeeboy]

you want something ,they say no have ,you want the one on the shelf ,they say no have box ,you say dont care ,they say cannot because other people wont no they sell them ..

[UmpaLumpa]

there are so many people in there and they look so bored and useless !

they should organize a 16-team football torunament outside, in the parking lot.. just to keep em busy

[Noodles]

Very true....it makes me laugh when I go in there

[ClaudeFeller]

So what?

HomePro, Seatran Ferry, Immigration, Accounting: Everywhere you have to know more than the ones who are serving you.

TIT!! Sometimes it is funny, sometimes it is a pain in the a...

[Shrubbery]

i think HomPro should be Company of the Year. it must be great to work there.

you get paid a decent salary and get a nice clean uniform to stay all day in the fresh aircon and do nothing at all.

if you have no knowledge of anything it doesnt matter, when a customer asks you some information you can either pretend you dont speak the language (falang customer) or say you will come back and disappear (thai customer).

languages are not required , as isnt any knwledge of the products you sell and their purpose in life.

and if you are really, really lucky, you can work in the LCD plasma TV section - which seems to be the busiest -

here, among 20-25 other colleagues you can watch tv all day, for free, pump those stereos full volume, and learn how to ambush the poor innocent customers that dare come around this area of your workplace.

I Luv IT !!

So no different to Dixons, Curry's, B&Q etc in the UK.

[Samuian]

TiT kiddies!

forgot where u are?

Change the world, be happy, don't worry, or go home or that "better place" there is - there is always a choice!

NOBODY has to!

Edited March 2, 2008 by Samuian

[Shrubbery]

My biggest gripe is when they spend 30 minutes demonstrating something and then tell you it's either out of stock or not for sale - "just for see"

What about the person who is prepared to stand there for 30 minutes watching the demonstration.

[The Vulcan]

My biggest gripe is when they spend 30 minutes demonstrating something and then tell you it's either out of stock or not for sale - "just for see"

What about the person who is prepared to stand there for 30 minutes watching the demonstration.

He's that old fashion commodity called a prospective buyer as opposed to a clairvoyant! Should he have been blessed with the latter ability he would not have been there for long.

Or is that difficult to understand!

[BigSnake]

[Shrubbery]

My biggest gripe is when they spend 30 minutes demonstrating something and then tell you it's either out of stock or not for sale - "just for see"

What about the person who is prepared to stand there for 30 minutes watching the demonstration.

He's that old fashion commodity called a prospective buyer

Or perhaps he's someone that has bu99er all else to do.

However if the demonstrator was pleasing to the eye, I could perhaps see the attraction of standing in a shop watching a demonstration for 30 minutes.

[southbot]

I went in there once, sat on a comfy chair.

Staff came over and I asked "have you any comfy chairs like this one".

Staff says "no"

My Thai wife asks them, in Thai, "do you have any chairs like this demo chair for my hubby to buy"

Staff says "no"

Wife and I search shop for 4 minutes, find desired comfy chair, go get trolley, roll to check out and off we go.

I got a really comfy chair now.

HomePro is clearly self service, those people are NOT staff, they are just polite Thai citizens, all dressed in their favoriate HomePro shirts, doing some shopping, watching tele, checking over the stereo section AND helping hapless shoppers to NOT find what they want.

The OP clearly misunderstood the situation at HomePro, eh? T.I.T - L.O.S.

[PoorSucker]

You have to be more specific in your request.

A friend of mine wanted to buy a nice grill and he found one at HomePro.

Conversation was like this.

Friend: Can I buy this grill?

HomePro: No, this one only for demo.

Friend: ohh. Ok

Next day I went there.

Me: You have this grill in stock?

HomePro: Let me check.... Yes we have five.

[Prasert]

Wow, so all those employees are there to help you?

I always had the impression that they follow you to make sure you will never feel lonely in one of those alleys. Or to make sure you don't nick anything.

But it's fun with them, just laugh about it like the Thai do.

Usually something on sale actually means sold out.

If an item has a description on the box, it's a good practice for them to read it out loud to you (well, at least it's a form of service, isn't it?). Any question beyond that is your fault to begin with....

[koheesti]

I've never had a problem there. I bought a grill, microwave and other things on more than one occasion without any misunderstandings. So they aren't all bad.

[t.s]

the one at chidlom in bangkok is no different, so they are consistent

[ClaudeFeller]

To defend them:

Low salary, 48 hrs working time, no training - thats how it works in most of the business/hotels.

[SamuiRes]

You have to be more specific in your request.

A friend of mine wanted to buy a nice grill and he found one at HomePro.

Conversation was like this.

Friend: Can I buy this grill?

HomePro: No, this one only for demo.

Friend: ohh. Ok

Next day I went there.

Me: You have this grill in stock?

HomePro: Let me check.... Yes we have five.

You see - you just did not ask the right question the first time. The one on display is not for sale. You asked the right question the second time - and how many times have I fallen into that trap as well!

Tesco is just as bad. I had the same issue with a small oven. The one on display was not for sale - "The last one so we cannot sell it" (??). Found a supervisor (yeah ok it took time) - "No you cannot have that one - but we have three in stock - would you like one of those?"

I wanted to buy a scanner. Five on display. No boxes therefore no CD, cables or documentation. Surprisingly they were all still on the shelf a month later. Wonder why?

Edited March 6, 2008 by SamuiRes

[visionquesthai]

the paint section is the best, they do help you select what you need, right type of paint for surface and such and usually there are several to help in that process (I had at least 5 assistants and that took a good 30 mins in itself), and then when you go to the thousands of colour swatches to choose from they have NONE!!! They told me "MAI ME" grinning for every of the 25 colours I tried....so I left after an hour with nothing! They were very nice throughout.....and it took an hour off their boredom clock! I was happy to help...I think there are a good few bored residents of the island who have wandered through there in the heat of the day just to cool off and waste a few minutes looking at items like 40 foot rugs with massive lion heads on them or checking out the latest ridiculous fridges or tvs on sale that are bigger than most Thai houses for entertainment rather than with intent to purchase. I am sure they get pleasure from the other side as well.....

[highdiver]

You have to be more specific in your request.

A friend of mine wanted to buy a nice grill and he found one at HomePro.

Conversation was like this.

Friend: Can I buy this grill?

HomePro: No, this one only for demo.

Friend: ohh. Ok

Next day I went there.

Me: You have this grill in stock?

HomePro: Let me check.... Yes we have five.

You see - you just did not ask the right question the first time. The one on display is not for sale. You asked the right question the second time - and how many times have I fallen into that trap as well!

Tesco is just as bad. I had the same issue with a small oven. The one on display was not for sale - "The last one so we cannot sell it" (??). Found a supervisor (yeah ok it took time) - "No you cannot have that one - but we have three in stock - would you like one of those?"

I wanted to buy a scanner. Five on display. No boxes therefore no CD, cables or documentation. Surprisingly they were all still on the shelf a month later. Wonder why?

you have nailed the most common problem and source of agrevation between farrangs and Thai... comunications.

Some phrases that we use as common day speach are not realy the correct way of speaking and are in many cases not realy understood by the Thai service staff .

It must be very strange for the Thai staff that studied english in thailand to belive that the customers are speaking english...

l

ets have a look at it from the Thai service staff point of View

Australians:

Fair dinkum ????

Thingo , Wadjamacallit, thingummy, whatsit ???

bloody good.... (if its good then why it bloody)

2000 baht "it's a steal" ( but its made from wood??? or he thinks i am stealing it for him)

and they speak so fast ... I am still trying to figure out what is Gday Mate... and there allready finished asking about the new LCD??? and then when then they call us a "useless bunch of turds.. is it useless... bunch of turds? is it useless bunch.... of turds?? and what is a turd??

i will need to look it up...

English

is East London realy speaking english??? and why do they LUV evrything?? "where the loo LUV"?? giveas a hand LUV??

how much is it LUV??? they want to know how much is the toaster or how much is love??

can you knock off the price....(hmmm i know price but what is knock off???)

the welsh tend to mix the L with R .. "whell can i get croline for the poor"???

and the scots with the "wee bit" and the accent that only james bond can figure out.

how many english do they have there in England???

India

they say yes but make a no sign with the head. and why are they "begging my pardon all the time"??? i did not pass judgment on them so whay do they need to beg for a pardon??

French.

now english is not realy a strong point with them at the first place is it?? and they wave the hands all the time and look realy frustrated that no one speaks french..

German

vant.... what is vant???? maybe he wants???

Americans.

do you think my US 110volt DC multi functional laptop will work with the sd 2500 samsung cd player, its for my grand children. let me show you the pictures of my family blah blah blah....???????

now imagine the jokes the Thai service staff who have just basic english skills are making about us...