Thai Police, Customer Rights

[blackion]

Hello,

More than one year ago I bought DVD player in Central Festival where BIGC is located in Soi 2.

I took it with me when I flew to Philippines and after 7 days of work it stopped working.

The tech opened it and I saw that it had been repaired before, and more strange, all the chips had their names removed by file. Therefore rendering impossible to repair.

I threw it away.

After staying in Philippines for more than a year, I flew back to Thai and went to Central Festival shop to complain in their customer service. They said they will return me a call, I talked to a manager, but later on they said they they WILL NOT give me a feedback to my complain.

I went to Thai Police on Soi 9 to file a case of Distributing (Or helping to) counterfeit goods. There were two foreign guys sitting there and they said to the Thai policeman who suppose to write a report that they find no merit in making the report since no crime was commited and I should use my sense when I buy things. And that one year of warranty had been expired. I countred it by saying that one year warranty has no connection that they sold me old fake reworked DVD as a new original DVD and I couldn't know it's old and counterfeit until I opened it in the Philippines. And it was precisily that I went to Central Festival to buy DVD because I thought I can buy there quality stuff.

That foreign guy became angry and said: "You are becoming a nuisance here. If you will not leave right now I'll get you detained".

Therefore I left with few questions. What are the foreign guys doing there in the police station, they told me they are not part of tourist police? Whom can I complain on acts of ordinary police, because it was clear to me that if I'll ask to talk to station commander about the remarks of the foreign policeman/volunteer they will just defend him and I indeed can get myself into troubles. It is clear to me that what he did is treatening me on personal grounds while abusing his authority.

Do I have a right to file a case in police against Central Festival whereby the shop who sold me the DVD is only used to rent there space and is not located there anymore? Is there any office under Ministry of Internal Affairs which investigates abuse by policemen?

And, finally any ideas how can I get my 2500 baht refunded?

[endure]

You threw the evidence away more than a year ago.

[bino]

And, finally any ideas how can I get my 2500 baht refunded?

You're joking right? Or trolling?

Do I understand you correctly?

You bought something,

Took it out of Thailand,

Threw it away when it couldn't be fixed,

Let the warranty period of the item expire,

and then want a refund????

5555555555555555555555555

About the police- I make them as right. You're being a nuisance if you are trying to complain about something that happened more than a year ago, and you can not prove in any way. You threw the evidence in a trash bin in another country.

[dotcom]

You're trying to make a bad situation worse.

Quit while you are ahead.

Next time buy Pioneer from a legit store - Like Big C - Tesco Lotus or Carrefour.

[Aachen]

I think you should try to get a refund from the place you put the incident into. Ask the waste bin to pay for the goods. If you would try something like this in Germany you will certainly get the right handling from the police because of trying a fraud...

But I think this was really only joking... So I don't mind. Next time mark your article correctly as "joke"...

Edited December 14, 2008 by Aachen

[Maizefarmer]

Blackion - let go: as frustrating as it may be you haven't a snowball's hope in hel_l.

Firstly, you no longer have the evidence, but that aside before you go down the IP route (Intellectual Property - which is what counterfieting is) you need to understand counterfeiting law [in Thailand]. Then you need to understand if your "complaint" is a copy-right violation, a trademark violation, or a brandname violation - and they are all different laws in Thailand: some criminal and some civil e.g. copy right can be settled as a civil matter out of court, but trademark is criminal - it goes to court ..... and that is the very very basics of Thai IP law. In the absence of the evidence which you threw away, neither of the 2 above questions can be addressed. End of case before it starts.

Edited December 14, 2008 by Maizefarmer

[bunnaag]

Was one of the farang guys called Simon?

[Maizefarmer]

Was one of the farang guys called Simon?

Are you thinking of Simon M?

[H2oDunc]

Some posts I read and just shake my head. You bought a CHEAP !!!!! dvd player from a CHEAP !!!!! shop. Took it out of Thailand. Kept it for over a year. Took it to A Phillipine repair shop, which I would hazard a guess are on par if not worse than a Thai repair shop. They TELL you it cannot be repaired because of something which I find hard to believe. And for the sake of 2500 baht you want to make a fuss. JEEZ !!!!!!!

FIRST GET A LIFE !!!!

SECOND FORGET IT !!!!!

We have a saying where I come from which says " You get what you pay for " In your case you bought a cheap dvd from a cheap shop.

YOU GOT EXACTLY WHAT YOU PAID FOR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[simon43]

Was one of the farang guys called Simon?

Ouch! It absolutely wasn't me!

Simon

[JetsetBkk]

...We have a saying where I come from which says " You get what you pay for " In your case you bought a cheap dvd from a cheap shop.

YOU GOT EXACTLY WHAT YOU PAID FOR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a load of nonsense! My DVD players cost less than 900 baht - now that is "cheap"!

[2008bangkok]

Warranty void for ntaking the back off..case closed...next

[Jingthing]

Thailand is the "hub" of so many things, but CONSUMER RIGHTS, no ambitions there.

[bruceboy]

I think the OP better walk away from this mess.

[blackion]

Well, if I let it go, then more guys will fall victims to these kinds of scam.

Perhaps that's why this shop now is gone, because of guys like me were complaining. Would noone complain they would continue to stay and scam the people until now.

Many people who replied miss one thing, there is no connection between one year warranty and the fact that they sold a USED, counterfeit product disguised as a NEW, ORIGINAL DVD player. The warranty period is only for repairing.

About having no evidence, I agree that it makes it difficult. But it would have been difficult for me to carry around dead DVD for 1.5 years I was traveling in Phil around. I just threw it, kept the receipt and hoped I can complain when I come back to Thai.

I didn't buy it from a cheap shop.

I bought it from Central Festival, where BIG C is located, I supposed they don't allow street vendors to sell there. And I payed more than the price on the street precisely because I thought I'm buying from a reputable source and it was ok for me to pay a little bit more in order to get a better service and better quality of a product.

As about Phil tech shop, they opened the DVD in front of me. All the chips inside had their names removed by a file. Some wires were attached from one board to the other which is done when someone usually repairs.

I assume, nevertheless, that since the shop was thrown away from Central Festival, the management there aware of the way that shop was dealing. So, I guess they have received complains similar to mine. The problem is, they don't want to take the responsibility. That's really disputable, should they be responsible for the shops located in their area? I think they should, because people are going to the malls precisely because they don't want to buy in a street shop. Street shop is here today and may have gone by tomorrow. But now I don't really see much of a difference.

It's just that the street has no "Customer Service" written there. In Central Festival there is. But what is the difference between having no "Customer Service" and having "Customer Service" which doesn't reply at all? I guess not much of a difference.

[Maizefarmer]

Counterfeit ..... prove it: thats just the point - you are making an allegation that you cannot prove or demonstrate - you can't even say who's product was counterfieted, and without that information you have no case - NO CASE AT ALL - do you not understand this point. Your frustration is all well to clear, but it is not sufficient for litigation or legal action.

If people could move forward with legal action on the basis of something that happened a year ago for which they had no evidence that could stand up in court, half to three-quarters of Thailand would be lined up outside courts up and down the land waiting to put forward their arguments.

You need hard solid evidence - and just as a side line: no brandname owner, trademark owner or copyright owner would support your case for a whole bunch of reasons that I won't bore you with on the forum - and without them you have NO counterfeit case.

CAVEAT EMPTOR

[JetsetBkk]

Big C now have a huge pile of DVD players at 690 baht each (or maybe it was 590 - I forget). These DVD players even have a USB port on them!

I was thinking of buying a couple. If they don't work, just throw them away. I doubt if they have more than a month warranty. I'll ask next time I go there.

[1000baht]

That was a good OP....

[jdinasia]

Actually this is just getting better

1) Non-existent product (no proof of ANY crime or malfeasance on anyone's part)

2) Non-existent store

3) Strange guy walks into a mall's office and wants money from the realty company because someone that may have been there in the past might have sold him something that he can't prove exists!

4) a guess -- the mall office laughs at him so he goes to the police where more people laugh ...

The only answer is to call the CDI in BKK!

[blackion]

This is a reply I received from Central Center Pattaya. As I expected they knew that this shop sells sub-standard products .

I know, that would my case be a single, it doesn't have a chance to be resolved. But since Central Center says that I'm not the only one who complained, isn't it possible for the police to request their registration data from City Hall and approach them in their current address?

Referring to your conversation with our call center staff. We regret about our service that made you disappointed and would like to inform you that we try to solved your problem .

But now the kiosk which you bought DVD has been moved out from Central Center Pattaya since 30/9/2550 beacuse of under standard products they sold .

We try to call the shop owner many times but we can't contact him because he changed his telephone number and we don' t have any more information to reach him.

Please accept our apologize, and we hope to see you're still our good customer .

Thank you

[BeauKarl]

But now the kiosk which you bought DVD has been moved out from Central Center Pattaya since 30/9/2550 beacuse of under standard products they sold .

Better check your watch aswell to see if it's real incase you bought a Rolex.

I don't know what country you're form, but would you seriously concider going to the cops with a complaint about something you bought a year ago and THREW AWAY, has the bad economy hit you that bad

[sassienie]

Hello,

More than one year ago I bought DVD player in Central Festival where BIGC is located in Soi 2.

I took it with me when I flew to Philippines and after 7 days of work it stopped working.

The tech opened it and I saw that it had been repaired before, and more strange, all the chips had their names removed by file. Therefore rendering impossible to repair.

I threw it away.

After staying in Philippines for more than a year, I flew back to Thai and went to Central Festival shop to complain in their customer service. They said they will return me a call, I talked to a manager, but later on they said they they WILL NOT give me a feedback to my complain.

I went to Thai Police on Soi 9 to file a case of Distributing (Or helping to) counterfeit goods. There were two foreign guys sitting there and they said to the Thai policeman who suppose to write a report that they find no merit in making the report since no crime was commited and I should use my sense when I buy things. And that one year of warranty had been expired. I countred it by saying that one year warranty has no connection that they sold me old fake reworked DVD as a new original DVD and I couldn't know it's old and counterfeit until I opened it in the Philippines. And it was precisily that I went to Central Festival to buy DVD because I thought I can buy there quality stuff.

That foreign guy became angry and said: "You are becoming a nuisance here. If you will not leave right now I'll get you detained".

Therefore I left with few questions. What are the foreign guys doing there in the police station, they told me they are not part of tourist police? Whom can I complain on acts of ordinary police, because it was clear to me that if I'll ask to talk to station commander about the remarks of the foreign policeman/volunteer they will just defend him and I indeed can get myself into troubles. It is clear to me that what he did is treatening me on personal grounds while abusing his authority.

Do I have a right to file a case in police against Central Festival whereby the shop who sold me the DVD is only used to rent there space and is not located there anymore? Is there any office under Ministry of Internal Affairs which investigates abuse by policemen?

And, finally any ideas how can I get my 2500 baht refunded?

There`s alway one, isn`t there.

All that agro and stress for 2500 baht.

GET A LIFE.

[dotcom]

Thank you for warning us about a shop that no longer exists.

Clearly you are a mark & you got screwed over.

[britmaveric]

Hmmm bought a Coby portable dvd player from a stall vendour and its been working for 3yrs!! :D

[blackion]

Hmmm bought a Coby portable dvd player from a stall vendour and its been working for 3yrs!! :D

Yes, I heard about Coby. They manufacture durable players. The only problem is that all of their portable models are with built-in screen. I don't need the screen, just adds to the weight, I rather connect it to TV only.

[mrtoad]

That foreign guy became angry and said: "You are becoming a nuisance here. If you will not leave right now I'll get you detained".

Therefore I left with few questions. What are the foreign guys doing there in the police station, they told me they are not part of tourist police?

Maybe they are Psychiatric Liason.

[jbowman1993]

Hey Blackion - You should forget about it. You are living proof of Barnum's famous quote.

[TAWP]

Guys, we all know the OP has not a snowballs chance of getting somewhere with his complaint and a complaint without evidence would just get shelved, but there is two ways to tell him this; there is the nice way, and there is your way.

There is a reason people slam TV for being filled with 'bitter old men' that flames people for no reason than that they [seemingly] got nothing better to do. You can be nicer than that.

And I still find it interesting that the farang helper-policeman was fairly rude/dominant. The duty is said to protect and serve, not something else...

[Mantra]

And I still find it interesting that the farang helper-policeman was fairly rude/dominant. The duty is said to protect and serve, not something else...

whilst telling the OP to fark orf I reckon he was protecting and serving one of the contributers to his wages, even though he's a volunteer

[britmaveric]

Hmmm bought a Coby portable dvd player from a stall vendour and its been working for 3yrs!! :D

Yes, I heard about Coby. They manufacture durable players. The only problem is that all of their portable models are with built-in screen. I don't need the screen, just adds to the weight, I rather connect it to TV only.

Coby had models without screens too - I know because I have one too.