Unfair Treatment Of Farangs In Thailand

[Naam]

in january 2006 i bought a Samsung 67" LDP TV and 139,000 Baht and in august the same year Mrs Naam bought the same model for "only" 118,000 Baht. a few weeks ago my TV conked off, not completely but intermittendly on/off on/off on/off. so i confiscated the TV from the Mrs and threw the ball in her lap.

"engineers" from Numchai, Pattaya concluded "motherboard gone" and took the unit for repair. a few days later we were told that it will take at least one month as the part has to be ordered in Korea, total cost something like 29,000 Baht more than one month passed and after enquiring we were told by Samsung Service Center, Pattaya "solly, lepair no can do". we asked "vhat ze eff does zat mean?" and "vhat shall vee do now?"

Samsung, BKK got involved, called me today and i understood that due to the fact that the TV is more than three years old we can respect a refund of 33%. today it turned out that Samsung is offering cash "new price LESS 33%" which i think is a very fair settlement. by the way, LDP models are not produced anymore because Samsung had obviously too many problems with that rather unique but excellent system. i do hope that the confiscated TV will last some more years as Mrs Naam will buy a Plasma or an LCD for herself

[samuibeachcomber]

and you will find out that a plasma that sold for 40,000 baht last year can now be bought for 20,000 baht.

[Mobi]

I bought a Samsung Back Projection TV (very large but don't know the exact size) from Central Dept store in Bangkok in 2005 for around 90,000 Baht.

A few months back it went on the blink, Mrs Mobi called Numchai and they came and took it away for repair. A couple of weeks later they called and said it would cost 25,000 Baht to repair, as they had to import the parts from Korea etc etc. I told Mrs Mobi no way I will throw good money after bad, as back projection TV's are on the way out and I'd rather put the money towards a shiny new LCD TV. She passed on the message.

Then - guess what? Numchai called back a few days later and told Mrs Mobi that they had managed to fix my TV by taking parts from other broken TV's that they had in their workshop!! Total cost 2,000 Baht.!!!!!

So they had come all the way out to the Mobi mansion from Pattaya with their pick up, carted off the TV, repaired it, returned it back out here and reinstalled it and tuned it etc, - all for the grand sum of 2,000 Baht, with no official bill or receipt.

Methinks there is some kind of scam going on.......

[CarlBkk]

I bought a Samsung Back Projection TV (very large but don't know the exact size) from Central Dept store in Bangkok in 2005 for around 90,000 Baht.

A few months back it went on the blink, Mrs Mobi called Numchai and they came and took it away for repair. A couple of weeks later they called and said it would cost 25,000 Baht to repair, as they had to import the parts from Korea etc etc. I told Mrs Mobi no way I will throw good money after bad, as back projection TV's are on the way out and I'd rather put the money towards a shiny new LCD TV. She passed on the message.

Then - guess what? Numchai called back a few days later and told Mrs Mobi that they had managed to fix my TV by taking parts from other broken TV's that they had in their workshop!! Total cost 2,000 Baht.!!!!!

So they had come all the way out to the Mobi mansion from Pattaya with their pick up, carted off the TV, repaired it, returned it back out here and reinstalled it and tuned it etc, - all for the grand sum of 2,000 Baht, with no official bill or receipt.

Methinks there is some kind of scam going on.......

So do you think they'd have done an unofficial no receipt job for 20,000, or do you think they thought enterprisingly "hmm, we can either send this back or give a go ourselves for a lot less". That's what I like about Thailand sometimes....people are willing to use their expertise and service beyond the borders of red tape and jobsworthiness. If that's called a scam then I like it.

[Mobi]

So do you think they'd have done an unofficial no receipt job for 20,000, or do you think they thought enterprisingly "hmm, we can either send this back or give a go ourselves for a lot less". That's what I like about Thailand sometimes....people are willing to use their expertise and service beyond the borders of red tape and jobsworthiness. If that's called a scam then I like it.

It was 2,000 not 20,000.

I suspect the original price was correct (even a replacement lamp costs around 18,000 new) and many others, like me had refused to pay the price quoted, which resulted in a lot of duff TV's cluttering up their workshop.

So yes, they were indeed being enterprising, and I'm not complaining. But Naam's point may be valid - I wonder if they would have offered me the deal if they had been dealing directly with a farang?.

A similar sort of thing happened at Homepro last year when I took a shower unit which was still under guarantee back for repair. They said initially that it would have to go back to the manufacturer which would take months - and I have no doubt that was the case. but a young salesman offered to repair it for me himself for a small fee - which I accepted , and a we few days later he called me and it has been working fine ever since.

So for every bad story about Thai service, there is the occasional good story.

[damian5000]

So do you think they'd have done an unofficial no receipt job for 20,000, or do you think they thought enterprisingly "hmm, we can either send this back or give a go ourselves for a lot less". That's what I like about Thailand sometimes....people are willing to use their expertise and service beyond the borders of red tape and jobsworthiness. If that's called a scam then I like it.

It was 2,000 not 20,000.

I suspect the original price was correct (even a replacement lamp costs around 18,000 new) and many others, like me had refused to pay the price quoted, which resulted in a lot of duff TV's cluttering up their workshop.

So yes, they were indeed being enterprising, and I'm not complaining. But Naam's point may be valid - I wonder if they would have offered me the deal if they had been dealing directly with a farang?.

A similar sort of thing happened at Homepro last year when I took a shower unit which was still under guarantee back for repair. They said initially that it would have to go back to the manufacturer which would take months - and I have no doubt that was the case. but a young salesman offered to repair it for me himself for a small fee - which I accepted , and a we few days later he called me and it has been working fine ever since.

So for every bad story about Thai service, there is the occasional good story.

What I hate is when I'm standing at a noodle stall and they serve the Thai person who arrived after me first.

[Jingthing]

What I hate is when I'm standing at a noodle stall and they serve the Thai person who arrived after me first. sad.gif

That can cut both ways. Recently I ordered some stuff from a small casual very Thai place and there was a huge table of Thais already there having a party waiting for their food. So I ordered and expected a really long wait. My food comes first! The people at the table gave me a dirty look and I was embarrassed. Things aren't always predictable here, to put it mildly.

[007]

in january 2006 i bought a Samsung 67" LDP TV and 139,000 Baht...

The only TV set I ever bought in Thailand was a no-name product made in China. That was four years ago, it cost me less than 3,000 baht, and it's goin', goin'..., having survived transport all over Thailand, "short-circuits" (I accidentally produced by connecting cables in a wrong way) , occasional power outages...

Edited March 9, 2009 by 7