Thailand 'elite' Program In Tatters

[chlear909]

You are all wrong and this is easily fixed

Bring back President Taxsin

all will be righted and the sun will shine again

great sarcasm,perfect,,bottom line is dont get involved in dum things,,rich people are stupid,,we dont have to follow,,let them go down alone,,they deserve it for their endless arrogance,, im sure they feel they have none of ,,

yeah im rich that makes me an expert,,duh

sure love thailand,,the world school carries on unabated thankfully,,great show

[CHINWA]

You are all wrong and this is easily fixed

Bring back President Taxsin

all will be righted and the sun will shine again

Agree with you. It makes sense to me!

[RKASA]

This is just an extension of the Elite Thai mind set thats not going to change soon, most Thai business only survives due to protection and payoffs.   

The people they want or would need to sign up, don't spend there money on stupid plastic cards and membership in third rate clubs,  they get invitations.  They go where they are wanted and treated well, both with their business and their money.  If you want to do business in Thailand you have to beg for basic rights and be subject to an uncertain future.  

Nobody worth having is going to join ether club.

[howzat]

Let Thaksin pay, his idea-his money.

Take the frozen assets for this.

Teriffic idea and I am not even a member. Maybe this will be the suprise he plans to announce on his 6oth

[Nerone]

What a stupid idea for steal money!!! Hope not many joined this....

"Thai elite"

[CHINWA]

I wonder why nobody here talks about the real point of the elite card..... At the beginning it was introduced, that every member could buy 1 Rai of land with house on his personal foreign name as freehold..... if this would have happened without restrictions I am sure they would have sold much much more cards! Why not use the bad times now, reinstall the old idea, and sell houses and land to foreigners like Malaysia's Home away from home program. This would make life so much easier for so many here, and the Elite system would survive and work! Cut the golf, limo and spa crap and go for the real stuff that everybody wants: House, land and Visa ![/size]

The Malaysians are 50 years ahead of us...

[sriracha john]

{quote}

Thaksin's dream of luring the elite lies in tatters

It started with a flourish and some wildly optimistic predictions but it looks like it may end with a whimper

{unquote}

I guess that's what they mean by the "No Entry" sign on their door at the airport...

In the first year of operation, the company sold 139 Elite Card lifetime memberships. However, the number so far this year is a measly two.

and Thaivisa has been privileged to hear from nearly all of these supposed members over the course of 82 threads covering the past five years.... and yet surprisingly....

Up to 200 complaints have been reported by TPC so far this year.

from all these alleged members posting, I can't remember a single complaint...

[george]

[wrecker]

Thamassat is spot on with the cnclusion that the spin-off is huge. the problem however with this government and the former military government is that they cannot pocket the billions of baht spend by these wealthy foreigners and that is what it is all about. Nobody in his or her right mind will pay golf courses huge amounts. Especially the reinstated courses have received fine amounts of money and belong to the clique of Sanan. On the other hand court cases will be rare. I do not see any businessman going to court for a loss of less than 30,000 US and last but not least the government could still decide to keep them main privileges intact being express access to the country by allowing the holders to check in at a sparate immigration counter and allowing them a five year visa.

People who hold these cards seldom want to be seen to ask for a rebate by flashing the card, they will be far more interested in beating red tape.

This government lacks plans, lack creativity and is made up out of individuals who are used to think of themselves first instead of the country, therefore it might be better to forget about terminology like "Spin-off" and "investment", the main goal of this kind of governments is not to get foreigners in but to get foreigners out.

They complain on the one hand that Tourism is at an all time low, yet they are cracking down on the use of tourist visas, they find the time ripe to kill the elite card program, they crack down on nominees holding land. What more proof is needed that Thailand likes to become an isolationist country. Thailand is becoming inhospitable, and their slogan is really "spend an awful lot, but do not stay too long" and that will backfire.

[Nerone]

I wonder why nobody here talks about the real point of the elite card..... At the beginning it was introduced, that every member could buy 1 Rai of land with house on his personal foreign name as freehold..... if this would have happened without restrictions I am sure they would have sold much much more cards! Why not use the bad times now, reinstall the old idea, and sell houses and land to foreigners like Malaysia's Home away from home program. This would make life so much easier for so many here, and the Elite system would survive and work! Cut the golf, limo and spa crap and go for the real stuff that everybody wants: House, land and Visa ![/size]

too good to be real...

[snip]

[rippedoff]

I saw it coming. Just a matter of time and we all get rippedoff

[rufanuf]

One things obvious from the popularity and tone of nearly every thread on Thaivisa placed by expats. Most of us would be more than happy to part with $25000, just to be treated fairly in Thailand. No cheap golf or massages, just a willingness on the part of Thai's to except we are human beings too.

[jfchandler]

I agree about this idea....

IF IF IF there was a way to legally/irrevocably guarantee the right to buy property here....and combine that with a hassle free five-year renewable visa, I think they'd have a lot of buyers...and it wouldn't cost them anything... except their own skim out of the program ( )

Forget all the expensive BS about BMWs and golf courses and spas.... Give folks a easy long term visa and a sure path to owning their own home... I'd say that would be worth 1 million......

I wonder why nobody here talks about the real point of the elite card..... At the beginning it was introduced, that every member could buy 1 Rai of land with house on his personal foreign name as freehold..... if this would have happened without restrictions I am sure they would have sold much much more cards! Why not use the bad times now, reinstall the old idea, and sell houses and land to foreigners like Malaysia’s Home away from home program. This would make life so much easier for so many here, and the Elite system would survive and work! Cut the golf, limo and spa crap and go for the real stuff that everybody wants: House, land and Visa ![/size]

[hungryINbangkok]

Instead of an "Elite" card....convert the program to an "Every Man" card. For 100k baht...they could sell a more limited version specifically to ex-pats who know they will stay here for 5 years or more.....A 5 year visa? Renewable? I would buy it! Add in a few golf courses, or free domestic airline trips and they'll be lined up around the corner!

[simcity]

I wonder if they are going to sale it to a factice company, in few months it will go all under without recourse for members for lawsuits

[PaulHamon]

319 million rai in thailand... if every thai visa member want to purchase 1 rai, they'd still have 318million left LOL.

[walterego]

I wonder why nobody here talks about the real point of the elite card..... At the beginning it was introduced, that every member could buy 1 Rai of land with house on his personal foreign name as freehold..... if this would have happened without restrictions I am sure they would have sold much much more cards! Why not use the bad times now, reinstall the old idea, and sell houses and land to foreigners like Malaysia's Home away from home program. This would make life so much easier for so many here, and the Elite system would survive and work! Cut the golf, limo and spa crap and go for the real stuff that everybody wants: House, land and Visa ![/size]

Here Here! i would shell out for that in the blink of an eye!

[oswego]

As my Thai friends tell me. There is English and then there is Thai English. The corollary to that statement is that there is Logic and then there is Thai Logic. 30,000 Chinese members?! Most of my Chinese friends always ask me if Thailand is a safe country to come for vacation and I always tell them, yes, of course! They never believe me and thus far none of them visits me here 30,000 members indeed.

[PeeKay]

My darling wife summed this fiasco up rather nicely:

"Pom mai son jai, wellah kon luay le takiattakai siang gnun, som nam nah".

Quite happy we are neither 'luay' or 'takiattakai'.

Subscribing to 'any' scheme in LOS where one has to part with cash for so called promises, is delusional at best.

PK

[hhiser]

 Well at least Thailand is trying to discourage Tourism in all sectors. Way to be "fair and balanced", like Fox News!!

Edited July 26, 2009 by hhiser

[rufanuf]

Well at least Thailand is trying to discourage Tourism in all sectors. Wat to be "fair and balanced", like Fox News!!

Tourism and Immigration!

[Johpa]

As the saying goes "A fool and his money are easily parted".

What did these people think? That in the nation that is but a Banana Republic known for cheap blow jobs you could purchase elitism??

Edited July 26, 2009 by Johpa

[astral]

Tourism and Immigration!

Immigration?? No chance.

All the Chinese who came as migrants in the last 100 years are now protecting their position

and do not want new migrants who might challenge them.

Remember the comments about Taksin's cabinet, suggesting that meetings could be held

in a Chinese dialect, without any difficulty.

I doubt the current bunch is much different.

[BarryM]

As the saying goes "A fool and his money are easily parted".

What did these people think? That in the nation that is but a Banana Republic known for cheap blow jobs you could purchase elitism??

Thailand is not a republic. It's a monarchy.

[NanaFoods]

They never protected the downside.

Nobody considered what would happen if they didn't meet sales targets. Now, will there be a refund to the card holders (2,570 times 1,000,000 baht) or just close shop and tell customers nothing. Either way, a scandalous scam from beginning to end.

That, for the most part, sounds like the definition of a Ponzi scheme - except the promised payout is in "privileges" instead of money.

I (as did ThaiVisa) also scoffed at this "elite card" idea from the get-go - I remember making jokes to my wife about getting one (which she didn't find too amusing - a million baht to her is, well, a million). As someone else pointed out, it seemed to me that only corporations might go for this upon the suggestion of their over-paid traveling executives.

T.I.T.

Edited July 26, 2009 by ChefHeat

[p_brownstone]

I agree about this idea....

IF IF IF there was a way to legally/irrevocably guarantee the right to buy property here....and combine that with a hassle free five-year renewable visa, I think they'd have a lot of buyers...and it wouldn't cost them anything... except their own skim out of the program ( )

Forget all the expensive BS about BMWs and golf courses and spas.... Give folks a easy long term visa and a sure path to owning their own home... I'd say that would be worth 1 million......

I wonder why nobody here talks about the real point of the elite card..... At the beginning it was introduced, that every member could buy 1 Rai of land with house on his personal foreign name as freehold..... if this would have happened without restrictions I am sure they would have sold much much more cards! Why not use the bad times now, reinstall the old idea, and sell houses and land to foreigners like Malaysia’s Home away from home program. This would make life so much easier for so many here, and the Elite system would survive and work! Cut the golf, limo and spa crap and go for the real stuff that everybody wants: House, land and Visa ![/size]

I entirely agree too.

If the Card had been promoted as offering 2 core advantages – the right to buy Land in ones’ own name and the 5 Year renewable Visa – I believe it would have been a success; both these “Privileges” are at absolutely no cost to the Card issuer but are things that many Farang would happily pay for.

The death knell was the offers such as 1 for 1 Air Tickets (on Thai International), free Spa Treatments and Golf Fees etc. etc..

In the early days of the Card this Board was flooded by people who were Members, boasting that they had already recouped their original investment by claiming these benefits, however anyone with one iota of sense would see this as a red flag. Someone had to pay the Airline, the Spa, the Golf Course, for these “benefits” ………. i.e. the Card Company - and with absolutely no income apart from the one-time payment from new “Elites” the scheme was clearly doomed – as I have said many times, a classic Ponzi Scam.

I am sure many potential Members realized this too and simply walked away from an offer clearly too good to be true.

Patrick

Edited July 26, 2009 by p_brownstone

[midas]

They never protected the downside.

Nobody considered what would happen if they didn't meet sales targets. Now, will there be a refund to the card holders (2,570 times 1,000,000 baht) [/color]or just close shop and tell customers nothing. Either way, a scandalous scam from beginning to end.

What do you think this is? A place with consumer legislation?

Most probable outcome.

This would be the right gesture to repair at least some of the damage to their very tarnished reputation and particularly

with high net worth individuals. But as to whether they have enough foresight to realise this

-it remains to be seen

[Crushdepth]

I think the scheme *could* have worked *if* they had offered a few *real* concessions, like residency and the right to buy a modest block of land for residential purposes. But I'm sceptical that the company's financial problems are due to members exercising the privileges they paid for, especially when I see things like this:

Besides the big financial burden from the luxury services [ha! scoff!!!], Mr Udom has found flaws in the company's previous management. For instance, it paid some golf courses in advance with amounts of up to 20 million baht [thank you very much cousin Somchai!].

Another case involves the planned purchase of an IT system for 100 million baht to improve the company's communication services for its [family???] members. But there was never a clear explanation as to why the new system was needed, and the new board decided to suspend the project [probably after a strangely expensive feasibility study??].

Mr Udom admitted that the company has been plagued with transparency problems, and some of its spending is now subject to investigation by the Office of the Auditor General.

Edited July 26, 2009 by Crushdepth

[Chunkton]

I wonder why nobody here talks about the real point of the elite card..... At the beginning it was introduced, that every member could buy 1 Rai of land with house on his personal foreign name as freehold..... if this would have happened without restrictions I am sure they would have sold much much more cards! Why not use the bad times now, reinstall the old idea, and sell houses and land to foreigners like Malaysia's Home away from home program. This would make life so much easier for so many here, and the Elite system would survive and work! Cut the golf, limo and spa crap and go for the real stuff that everybody wants: House, land and Visa ![/size]

I agree with this post. The idiots running this are as usual looking at the problem from the wrong perspective. Seems the problem is not enough were sold to finance it's supposed benefits. So they either cancel it and lose face, continue to do nothing and lose money, or actually fix it so they can sell enough cards for it to finance itself.

They could keep the original card as is, and then offer secondary cards to pull in the money to finance the whole thing. Without being able to crunch the numbers it seems obvious to sell people what they actually want. Perhaps a Level 2 Card at say 500k that allows purchase of 1 rai of land (sort out the legals via special legislation) in certain areas only plus a renewable 5 year, no reporting visa. Then offer a Level 3 Card at say 100k that allows only the 5 year no reporting visa. The top level card has these benefits added to it for free as an apology. All cards have "sawatdis" in abundance when going through airports.

Need more, add a special hot line to call if ever in trouble with the police to contact a person with the authority to sort out the problem fairly and quickly, not dodging the law, just guaranteeing impartiality.

Mind you it will never happen, overly beaurocratic systems like Thailand are incapable of taking decisive action. Will probably send it to another junket committee to think about for a few more years.

[jasreeve17]

They never protected the downside.

Nobody considered what would happen if they didn't meet sales targets. Now, will there be a refund to the card holders (2,570 times 1,000,000 baht) [/color]or just close shop and tell customers nothing. Either way, a scandalous scam from beginning to end.

What do you think this is? A place with consumer legislation?

Most probable outcome.

This would be the right gesture to repair at least some of the damage to their very tarnished reputation and particularly

with high net worth individuals. But as to whether they have enough foresight to realise this

-it remains to be seen

Don't hold your breath.

This scheme / scam was not set up to refund money, or as an honest business; it was set up to make / steal money for a small quantity of corrupt 'businessmen'.

There was no workable business model (as the Thammasat research pointed out), and the 'product' wasn't attractive either. Every card sold lost the 'company' money, but earned the 'businessmen' involved loads... standard corruption faye.