FYI

I applied for a B Visa in Manila in August. On top of all of the normal documents they wanted a letter saying why I was applying in Manila rather than my home country. It also took 5 days. They would only issue a single entry 3 month Visa with the instruction to extended within Thailand.

I spoke to the Jakarta Embassy on the phone they confirmed that all ASEAN countries are only allowed to issue 3 month single entry visa. They said that they were talking to the Thai immigration department trying to get them to allow them to issue 1 year multiple entry visa. They expected this to be allowed, but couldn't give a time scale.

You can get 1 year multiple entry non-B in KL if you have at least 8 months validity in your WP.

Issuing Thai visa's is done under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry bears responsibility for overseeing Embassy and Consular operations around the world. Issuance of visa's is nothing to to do with Thai Immigration. You were fed BS in that advice you got.