Only In Thailand

[aviador88]

Hi again.

Since the posting "Doesn't anybody...." got be a bit too long, here a new twist to life in the LOS. I posted something there a while back which went like this:

I recently had a visit from a former client of mine in the States (I flew his multi million dollar airplane for about 10 years) He was thrilled to learn that I only lived about 120 km from where his charitable organization was donating money for tsunami relief. After I showed him the devastation at Baniang, Khuckkak, as well as Bansak, towns which never really made the headlines, because very few tourists perished there, he pledged 500,000 Baht for the reconstruction of the local school which I had to match evenly. So, I did.

Everybody was thrilled. However I cautioned the good folks here right from the beginning, that the man is not just throwing those Dollars at you. He is a business man needing "deductions" from his income tax, rather than feed the dough into the unsatiable jaws of the US Internal Revenue Service.

Things progressed slowly. First a "recognized" charitable agency had to be located.

I did not want the money to wind up with some of the "holy rollers" like the one's who had setup shop in Khao Lak under the guise of "Christian Charity relief Organization" (or similar.) The money seemed to be rolling in, because everybody was driving brand new cars all of a sudden. None of them had secured a work permit which was required a few weeks after 12/26/2004 even for "voluntary labor". Recently the cops closed the whole operation and chased them out of town.

Well an agency in Pennsylvania was finally found who had a representative in Bangkok as well as Phuket. Many e-mails and telephone conversations later, requesting a "paper trail" which meant forms upon forms, affidavits copies of my passport etc. I am only mentioning this, because the contractor and the people of this town kept bugging me daily. WHERE IS THE MONEY ???

Nobody seemed to care when some of their own screwed me out of almost a million Baht last year. "Oh yes, we need to go to the Tourist Police, the Immigration bureau", but prueng nee again and again. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, they get impatient.

Here I go bitching again, but I still love it here in spite of the bees who lately came every night by the millions. One of those black devils stung me in the thump which made my entire hand swell up to double it's size. Funny, because as a boy my grandfather kept bees which did sting me occasionally. The swelling went down after a day the most, but this creature's sting kept the swelling for almost a week. Then the thumb was infected and still is. Now its the flying termites piled 5 cm deep in front of the house every morning. I have about 5 or 6 Geckos (and their babies now) as permanent residents in my home who are enoying the snacks provided for them from whatever flying creatures manage to enter the premises.

Greeings the ol' Captain.

PS: The washing machine guy has yet to show up. Since the problem is with the timer I just have to stand there and watch it. I could easily replace it myself, but I have the ultimate patience. I just want to see that "maybe" something would be repaired around here while under warrantee.

One story I actually had forgotten.

One of my first purchases here was a water cooler. The kind where you just dump the entire plasic bottle on top and voilá instant cold clean water. Well it quit humming after only 3 months dispensing nothing but warm water. I took it back to the place where I had purchased it. Their first question was: "Did you send in the warrantee card ". Well, here are the papers, the original bill of sale as well as other parapenalia written in Thai. "Oh, here it is" said the man. You never sent in warrantee". So what? I didn't even know that this was the warrantee-send-in card.

Didn't I buy this from you back in April? "Yes you did" the man said "I remember". "And now since I did not send in the card you won't honor the warantee ? Couldn't you just tell your supplier, since it still looks brand new, that you sold it yesterday and was found to be defective ?"" No. no. that would be dishonest." ( he was Muslim by the way) Holy Toledo So, screwing a Farlang in your opinion is considered honest bussines. I can't believe it.

I put it back on my truck and gave it to my friend T who had the compressor replaced ( 2,000 Baht) and placed it in his office for the convenience of his customers.

I then bought another cooler but not from THAT place.

[penzman]

Let's hope more of your belongings break down. I enjoy reading your stories.

[RDN]

Hey Cap'n! I think you'll enjoy one of my old posts about a Philips electric kettle and the Robinsons store.

Click here!: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11909

[aviador88]

Hey Cap'n! I think you'll enjoy one of my old posts about a Philips electric kettle and the Robinsons store. 

Click here!: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11909

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Aiaiaiai. I sure did, as well as all the other stories. Now I don't feel too bad. I thought it was only me they were picking on.

One more those "incidents" comes to mind. I needed to solder a couple of wires. I had a complete workshop in my home in the states and really missed my tools. Anyway I purchased a small and cheap soldering iron. Plugged it in and soldered one of the wires. When I reached for the iron again in order to solder the second one, there was a wushing noise, the shaft turned from light blue to fire red and the entire thing exploded tripping the circuit breaker on the wall. I returned to the store, explaining that I had bought this thing only about one hour ago and it quit after using it for less than 5 minutes. "No can do" was the anwer. Why not pray tell ? "It was definitely misused". How can I misuse something just by pluggin it into the wall for about 5 minutes ? I think it only cost about 150 Baht but it still irked me to no end. Oh well, maybe some day they too will learn that a customer is the one who helps their employer write a pay check.

On a brief trip to Russia quite some time ago I decided to stop for lunch at a fairly nice restaurant in Moscow just before noon. The place was empty at the time. I sat on a table, waiting for the waitress who was nowhere to be seen. Soon thereafter more customers were arriving joining me at "my" table. Only after the table was fully occupied did the waitress appear and began to take orders.

C´est la vie. Greetings the ol Captn.

[ray23]

Hey Cap'n! I think you'll enjoy one of my old posts about a Philips electric kettle and the Robinsons store. 

Click here!: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11909

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Aiaiaiai. I sure did, as well as all the other stories. Now I don't feel too bad. I thought it was only me they were picking on.

One more those "incidents" comes to mind. I needed to solder a couple of wires. I had a complete workshop in my home in the states and really missed my tools. Anyway I purchased a small and cheap soldering iron. Plugged it in and soldered one of the wires. When I reached for the iron again in order to solder the second one, there was a wushing noise, the shaft turned from light blue to fire red and the entire thing exploded tripping the circuit breaker on the wall. I returned to the store, explaining that I had bought this thing only about one hour ago and it quit after using it for less than 5 minutes. "No can do" was the anwer. Why not pray tell ? "It was definitely misused". How can I misuse something just by pluggin it into the wall for about 5 minutes ? I think it only cost about 150 Baht but it still irked me to no end. Oh well, maybe some day they too will learn that a customer is the one who helps their employer write a pay check.

On a brief trip to Russia quite some time ago I decided to stop for lunch at a fairly nice restaurant in Moscow just before noon. The place was empty at the time. I sat on a table, waiting for the waitress who was nowhere to be seen. Soon thereafter more customers were arriving joining me at "my" table. Only after the table was fully occupied did the waitress appear and began to take orders.

C´est la vie. Greetings the ol Captn.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yep when you find a good vendor here you go back and tell your friends. They do exist but just luck when you find them. Our aircon has been just great for three years now. Five people that I know have purchased units form him since we have known him, Now there is an interesting thought referral business. A concept apparently not taught in business here.

[RDN]

...Yep when you find a good vendor here you go back and tell your friends..... Now there is an interesting thought referral business. A concept apparently not taught in business here.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And the counter point is, it is my impression that the staff at these big stores couldn't give a t0ss whether you go away happy or not - as long as their boss doesn't know. As soon as the boss is called in, they are sooooo much more helpful .

There is a small hardware shop in Rawai that I go to, and I keep going back there because everything is priced already: no special farang price. And the staff are always helpful. And they know the English words for many obscure tools and items that I certainly don't know the Thai for - Rawai Hardware, just outside Rawai on the road to Chalong (on the right hand side, after all the beer bars).

[aviador88]

Hi again.

Since the posting "Doesn't anybody...." got be a bit too long, here a new twist to life in the LOS. I posted something there a while back which went like this:

I recently had a visit from a former client of mine in the States (I flew his multi million dollar airplane for about 10 years) He was thrilled to learn that I only lived about 120 km from where his charitable organization was donating money for tsunami relief. After I showed him the devastation at Baniang, Khuckkak, as well as Bansak, towns which never really made the headlines, because very few tourists perished there, he pledged 500,000 Baht for the reconstruction of the local school which I had to match evenly. So, I did.

Everybody was thrilled. However I cautioned the good folks here right from the beginning, that the man is not just throwing those Dollars at you. He is a business man needing "deductions" from his income tax, rather than feed the dough into the unsatiable jaws of the US Internal Revenue Service.

Things progressed slowly. First a "recognized" charitable agency had to be located.

I did not want the money to wind up with some of the "holy rollers" like the one's who had setup shop in Khao Lak under the guise of "Christian Charity relief Organization" (or similar.) The money seemed to be rolling in, because everybody was driving brand new cars all of a sudden. None of them had secured a work permit which was required a few weeks after 12/26/2004 even for "voluntary labor".  Recently the cops closed the whole operation and chased them out of town.

Well an agency in Pennsylvania was finally found who had a representative in Bangkok as well as Phuket. Many e-mails and telephone conversations later, requesting a "paper trail" which meant forms upon forms, affidavits copies of my passport etc. I am only mentioning this, because the contractor and the people of this town kept bugging me daily. WHERE IS THE MONEY ???

Nobody seemed to care when some of their own screwed me out of almost a million Baht last year. "Oh yes, we need to go to the Tourist Police, the Immigration bureau", but prueng nee again and again. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, they get impatient.

Here I go bitching again, but I still love it here in spite of the bees who lately came every night by the millions. One of those black devils stung me in the thump which made my entire hand swell up to double it's size. Funny, because as a boy my grandfather kept bees which did sting me occasionally. The swelling went down after a day the most, but this creature's sting kept the swelling for almost a week. Then the thumb was infected and still is. Now its the flying termites piled 5 cm deep in front of the house every morning. I have about 5 or 6 Geckos (and their babies now) as permanent residents in my home who are enoying the snacks provided for them from whatever flying creatures manage to enter the premises.

Greeings the ol' Captain.

PS: The washing machine guy has yet to show up. Since the problem is with the timer I just have to stand there and watch it. I could easily replace it myself, but I have the ultimate patience. I just want to see that "maybe" something would be repaired around here while under warrantee.

One story I actually had forgotten.

One of my first purchases here was a water cooler. The kind where you just dump the entire plasic bottle on top and voilá instant cold clean water. Well it  quit humming after only 3 months dispensing nothing but warm water. I took it back to the place where I had purchased it.  Their first question was: "Did you send in the warrantee card ". Well, here are the papers, the original bill of sale as well as other parapenalia written in Thai. "Oh, here it is" said the man. You never sent in warrantee". So what? I didn't even know that this was the warrantee-send-in card.

Didn't I buy this from you back in April? "Yes you did" the man said "I remember". "And now since I did not send in the card you won't honor the warantee ? Couldn't you just tell your supplier, since it still looks brand new, that you sold it yesterday and was found to be defective ?"" No. no. that would be dishonest." ( he was Muslim by the way) Holy Toledo    So, screwing a Farlang  in your opinion is considered honest bussines. I can't believe it. 

I put it back on my truck and gave it to my friend T who had the compressor replaced ( 2,000 Baht) and placed it in his office for the convenience of his customers.

I then bought another cooler but not from THAT place.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Update to "Only in Thailand" (even when it's for free it costs you.)

Only in Thailand.

On May 5th a check for $ 12,500.oo from our benefactor in New York representing the donated amount for the repair and restoration of the driveway at the local school was deposited with an established charitable organization in Pennsylvania USA. As is customary the waiting period for out of state checks to clear in the US is 5 business days. OK, the 5th fell on a Thursday. I assume they didn’t run to the bank to deposit it that very day. Which leaves Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the 12th. Nothing happened for 4 days but since there were certain forms to be submitted to their branch in Phuket a trip to the organization’s office on the 16th was in order. The nice young lady apologized for the delay but consented to hand us a check for 460.000 Baht with the promise not to deposit it until the US money arrived. Well “a bird in the hand” as the saying goes. Afterwards numerous phone calls to Phuket as well as E-mails to the US agency proved fruitless.

Until this morning (the 20th). “Sorry” cooed the lady “still no word, but if you need money” ? Whaaaa ? “Of course we need money. We have already paid the contractor 300,000 Baht out of our own pockets“. “Then feel free to cash the check“. Only one hitch. The check was written “Bangkok Bank Patong Branch” and could only be redeemed there. OK another 4 hour round trip but it is for a charitable cause, (we don’t get reimbursed for any of that).

The bank seemed modern and very imposing. After inquiring how we go about getting this check cashed came the big surprise. You must first open an account here. (In the States you present a check at the issuing bank, be it for $ 10,oo or $ 10,000.oo. Here is my name, same as on the check, my identification that this is me, that’s it. Take the money and run) Noooooooooooo, not in Thailand.

There were 4 service desks all vacant but one. The sign above stated “Open new account” actually had a live person sitting there. Small problem though. We took a number (39) but he was presently assisting number 12. (We did wonder why all these people were sitting around) 2 hours later it was finally our turn. At least 20 forms in triplicate complete with copies of our passports had to be filled out. 500 Baht minimum deposit (not refundable) plus our check of 460.000 big ones. Voilá. “Kop coon crap, it’s a pleasure doing business with you. Brand spankin new passbooks in hand we popped the question. How to we go about getting the cash for our check.?” “Oh, no problem. Just fill out a withdrawal slip ( in triplicate) and present it to the young lady over there.” OVER THERE ?????!!!!!!!!!!!! Another counter made for 5 positions with only one lone teller and a line of at least 40 persons in queue. I could have screamed. 45 minutes later we had the loot in cash. How to waste an entire day, drive a 400 km round trip, just to cash a check. Btw, I was told the same thing would have occurred if we wanted to cash a check for only 1000 Baht. Unbelievable.

[Sir Burr]

Just fill out a withdrawal slip (in triplicate)

I enjoy your stories aviador88, your posts are artistic enough without having to use artistic license. You do not have to fill out a withdrawral slip in triplicate in any branch of Bangkok Bank.

Edited May 20, 2005 by Sir Burr

[ray23]

Just fill out a withdrawal slip (in triplicate)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I enjoy your stories aviador88, your posts are artistic enough without having to use artistic license. You do not have to fill out a withdrawral slip in triplicate in any branch of Bangkok Bank.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You think that is fun, build a house for a new and exciting aspect of Thai life. Actually we are involved in a civil case right now behind that, so far the court I better then your bank experience but it is not over yet.

[Sir Burr]

Have already gone through the misery of building a house, half the time being absent because of working offshore. A case of two steps forward, one step back.

Edited May 21, 2005 by Sir Burr

[Gary A]

Please do keep the stories coming. You make me feel VERY fortunate and lucky indeed!

Hey Cap'n! I think you'll enjoy one of my old posts about a Philips electric kettle and the Robinsons store. 

Click here!: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11909

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Aiaiaiai. I sure did, as well as all the other stories. Now I don't feel too bad. I thought it was only me they were picking on.

One more those "incidents" comes to mind. I needed to solder a couple of wires. I had a complete workshop in my home in the states and really missed my tools. Anyway I purchased a small and cheap soldering iron. Plugged it in and soldered one of the wires. When I reached for the iron again in order to solder the second one, there was a wushing noise, the shaft turned from light blue to fire red and the entire thing exploded tripping the circuit breaker on the wall. I returned to the store, explaining that I had bought this thing only about one hour ago and it quit after using it for less than 5 minutes. "No can do" was the anwer. Why not pray tell ? "It was definitely misused". How can I misuse something just by pluggin it into the wall for about 5 minutes ? I think it only cost about 150 Baht but it still irked me to no end. Oh well, maybe some day they too will learn that a customer is the one who helps their employer write a pay check.

On a brief trip to Russia quite some time ago I decided to stop for lunch at a fairly nice restaurant in Moscow just before noon. The place was empty at the time. I sat on a table, waiting for the waitress who was nowhere to be seen. Soon thereafter more customers were arriving joining me at "my" table. Only after the table was fully occupied did the waitress appear and began to take orders.

C´est la vie. Greetings the ol Captn.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[ray23]

Have already gone through the misery of building a house, half the time being absent because of working offshore. A case of two steps forward, one step back.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very accuarte description

[aviador88]

Have already gone through the misery of building a house, half the time being absent because of working offshore. A case of two steps forward, one step back.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very accuarte description

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oy vay I too am building a house. The architect was here this morning with the plans. Nothing exotic, 2 bedrooms living/dining room, garage etc. 140 square meters of living space. I am spending my childrens inheritance Can't take it with me. I was lucky enough to get a good deal of money for my home in the states and a decent pension. I never gambled or dabbled in the stock market. When I decided to invest money in my friend T's transportation company it looked like a sure thing and it was. 10 minibuses running 7 days a week. The money came rolling in. Then the most devastating tsunami in recent history had to pick on me (Lucky in love but never in business)

I have an old friend back in Florida. She is 86 years old, reads without glasses, drives the BMW I gave her when I left like a maniac but still planning what she will do for her 100th birthday. I don't think I will even make it to 80. I smoke, I drink, carouse with loose women (not really ) but my philosophy has always been "You only live once and if you do it right, once is enough". I have seen too many of my friends and neighbors depart this life at an early age even though they tried their best not to succumb to the vices that make life enjoyable. Nothing in excess of course.

But I did get off the subject. So, from what I read here today I may yet loose my sanity ? Thanks for the warning. Not that it will do any good

P.S The washing machine dude still hasn't shown. TT&T ( I think that's what they call it) had promised me to look at my telephone line 7 prueng nees ago to get me DSL again. May pen rai

Hey, life is great but sadly enough too short. The Germans have a saying: You get too soon old and too late schmart

Greetings, the ol Captain, trying to adjust.