Lack Of Customer Service In The Land Of Smirks

[Danlo]

Your in Thailand and the first thing you expect is Western standards, western service at Thai prices.............ermmmm

[Jingthing]

Your in Thailand and the first thing you expect is Western standards, western service at Thai prices.............ermmmm

In the case of the nail salon, I wasn't expecting western standards at all! Au contraire on steroids. That's why I brought my own tools.

Edited January 14, 2011 by Jingthing

[Rumpole]

Your in Thailand and the first thing you expect is Western standards, western service at Thai prices.............ermmmm

Nowadays, what you are often getting is Thai service at Western prices.

[Heng]

Haven't had any issues with Foodmart, and for getting a few things, it beats going to or sending someone all the way to Foodland or Central... especially on tourist (from Bangkok) weekends.

[deejah]

You are all posting too fast here. I am still trying to figure out how to say, "I'm a serious fruit shopper." Kliet sue poem la my?

LMAO

thanks folks

there are some gems in here

especially page 2

[JSixpack]

Best supermarket had a sale on Monini olive oil, very cheap. I bought a bottle and then discovered why: it was long past its best-by date. I brought it back, unopened, the next day w/ register receipt, took it to the cashier w/ another, bigger, twice-as-expensive bottle of olive oil and asked to exchange and pay the difference. "No can do!" They insisted the best-by date was actually the manufacture date, contrary to the clear message on the label.

So they gave up the higher profit for themselves on the other bottle (amazing Thai thinking!), and I decided to buy my olive oil elsewhere for as long as I'm in Thailand--which, subsequently, I've done.

Edited January 16, 2011 by JSixpack

[Jingthing]

Best supermarket had a sale on Monini olive oil, very cheap. I bought a bottle and then discovered why: it was long past its best-by date. I brought it back, unopened, the next day w/ register receipt, took it to the cashier w/ another, bigger, twice-as-expensive bottle of olive oil and asked to exchange and pay the difference. "No can do!" They insisted the best-by date was actually the manufacture date, contrary to the clear message on the label.

So they gave up the higher profit for themselves on the other bottle (amazing Thai thinking!), and I decided to buy my olive oil elsewhere for as long as I'm in Thailand--which, subsequently, I've done.

That's hilarious and not surprising for Thailand, but I wonder if for the one time sale (always the main or only priority) if it was actually logical. Olive oil is something mostly bought by foreigners, so most foreigners would look at the label, so that bottle may have been very hard to sell to somebody new.

[BarryM]

The last time I visited Central Food Hall I got the increasingly common Thai sulky attitude / muted farang blah blah farang under the breath comments to her colleague when I requested a fresher cut of Aus tenderloin than the scraggy piece the assistant wanted to serve. So I just smiled and walked out of the store leaving an almost full trolley of fresh food, sliced meats, fruits etc for her to put back on the shelves - and stopped off at Foodland on the way home.

It should be more fun spending it than earning it. If it's not - don't spend it.

[Jingthing]

Yes it is pretty clear that the date stamping is something that is played with in Thailand. I wonder if there are even any specific laws saying they aren't supposed to tamper with that here. It's really outrageous that they do, but experienced shoppers here know indeed they do. Just tonight, to show how tricky this can be, at another well known expat market chain I was looking to buy a produce item. They had two batches of it wrapped in plastic with packed by/use by dates. Normally it's a no brainer to just pick the most recent date and see if it looks OK, then buy. Well the more recent date batch was clearly already beginning to rot. So I looked at the much older date batch, and all of that batch looked fresh. It was rather obvious that the "recent" dated batch was repackaged to try to snooker people to buy rotted food.

Edited January 16, 2011 by Jingthing

[pipo1000]

I know for a fact that in a soon to dissapear big supermarket,the prepared farang foods are repacked EVERY day.

[Ulysses G.]

So I just smiled and walked out of the store leaving an almost full trolley of fresh food, sliced meats, fruits etc for her to put back on the shelves - and stopped off at Foodland on the way home.

It is no wonder that customer service for farangs is going downhill.

[RusticCharm]

I dunno about you guys but I get excellent service whenever I visit Pattaya.

[Rimmer]

One post bordering on defamation removed for the posters own good.

[jombom]

These days, and for many years, in many, if not most countries, real supermarkets are surrounded by large car parks. They are not normally located to suit baht bus services.

Both Makro and Tesco have large supermarkets in Jomtien.

Foodmart is a convenience store, for the few things I forget to buy elsewhere.

The staff have always been friendly to me, and helpful on the very few occasions I made a request.

[Danlo]

This is Thailand not England, if you expect English standards here then your thinking is out, I think a lot of people think as they are a customer they expect too much from Thai staff and think they are god when ordering things and get right shirty when they cannot get their point across, have the right attitude and you will get what you want, give them crap attitude and you will get the same back.

[Ulysses G.]

think they are god when ordering things and get right shirty when they cannot get their point across,

[timekeeper]

think they are god when ordering things and get right shirty when they cannot get their point across,

it always makes me laugh when i hear a farang having difficulty getting his point across saying exactly the same thing over and over, but raising the volume when saying it

language is the problem not deafness......

[Tokay]

Last week I was at Starbucks at Bali Hai. A foreigner (probably early 50s) was trying to park his bike directly in front of Starbucks in the spot that is reserved for Starbucks customers.

THE FOOD CART guy who was selling his crap there, starts SCREAMING at him about how he can't park there. Then 2 guards from MIX club run down and they start screaming at the foreigner. Within seconds, the 3 are beating this guy down off his bike and 2 or 3 more baht bus drivers run over and start kicking him while he is down. They kicked the shit out of this guy over parking in front of Starbucks, in their spot.

I was sitting outside at the table alone and wasn't about to get involved, but I went in and talked to staff who said that is their spot and he can park there and that the vendors and baht bus drivers always give their customers a hard time but they are powerless to do anything about it.

we are all 3rd class citizens here. Enjoy!

Edited January 27, 2011 by Rimmer
racist slur

[Rimmer]

One racist rant removed from view

[Danlo]

This is Thailand, stop thinking western standards, if you want western service go back there and pay through the nose for it, no insult meant but look at the big picture in Thailand not small detail.

[Tokay]

This is Thailand, stop thinking western standards, if you want western service go back there and pay through the nose for it, no insult meant but look at the big picture in Thailand not small detail.

You could counter that statement by saying, yes this IS Thailand and it's called the Land Of Smiles.

Thailand caters to tourists and places like Pattaya flourish because of those tourists. Being courteous to patrons should not be too much to ask for, regardless of where you are in the world. Just because you're in another country doesn't mean you deserve to be treated like sh*t by the locals. Maybe you have adjusted your living standards to accept that, but I can not. It doesn't kill someone to smile, especially if you are spending money in their establishment.

[simon43]

Where I come from we have a saying: "The customer is always right".

I agree, and expand upon this:

"The customer is always right, even if they are a total a-hole"

The point being, if you work in a service industry, there will always be a-hole customers who complain for no good reason. Humour them and they will be happy and your business reputation will not be tarnished by unwarranted small talk. We all know that giving good service will slowly increase your reputation, which will reap long-term dividends. But giving bad service will very rapidly decrease your reputation.

I always smile at all my customers, and none of them knows which of them I consider to be an a-hole

Bit like the Thai smile I suppose...

Simon

PS - Just to say that I'm commenting in general, and am not suggesting that the OP or others who have related their experiences are a-holes

Edited February 4, 2011 by simon43

[actiondell4]

It seems if the Starbucks customer parking his bike in a Starbucks allocated parking spot has been assualted and viciously it sounds like,then its up to Starbucks to intervene,otherwise many potential Starbucks customers will be risking assault by parking there.

Were Starbucks aware there customer was viciously attacked,and if then its up to them to either employ a security guard or complain to the car park/strata management.

[Pattel]

Where I come from we have a saying: "The customer is always right".

I agree, and expand upon this:

"The customer is always right, even if they are a total a-hole"

The point being, if you work in a service industry, there will always be a-hole customers who complain for no good reason. Humour them and they will be happy and your business reputation will not be tarnished by unwarranted small talk. We all know that giving good service will slowly increase your reputation, which will reap long-term dividends. But giving bad service will very rapidly decrease your reputation.

I always smile at all my customers, and none of them knows which of them I consider to be an a-hole

Bit like the Thai smile I suppose...

Simon

PS - Just to say that I'm commenting in general, and am not suggesting that the OP or others who have related their experiences are a-holes

When I worked in retail (many years ago) we said 'The customer is always right, even when they are wrong'

[mark45y]

Last week I was at Starbucks at Bali Hai. A foreigner (probably early 50s) was trying to park his bike directly in front of Starbucks in the spot that is reserved for Starbucks customers.

THE FOOD CART guy who was selling his crap there, starts SCREAMING at him about how he can't park there. Then 2 guards from MIX club run down and they start screaming at the foreigner. Within seconds, the 3 are beating this guy down off his bike and 2 or 3 more baht bus drivers run over and start kicking him while he is down. They kicked the shit out of this guy over parking in front of Starbucks, in their spot.

I was sitting outside at the table alone and wasn't about to get involved, but I went in and talked to staff who said that is their spot and he can park there and that the vendors and baht bus drivers always give their customers a hard time but they are powerless to do anything about it.

we are all 3rd class citizens here. Enjoy!

I think you should realize that most of the motorcycle drivers are whacked out on Ya ba.

That makes it a different ball game. If they don't buy the stuff from the cops the cops certainly know about it and get a commission.

This makes it hard for a company to really fight.

If you didn't know how drugs get transported in Pattaya it may seem a shock but once you realize motorcycles move all the junk it becomes easy to figure out.

I had a my passport stolen a few years ago. The cops were clueless. My local motorcycle mob got the passport back, no questions asked 5000 baht. It took them two hours. They had to go to from Pattaya to Sattahip to get it back.

City wise people look a bit. See what is going on and act accordingly. Rube tourists will always be rube tourists wherever they go. I am not saying it is right but Pattaya is not the place to go for the Thai tourist 101 courses. I get a kick out of the cops and the Russian shows. The Russian's have brass ones. Don't know how this is eventually going to play out.