Lack Of Customer Service In The Land Of Smirks

[tropo]

What is Foodmart?

I can't share those very negative experiences but in general ppl are not as friendly compared with 10 yrs ago. Customer care was never a strength in Thailand. Once you paid the games is over! In msny cases the bad service is not done intentionally but purely because people are lazy and do not want to deal with problems.

when we lived in Jomtien, we used to refer to foodmart as Harrods

its just as pricy and the staff are equally testy

they don't deserve to have any business

I hadn't been in there for about 2 years before my visit there last month. Since then it has improved a lot and serves quite well for convenience shopping when you don't have time or inclination to fight the traffic over the other side of the hill.

[Jingthing]

He was right, it was disrespectful. I don't go to the movies to show respect to officious teenage punks, sorry. Next time I'll wave the backside of the ticket, how's that? Hey, I have a better idea. Maybe I will lick the ticket and hand the wet paper over to him so he can examine it under a loop.

Anyway this is such a rich vein of potential stories.

Just today, shopping for bananas on the street. Yes, bananas, the fruit. There was a vendor that had some bunches. I had quick feel of one of the bananas in two bunches and they were both too soft (can't tell from looking, so sue me). I was about one second from making a purchase from the greener bananas (which I didn't have to feel) when the young matron looks at me like she is about to drive a stake through my brain telling me not to touch the bananas. I said what, so she repeated it. Now I actually have sympathy with her point of view, if 100 people touch one banana in a bunch, all the bananas are going to potentially be damaged. I get it! However, her affect was so murderous I just smiled at her and walked about three seconds to another vendor and bought my bananas. Yes, I am easily amused. BTW, it was obvious I was a serious fruit shopper, I already had a bag with some other fruit in it. In some ways I admire the bald lack of self interest in her behavior.

Off to Best Buy to look at some stuff. I'm still shopping for an all in one printer. I spent about 10 minutes hovering over the Brother printers, looking around for a clerk. There were four within eyesight but they expertly avoided eye contract. Truth is, I wasn't going to buy today, but I wanted to ask if they had a brochure and I wanted them to show me the ink replacement cartridges for the model I am interested in. I gave up.

On to the webcam area. I was looking to buy one today, but I wanted to examine the options and they were locked under glass. Again I hovered for 10 minutes staring through the glass, turning around trying to make eye contact with a clerk. Nothing. Yes, I could have walked over to one and dragged one over, but for some perverse reason I didn't want to do that, I wanted them to come and serve me. Still shopping. Tip to store, display your webcams outside locked glass, you will sell more.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Jingthing

[Ulysses G.]

Thanks jingthing. No wonder the Thais are all so "racist" against us "farangs".

[tropo]

He was right, it was disrespectful. I don't go to the movies to show respect to officious teenage punks, sorry. Next time I'll wave the backside of the ticket, how's that? Hey, I have a better idea. Maybe I will lick the ticket and hand the wet paper over to him so he can examine it under a loop.

Exactly right. You treat them all like "officious teenage punks". You didn't know he was acting like an "officious teenage punk" until you treated him like a punk and he responded. I reckon you got exactly what you deserved here.

[Jingthing]

Thanks jingthing. No wonder the Thais are all so "racist" against us "farangs".

Yes I did it. BTW, my description about the ticket Nazi was totally tongue in check to anyone who didn't get that.

[tropo]

Thanks jingthing. No wonder the Thais are all so "racist" against us "farangs".

Yes I did it. BTW, my description about the ticket Nazi was totally tongue in check to anyone who didn't get that.

My comments weren't, just in case you thought they were.

[mr.buffalo]

Just out of interest, what would be our equilivant word to 'farang 'to a thai?

[Jingthing]

Just out of interest, what would be our equilivant word to 'farang 'to a thai?

For Americans, it would be Oriental, which is mildly impolite.

However, if you shouted after an American Asian person loudly yelling

HEY YOU ORIENTAL

you wouldn't be surprised to be punched in the face.

That's why I find it so funny how tolerant some Thai-ier than Thai expats here are so overly tolerant of Thai RUDENESS.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Jingthing

[mark45y]

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?

[Jingthing]

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?

Easier to buy the bananas from the FRIENDLY Thai down the road ...

BTW, the lady I buy most of my fruit from and have for years now spending hundreds of baht per week not only doesn't mind me squeezing a banana or two, she is always SQUEEZING me when I visit. Now that my friends is good customer service and good business. Smiling PAYS.

Seriously, if there is any choice, I think we should avoid giving any business to overtly hostile Thais. Why reward that?

Edited August 13, 2010 by Jingthing

[blubberboybob]

to be fair I have seen some terrible farang attitudes in pattaya...........it seems to attract the worst kind.

the cinema ticket collecter was probably a pleasant fellow when he first started working here.

[Jingthing]

to be fair I have seen some terrible farang attitudes in pattaya...........it seems to attract the worst kind.

the cinema ticket collecter was probably a pleasant fellow when he first started working here.

I doubt it. He wasn't old enough to have worked ANYWHERE very long. I just think he was a typical brat without a clue about how to be polite to foreigners. To those of you who think it is OK to be shouted at as if you were a thing rather than a person, I can't relate. Imagine in the west if a ticket clerk shouted to a minority person, HEY YOU BLACKIE!

[Ulysses G.]

Isn't that what started the Watts riots?

[Jingthing]

Isn't that what started the Watts riots?

No doubt! An interesting concept, REVOLTING FARANGS.

FUTURE NEWS OF THE WEIRD

Pattaya Thailand, Jan 10, 2011

Today in the popular sin city resort of Pattaya about 10,000 farangs (the local slang word for white people) armed with broken large bottles of Chang beer, started a violent riot at a major shopping mall. Damage is estimated at 10 billion baht. It was sparked by a racist ticketing clerk at the mall's cinema, who insulted a local hotheaded expat (known by insiders as "JT") by shouting after him HEY FARANG. The city is in lockdown until further notice. The local expat community is considered armed, dangerous, and probably intoxicated. Update at 11 ...

[neverdie]

^I'm not sure if throwing your handbag down at the local banana market or cinema really qualifies as a riot.....but im sure it was dramatic all the same .

[Jingthing]

Revolting Farangs. Wink wink nod nod. Get it?

[neverdie]

Ohhh dear JT, I am a little shocked that you used this as a line.

[Jingthing]

^I'm not sure if throwing your handbag down at the local banana market or cinema really qualifies as a riot.....but im sure it was dramatic all the same .

Some kind of gay slur? Why I oughtta stick your right nipple with my diamond tiara! And when I'm done with that tie you up in a leather proofed basement and play the entire song stylings of Judy Garland on an endless loop ...

[neverdie]

^I'm trying to work out what part is the gay slur? Is using the word 'handbag' some sort of political incorrect term, should I of said, "Spat the dummy" ?

Perhaps you could send me a list of all the slurs, that way I won't use one by mistake. Again JT, you are being very dramatic & Im starting to see what the poor ticket clerk had to put up with......

[IAMSOBAD]

Thaier than Thai Expats...Has to be used more often!!!

Some examples-

3 farang on a Click

farang wearing a green taxi vest on a Click

farang on a Click wearing a helmet with the strap blowing in rhe wind

farang picking his nose while making your food

farang expat always using percentages like a genius

ever notice that 89.374 percent of Thai people do use percentages... The other15 percent cant do math!

These are jokes for all you Thaier than Thai expats who hijacked this topic!

The bottom line is a smile goes a long way...Name calling does not!

[Jingthing]

Thaier than Thai ...

I coined that term here on thaivisa yet I haven't received baht one for it!!!

Edited August 13, 2010 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

^I'm trying to work out what part is the gay slur? Is using the word 'handbag' some sort of political incorrect term, should I of said, "Spat the dummy" ?

Perhaps you could send me a list of all the slurs, that way I won't use one by mistake. Again JT, you are being very dramatic & Im starting to see what the poor ticket clerk had to put up with......

Suggesting a man you know to be gay carries a handbag implies you think gay people are like women. Women carry handbags. Not macho men like me. Excepting of course ITALIANS!

Dramatic? Guilty as charged.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Jingthing

[IAMSOBAD]

Yes I saw your Thaier than Thai Expats line.

Reminds me of Richard Pryor to Gene Wilder in Silver Streak ... You a little too black!

[Jingthing]

Yes I saw your Thaier than Thai Expats line.

Reminds me of Richard Pryor to Gene Wilder in Silver Streak ... You a little too black!

I coined this a long time ago and I like it a lot, so of course I don't mind promoting it. I think it's a classic that will outlive the antics of the Glitterman. I also like my discovery of a new mental illness, the Pattaya Derangement Syndrome (PDS) but I somehow doubt it has the legs of Thai-ier than Thai ... We are all looking for a little bit of immortality (or is that immorality), I believe people will be saying Thai-ier than Thai hundreds of years from now. 55555

Edited August 13, 2010 by Jingthing

[Northbank]

to be fair I have seen some terrible farang attitudes in pattaya...........it seems to attract the worst kind.

the cinema ticket collecter was probably a pleasant fellow when he first started working here.

I think your probably right....a lot of the resentment shown by some thais to farang is no doubt created by the behaviour they have to suffer from some farang..But on the whole i have always found thais to be very pleasant...at least to your face, much more so than back home and definitely more so than other asian countries which is surprising considering the amount of a-holes they have to deal with ..

I love Vietnam but i could write a book on my experiences of disdainful or even aggressive service there...i could count on one hand the times i have had the same experiences in thailand (taxi drivers aside) even though i have spent ten times more time here..

[Ulysses G.]

Yes!

[IAMSOBAD]

Noooooo

[Andyf]

^I'm not sure if throwing your handbag down at the local banana market or cinema really qualifies as a riot.....but im sure it was dramatic all the same .

[ozsamurai]

Isn't anyone going to chime in on the "we farangs have been lumped in the same basket as High-so Thai's'.... We get treated like shyt now, because of something that happened a few months ago. So that means for the past 10yrs, all the other crap was, what?

[neverdie]

^I'm trying to work out what part is the gay slur? Is using the word 'handbag' some sort of political incorrect term, should I of said, "Spat the dummy" ?

Perhaps you could send me a list of all the slurs, that way I won't use one by mistake. Again JT, you are being very dramatic & Im starting to see what the poor ticket clerk had to put up with......

Suggesting a man you know to be gay carries a handbag implies you think gay people are like women. Women carry handbags. Not macho men like me. Excepting of course ITALIANS!

Dramatic? Guilty as charged.

NONESENSE JT.

You need to get ur arse down to Australia, where its a commonly used term to describe someone whos having a little tantie. Please cut me a little slack, remember you can take the ocker out of Oz but you can't take the Oz out of the ocker, capiche?

Perhaps, firstly knowing that you are a man & gay, I should of used the term 'Manbag' however hetro man also carry handbags (manbags), so Im starting to confuse myself again.....which isnt that hard. You were saying?