Unfavourable Favours ?

[soi41]

Last week I had problems with my watersupply, went to the local waterauthority with my problems and within an hour they arrived and fixed the problem. During their work they cracked a PVCpipe, so a couple of days later back to the wateroffice and this time, they were even quicker to get to my house to solve the problem. All free of charge.

Impressed by the level of service, I mentioned it to my wife. And got the comment: "This is only because you are farang, and that is why Thai people don't like farangs, because Thai people have to wait much longer"

Didn't think much of it, until I went to the bank today. 20 numbers before it was my turn and the going was very slow, so I sat down to wait my turn. After 2 minutes the "floorhostess" came up to me and told me that I could go to one of the desks, where they normally handle loanapplications, and they would take care of my deposit. I am by no means a highvalue customer in that bank, as I do most of my banking on the internet, but I was the only farang in the bank. As much as I appriciated the gesture, I can tell you that the looks, I got from the customers I "jumped, they were not nice ones.

Your thoughts??

[Pseudolus]

Mate - the amount of slings and arrows of misfortune we put up with to live here.... take what you can get.

My GF says the same thing especially when I get good service quickly from the utilities companies. I try to tell her that when they say "ohhhh 12 days" I turn around and say "No, you need to do this today" and they do. She accepts what she is told straight away and never quibbles.

[dingdang]

it might happen in favor for you, and there is at least the same amount of racism...

imo, a society where people are treated equally is best to live in...

[norrona]

with the OP's good fortune of late I'd be strutting like a peacock and enjoying life....forget about the scathers in the que, if you were subserviant to them they'd only look down on you

[Bangkokhatter]

Mate - the amount of slings and arrows of misfortune we put up with to live here.... take what you can get.

My GF says the same thing especially when I get good service quickly from the utilities companies. I try to tell her that when they say "ohhhh 12 days" I turn around and say "No, you need to do this today" and they do. She accepts what she is told straight away and never quibbles.

Have the same experience, when moving apartment G/F was told it would be 10 days to re- install the internet, simply told her to tell them that I could get a new supplier quicker and they turned up on moving day. She would have just accepted the 10 days.

Had a bit of luck in my local bank also, which was nice

[wana]

imo, a society where people are treated equally is best to live in...

where is that place ? is it on the map ?

[pnustedt]

I'm getting the same reaction - eg. I ask wife to phone internet co. or USB, et al to report problem - she replies, better phone urself, get quicker response!

[sotsira]

I suppose these things balance themselves out overall, as farangs usually end up paying more than

Thai's for most things when a payment is required.

[Darrel]

My GF says the same thing especially when I get good service quickly from the utilities companies. I try to tell her that when they say "ohhhh 12 days" I turn around and say "No, you need to do this today" and they do. She accepts what she is told straight away and never quibbles.

This is probably why many staff will give better service to farangs without being asked; they know that a farang is more likely to bitch and moan and complain if he doesnt get what he wants whereas a Thai rarely will.

Who would you serve first?

[arthurwait]

I or the wife have to use the bank everyday and we see the same thing you describe virtually everytime there is a queue and I've only ever seen another Farang in the bank twice so I've only seen it done to Thais.

It's simply to reduce the queue. The people they let use the desks are people with not much money to count or deposit.

It may have been different in your case, but as said I see it everyday where it's nothing to do with being a farang or prefered customer it's always people with not much money to deposit. The girl will either ask people what they have to deposit or will look at the people and pick out people who don't have much.

As you had only been there 2 minutes she had probably already asked or checked everyone in the bank already.

[wana]

My GF says the same thing especially when I get good service quickly from the utilities companies. I try to tell her that when they say "ohhhh 12 days" I turn around and say "No, you need to do this today" and they do. She accepts what she is told straight away and never quibbles.

This is probably why many staff will give better service to farangs without being asked; they know that a farang is more likely to bitch and moan and complain if he doesnt get what he wants whereas a Thai rarely will.

Who would you serve first?

it swings both ways ,i can speak thai and staff often look at the floor in distress because the assume they will have to speak english if the serve the farang

so they try and ignore him and holpe someone else will serve him

some taxi drivers will drive past a few thais waving at them to get to an idiot with too much money a Farang but when you speak tai and ask them to use the meter and take the shortcut way because youre in a hurry the look of joy of ripping off a dumb tourist fades off ................

[Pseudolus]

most likely a conspiracy to get the smelly farang out before they shame the bank further in their admittance to their good Thai customers that they actually have you as a customer as well. No doubt when you left, the teller said to everyone "555555555 he came to pay in 10,000. but I counted it and told him only 9,000 - somtam for everyone. Down with Farang scum!!!!!!" .

[soi41]

I or the wife have to use the bank everyday and we see the same thing you describe virtually everytime there is a queue and I've only ever seen another Farang in the bank twice so I've only seen it done to Thais.

It's simply to reduce the queue. The people they let use the desks are people with not much money to count or deposit.

It may have been different in your case, but as said I see it everyday where it's nothing to do with being a farang or prefered customer it's always people with not much money to deposit. The girl will either ask people what they have to deposit or will look at the people and pick out people who don't have much.

As you had only been there 2 minutes she had probably already asked or checked everyone in the bank already.

In general you are probaly right. But, I saw people coming in with just a cashiers check to deposit and they had to wait their turn. In my case I had 600k cash to deposit and as the desk where I ended up didn't have a notecounter, the poor guy had to count everything by hand. Plus I had a plasticbag with 10k in 10 baht coins and the guy actually wanted to count them straight away, but I felt sorry for him (and myself) and told him that he could post me the receipt.

As for utelities, it is probably right as mentioned by a poster above, that you are more likely to feed an angry dog

[arthurwait]

I or the wife have to use the bank everyday and we see the same thing you describe virtually everytime there is a queue and I've only ever seen another Farang in the bank twice so I've only seen it done to Thais.

It's simply to reduce the queue. The people they let use the desks are people with not much money to count or deposit.

It may have been different in your case, but as said I see it everyday where it's nothing to do with being a farang or prefered customer it's always people with not much money to deposit. The girl will either ask people what they have to deposit or will look at the people and pick out people who don't have much.

As you had only been there 2 minutes she had probably already asked or checked everyone in the bank already.

In general you are probaly right. But, I saw people coming in with just a cashiers check to deposit and they had to wait their turn. In my case I had 600k cash to deposit and as the desk where I ended up didn't have a notecounter, the poor guy had to count everything by hand. Plus I had a plasticbag with 10k in 10 baht coins and the guy actually wanted to count them straight away, but I felt sorry for him (and myself) and told him that he could post me the receipt.

As for utelities, it is probably right as mentioned by a poster above, that you are more likely to feed an angry dog

You must be handsum man or maybe the girl made a mistake and is having to stay behind tonight to take down some dictation to make up for it.

[soi41]

I or the wife have to use the bank everyday and we see the same thing you describe virtually everytime there is a queue and I've only ever seen another Farang in the bank twice so I've only seen it done to Thais.

It's simply to reduce the queue. The people they let use the desks are people with not much money to count or deposit.

It may have been different in your case, but as said I see it everyday where it's nothing to do with being a farang or prefered customer it's always people with not much money to deposit. The girl will either ask people what they have to deposit or will look at the people and pick out people who don't have much.

As you had only been there 2 minutes she had probably already asked or checked everyone in the bank already.

In general you are probaly right. But, I saw people coming in with just a cashiers check to deposit and they had to wait their turn. In my case I had 600k cash to deposit and as the desk where I ended up didn't have a notecounter, the poor guy had to count everything by hand. Plus I had a plasticbag with 10k in 10 baht coins and the guy actually wanted to count them straight away, but I felt sorry for him (and myself) and told him that he could post me the receipt.

As for utelities, it is probably right as mentioned by a poster above, that you are more likely to feed an angry dog

You must be handsum man or maybe the girl made a mistake and is having to stay behind tonight to take down some dictation to make up for it.

Sadly enough probably closer to the mistake than the handsum man Lucky man however, who is going to "dictate" her tonight

[brit1984]

Some people (and an alien apparently) think Thais are racist against white people.

I suspect the opposite (positive discrimination in favour of white people) is closer to the truth.

This may explain the situations the OP describes, as well as some I have encountered.

Sent from iPhone; please forgive any typos or violations of forum rules

[Chonburiram]

I or the wife have to use the bank everyday and we see the same thing you describe virtually everytime there is a queue and I've only ever seen another Farang in the bank twice so I've only seen it done to Thais.

It's simply to reduce the queue. The people they let use the desks are people with not much money to count or deposit.

It may have been different in your case, but as said I see it everyday where it's nothing to do with being a farang or prefered customer it's always people with not much money to deposit. The girl will either ask people what they have to deposit or will look at the people and pick out people who don't have much.

As you had only been there 2 minutes she had probably already asked or checked everyone in the bank already.

In general you are probaly right. But, I saw people coming in with just a cashiers check to deposit and they had to wait their turn. In my case I had 600k cash to deposit and as the desk where I ended up didn't have a notecounter, the poor guy had to count everything by hand. Plus I had a plasticbag with 10k in 10 baht coins and the guy actually wanted to count them straight away, but I felt sorry for him (and myself) and told him that he could post me the receipt.

As for utelities, it is probably right as mentioned by a poster above, that you are more likely to feed an angry dog

There are no plasticbags around who could handle 1000 10 Baht coins… (8,5 Kg)