Does Anyone In Thailand Know How To Fix Anything, Part 2.

[Aviador]

Last week, my 16 month old flat panel LCD monitor decided to quit. I made sure it wasn’t the PC, by hooking it up to my lap-top. Out of warrantee of course, but Takuapa had a place where I buy my computer supplies, printer ink refills, paper etcetera, who’s employees insisted they could repair it.

Judging form past experience, I won’t hold my breath. They were nice enough though to lend (or rent) me a CRT monitor to use in the meanwhile.

To backtrack 20 months: Water cooler, 1 month old, no send in warrantee, no fix.

New washing machine, waiting for parts after 3 months was claimed by the tsunami. “So solly.”

Second washing machine under warrantee was ignored by dealer and repaired by yours truly.

Air conditioner of new Mitsubishi truck with less than 15,000 km, “No have” was the stock answer and cost me around 20,000 Baht to have it repaired elsewhere.

Dear old TOT lost my ADSL connection last Thursday. A trip to the ghoul of TOThood in Takuapa was in order. Trying to explain my problem to her, all I got was an icy stare and something mumbled to her co-worker. I only understood Farang and America. Yes, we Americans are a pain in the ass, but we are good tippers. (so I hear from the local folk) But when we pay for something, we want our money’s worth. But she did hand me a telephone number. Well, it wasn’t exactly the final solution, but another number connected me to repair service. This lady did understand English though and asked if my telephone was working. “Yes darling, no problem with the telephone, just ADSL is out.” “OK, I will call engineer”. I wasn’t going to hold my breath and after 3 hours of still no ADSL I purchased a weird looking “Nimungkorn??” 250 hour 1222 number unlimited ISP thing. Since I am very , very computer un-savvy, it took me a while to get the darn thing installed.. OK, dragon (was the picture on their envelope, or was it a Trojan horse ?) Let her rip.

NO DIAL TONE !!! What ?? Sure enough, now the phone was deader than the proverbial door knob.

Calling back the last number, the lady told me: “Sorry the engineer made a mistake, you will have your telephone line back soon”.

By this time it was 16:45 Friday afternoon and I know that these people do not work on weekends. Sure enough, at 17:00 the engineer probably locked up shop, went to have a beer with his chums and I had nothing until Monday afternoon.

But at least, it ain’t cold here.

--------------------

Service http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=32463&hl=

Edited January 13, 2006 by udon

[GPage]

Perhaps if you would learn to speak Thai and not rely upon cash to guarantee good service, you might find a more helpful constituency. Very frustrating to have to contend with all of these issues, but it's not different in the states or elsewhere...being put on hold, poor service, incompetent clerks, etc... But put yourself in their place....they are dealing with a frustrated farang and forced to communicate in other than their native tongue. Double frustration. Smile, speak Thai, and give it your best shot.

Edited January 13, 2006 by udon

[billd766]

Since the original tread disappeared somehow.

Perhaps if you would learn to speak Thai and not rely upon cash to guarantee good service, you might find a more helpful constituency. Very frustrating to have to contend with all of these issues, but it's not different in the states or elsewhere...being put on hold, poor service, incompetent clerks, etc... But put yourself in their place....they are dealing with a frustrated farang and forced to communicate in other than their native tongue. Double frustration. Smile, speak Thai, and give it your best shot.

Gpage

What you need to do if possible is to find the original post called "Service" by Aviador88...Read all of it and perhaps you may understand how Aviador feels.

By the way can you speak Thai fluently enough to be understood by any Thai?

I suspect that not many farangs can do this. I certainly cannot though it is my New Years resolution to do my very best to learn.

Smiling does not come over too well on the telephone and having read the original post I know that he has given it his best shot.

I have some of my wifes family living with me and they cannot speak any English and only my sister in law is willing to learn. I can speak some Thai but my tones are terrible and even my dogs don't know if I am telling them to come to me or if I am calling them a horse.

[GPage]

Point taken....And well said. I just feel that this frustration is global....hel_l, we all have those issues with service people at times. He inferred that "Thais" can't fix anything. I've found the Thai people much more helpful than most westerners. Take New York City for example....enough said.

Peace

G

Edited January 13, 2006 by udon

[Aviador]

Perhaps if you would learn to speak Thai and not rely upon cash to guarantee good service, you might find a more helpful constituency. Very frustrating to have to contend with all of these issues, but it's not different in the states or elsewhere...being put on hold, poor service, incompetent clerks, etc... But put yourself in their place....they are dealing with a frustrated farang and forced to communicate in other than their native tongue. Double frustration. Smile, speak Thai, and give it your best shot.

Easier said then done. I speak, read and write German as well as Spanish and will be 71 years old come March. If I were 20 of even 10 years younger, why not. Another obstacle is the writing. There is no Thai/english dictionary for one who is not able to read Thai. Someone says: "Savasdee crap", where would you look up what that meant ?

I have some children from the neighborhood who come to watch UBC. I speak to them strictly in English. It is amazing how much some of them have learned. Knowing English will help them more in their future than me trying to learn Thai. Whatever English they teach in school here is useless. Too much emphasis on grammar, no conversational syllabus. One boy has had English since 2nd grade and is now in 6th and all he can say is" Moment and I donno". Sad indeed.

Greets the ol' Capt'n.

[raro]

The aviador is back!

Some words of comfort: re-installed my comp earlier this week, only to find out that the driver CD for the ADSL modem disappeared. Downloaded the driver from the internet (with my laptop and the Hutch card). Installed it, doesn't work. Call the hotline of JI-Net. They don't know, refer to TT&T. TT&T calls me, they will send someone tomorrow at 11. It was one of those "ID withheld" calls that make it impossible to call back. At 11 the next day no one shows up, and there is some rather urgent thing to do with an internet research...I call TT&T in Rayong, they don't know about any appointment. Call JI-Net as they arranged it. They don't know who talked to whom. Call TT&T in Rayong. Turns out that the appointment must have been made by BKK HQ without informing Rayong office. They will send someone on Monday at nine am. To be continued... Thanks to Khun Earn of JI-Net who finally took the lead in this case and sorted it all out.

And then again, the Lufthansa call center in Germany is a pain in the lower neck as well...

[Aviador]

Aha.

It is 09:30 Saturday morning. The phone rang at 9:00. "Hallo". "Yes, hallo to you too" . "You bring in Monitor for repair ?" "Kapom, I did indeed." "You buy here ?" "no I bought it in Bangkok and you called to tell me that you can not fix it". "How you know that" ? "Farang intuition I suppose"

Monday I have to take the dog to the vet in Takuapa anyway, the only vet within 100 km, who goes on a 2 week vacation without leaving anybody in charge. Oh well, it's only a dog. Plenty more around.

So far Thai score 100%, Me, Zilch

Greets the ol' Capt.

[Thaipwriter]

Ever had to deal with NTL in the UK?

TT&T are an absolute please to deal with compared with the above!

[leoboss]

Perhaps if you would learn to speak Thai and not rely upon cash to guarantee good service, you might find a more helpful constituency. Very frustrating to have to contend with all of these issues, but it's not different in the states or elsewhere...being put on hold, poor service, incompetent clerks, etc... But put yourself in their place....they are dealing with a frustrated farang and forced to communicate in other than their native tongue. Double frustration. Smile, speak Thai, and give it your best shot.

Easier said then done. I speak, read and write German as well as Spanish and will be 71 years old come March. If I were 20 of even 10 years younger, why not. Another obstacle is the writing. There is no Thai/english dictionary for one who is not able to read Thai. Someone says: "Savasdee crap", where would you look up what that meant ?

I have some children from the neighborhood who come to watch UBC. I speak to them strictly in English. It is amazing how much some of them have learned. Knowing English will help them more in their future than me trying to learn Thai. Whatever English they teach in school here is useless. Too much emphasis on grammar, no conversational syllabus. One boy has had English since 2nd grade and is now in 6th and all he can say is" Moment and I donno". Sad indeed.

Greets the ol' Capt'n.

kao chai mai ?

kor hai chok dee....

[Aviador]

Perhaps if you would learn to speak Thai and not rely upon cash to guarantee good service, you might find a more helpful constituency. Very frustrating to have to contend with all of these issues, but it's not different in the states or elsewhere...being put on hold, poor service, incompetent clerks, etc... But put yourself in their place....they are dealing with a frustrated farang and forced to communicate in other than their native tongue. Double frustration. Smile, speak Thai, and give it your best shot.

Easier said then done. I speak, read and write German as well as Spanish and will be 71 years old come March. If I were 20 of even 10 years younger, why not. Another obstacle is the writing. There is no Thai/english dictionary for one who is not able to read Thai. Someone says: "Savasdee crap", where would you look up what that meant ?

I have some children from the neighborhood who come to watch UBC. I speak to them strictly in English. It is amazing how much some of them have learned. Knowing English will help them more in their future than me trying to learn Thai. Whatever English they teach in school here is useless. Too much emphasis on grammar, no conversational syllabus. One boy has had English since 2nd grade and is now in 6th and all he can say is" Moment and I donno". Sad indeed.

Greets the ol' Capt'n.

kao chai mai ?

kor hai chok dee....

"Kao chai mai" Genau, mein Deutscher Thailing. Wie find ich raus was das heißt ???

How does one find out what that means ? Ask someone ? Well the person being asked would have to understand English, no ?

Since Kao (khao) means: White, rice, he, she, him, her, mountain, horn of an animal as wll as "enter" and even the number 9 ???

If it weren't for the writing, I am certain it would be an easy language to learn. No past tense, no plural.

Oh well, quien sabe .

Quit'cher bitchin and enjoy the sunshime. :>)

[sadman]

Ever had to deal with NTL in the UK?

TT&T are an absolute please to deal with compared with the above!

I must agree. For a variety of boring reasons I have accounts in the UK with ntl, BT and Orange, and dealing with any of them is an absolute pain in the apex. If I have to listen to the strains of the on-hold music and be told that my call is important to them one more time......

My dealings with telephone companies in Phuket have been entertaining at times, as my Thai is not as good as it might be! That being the case, I have sometimes asked for the wrong thing or accepted the wrong offer. That's my fault - if I can't speak Thai well enough, it's hardly incumbent on the person on the line to dash out and learn English for my benefit. But every time, we have a laugh (at my expense, due to my poor Thai) and get there eventually.

Yes, it's hard. yes, it's frustrating. But I am a guest in someone else's country, and am grateful that the people are helpful and good-natured enough to go out of their way to help me. I suspect that the same might not be true in the UK.

[avatar]

Last week, my 16 month old flat panel LCD monitor decided to quit. I made sure it wasn’t the PC, by hooking it up to my lap-top. Out of warrantee of course, but Takuapa had a place where I buy my computer supplies, printer ink refills, paper etcetera, who’s employees insisted they could repair it.

Judging form past experience, I won’t hold my breath. They were nice enough though to lend (or rent) me a CRT monitor to use in the meanwhile.

To backtrack 20 months: Water cooler, 1 month old, no send in warrantee, no fix.

New washing machine, waiting for parts after 3 months was claimed by the tsunami. “So solly.”

Second washing machine under warrantee was ignored by dealer and repaired by yours truly.

Air conditioner of new Mitsubishi truck with less than 15,000 km, “No have” was the stock answer and cost me around 20,000 Baht to have it repaired elsewhere.

Dear old TOT lost my ADSL connection last Thursday. A trip to the ghoul of TOThood in Takuapa was in order. Trying to explain my problem to her, all I got was an icy stare and something mumbled to her co-worker. I only understood Farang and America. Yes, we Americans are a pain in the ass, but we are good tippers. (so I hear from the local folk) But when we pay for something, we want our money’s worth. But she did hand me a telephone number. Well, it wasn’t exactly the final solution, but another number connected me to repair service. This lady did understand English though and asked if my telephone was working. “Yes darling, no problem with the telephone, just ADSL is out.” “OK, I will call engineer”. I wasn’t going to hold my breath and after 3 hours of still no ADSL I purchased a weird looking “Nimungkorn??” 250 hour 1222 number unlimited ISP thing. Since I am very , very computer un-savvy, it took me a while to get the darn thing installed.. OK, dragon (was the picture on their envelope, or was it a Trojan horse ?) Let her rip.

NO DIAL TONE !!! What ?? Sure enough, now the phone was deader than the proverbial door knob.

Calling back the last number, the lady told me: “Sorry the engineer made a mistake, you will have your telephone line back soon”.

By this time it was 16:45 Friday afternoon and I know that these people do not work on weekends. Sure enough, at 17:00 the engineer probably locked up shop, went to have a beer with his chums and I had nothing until Monday afternoon.

But at least, it ain’t cold here.

--------------------

Service http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=32463&hl=

[udon]

Fred,

get thehell out of Kao Lak.

Find a house rental with ADSL or similar, forget the local kids, get straight with the SS people in the US.

Get your ID back.

Get friendly with a local bank manager, & a good local lawyer, if that is possible.

Rentals

[udon]

Closed at the request of the OP.