Shoppers Have No Consumer Protection In Thailand!

[Pormax]

Yesterday went out shopping along with the wife and her sisters.

Went into a large supermarket and the sister wanted some stacking units.

Saw the one she liked with a price of 425B printed on a white label together with the bar code.

Picked up a couple of other small item then went to pay.

After she had paid and while waiting for my wife to pay for her purchases the sister was looking at her bill.

This is when she noticed she had been charged 495B for the stacking unit.

She queried it with the lady on the till who checked and said the price charged was correct.

I got my wife to call the manager to explain that if the price is clearly marked then they should sell for that price. After much argueing in front of many other customers waiting the manager refused to give back the 70B difference.

Now I know in the UK that if a price is clearly marked even if wrong you are entitled to pay the lower price.

But not here it seems, the consumer has no rights.

It was only 70B which is nothing for a very large store. To me it made sense to keep the customer happy so that they would return again and just give an apology plus return of the 70B difference.

In the end as a matter of principle the sister-in-law went back into the shop and asked for a refund of all her purchases. My wife wanted to do the same but as we had bought many items I persuaded her not to.

Now it makes me wonder is this a one off or another scam used by many shops and stores.

Now I will be checking prices advertised/stated then compare to what I am charged.

[manarak]

Happened to me also several times in Tesco, but I noticed when checking out and told the cashier, then someone came to check the price inside the shop and it was corrected every time.

It seems to happen a lot on cheap items or items that were discounted.

[Banzai99]

So your sister in law has principles, and you have the "I'm all right jack, our bill is correct" principle, why did you accept the stores actions when your wife wanted to join the protest, why did you not return all your goods too ?

But, you come here and protest instead, you should be totally ashamed of yourself, your sister in law and wife surely are.

[Pormax]

So your sister in law has principles, and you have the "I'm all right jack, our bill is correct" principle, why did you accept the stores actions when your wife wanted to join the protest, why did you not return all your goods too ?

But, you come here and protest instead, you should be totally ashamed of yourself, your sister in law and wife surely are.

'Banzai99'You are completely wrong. The reason I said no to returning all of our goods, a total of 38 items was most of it was food and as there was nothing wrong with the pricing or the goods quality I could well have reasonably been refused a refund. Secondly to return all the goods would have taken a lot of time. It was also I who told my wife and her sisters that she should be sold the goods at the price stated and to try and get them to lower the price.

Also, this is not a protest, but information as to what happened and what could happen to you or others. this is the sort of things the forum is for. As the saying goes 'Forewarned is forearmed'.

But maybe you are like so many who are unable to take the time to write something constructive and help others but just want to 'have a go' at others.

[maturebrit]

in 2006 I bought a phone to put in the house.. when I got home it would not work....I took it back to Big C... their comment apart from refusing to exchange it was....why you complain? it only cost 600 baht.. no matter how much.. its useless if it wont work but they just refused....I bought so little from Big C in the next 5 yrs.... Thai sales logic is myopic to say the least

[kaspercat]

A few years back, I brought a power strip and would not work from Homepro and I went back the following week to exchange it, as it was next to lotus. The manager dare to refuse at first. He pointed to some scratches on the screws and said I took it apart.

I asked if he was "ba"? Why would I, a high income earner, go to take a cheap power strip apart and then return it?

I told them, they can either exchange or keep it and I will never return. They ended up exchanging it.

[StefanBBK]

Over the many years I had this an that. . . .

All times exchange or return was easy, never mind the price. Tesco, Big C, powermall etc.

Giving back the items you shopped in protest is childish. It may makes you feel good, and for sure annoyes the girl at the cashier, but that is about all you achieve.

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[Morden]

Same with guarantees. I don't even bother to attempt to take advantage of them now. Many shops are interested only in sales and have no interest in service thereafter.

[trainman34014]

I've picked up stuff in Big C and got to the till where the computer priced the item higher than it was marked. The girl called a boss lady who went to check the price and when she came back she told the girl to give me the item for free. Boss lady then told my wife that it is company policy to do this if the customer complains of over charging when they reach the till. Seems the trick is that you've got to have your wits about you when you reach the checkout because once you have past it a different conclusion awaits !

[Dancealot]

So your sister in law has principles, and you have the "I'm all right jack, our bill is correct" principle, why did you accept the stores actions when your wife wanted to join the protest, why did you not return all your goods too ?

But, you come here and protest instead, you should be totally ashamed of yourself, your sister in law and wife surely are.

Mr. Banzai has got a valid point. Also leave western-conditioned dispositions in the west while living in Thailand.

[Banzai99]

[rct99q]

Bought three of those valentine donuts (the chocolate ones with the slice of strawberry in the middle) for 15 baht each....lady put the sticker on the box and off I go....at the check out counter while watching them ring up our order see her swipe the donuts and it shows up as 15 baht!

I says to her...hold on a second that price is not right....she apologizes....calls over for a void and re swipes the box and again 15 baht!.....i says again, sorry but that price is wrong....the lady still standing there from the void swipes it out again, puts the box in my cart and says happy valentines day. I look at her and point at the box and state that it should be 45 baht as the price is 15 baht each and I have three donuts! I am not looking at getting a discount, you are not charging me enough......she says 'you want to pay more?" ...... my wife along with about 32 other people in line are seriously getting mad at me at this point....so I finally say okay give me the donuts for free. Pay up proceed out the door when the guard is checking bills and asks me for mine......go over the whole story with him again and another manager is called in.

"why did you not pay for the donuts, sir"....are you serious.....go over the story again with this guy.....he seems not to believe me...so I take him by the hand (which he did not appreciate) back to the till with many of the people still standing there who watched me trying to pay for these donuts.....I tell the lady to explain what happened. She tells him that I refused to pay 15 baht for the donuts so she out of courtesy gave them to me free.

Manager asks me if this true.....I say yes, because the cost of the donuts was not 15 baht but 45 baht, they were 15 baht each and I had three of them. By now my wife has gone to the local amphoe and is filing out divorce papers (or so the look on her face is telling me). The manager then proceeds to manually enter the bar code printed on the donut box and low and behold out pops 15 baht....he looks at me (and I swear) he says sir why do you not want to pay the 15 baht it is not very expensive.....I open the box, show him the three donuts, eat two of them, tell him your right I will pay the 15 baht for 1 donut as listed on the sticker.

'you can not do that, you are not allowed to eat items with out paying for them!" I ask him how much are they...he scans the bar code and says 15 baht each you owe us 30 baht sir. All right...finally! pay the 30 baht for the two donuts I ate, apologize to all for the terrible misunderstanding wai profusely and leave the store.

My lovely wife points out that we still have one donut we did not pay for....did I want to go back and settle up? Oh for f**^s sake.....

[lemoncake]

Its no secret that Thailand does not have any consumer protection and the only agency which does exist makes it very hard to lodge a complaint and takes months if not years to investigate.

It applies to warranty, prices and everything else.

Personally have had it happen a few times, but whats a point of wasting time?!

Either return or accept the price, because arguing is not really going to achieve much, though i do understand "principle of the matter"

I guess partly its the reason why businesses can do that, because of my attitude along with 60 million locals(from whom i learned the mai phen rai) but again getting worked up over it, is sadly not going to make any difference.

[Fgis]

"It was only 70B which is nothing"

You said all, no need to read more.

[loong]

"It was only 70B which is nothing"

You said all, no need to read more.

It may be nothing to you, but it could represent a lot for the OP's sister in law.

[lemoncake]

"It was only 70B which is nothing"

You said all, no need to read more.

It may be nothing to you, but it could represent a lot for the OP's sister in law.

only if she was paying

[ignis]

Its no secret that Thailand does not have any consumer protection and the only agency which does exist makes it very hard to lodge a complaint and takes months if not years to investigate.

It applies to warranty, prices and everything else.

Personally have had it happen a few times, but whats a point of wasting time?!

Either return or accept the price, because arguing is not really going to achieve much, though i do understand "principle of the matter"

I guess partly its the reason why businesses can do that, because of my attitude along with 60 million locals(from whom i learned the mai phen rai) but again getting worked up over it, is sadly not going to make any difference.

Few years ago now, Pantip 2 had just opened, took my PC to a repairman there, problem found graphics card, bought a new one froma shop a few doors away, not cheap 9800 GT new on the market, Did not work took it back gone all of 15 mins, bit of a shook No could not replace it, needed to send it back for checking......... Option have No PC for weeks or buy yet another new one...... the new one was fine, 4 weeks later had back the old one 15 min old one.. replaced with a brand new one....

Over the years this has happened a number of times........... only 1x bought something from Carerefour got home did not work took back next days and they replaced it with a new one there and then no questions asked...

[Pormax]

"It was only 70B which is nothing"

You said all, no need to read more.

It may be nothing to you, but it could represent a lot for the OP's sister in law.

You are totally correct. 70B to her means a lot

only if she was paying

If you read my initial post you would see that I stated she paid for it.

[Stradavarius37]

Oftentimes wondered if its really the sales policies, or the lack of well spoken Thai language, that cause many of these problems.

[lemoncake]

Its no secret that Thailand does not have any consumer protection and the only agency which does exist makes it very hard to lodge a complaint and takes months if not years to investigate.

It applies to warranty, prices and everything else.

Personally have had it happen a few times, but whats a point of wasting time?!

Either return or accept the price, because arguing is not really going to achieve much, though i do understand "principle of the matter"

I guess partly its the reason why businesses can do that, because of my attitude along with 60 million locals(from whom i learned the mai phen rai) but again getting worked up over it, is sadly not going to make any difference.

Few years ago now, Pantip 2 had just opened, took my PC to a repairman there, problem found graphics card, bought a new one froma shop a few doors away, not cheap 9800 GT new on the market, Did not work took it back gone all of 15 mins, bit of a shook No could not replace it, needed to send it back for checking......... Option have No PC for weeks or buy yet another new one...... the new one was fine, 4 weeks later had back the old one 15 min old one.. replaced with a brand new one....

Over the years this has happened a number of times........... only 1x bought something from Carerefour got home did not work took back next days and they replaced it with a new one there and then no questions asked...

Thats great, i bought 5000 fans from Home Pro, 2 of them, both kept breaking every month, take it back, 3 weeks with no fans, back for a month and break again.

after 4 months(ie 8 months, because work for 1 month, break/fixing for 1 month) they refused to give new or fix because(it was costing them too much money)

Bottom line is sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you do not, even with a big company.

[lemoncake]

"It was only 70B which is nothing"

You said all, no need to read more.

It may be nothing to you, but it could represent a lot for the OP's sister in law.

You are totally correct. 70B to her means a lot

only if she was paying

If you read my initial post you would see that I stated she paid for it.

if you look at the smiley face it was meant to be sarcasm, speaking of over reacting

[sms747]

Tops and Big C have a policy of giving you the item free if you catch them charging more at the till than the display price. However it takes a bit of doing to get them to abide by it. We have had quite a lot of free stuff, including beer. Tops often has stuff cheaper on the till than on the shelves. All the big shops seem to find updating prices a challenge.

[lemoncake]

Tops and Big C have a policy of giving you the item free if you catch them charging more at the till than the display price. However it takes a bit of doing to get them to abide by it. We have had quite a lot of free stuff, including beer. Tops often has stuff cheaper on the till than on the shelves. All the big shops seem to find updating prices a challenge.

its not the shops, its the staff. Manager would send them away to put special on Leo beer, but by the time staff gets to beer counter, they have already checked facebook, called 10 friends and end up putting the special on Chang.

The only place i find that runs a very tight ship is Friendship, but thats because the old guy, owner is always there and follows the staff around every step to make sure their job is done correctly

[Crossy]

Now I know in the UK that if a price is clearly marked even if wrong you are entitled to pay the lower price.

Nope! Although I do believe (possibly incorrectly) that food must be sold at the marked price even if wrong.

Here's what moneysavingexpert says on this although it's not exactly the same scenario :-

"If goods are mispriced - can I force them to sell it to me at that price?

No sorry, that's an urban myth. Quite simply shops don't have to sell anything to you if they don't want to, regardless of price. Yet deliberately misleading you is criminal.First let's look at a genuine mistake, for instance a ?50 jacket racked up in a long line of other coats all at ?500, you have to accept the shop's error. Though if it does accept money and later says that was in error, the contract's made and it's yours (this isn't quite the same for internet purchases though).So if you spot a mis-priced mistake, don't be afraid to try and haggle. Although it doesn't have to, the retailer may sell it to you knock down price as a gesture of goodwill.However, if it turns out to be intentionally misleading, such as a price promotion promising lots of goods at dirt-cheap prices that fail to emerge, or you complain and it puts the goods back on the shelf at the same price, then it's a potential criminal offence and Trading Standards officers can send in their heavies to investigate."

Tesco (UK) had the same policy as TOPS etc, if the till says more than the shelf you can have it for free, my ex. used to religiously check the bill and we did get quite a few items free

[Tafia]

I would suggest a hobby. If you throw your doll out of the pram over 70 THB and then come on here and rant about it you have too much time on your hands.

[JSixpack]

The OP's experience is just par for the course and will only enlighten newbies FOB. With a bit more experience, you don't even think about it and accept with equanimity your choice of paying for the item or leaving it--most of the time. Absolutely no point in getting your knickers all in a twist. You can calmly, politely call attention to the discrepancy and you may or may not get an adjustment--but can't expect anything, and, no, you don't have any "right," lol.

Same thing happened to me just the other day. An item clearly marked on the shelf--within sight of the cashier!--for B2999 came up on the computer as B3100. I laughed, acted "shocked" ("Oowee!" "Paeng!" "Kee Gong!" (cheat). She and an another Thai laughed. I asked for a discount ("Rot noi na krab!"), and she smiled and shook her head and said, "Pen bai mai dai ka!). Then I asked for credit, sticking my thumb down on the counter. "Credit, na!" Another laugh. That was it--no hope--I paid and we all concluded with a smile.

When you're given lemons, make lemonade. (Thais can be fun to joke around with.)

Edited February 17, 2013 by JSixpack

[easyride]

The OP is utterly wrong to say "Now I know in the UK that if a price is clearly marked even if wrong you are entitled to pay the lower price."

check the UK Consumer Protection laws and you'll find that any shop in the UK is under NO obligation to sell you anything. The business can make whatever pricing policy it wants to. It just so happens that most will let you pay the lower price (good customer relations) but they are under no obligation to do so. I may be wrong but even Thailand has a 7 day guarantee period.

[infinity11]

Only read the OP not the thread yet. Principle simply does not fly in Thailand. It is a completely different culture with a completely different slant. I know how hard it is to adjust, and also to the lies most all of the time, and awful or terrible and selfish service But i still believe it is a worthwhile challenge to face one's own limitations. Food for thought. I found standing on principle in thailand, i end up shooting myself in the foot. That is just me, others may find something different that works for them.

[dave111223]

The way I see it you can either accept the real price (495) or reject/return the items as you don't want them for that price.

Doesn't really make sense to me that they HAVE to sell it to you for 425...forcing someone to sell something for a price they don't want sell it for is not really the kind of society for me.

One thing that I don't really understand about incorrect prices here, is that you can go back next week and the price will still be wrong, even though there are 10 employees standing idly next to it, just poor management I guess.

[Sandman77]

I have good expiration on7 eleven there was a water promotion buy one get one free I bought around 6 bottle but the young stuff charge me the full price without promotion

Not believe me , we go back together to the fridge I show the promotion!

The manager comes , sorry we can't take it back coz allready sold give me the money back and the 6 liter water was free! A smile sorry for the problem!

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