Quality Of Thai Goods

[srisatch]

WE don't live in BKK. Therefore we are always 'at the mercy' of what we can get hold of

Just came back from 'len songkhran' with the kids. sat down in my new 'office chair' not expensive at 2000B but no choice to buy a more expensive one without 100 mile trip, leaned back, 2 legs break off-I am not THAT heavy c.75 kg. good deal lighter and trimmer than a lot of the guys I have seen oozing out of pickups today!!i

Presume lots of people have similar experiences

What IS to be done...? and what hope for a country that cannot even make a preformed office chair...I doubt it could be exported but I bet those that are are running pretty close to the wire and probably everything else. Chinese competition really biting? Or what?!!

Lots of things have ISO marks on them..then there is that Thai Food Quality stamp. Do you think it means anything?

[doctormann]

WE don't live in BKK. Therefore we are always 'at the mercy' of what we can get hold of

Just came back from 'len songkhran' with the kids. sat down in my new 'office chair' not expensive at 2000B but no choice to buy a more expensive one without 100 mile trip, leaned back, 2 legs break off-I am not THAT heavy c.75 kg. good deal lighter and trimmer than a lot of the guys I have seen oozing out of pickups today!!i

Presume lots of people have similar experiences

What IS to be done...? and what hope for a country that cannot even make a preformed office chair...I doubt it could be exported but I bet those that are are running pretty close to the wire and probably everything else. Chinese competition really biting? Or what?!!

Lots of things have ISO marks on them..then there is that Thai Food Quality stamp. Do you think it means anything?

Not had too much problem with Thai stuff but it seems that most of the imported Chinese goods are just absolute cr*p!

DM

[srisatch]

Oh sure. It may well be the chair came from China. If so, why?

I would just be interested to hear what disasters you have had with buying stuff.( after all I can buy a (probably not nice), but cheap say 12GBP swivel office chair in IKEA) seems crazy cannot buy a decent-ish one for 30GBP in Nakhon Nowhere!

[monochaser]

Pal, thank you for starting this thread, I much appreciate it. I started a thread in the farang life section of the forum regarding the same matter of garbage being pawned off as goods in los. You may wish to review that thread, which is about a month old. I have had similar incidences to what you describe happen to me a number of times on a wide array of goods priced at different levels. Thailand does export some quality goods, like luggage, to countries like the USA which have quality control. The stuff they sell here is crap. I feel for you pal. Don't be surprised when you get bombarded with posts by people who claim that stuff sold here is wonderful. It is a huge load of bunk

[monochaser]

I've been buying china imports in the USA for years and it aint that great but stuff sold here makes it look like it was bought at Tiffanys. My advice is think twice before spending money on goods sold here

[Heng]

Lolz. You bought a $50 chair and found out it was cheap. Rocket science.

[Jai Yen Yen]

I think it's the "leaning back" that's the problem . I lost one of the five legs on my chair. I've now got one that pivots in the middle so you can lean back without stressing the leg at the back: all weight still goes straight down.

If you look closely at some of the cheap plastic chairs, they sometimes have a weight limit on the label - around 65-75 kg often.

Edited April 13, 2006 by Jai Yen Yen

[Heng]

Mine doesn't even have back legs. It's metal with leather wrapped around the outside frame that is supported mainly by the front legs (with the space where the back legs should be a free space). Not imported. Logica, made in Thailand, less than 20,000. I'm 78 kgs. and it's 5 years old now without any issues.

[h90]

4 dead chairs in 4 years thailand, I have 65 kg (2 were definitly made in Thailand).

my wife (ca. 55 kg) also killed one.

when my mother come (she is a heavy-weight), I guess I let her sit on the floor...

ISO or any other marks do not help anything, you can order your products with any mark you want.

guess why rich thai people buy german cars and think why thailand has such a "high" market share of high tech. products (high tech. products like chairs for example) in developed countries....

WE don't live in BKK. Therefore we are always 'at the mercy' of what we can get hold of

Just came back from 'len songkhran' with the kids. sat down in my new 'office chair' not expensive at 2000B but no choice to buy a more expensive one without 100 mile trip, leaned back, 2 legs break off-I am not THAT heavy c.75 kg. good deal lighter and trimmer than a lot of the guys I have seen oozing out of pickups today!!i

Presume lots of people have similar experiences

What IS to be done...? and what hope for a country that cannot even make a preformed office chair...I doubt it could be exported but I bet those that are are running pretty close to the wire and probably everything else. Chinese competition really biting? Or what?!!

Lots of things have ISO marks on them..then there is that Thai Food Quality stamp. Do you think it means anything?

[MarkBKK]

WE don't live in BKK. Therefore we are always 'at the mercy' of what we can get hold of

Just came back from 'len songkhran' with the kids. sat down in my new 'office chair' not expensive at 2000B but no choice to buy a more expensive one without 100 mile trip, leaned back, 2 legs break off-I am not THAT heavy c.75 kg. good deal lighter and trimmer than a lot of the guys I have seen oozing out of pickups today!!i

Presume lots of people have similar experiences

What IS to be done...? and what hope for a country that cannot even make a preformed office chair...I doubt it could be exported but I bet those that are are running pretty close to the wire and probably everything else. Chinese competition really biting? Or what?!!

Lots of things have ISO marks on them..then there is that Thai Food Quality stamp. Do you think it means anything?

Most ISO "standards" are very good. They seem to concentrate on paperwork. You may produce crap goods, provide a crap service, tell customers with complaints to sod off, but as long as you keep decent paperwork on all this you meet the standard. Standards are wonderful. When away from the Sale of Goods act 1979 (or whatever), it really is a case of caveat emptor. Didn't you try the chair before you bought it?

For example, to quote from the ISO web site, "ISO 9001 is the internationally recognised standard for the quality management of businesses. It applies to the processes that create and control the products and services an organisation supplies. It prescribes systematic control of activities to ensure that the needs and expectations of customers are met. It is designed and intended to apply to virtually any product or service, made by any process anywhere in the world."

This means paperwork, not decent products. Note the "systematic control of activities" wording. What it means is you can provide documentation for everything. Not that you can do quality work.

[OZONE]

WE don't live in BKK. Therefore we are always 'at the mercy' of what we can get hold of

Just came back from 'len songkhran' with the kids. sat down in my new 'office chair' not expensive at 2000B but no choice to buy a more expensive one without 100 mile trip, leaned back, 2 legs break off-I am not THAT heavy c.75 kg. good deal lighter and trimmer than a lot of the guys I have seen oozing out of pickups today!!i

Presume lots of people have similar experiences

What IS to be done...? and what hope for a country that cannot even make a preformed office chair...I doubt it could be exported but I bet those that are are running pretty close to the wire and probably everything else. Chinese competition really biting? Or what?!!

Lots of things have ISO marks on them..then there is that Thai Food Quality stamp. Do you think it means anything?

You paid 2000 Baht for a chair and expect high quality?

Forgod sake, going out and have good dinner cost you half of that already.

Bottom line, if you want high quality end items than you have to pay for it.

[English Noodles]

Lolz. You bought a $50 chair and found out it was cheap. Rocket science.

Yes i agree, you get what you pay for. Its like people who buy a fake brand shirt and complain about it shrinking in the wash or buys a copy brand name wrist watch and says the metal gives them a rash.

DUH.

[ProfessorFart]

Bottom line is that if you are as rich as Monochaser claims/dreams to be then go back home and spend your millions there.

I'm afraid that if life has bought you here for whatever reason, then live with the plusses and minuses or just go home whre everything is 100% to your liking.

[wolf5370]

I sit on the floor with a cushion - chairs are for the guests to break

I think its like this:

If its stylish, Thai and cheap - its crap quality.

If its not stylish, Thai and cheap - probably OK (but ugly)

If its not stylish, Thai and expensive - you were ripped off, but probably OK

If its stylish, Thai and expensive - its a 50:50 (either you were ripped off and its crap, or its OK)

If its foreign - its probably either Thai with a false label - and see above - or its from another country like China etc that is the same (see above) - or its too bloody expensive to buy and actually sit on anyway.

So, in conclusion - either buy ugly furniture or sit on the floor. Can you get milk crates here?

[Griffin]

I agree with the OP and think Prof'fart is OTT with his "Go home as you are not one of us" line.

I think it is a pricing plan. For B2000 you can't expect glue and nails, just one or the other. As with many Thai products aimed at the local market prices have to be low. How else could Johhny Issan afford electrical goods from Tesco?

The second problem is returning faulty goods. In the UK faulty products are returned to the shop for replacement or repair. The bill for the repair or the broken product itself will end up at the supplier/manufacturer, therefore, they try and keep faults to a minimum. Here in Thailand the shop has no reason to help. The broken product is yours.

From experience i have bought some of the cheapest dvd players/fans/speaker systems that money can buy and have been pleased. My cheap and nasty dvd player is 3 1/2 years old and gets plenty of use. If it goes wrong today i'll give it to the maid who will have it repaired and buy a new one.

[monochaser]

yes, it is really a lot to ask for a 2000 baht chair to last 1 sitting. roflmao. why not hand over the 2k for nothing

[jing jing]

2000 baht seems a bit pricey. You could rent an apartment for a month for that. Didn't they have anything in the under 500 baht range?

[Misplaced]

yes, it is really a lot to ask for a 2000 baht chair to last 1 sitting. roflmao. why not hand over the 2k for nothing

Frankly, If you going spend 2000 baht on an office chair, than you're doing just that, "hand over the 2k".

What do you want for a $50.00 piece of office furniture..geeesshhhh

[Simbo]

I'm on my 4th swivel chair in less than 3 years. A leg always breaks. You cannot repair them. I have tried all ways. Glue, splints, etc. In all other respects, a good chair goes in the bin, where it is swiftly commandeered by a Thai.

About 3 months ago, in Tesco's, I spotted an office chair for 1900b. It had a tilt facility. I bought it.

It is the best chair in my house. The next best thing to a Parker knoll. Even in the tilt position, the weight is distributed evenly. I fall asleep in it all the time. Especially when reading some of the posts on this forum.

[DavieA]

WE don't live in BKK. Therefore we are always 'at the mercy' of what we can get hold of

Just came back from 'len songkhran' with the kids. sat down in my new 'office chair' not expensive at 2000B but no choice to buy a more expensive one without 100 mile trip, leaned back, 2 legs break off-I am not THAT heavy c.75 kg. good deal lighter and trimmer than a lot of the guys I have seen oozing out of pickups today!!i

Presume lots of people have similar experiences

What IS to be done...? and what hope for a country that cannot even make a preformed office chair...I doubt it could be exported but I bet those that are are running pretty close to the wire and probably everything else. Chinese competition really biting? Or what?!!

Lots of things have ISO marks on them..then there is that Thai Food Quality stamp. Do you think it means anything?

But the chair looked good didn't it? What more do you want..........quality, strength and durability? That's what shits me about Thailand and China...they pump out absolute useless crap at alarming rates. It should be illegal. I have a running joke about buying Thai products with my wife. "So next week it will be broken." She hates it because I am criticising her country.

And about the ISO label......Do you really think the Thai company is legitimately accredited with ISO 9000 status. If their internal auditors weren't told to lie, the external auditors were paid tea money. Your in Thailand now, the land of lies and deception! If they were truley ISO accredited, you would be able to take the chair back and ask for a refund. There should be a small time frame shortly after purchase in which they would replace the chair regardless. If not a refund, they would assess the chair and determine the reason for breakage and replace it for you. After all they claim they have a quality product, that's why they have ISO. If they can't do this you know they are lying.

[srisatch]

Always manage to get a few people irate!

I said: CANNOT get to BKK/CNX every time something breaks....Of course you CAN buy a decent chair in LOS...the points are

I don't EXPECT anything. I am not that upset.. of course it was ONLY a few baht, but as I said can buy a perfectly long lived chair in France for a few Euros!

I will probably sit in a 250B pink plastic chair for a while...though I have bent a few legs of those. Actually as of now sitting on a v. nice wooden box with upholstered seat

I criticise things in France and the UK, where we also live, regularly.

Why is it every time one makes a possibly 'negative' comment about LOS a whole bunch of people start saying 'You are not One of Us' 'Go Home' 'What do you expect?' I don't suppose many of you are Thai...and if you are you will surely have aspirations for LOS?!

We pay large sums in taxes here. We want, for our kids, if no-one else. LOS to be a successful and pleasant country. Not sure about the TSM/I only visit/I would like to live here/ Coming back for a few weeks element on this forum?!

Bet thyat makes for even more irate posts!

Don't misunderstand me; plenty of people on their own and with families like us trying to make a better life for themselves and contributing to the country of the choice of residence.

If we simply acquiesce in third rate goods and service, we are doing no-one any favor.

As a poster had it the other day:

Why is there no FAMILY Forum??

LOS has the capability of being a rich and important country. Lots of countries have had to move from 'basic' production to 'quality' production...otherwise the 'cheap ' labor' factor is undermined. Currently fashionable to say China labor cheaper than elsewhee in Asia, so Thai goods dependent on cheap labor, never mind the quality, are in trouble. After China where? maybe African countries, or more likely Central Asia. and the Arab World, also underdeveloped South/Central America .?

My wife tells me that one of the great lessons she learned in Europe was that you could purchase quality goods rather than rubbish, at not that much less money. She used to wander around BKK buying clothes at 199B a shot, most now in rags; she walked round Lyon and Guildford 5 years ago and bought clothes for under a tenner which she still has and wears. Same true of childrens clothes. We buy throw away clothes for the kids here. All their decent clothes come from Europe, though interestingly made4 in Thailand/Indonesia/Indonesia by companies who have Quality Controlsystems for both cloth and manufacture, at not that much more cost

Almost the only exception is shoes. These are loopily expensive for kids in Europe...but of course the ones we buy here are still apt to collapse in the rains of the UK!

Go and get wet

[srisatch]

Oh Totser...The Poster of much amusement for me ..see you reading this

Does it matter?

[PeaceBlondie]

When I lived in Chiang Mai, we drove down south of Lamphun to one of the biggest furniture display stores I've ever seen since I spoke to "Mattress Mac" at Gallery furniture in Houston. Ordered the stuff, including bed and nice wardrobe. It took them four extra days just to build it, right there. By the time I left Chiang Mai, only a year later, the bed and wardrobe couldn't survive another move, and I hadn't really used them much at all. I knew it was crap at those prices; I even wrote a humorous piece about the joys of getting cheap new furniture. The computer desk occasionally falls apart, too, but at least it survived the move.

But furniture, including swivel chairs, baffles me. I know pressed wood chips and glue aren't solid wood, and probably the good stuff costs twenty times as much. I ain't paying 20,000 for no chairs.

I got down to Hua Hin and needed more cheap furniture. Looks like the 2100-baht wardrobe's going to make it. The dining table and chairs that cost 3,900 (inlaid with ceramic tile, quite good looking) are stapled together, so when they fall apart, we put real nails in.

And I bought a 2,100-baht swivel chair at a local store. It's lasted well for 8 full time months of use, but I don't expect it'll become a family heirloom. I don't buy chairs with inlaid diamonds and pearl handles for the price of a new Honda bike.

[srisatch]

Don't start me on Chipboard/MDF Furniture! None of which survived to move from BKK to the North and now leans, in the case of the wardrobe, Pisa-like over what remains of the very huge and child producing!! bed. Again what is interesting to me is that my wife who chose most of this stuff in The Mall Bangkapi, with my agreement,...given the price of solid wood and Rattan or whatever, now won't touch the stuff.

"Very bad luck for Thai people is her verdict!But who want to put good stuff in BKK apartment?"

"No more furniture from those shops in The Mall and CNX", she says. Of course all those big bamboo structures and rattan are more costly...but they last..and she has shipped some of them to Europe!!

[DavieA]

LOS has the capability of being a rich and important country.

So true Srisatch! If only the Thai's could just get their heads around the idea that service and quality means people will come back to buy again. I hope someday they will come to realise just what a gem of a country they have, and what it could be.

[jackr]

I'm afraid that if life has bought you here for whatever reason, then live with the plusses and minuses or just go home whre everything is 100% to your liking.

oh dear, not that old line again. Do we have to conform and love everything without having a voice?

Yep, anything Thai made is <deleted>; just stay away from it. And you should expect a lot for a 2,000 baht chair. If you were talking about a computer, then yeah, tough titties, but 2k is not exactly pocket change.

[srisatch]

My wife grew up in a poor part of Central North Thailand. Not Issan. Not Hill Tribes, not even Phitsanulok/Petchabun!

But her family put together enough money to send her to university.

When we met she would only buy the cheapest of everything.These were goods that her family had never had the money for. Some came, even then from China, HK, etc.

Now she says: Thai people will not pay for anything other than the cheapest. As yet they simply cannot get to grips with the idea that if you pay a bit more the product might last longer or be of better quality. And Thai manufacurers have, for the most part, not grasped this either!

Of course, as she says, they will pay large sums for inconsequential items that display a present momentary wealth and show that the family has a decent disposable income, from whence come respect and prestige. We still get people wandering down the road to look at the 'stupid' washing machine the farang has bought and googling at the price. Well if we had the time we might both be down the river washing clothes! But we probably would not have tri-band Nokia WAP Phones! and children reading Thai and English books!!

[The Skipper]

You may notice like me that the workers have a lazy attitude and I feel short ended on almost every transaction.

After all the national slogan is Mi Ben Rai.

Check your cabinet hinges. Probably one screw, not very tight or stripped.

Check your TV cable. Loose?

Check the tile. does the water drain properly?

Check anything and it will almost self destruct.

That's why the locals don't want local stuff either.

[srisatch]

We are going to 'Len Songkran' Again. So out of here!

As far as I am concerned this is not a thread about bashing Thais or Thailand, but about companies,what they make and sell and why. And what to do about it if what they make and sell is crap.

Of course they want to make a profit.

But lots have learned that selling crap might pay off in the short term but not the long term.

Of course, too, lots of people happy just to have that short term profit!

Good grief, there is enough crap in France, US, UK!

Actually it has raise an interesting issue with PROFESSOR FART...is that how he thinks of himself?

I suspect the longer you stay in LOS the more abusive you become; as though the longer you stay the more you hate the place therefore the more you berate anyone who criticises it, because they touch on an re-articulate what you repress, well for the most part.

Maybe I will subscribe The Foreign Office plan to repatriate all expatriate dwellers in LOS of more than 10 years.

I think a forced exile in the US, OZ, UK of a few years would re-alert people to the benefits of LOS

[ProfessorFart]

oh dear, not that old line again. Do we have to conform and love everything without having a voice?

Yep, anything Thai made is <deleted>; just stay away from it. And you should expect a lot for a 2,000 baht chair. If you were talking about a computer, then yeah, tough titties, but 2k is not exactly pocket change.

Not at all but I am amazed at how many people come to the developing world for whatever reason and then moan about the fact that things are not the way they are at home.

If it grates you so much that you need to post about it on an internet forum about substandard swivel chairs then maybe the developing world is not for you and the US or Europe may be a better choice of domicile for you. I hear the swivel chairs there are beyond reproach.