I screwed up. When I ordered my new LENOVO P-780 phone from AliExpress in China, I neglected to request they flash the ROM with GOOGLE PLAY STORE.

The phone arrived today, loaded with Chinese apps and no PLAY STORE.

Are there any mobile shops in the Bangkok area that can "Root" or Flash phones? I have looked at instruction pages on XDA for rooting tablets and phones but I am inept at this kind of thing and have not a glimmer of understanding when I read the "simple" instructions. I'd brick it for sure.

I hate to waste the time and money to ship it back to China if there is a way around this.

BTW...If someone reading this is familiar with the rooting process, I'd be willing to pay for assistance...just PM me.

Sphone Thailand, a small shop in MBK Bangkok.

MBK 4th floor, this booth is near enterance to Tokyo department store.

Owner is a good guy, go to him, he will walk you to tech guys, they flash your phone.

https://m.facebook.com/pages/S-PHONE-THAILAND-%E0%B8%A5%E0%B9%8A%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%84-4AB-41-%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%B8%E0%B8%8D%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%87-%E0%B8%8A%E0%B8%B1%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%88-%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%8B%E0%B8%99-C/150246771710796?id=150246771710796&refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpages%2FS-PHONE-THAILAND-%25E0%25B8%25A5%25E0%25B9%258A%25E0%25B8%25AD%25E0%25B8%2584-4AB-41-%25E0%25B8%25A1%25E0%25B8%25B2%25E0%25B8%259A%25E0%25B8%25B8%25E0%25B8%258D%25E0%25B8%2584%25E0%25B8%25A3%25E0%25B8%25AD%25E0%25B8%2587-%25E0%25B8%258A%25E0%25B8%25B1%25E0%25B9%2589%25E0%25B8%2599%25E0%25B8%25AA%25E0%25B8%25B5%25E0%25B9%2588-%25E0%25B9%2582%25E0%25B8%258B%25E0%25B8%2599-C%2F150246771710796

Don't panic.

There should be multilang version of P780 rom in needrom.com

However it might be hard for you, just download correct rom and take it to some phone shop for you to flash.

Valgehiir: Thanks so much, exactly the specific info I needed.

Muratremix: Thanks also for that suggestion. I had looked at the "needrom.com" site and they do have a ROM for the P-780 but indeed..my understanding of the instructions is nil. I will take your suggestion and download the ROM onto a thumb drive and take it along to MBK

I chose the Lenovo P-780 because I travel a lot and that phone has a 4000 mAh battery, almost twice the power of most batteries; good for 2 days of use. I bought it thru AliExpress because the price with shipping was the equivalent of B6500, B1500 less than the lowest price I could find in Thailand.

Are you sure you bought p780 for 6500 baht? Thats about 200 usd.

Usually it is sold for 240 usd on other chinese retailers.

Perhaps thats why it came with chinese/english only rom, manufactured for domestic use. Too bad seller in Aliexpress did not bother to install multilang international rom.

There are several custom roms for you here

http://www.needrom.com/phone-roms/lenovo/serial-p/p780/

Some of them only en/cn and not multi lang.

Avoid such as these:

Lenovo P780 Vibe Version : VIBEROM_V1.0_1345_2_DEV_P780

Gapps not include – No Rooted

Language support: EN/CN

However this one looks fine

http://www.needrom.com/mobile/lenovo-p780-slxrom/

Gapps include – Rooted

Language support: Multilang

However this rom is flashable via CWM only.

http://www.needrom.com/mobile/samsung-touchwiz-for-p780/

This one comes with cwm and tries to explain how to install cwm first.

Muratrimix: Again, thanks for the follow-up information. Some of the various forum posts on rooting the P 780 mentioned difficulties with CWM...whatever that is. As I said, I'm clueless.

I decided to avoid MBK today. I suspected it might be closed because of the demonstrations outside it's doors.

It will be interesting to see if I can find a technician who knows what he's doing with this phone..

The actual price was US$210.00 + $4.50 shipping (DHL 4-6 day). I received it 11 days from the order date.(I had to pay duty of B380 on delivery) I have purchased several Android devices from this vendor in the past and they always installed the English ROMS when requested. As I said at the start of my OP...it was my oversight not asking.

Yeah, that's a good price!

Lastest price 9,990 Baht (Update 10 Days ago.)

http://www.siamphone.com/en/lenovo/p780.htm

CWM is recovery software of phone. Installing it is a bit tricky. If they can install CWM that is specificly written / compiled for P780 (any other model won't work! as there is no universal cwm) then they can easily install that first custom firmware I provided in links.

second rom has cwm package aswell.

tell them to vendor in mbk.

Yeah, that's a good price!

Lastest price 9,990 Baht (Update 10 Days ago.)

http://www.siamphone.com/en/lenovo/p780.htm

Not long after I ordered it, LAZADA went down to B7,500 from B9,900. I saw it in a shop in Fortune for B7,900 also.

MURATREMIX...

I do really appreciate the information and explanations. I let you know the outcome.