Central ruined my day today

[kingstonkid]

To be more constructive, are all shops like that, or should I just go buy everything in the shop?

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If you were Thai you would have had the delivery at the right time, Thai folk don't like us and don't wan't us here, I learnt that since joining ThaiVisa.

I never felt that way in the previous 20+ years of living here, but now I see the light, stick around, you'll learn too.

AWWWW

Another of the if you are Farang you get screwed crowd.

I really hate to burst your thin skin BUT

YOU ARE WRONG

If it required delivery then I always have the gf do the negotiations. You still have the same odds of running into the problem.

The only time I have had excellent delivery is when i am getting it delivered by the actual store or the maker.

Then it is always a few extra baht moved me further up the chain. LOL

most times an extra 100 and being friendly works.

The problem OP has is that there is at no time a face to face. Also these companies are dealing with contractors that they hire to deliver. Therefore in order for them to know there is a problem with delivery they have to be notified by the person delivering.

Figure the odds of that happening.

Remember OP is not dealing with a store he is dealing with a warehouse and a call center big difference.

[tyler2208]

On the rare occassion I need something delivered, i always insist on them making a note on the paperwork to call me at least 30 mins before they will deliver.

It would in most cases be the driver that will call...

there have been occassions where they have called to say they are outside... if thus happens just tell them you are 5 mins away, they will wait.

I live in chiang mai, so unless going out the city i am never really further than 20 mins away, if your in bkk then may not work...

better than sitting around all day waiting though.

[10Yen]

To be more constructive, are all shops like that, or should I just go buy everything in the shop?

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If you were Thai you would have had the delivery at the right time, Thai folk don't like us and don't wan't us here, I learnt that since joining ThaiVisa.

I never felt that way in the previous 20+ years of living here, but now I see the light, stick around, you'll learn too.

Sarcasm on Thai Visa will fly over the heads of the knuckle-scrapers who you think you're lampooning.

Yep, I noticed that.

[duanebigsby]

I find some areas of customer service in Thailand lacking, others I find fine. Just like at home. Delivery I think here is as good as or better than Canada.

The Post Office is really good when I buy on Ebay with delivery notices and me picking it up. Both FedEx and UPS in Chiang Rai have English speakers to phone us farangs to arrange delivery. They will even come to my school if it seems easier. Never had a problem with local delivery. Where I bought my bedframe and mattress, they didn't understand my map, so they said "we go now follow you on your motorbike" In Canada internet, television cable, telephone services are all arranged "sometime in the day" forcing you to miss work and sit in the house all day. When phoning customer service you aren't talking to a Canadian, but someone in India or the Philippines sitting in front of a computer.

[Frank James]

Its not just thailand this happen!! Its just as bad in the uk!

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Ditto the US. This would be a typical nightmare delivery situation there, but you would never have the COD option.

We have had good service and delivery/setup every time from Siam Electric. Go in, talk to knowledgeable friendly staff, select items, arrange for delivery---same day! If it's something tricky like setting up a home entertainment system, the guys will hook it all up for you and be very happy with a small tip. (Not TOO small!)

Any time I have used a credit card it costs an additional 3%, and they make it clear that notes with pictures of HRH are much preferred.

[scorecard]

Go to the shop. Examine the goods thoroughly. Pay for goods. See them boxed. Then let shop deliver if bulky.

Online shopping does not work well in Thailand. Vendor does not trust customer. Customer does not trust vendor. Both with good reason. My few online shopping experiences here have not been good.

Remember you are not in the West now. Go to the shop. Examine goods thoroughly. Preferably pay in cash.

This advice will serve you well.

Well said, and:

- Insist that the boxes are opened in the shop, plugged in and the product appears to be working properly. If they won't do this I walk out. My Thai son does same and also takes a mobile phone photo of the individual serial number on the product if he decides to buy (concerned that the actual article will be changed during the delivery process).

- Try to insist on delivery right now. My son is never rude but stands his ground, and often gets his way. No delivery right now - no sale.

- Don't sign anything when it's delivered until it's plugged in and working and you have checked for any damage.

My son learned his lesson on this subject twice in a small amount of time, a dud fridge and a dud slim TV. That's why he now stands his ground.

One of his standard questions is: Is this the latest model? Give me the model number because I'm going to 2 more shops to compare costs and speed of delivery.

There are other white goods etc., suppliers with much better attitudes than Central, Big C etc., in many parts of Thailand.

Some manufacturers have full service centres in many locations, some don't. Some have local reps who aren't really trained / have minimal parts.

Some retailers will perhaps mention service costs at a rep, shop but when you approach them they ask for more.

If your new to Thailand post some questions here about past service experiences re specific shops / locations / brands, etc. Often worth the wait.

[sniffdog]

If you're living in Bangkok, don't rely on any time given. Most of the deliveries come from their warehouse in the suburbs of Bangkok. Now with the anti-government blockades, don't blame them for showing up late or not at all.

[jaapfries]

To be more constructive, are all shops like that, or should I just go buy everything in the shop?

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If you were Thai you would have had the delivery at the right time, Thai folk don't like us and don't wan't us here, I learnt that since joining ThaiVisa.

I never felt that way in the previous 20+ years of living here, but now I see the light, stick around, you'll learn too.

@10Yen: Thai folk don't like us and don't wan't us here,

What utter nonsense ! ! !

Perhaps "Thai' Folk" have a problem with your attitude towards them ? ? ?

Just tell us a little tid-bit: Did you get along with the "Folk' in your home country ? ? ?

I've been living/working in Thailand for over 20 years and I can honestly conclude that what you're saying is utter rubbish !

[slipperylobster]

Typical..but has more to do with routing than anything else. As a logistician myself, delivery is not a first come, first serve process. It is more about the logical delivery route and how the truck is packed. Those two ideas have to be prepared for at the end of the working day, when all the delivery orders are sent to the warehouse, and items are pulled and placed on the loading dock. If they have the plan all together, the last item to be delivered would be in the back of the truck...and the first next to the door. Obvious. You were not the only delivery that day.

Secondly, Perhaps your item was in fact, delivered from a different store/warehouse.

[dotpoom]

To be more constructive, are all shops like that, or should I just go buy everything in the shop?

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

If you were Thai you would have had the delivery at the right time, Thai folk don't like us and don't wan't us here, I learnt that since joining ThaiVisa.

I never felt that way in the previous 20+ years of living here, but now I see the light, stick around, you'll learn too.

Rubbish

[taotoo]

[HerbalEd]

"Baaaaad service, will buy my stuff elsewhere." Really? Keep doing that and you'll soon be out of places to buy your stuff. Welcome to Thailand ... or pretty much any other third-world country.

[buck99]

In my opinion you are looking at this into intirely the wrong way. It is YOU that ruined their day! Had you gone somewhere else to buy your items, you wouldn't have created theses problems for the employees. They were perfectly happy to sit at their place of employment talking, laughing and playing games on their smart phones until you came along and wanted them to work. Now you have the gall to call them and upset their day even more. I would suggest that tomorrow morning when the store opens you are there with donuts and cake and a big apology. On second thought, maybe 2 hours after they open would be better as many of the employees will be late.

[ronaldjp]

No such thing as C O D from Central. Me thimks you went to some rip off store calling themselves Central. However I always recommend Home Pro as found them always reliable

[harrry]

No such thing as C O D from Central. Me thimks you went to some rip off store calling themselves Central. However I always recommend Home Pro as found them always reliable

Go to their website and you will find there is. You have allready been told this here so what do you base your comment on.

[sundrenched]

"Baaaaad service, will buy my stuff elsewhere." Really? Keep doing that and you'll soon be out of places to buy your stuff. Welcome to Thailand ... or pretty much any other third-world country.

You have to draw the line somewhere. For me it's a day, for you maybe 3 or 5 days of no-shows? I think cancelling after one day is reasonable, not to mention if they thought nothing of not showing up on Day 1, what guarantees they will show up the next time? No thanks, it took me all of 10 minutes to order at Lazada and if they pull the same stunt I'll go elsewhere again.

I do like the advice of not staying home the next time. Plenty of stuff here within a 15-minute radius.

[Torrens54]

Never heard of cash on delivery in Thailand.

Always cash upfront.

My wife frequently pays COD, in particular for stuff we buy as a result of watching late night TV.

Most times you can arrange a time for delivery and the delivery people will phone 15 minutes before arrival.

[Shaunduhpostman]

Sorry in advance for the complaining and whingeing saturated multi-volume encyclopedia. But consider your self forwarned! Full whingeing farang advisory in effect for this post! Those unable to read such items without going into full life threatening multiple knee jerk conniptions are advised to proceed only with the aid of a trained and sedative weilding psychiatric professional! I for one actually enjoy writing and reading long detailed whingeing posts! So, turn back now or all hope shall be lost ye rose colored spectacle wearing champions of the notion of a wordly paradise! Also, I suppose if anyone doesn't like long moaning posts they can always skip to the next post! Ha ha! And yes, I know, if I find any fault with anything in the eternal utopia known as Thailand, I can go back to the azure shores of idyllicTahiti where I came from!

But, now then, to respond to the OP imho most things you want to do practicality wise will not go particularly smoothly in Thailand or the way you would expect them to in the west. Sorry, I am not going to mince my words and I've said it. There's nothing we can do about how things are done here and getting upset strangely doesn't solve the problem so I persoally have to learn how not to be upset. I don't agree that the solution is to go home as we always hear on this forum, its to try and develop as people and we are given a nice chance to do so by all of the incoveniences and obstacles we face in our adopted homeland. I don't agree that anyone is ever living on cloud nine anywhere in this world no matter what your imagined wealth status is. Living with all systems broken is just a way of a life here, it's the norm, so most people aren't going to be bothered to complain or improve things, I don't think most people particularly care in Thailand whether they get a delivery on time. I know that I do and you do but you have to drop dependence on/expectation of being able to get others to do things how you'd like when you'd like even if they are a company offering or even promising a service to all and sundry.

Also, people will agree to things they don't agree to pretty commonly here as well. That's just the way people do it here. They will not often say, "Oh that doesn't work," or "We will have to do it this way." Its considerd better in Thailand to just agree to something unacceptable and blow your agreement off if you don't like it and claim there was a misunderstanding or what not. Or at least that is how it happens to me and maybe that us because my nose is too long and pointy and that it is an imposition and people don't like to help me and you may be short and pale skinned and looking very easy to look at and get better treatment, I don't know. Spend enough time heere in the magic kingdom and I think you will find things are not discussed or negotiated much. It's not considered very graceful. Most westerners don't consider it very graceful to waste another person's whole day, but that is our problem.

That social reality where one cannot interrupt the smooth flow in the chain of request, procedures and action with questions or negotiations or notifications that something isn't going to proceed as planned is often what happens more or less on the business/practical reality side of getting things done here, and what various shops and service providers are usually offering is some semblance of what they say they will do and indeed they may do it if it works for them, but in some cases they may not deliver at all on their promises if there is some hitch. That seems to be OK here to do it that way. The culture here is such that people do not like to explain the reality of what may happen. And going the other way too many Thais don't react well to being informed of certain details that things are not going to turn out as you expect. So the clerk at Power Buy certainly isn't going to turn over a new leaf and start by telling a foreigner with whom they are likely not very comfortable with to begin with that, "Sorry, you may have to wait all day for your delivery and if we get busy, you'll have to wait till tomorrow. You might want to step out to the pub and we'll call you if youre not in when we arrive with your goods expecting payment." It's such an awkward thing for many Thais to go through all that, particularly if they don't know you. And that is the accepted way here as near as I can put it. There's no system in place to make businesses do what they say they will do, and people just have to put up with what we call lousy service or even no service at all. It's not that it doesn't bother most Thais what we might call bad service, it is just that they are not as bothered by it as most westerners to not be informed as to what may actually happen on the day an item is sent for delivery or informed as to the progress of a delivery and that "sorry maybe you should forget it till tomorrow when we will try again."

Also, in my experience many people in Thailand don't like to get backed into a corner with any commitments. Maybe it's because Thai means free and the land of the free and being free isn't about being shoehorned into a commitment or keeping your word, I think that they can't imagine you would be so unkind as to impose something on them like a commitment to deliver something at an agreed time, so you won't get far with trying to get people to agree do something when they say they will do it, even if you think you are buying something or a service. They simply won't believe their ears and next customer please, what you want, if you try and nail people to the wall on it just doesn't register particularly.

I always try and think about root causes for things such as banks who don't provide literature or competent personnel to explain procedures so that you can fully use their services. Or waranteed appliance repair services that take literally 30 phone calls and 3 months of missed appointments and excuses before they fix your name brand washing machine which worked for 2 months before completely breaking down, to name a few recent examples in my own life.

In trying to undertsand what is going on when I get stiffed or blown off I try and diffuse my selfish demands by thinking about what I know about working here and how hard it is for me and other employees in Thailand to do their jobs. From my own experience, working in a very large public university in Thailand for many years, where things were fairly dysfunctional, I saw that people working at the university were not only badly compensated for long hours under difficult circumstances but were treated badly by their superiors who, because of their high position, couldn't be asked to lead or do their jobs and run any semblance of a sane work situation. With the privilege of being a supervisor comes the privilege to blow off any and/or all responsibilities. On the flip side, those under management are not given much authority or scope to sort things out for themselves and be proactive and do what is needed. No, that would be running roughshod over one's superiors and to cause a supervisor or boss to lose face by suggesting that he is not all knowing all seeing all accomplishing manager god. Asking for permission to do things in order to fix even a minor problem was rarely very well recieved and usually panned by our superiors at our university who could care less that we weren't able to do our jobs very well or in a way that would make students paying good money for their degrees happier or more effectively educated. There was just probably something wrong with us that we as non-medical professionals hired to support tenured Thai professors that we could not prepare an international conference presentation in the medical field ten minutes before our supervisor was scheduled to leave for the airport. This literally happened and the guy went absolutely apopleptic when we tittered and tee heed and looked at him like he had lost it which he clearly had. "SO! What I am suposed to be doing now at the conference in Singapore!? Just presenting my wonderful face!? With nothing to present?! HUh? Is that what you think I should to do there?" Classic. I would imagine, and i have heard similar stories from relatives who are in customer service here, that work for many is a nightmare with a usually utterly arrogant and border line delusional boss making outrageous demands by the hour in a situation that is complete bedlam by their own neglect and lack of care. So, I just assume most customer service people are about ready to snap even before they meet the first problem a customer may be having with the very same dysfunctional set up.

The upside is you have a chance to learn to deal with relinqusihing the need to get things your way and get it now. It's good if you are trying to be spiritual and stop responding to the demands of your ego as essential to getting to the truth of life and becoming happier as espoused in Buddhism for example or other systems of thought/failth etc.

Also, It's often the culture here which doesn't value or care about details in most situations where we would and which does not teach people the value of stating the case/the facts. Of course we dieregard details where the Thais are generally very conscientious and I'm not complaining, I'm just saying what I have observed and I may well be just another ex-pat with his head up his ass but that said, I can imagine that way of doing things probably also has its own particular advantages, it's just different from the way things are done in most countries. I've spent a fair amount of time talking to Africans from various cultures who are living in Bangkok and they have similar problems and are just as mystified by the lack of communication or concern with committing. Even an exchange student from Shanghai had a venting session with me about all the things the university had done to her, mostly blown off promises, major hassles including telling her she had to come all the way back to Thailand after finishing her program of studies to discuss some problems with her final thesis work and that she wouldn't be granted a Phd unless she came down personally to straighten out what should have been addressed before she was sent back to China. Her advisor refused to discuss any matters with her on Skype or by email, she had to come back to Thailand on her own dime and talk to him. As it turned out, her advisor totally disappear during the week she was in Bangkok, switched off his phone didn't come to his office. I said, perhaps rather insensitively, kind of Thai Visa go back to your country style response, "Well maybe they do it that way in Shanghai too? Just the culture there too, no?" She got a bit peeved totally went off about how that would never happen to students in China that they would be treated like such nobodies and nothings. Maybe so. I haven't spent any time in China. The way I saw it, it was that her prof found it ungraceful to email his student and postpone their discussion of her thesis. He made the excuse that the English wasn't up to par in a particular section of her dissertation and there were other issues he wouldn't disclose except in person. She had come to see me because she wanted my opinion on the English I had a look and I said honestly I have never seen a better written passage by any of the Thai professors whose papers I was often given to proofread. It was tight and well done and seemed to be good research as well. She came to my office the day before her flight was scheduled to leave and no sign of the prof and no on cared to help her locate him. Just not smooth to raise a fuss calling around or to simply email the student and post-pone the meeting.

Similar with customer service they cannot bring themselves to say, "Sorry, sir, but we are not able to give you an exact time as to when our delivery guy will show up on your door." It's just how it is here. There are other things to get on with besides waiting for someone to live up to their promises here so I suppose we can just leave the delivery people to their own unfortunate circumstances and devices and perhaps even misery of greeting all the unhappy and disappointed and stressed out people being ill-served by their dysfunctional companies. When you consider it, these people that blow us off, steer us wrong in some shop or services provider are not celebrating our being gyped or decieved or bungled, they are not particularly happy about it either. What can you do but sadly sigh and just go out and have a coffee and carry on with your day and maybe they will call and ask you why you aren't home to receive and pay for the goods you ordered. Sigh.

[wym]

In skimming looks like you have a lot of true and valuable things to say, but to be honest that really is just TOO long, I just can't actually read it word for word.

And if that's me saying it, you KNOW 99.99999% of those reading here would never bother wading through all that.

Could you perhaps give a 100-word summary?

[sustento]

To be more constructive, are all shops like that, or should I just go buy everything in the shop?

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If you were Thai you would have had the delivery at the right time, Thai folk don't like us and don't wan't us here, I learnt that since joining ThaiVisa.

I never felt that way in the previous 20+ years of living here, but now I see the light, stick around, you'll learn too.

Rubbish

Whoooooooosh!

[Shaunduhpostman]

In skimming looks like you have a lot of true and valuable things to say, but to be honest that really is just TOO long, I just can't actually read it word for word.

And if that's me saying it, you KNOW 99.99999% of those reading here would never bother wading through all that.

Could you perhaps give a 100-word summary?

I know…it' too long. Sorry. Tho' my feeling is that too many texts these days are too short and also unreadble/incomprehensible. Maybe occasionally there ought to be a few things written that are too long for once.

Maybe tomorrow I'll summarize it. Too tired now. Thanks for trying and thanks for your feedback.

[MAJIC]

Well delivery times compared with my own country are very quick,i.e buy now and they will probably beat you home with your furniture delivery! as home delivery,will start delivery will thinking probably, some time next week!

[GOLDBUGGY]

"I just moved here"

You have much to learn grasshopper...

He sure does!

My first time I sat home for 3 days with a delivery to come any minute. I now considered myself lucky as all the pieces did show up at once.

[GOLDBUGGY]

To be more constructive, are all shops like that, or should I just go buy everything in the shop?

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

If you were Thai you would have had the delivery at the right time, Thai folk don't like us and don't wan't us here, I learnt that since joining ThaiVisa.

I never felt that way in the previous 20+ years of living here, but now I see the light, stick around, you'll learn too.

AWWWW

Another of the if you are Farang you get screwed crowd.

I really hate to burst your thin skin BUT

YOU ARE WRONG

If it required delivery then I always have the gf do the negotiations. You still have the same odds of running into the problem.

The only time I have had excellent delivery is when i am getting it delivered by the actual store or the maker.

Then it is always a few extra baht moved me further up the chain. LOL

most times an extra 100 and being friendly works.

The problem OP has is that there is at no time a face to face. Also these companies are dealing with contractors that they hire to deliver. Therefore in order for them to know there is a problem with delivery they have to be notified by the person delivering.

Figure the odds of that happening.

Remember OP is not dealing with a store he is dealing with a warehouse and a call center big difference.

Me to, and I agree 100% in what you are saying.

My Wife does all the talking and they do not know she is married to a Farang, and she gets the same service as he did. She is the one who gets pissed off and calls back for later delivery. Not me! But in fairness not everything I bought was late by a day or two. Mostly for Hook-up for TV, Internet, and the like. A BBQ the first time, where they had to put all the pieces together here after delivery. Haven't bought much more than the for delivery.

[jacko45k]

'Are all shops like that?'

The whole country is like that!

You did well arranging COD, sometimes you have paid already and things don't turn up.

Quite often they have sold you something they don't actually have in stock.

I like to take the truck and bring things back myself.

[pitrevie]

Thailand has many problems in the management of retail and services. However, in my experience delivery is not one of them...usually remarkably well handled. You have had bad luck.

I agree I have always had excellent service from Central and Paragon. The last order with Central they phoned and asked if they could deliver one day in advance. My regret in Thailand is that we do not have direct access to Amazon. Their service in the UK was excellent never any quibbles about returns and their deliveries were first rate.

[wilcopops]

Thailand has many problems in the management of retail and services. However, in my experience delivery is not one of them...usually remarkably well handled. You have had bad luck.

I agree I have always had excellent service from Central and Paragon. The last order with Central they phoned and asked if they could deliver one day in advance. My regret in Thailand is that we do not have direct access to Amazon. Their service in the UK was excellent never any quibbles about returns and their deliveries were first rate.

The problem is that some people are lucky and aoid problems, so they really don't have any idea about what happens when things start to go wrong. Personal experience is really only a limited perspective of the situation.

The problems often start as a result of bad staff training - when a manager or other member of staff becomes fixated with either aopiding compensation or keeping hold of the company's money and really starts to handle the situation badly.

Thai businesses usually OFFER what looks like great service, it is what happens when this FAILS in some way that is so incredibly below par. Lack of communication, failure to apologise, no compensation offered (it has to be wrangled out!) and a stubbornness that would impress a donkey.

PS 0- if you stick to your guns and know your goals you can of course get amazing results. One can get 1000s of baht a year from companies who have failed to live up to expectations

Edited January 30, 2014 by wilcopops

[LawrenceN]

"I just moved here"

You have much to learn grasshopper...

Pretty common occurrence from my experience and not just from them. I always plan on wasting a whole day regardless of what time they tell me they will show. One time, they said delivery would be at 2:00PM and they arrived at 10:00AM. It would have been a problem if I decided to go to work that morning and come back just before 2.

To be fair, this is a pretty common complaint in the US (where I'm from) as well, especially from cable TV and phone companies. Sorry about your unsatisfactory experience.

I had a great experience with Central recently. I found a Panasonic home theater sound system, 50% off, at Central Chidlom that integrates perfectly with my TV. I live in Chiang Mai. The sale price expired Dec 31, and we were flying home on New Years Day. I asked if I could pay that day (Dec 29) and pick it up in CM on Jan 2. Dude made a phone call, gave me full details and a receipt for picking it up at Robinson's at Airport Plaza in CM, including the name of the person he spoke to. I was in and out of Robinson's in less than ten minutes on Jan 2. I have a favorable impression of Central (including Robinson's and BigC). They're usually pretty competent compared with the rest of the f--ups in stores here.

[belg]

lol... what about going out to a shopping mall, buy what you need, put in your trolley and bring it home yourself?

55555555555555555

[bangsaenguy]

Central Dept store is the anchor of the mall by the same name. They do sell white goods.

Robinsons do not rent from Central

Wrong. Robinson's rent from Central. Sure you've even been to Thailand?