Your retail store service horror stories -- shaming, not naming!

[Jonmarleesco]

I think you are insane. I would have joked about it and asked the girl politely to move.

Unless you are a yank and will not learn the language as they should speak English and do not know the cultural differences.

If you spent one tenth of the time you post on Thai Visa learning Thai you will be fluent in a year.

Do you know these guys get less than $2 an hour?

Sent from my GT-I9152 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

"Do you know these guys get less than $2 an hour?" Is there a point here, other than a dubious excuse for their behaviour?

[sam3384]

Some posters are starting to circle the wagons... "If you pay peanuts you get monkeys..."

[Jonmarleesco]

I would have numerous personal stories amassed over the years about incompetence and carelessness in Thailand, a number of them beyond tackling from a rational Western stance. There is one however that particularly riled me as it concerned a major Western-owned ( but Thai-managed ) chemists chain of stores.

To the point : I once noticed several years ago that that the cash machine receipt I obtained upon payment at the cashier indicated some higher prices than those shown on the shelves. The first time I pointed it out to the manager, got my money back and left it that. Later, however, I bought, on many occasions and for a number of years, items from several stores of the same chain ( as the products were not available in other stores ), and realized that it was a common practice. Furthermore, when there was a divergence, the end price paid at the counter was ALWAYS HIGHER than those showed on the shelves. Hence, logically, such divergence could not be a matter of chance mistakes but rather a deliberate policy.

On deduction that my pocket was being unduly deduced, every time I discovered such fraudulent practice, which happened many times and for which I still keep the original and amended receipts as proofs, I would raise hell in the shop, first with the shop managers and then asking them to contact headquarters managerial staff in my presence to deal with the matter and threatening to fetch the police straightaway. My flaming rage was powered by the thought of the betrayal of trust by the store chain, taking advantage of the fact that most unsuspecting customers do not stop to check their receipts. The managers must surely have known of this consumer behavior to exploit it to their ilegitimate benefit, and equally, must have taken into accaount that most customers would not take the matter farther on account of the time, effort and expenses involved. I, however, pursued the point, threatening the high echelons of the company to sue the chain.

I am glad to report that as per my last dozen purchases from several stores of the chain, I have not noticed any discrepance. Take note however : it took discarding Thai or even Western etiquette to put it right. Nonetheless, once I realized that it was a deliberate and pervasive practice, I knew it was a battle that had to be fought.

There's a well known food store, which specialises in western foodstuffs, where this tends to happen from time to time. And I've had it happen at a French hypermarket. Then some idiot scoots around to change the label, to try and persuade you that you were seeing things. Which means I don't buy it at all. But nowadays, when it happens, I go with them to check the price label.

[nicolas18]

another computer store one, I build my own computers and research what I want before going to the store. I just built a new computer and after doing my research went to the store( big yellow fruit), they had all my pieces there and I noted that they had the prices listed on them so I pointed out what I wanted and they put it all together for me plus I grabbed some extra bits. I paid with my card and took it home where I started to check it all out. Lo and behold there were parts missing from the boxes, in Thailand they remove the wrapper and open all the boxes(probably to remove any included extras?) but in this case needed components were not there so I checked the sales slip so I could take it back and was a bit mifed to find that they had charged me over a thousand baht extra on the listed prices on the boxes. I took the parts back and told them I wanted a new motherboard with all the parts and queried the prices they had charged me while showing them the price tags on the boxes. Their answer was that they were old special prices and if I didnt want them I could return them but they refused to refund any money. I went home and checked the prices online again and saw they were the same prices that were on the price tags so I emailed head office and told them I had been ripped off by my local store as they had charged me over a thousand baht extra. After sitting around for a few hours I decided to go back to the store and point out the price difference online but when I got to the store and tried to show them that they were charging too much the online prices had been changed too. Obviously head office didnt want to have to refund either so they had changed their online prices to match those on my docket. Needless to say I will never shop in that store again and head office never answered my email which is the usual thai thing anyway.

I hate buying computer parts in those big fruit shops. Try JIB Computer (They have branches everywhere), they're pretty good and they're cheaper.

[HerbalEd]

Why is it that some people get such bitter pleasure in reliving their bad experiences? Reminds me of how dogs like to wallow in carrion.

[Jonmarleesco]

This is an awful thread. The only possible conclusion is shaming, belittling and Thai negative posts. Why would Thai Visa allow such a thing. Especially now when Thailand is losing 30 million dollars (according to Bloomberg) a day in revenue due to the political problems.

8) Not to post extremely negative views of Thailand or derogatory comments directed towards all Thais.

How could this thread end up being anything but derogatory comments directed towards all Thais?

Since the thread was started at 3 AM Thai time I'm assuming it was not posted in Thailand so <deleted>? Go out in your Western world and forget about Thailand. Don't come back. Keep us both happy.

If on the other hand you can't sleep go to the hospital and see a doctor and they will prescribe you some medication.

In case you hadn't realised, the time that appears on a post, like an email, isn't always the actual time in the place where it was written. It often displays EST. And derogatory? Really? So while one could, and would, criticise such behaviour in a western country - and loudly - the same here is derogatory to the Thais? The problem in Thailand has long been a tendency to accept such service without complaint. Fortunately for us all, that approach is gradually changing. And I would suggest the behaviour was, itself, derogatory to other Thais, as well as to any customer who encounters it.

[Frank James]

For any significant purchase i would never go in without my wonderful Thai/Isaan wife. She has a magnetic personality, and people everywhere flock just to be in her presence.

I think a lot of these problems are just because the staffer just does NOT understand you, and the interaction with you is for them a stressful situation. For the farang (that's You & Me, brother) it's free entertainment! Isn't it wonderful. Can't take it, buy online.

[Jingthing]

For any significant purchase i would never go in without my wonderful Thai/Isaan wife. She has a magnetic personality, and people everywhere flock just to be in her presence.

I think a lot of these problems are just because the staffer just does NOT understand you, and the interaction with you is for them a stressful situation. For the farang (that's You & Me, brother) it's free entertainment! Isn't it wonderful. Can't take it, buy online.

In the incident I described, yes there might have been some racial profiling involved. As I said, the man WAS very English fluent and there is no doubt in my mind that he had the knowledge to answer my question, but it is probably true he didn't wish to spend more than a tiny bit of energy answering it, so my asking a second time in a different way to get confirmation/clarification did trip his wire.

There are a few amusing details I didn't mention before.

Even before the blow up, he mildly insulted me in this way which I ignored but it was an indication of his mindset.

I was looking at a lower end All In One Computer system (the computer is integrated with the monitor), only 17K baht.

While I was trying to look at it and Zombie Girl was there, I said to him that I like this machine very much (mainly because of the compactness and feature set) and he said something weird, spoken DERISIVELY --

You would like it because it's cheap!

That was obviously a clue about this guy's attitude.

I then asked if they sold Windows and he said there were OEM versions for sale in the store. So I said what about the full non-OEM version, and then he pulled a Singapore only box out of his personal backpack (!!??!!) and offered it to me in what appeared to be an under the table offer of sale. I couldn't really feel confident this was an original Windows and politely declined. So I guess that is some background leading to the later weirdness. The guy's behavior really was horrible, believe me or not.

[GreenSnapper]

When you live here, you should have realized that staff is not for giving advice, but to carry your purchases to the cashier.

Don't ask any questions. Even "where can I find Heinz tomato ketchup?" is often beyond their intellectual capabilities. And it is not a culture/language thing. Thais have the same problems with local staff and their average IQ of around 50.

So what to do? Inform yourself from internet what you want to buy. Exact model, check the specifications. Check the price in your home country/Amazon and/or Hongkong or KL to know how much you get overcharged in Thailand and if it's worth to wait. If possible, buy expensive things abroad, much less chance of being cheated with used products or refurbished products.

If you really need some helpful hand for buying computer parts, use a reliable farang owned company like invadeIT. You pay slightly more, but you get service which is unknown to most Thais.

[louse1953]

Rats in Tesco Lotus Seacon Square. Been there years. I have seen them run across the floor and even written to Tesco head office two years ago. I got no response from Tesco and the rats are still there. Last week you could smell that the rats were nesting on the last food shelf and I showed the rat droppings to the staff who did not care to do anything about it. I am shaming and naming because I have been shopping there for 20 years and they still haven't got rid of the rats

They rekon you like the rats,as you still shop there.Obviously you are of no importance to them.20 Years!

[Jingthing]

I live here and believe it or not I have encountered Thai retail sales staff that are more than adequate in product knowledge, helpfulness, and politeness. Not the majority of course (especially in product knowledge), but it happens. I agree research technical stuff online. I always do but I was in the store, the product review websites didn't answer my question, and a live human who I knew could answer the question was right there, so why not ask? If that was insane to ask in such a situation, and even ask again to gain confidence that I understood the answer, then call in the white coats, OK?!?

Actually though, the guy wasn't calling me insane for trying to get my stupid question answered fully, he was calling me insane for CONFRONTING him for his outrageously IMPOLITE behavior. I do see from a Thai cultural perspective he might actually think that was insane.

[Trembly]

When you live here, you should have realized that staff is not for giving advice, but to carry your purchases to the cashier.

Don't ask any questions. Even "where can I find Heinz tomato ketchup?" is often beyond their intellectual capabilities. And it is not a culture/language thing. Thais have the same problems with local staff and their average IQ of around 50.

So what to do? Inform yourself from internet what you want to buy. Exact model, check the specifications. Check the price in your home country/Amazon and/or Hongkong or KL to know how much you get overcharged in Thailand and if it's worth to wait. If possible, buy expensive things abroad, much less chance of being cheated with used products or refurbished products.

If you really need some helpful hand for buying computer parts, use a reliable farang owned company like invadeIT. You pay slightly more, but you get service which is unknown to most Thais.

Exactly.

Do your research online, browse and procure in the Thai shop if necessary.

If you know what you want then you needn't ask anything of the shop assistants except for that they process your purchase.

Going out and expecting the shop assistants to be technical experts for their assigned shop floor space is either naive or masochistic. You can hardly find that kind of service in the west now, bar smaller specialist shops.

[Jingthing]

I don't expect all staff to be technical experts. This guy, I am telling you, was more than expert enough to answer my stupid question. You can push your it's always this way or always that way meme till the cows come home, but some staff do have some or a lot of product knowledge, and that wasn't the problem in this incident. He had it. He didn't want to bother giving it.

[h90]

Some posters are starting to circle the wagons... "If you pay peanuts you get monkeys..."

But often for higher salaries you don't get better people.....We searched for a few positions and just didn't find anyone, cheap or expensive.

[Neeranam]

The sales guy is right, you are insane.....

First you try to disturb the girl who want to peaceful watch her soap opera. Than you annoy the sales guy with questions, even he most probably prefer to play a computer game or have a nap.

And than you also steal the value time of the manager, he could better use to call his Mia Noi.

Rule 1: The girls in shops, if beautiful are just for decoration (if ugly and Chinese they might be the daughter of the owner and graduated at the best university).

Rule 2: The sales guy stands there so people don't steal the things and so the job doesn't look empty.

I learned in the first month, that it is complete useless to ask any question....even asking for the time is too much. Unfortunately the same even counts for pharmacies....with staff that knows with a sour throat the yellow sweeties are right and absolute no clue what it is.....

To only way is to accept it and be pleasant surprised if it is different once a year...

I went to Home Pro to but some hanging hooks. I didn't know how to say it in Thai. I know most of the clerks in Home Pro are employed by the brands as opposed to Home Pro. Nevertheless, one sweet lady spent 15 minutes walking me around the store looking for what I wanted. We added three more clerks to the hunt as we moved through the store. Finally found it, smiles all around. Actually the trip is worthwhile just for a visit to the toilets. Best toilet in any retail store I have ever been in anywhere. So that's my story. Horrible to admit it is not Thai negative.

Do you know the word for hanging hooks now?

[Neeranam]

WHat really gets my goat is when the staff at the home stores start talking with my wife rather than me. I have to interupt them to say she doesn't know what you're talking about in many cases. Now I usually go alone as she complicates the situation.

[tartempion]

@ rod2011, I hope you don't think they give a dam you bought next doors?

We went to some Home Pro shop yesterday to buy a new vacuum cleaner (my wife in a bout of hysteria smashed the old one)

After 5 minutes I told her I would inspect the fridge department, looking to replace a 450kw/h medium sized fridge by one of these Samsung inverters burning only 250kw/h, I was followed, but not harassed, guess shop attendants do know farang's bad mood's by now....my wife could not decide.

We drove to nearby Index Living mall, where unfortunately vacuum cleaners are at the back end of the store (but we finally got there...) to see the same choices/ brand names. Thus she decided quickly to go for an electrolux 2100 wat priced the same at 4990. At the checkout counter our shop attendant was surprised the cash register/computer discounted the vacuum cleaner to 4550, after some blank stares at the computer screen we got 450 change back from 5000 baht...

[BradinAsia]

Funny to read that i 'm not the only one. If they treat me bad or don't speak english then i just walk out of the shop. I would rather pay more if i get to talk to a decent salesperson and get normal service elsewhere.

Try to return a product which is not working properly, that will cost you another 30 minutes at least and a lot of frustration. Or buy a product (like an american fridge with icemachine from Korean brand) and pay for extra warranty. If you call their international helpdesk you will find out that their helpdesk phonenumber does not exist anymore. After searching on internet i found the number but then nobody there could speak any english.

I 'm so tired of thai sales and service, they have a long way to go to become a first world country.

Obviously, different foreigners have widely diverging experiences here. Whether this is

due to the differences in the foreigners or in the places they live is anybody's guess.

The quality of customer service I have received here in Chiang Mai has been superb.

My experience at a major chain store (large department store) --

I returned a motorbike helmet after the plastic buckle broke, I had no receipt. With no

hesitation, customer service asked if I would likes to exchange it for a new one. I did.

Two weeks later the plastic buckle broke again. I returned it again and explained that

I didn't want the same helmet coz it would likely break again. Of course, I still had no

receipt.

But there was still the store's bar code on the back of the helmet. They scanned the

bar code and with no hesitation refunded my purchase price in cash to allow me to

buy whatever helmet I pleased. This was with courtesy and politeness throughout.

I have never had better customer service anywhere.

- Much better than the U.S.

- Much better than Japan

- And light years above the non-existent customer service in the Philippines.

This is one of the beautiful aspects of living here in retirement.

Got stopped by a police checkpoint yesterday. The policeman ask to see my driver's

license and registration.His demeanor was polite and professional. When he saw that

my documents were in order, he smiled, said thank you and let me continue on my way.

The whole thing caused me a whopping 45 seconds delay.

- Much better than Japan

- Light years above the U.S.

- And light years above the Philippines.

However, your mileage may vary.

[Jingthing]

This thread is actually about really BAD retail store service horror stories in Thailand.

Specific stories about these kinds of incidents.

Please keep them coming!

[ToddWeston]

I once had to explain to the staff at Pizza Hut what a serviette was does that count ?

[Tazwa]

Two years ago, my wife and I found the car we wanted at a used car dealership in Bangkok. We negotiated the price and made arrangements to transfer the money at the dealer's bank branch inside a major shopping complex. Two women from the dealership office that we dealt with offered to drive us to the bank which we accepted.

The transfer of funds went smoothly and all that was left was to tidy up some paperwork back at the office and take delivery of the car. Well, no sooner had the money been deposited and we'd all stepped out of the bank, these two ladies decided it was time to go clothes shopping and left us standing in the mall whilst they tried on blouses, shirts etc. in about three different shops.

I'm generally quite patient but after 30 minutes of waiting around, enough was enough and my wife told them in no uncertain terms that thay were to take us back to the dealership immediately.

I just can't imagine that kind of service anywhere else. I also guess we didn't negotiate hard enough on the price!

[Jingthing]

I once had to explain to the staff at Pizza Hut what a serviette was does that count ?

No.

[pistachios]

I've bougth tons of stuff in many different stores and I've never had any problems. Staff has always been very polite and helpful. Even at home pro, which is supposedly one of the worst shop in that area, I've had a pleasant buying experience.

Ok, sometimes the staff didn't seem to have any knowledge about the products. For example, in a mattress shop that was selling plenty of different models for about the same price, I had no idea which one to choose and neither did the seller (in english or thai), which was a bit strange because that was pretty much the only thing the shop was selling. We ended up choosing one randomly, but it was done nicely and the delivery was made on time and free of charge, so nothing to complain about.

[Jingthing]

I've bougth tons of stuff in many different stores and I've never had any problems.

...

Good for you but I don't see how your post fits with the topic.

The topic doesn't assert that all or most retail experiences in Thailand are horrible.

BUT it is about the horrible ones. Only the horrible ones.

Some (including me) may find interest and entertainment value in hearing some specific reports of horrible retail experiences in Thailand. Some posters may find a tad of catharsis in posting about them ... even without the satisfaction of NAMING the culprits.

Would people be more or less interested in a thread dedicated to positive retail experiences or neutral ones?

Perhaps, I really do doubt it, but that isn't the topic of this thread.

Does the evening news lead with: Most people arrived home from work safely!

[Trembly]

Just noticed your signature tag, Jingthing. Now it all makes sense!

[evadgib]

Some years ago I walked into my local Toyota dealers (it was new to the area and had only just opened) with the intention of ordering a new car. They took one look at me (tourist jeep, vest & shorts) & didn't even take their feet off the desk.

A few weeks later a brand new Vigo rolled up for it's inaugural service.

Their faces were priceless:)

[HerbalEd]

Some years ago I walked into my local Toyota dealers with the intention of ordering a new car. They took one look at me (tourist jeep, vest & shorts) & didn't even take their feet off the desk.

A few weeks later a brand new Vigo rolled up at the same venue for it's initial (1000 km) service.

I made dam_n sure I was wearing the same vest & shorts when I handed over the keys....

And they couldn't have cared less.

[fishbrando]

I also really hate the salesman following me around the store and pointing at the various product displays and reading them to me. "This one has 1000 watts!" "This one is foldable!" Eventually I just raise my finger to my lips and say, "Shhhhh..." This doesn't go over too well with them but at least they stop bugging me.

There's a restaurant near The Asia Hotel that has pretty good food. The owner seems to be more interested in serving and chatting with farang customers and often forgot part of my order because he was distracted with chatting, but that didn't stop me from returning. What did stop me: one day I went in and sat down and waited for about 10 minutes for them to take my order. The waitress walked by and I looked up at her and she sneered at me. I left shortly afterwards, wondering what I did to offend her. Maybe I need more deodorant?

[JesseFrank]

I've bougth tons of stuff in many different stores and I've never had any problems. Staff has always been very polite and helpful.

Guess you had a problem at the optical shop anyway.

Must have sold you rose colored spectacles without you noticing.

[evadgib]

Some years ago I walked into my local Toyota dealers with the intention of ordering a new car. They took one look at me (tourist jeep, vest & shorts) & didn't even take their feet off the desk.

A few weeks later a brand new Vigo rolled up at the same venue for it's initial (1000 km) service.

I made dam_n sure I was wearing the same vest & shorts when I handed over the keys....

And they couldn't have cared less.

I'm not aware that they ever did it again...?