For English Press 5

[elgordo38]

I am curious how many of TV members call banks etc. and it states they speak English press ?

I tried to ask a simple interest question on the website and they said no no cannot answer call us.

Here is where the fun starts. You call them and wait and wait and wait.

Then I start thinking they are working in cahoots with the mobile phone companies to burn my bahts.

Finally after being pushed around 5 or 6 times and being put on hold you get someone that "speaks English" which they do but they do not understand English. Then they tell me to speak slower which I do. They still do not understand what I am saying. Then its the same old routine. I pull my hair out and hand the phone to my g/f problem solved.

She always tells me "They speak English" yeah sure. I know the whole routine by now but its still aggravating.

Edited May 7, 2016 by elgordo38

[macksview]

just talk louder and louder works for the english and the americans

yep know what you mean, if i get one who speaks and understands, i flatter them and try to get their direct extension.

[fletchsmile]

Maybe open an account with one with better English. Always find Stan Chart OK. Some of the traditional Thai Thai ones or government owned/ influenced really aren't aimed at foreigners.

Or if you've got THB 3mn up look at Priority/Pemier banking etc. Most banks have and that usually gets you a relationship manager who you can go to for any questions. First point of contact.

[macksview]

Maybe open an account with one with better English. Always find Stan Chart OK. Some of the traditional Thai Thai ones or government owned/ influenced really aren't aimed at foreigners.

Or if you've got THB 3mn up look at Priority/Pemier banking etc. Most banks have and that usually gets you a relationship manager who you can go to for any questions. First point of contact.

true, tmb is highly thai centric, fair enough it is thailand.

reckon i have changed banks maybe 4 times, i am not even an expat, interesting to know if expats new and old change banks.

[uksomchai]

Try calling anyone back in your home country and see how many offer you the option to press any number to get a different language. I get far better customer service back home in Thailand than i| do back here in the UK Where I regularly have to wait 40 minutes just to get through to a moron that cannot help when they do answer

[WorkingTourist]

“I am curious how many of TV members call banks etc. and it states they speak English”

Are you really? Or are you just starting yet another pointless thread complaining that Thais do not speak English?

For the records, I have Krungthai and called their main office a handful of times. Never had any communication problems.

[Bantex]

I have only ever phoned the Kasikorn Bank once, pressed the option for English and got to speak to a Thai female who spoke good English, understood first time what I wanted and was able to help without having to put me on hold to ask someone else.

[Koosdedooes]

Maybe open an account with one with better English. Always find Stan Chart OK. Some of the traditional Thai Thai ones or government owned/ influenced really aren't aimed at foreigners.

Or if you've got THB 3mn up look at Priority/Pemier banking etc. Most banks have and that usually gets you a relationship manager who you can go to for any questions. First point of contact.

Must confess, never had any problems with speaking English on the phone with the likes of SCB, DHL or True...not having a go at the OP but maybe its his accent or the way he uses English which confuses them, contray to what we think, "English" accents and i am talking about "British" accents do confuse non native speakers and even native speakers at times..

[Pib]

I've needed to call the Bangkok Bank Call/Help Center 1333 number several times over the years...always found their English quite acceptable...no problem in communications.

[elgordo38]

I am curious how many of TV members call banks etc. and it states they speak English

Are you really? Or are you just starting yet another pointless thread complaining that Thais do not speak English?

For the records, I have Krungthai and called their main office a handful of times. Never had any communication problems.

No I just started this pointless thread to drag sarcastic people like you out of the woodwork the lurkers looking to pick others apart. Thais that do not speak English well their options say push a number to speak English so if your saying Thai's don't speak English its rather pointless to have this option on their mobile menu correct??

[WorkingTourist]

[…] Thais that do not speak English well their options say push a number to speak English so if your saying Thai's don't speak English its rather pointless to have this option on their mobile menu correct??

Most likely this is a standard menu used by all branches. When you press 5 for English, it will show on their screen, and they’ll look around to see who is around and pass the call to the one they think is best at speaking English.

[Bantex]

I am curious how many of TV members call banks etc. and it states they speak English

Are you really? Or are you just starting yet another pointless thread complaining that Thais do not speak English?

For the records, I have Krungthai and called their main office a handful of times. Never had any communication problems.

No I just started this pointless thread to drag sarcastic people like you out of the woodwork the lurkers looking to pick others apart. Thais that do not speak English well their options say push a number to speak English so if your saying Thai's don't speak English its rather pointless to have this option on their mobile menu correct??

WorkingTourist didn't say Thais do not speak English, He asked you if you are just starting yet another pointless thread complaining that Thais do not speak English?

Next time don't just talk slower, read slower as well.

You seem to be the only one having problems. Is it the Thais or you?

[happynthailand]

been useing SCB for years,never a problem of them speaking English,

if waiting to long for them to answer,they say push( I think it is 6 )and they will call back

in about 5-6 minutes

[Asiantravel]

or the other variation is when the call finally arrives at someone who is meant to be able to speak some English ( but not well enough to answer your question) the call is transferred to yet another person but along the way the call drops out these days I accept that this happens TIT

i.e. when it gets too hard lose the call

Edited May 8, 2016 by Asiantravel

[WhizBang]

What I love is when you press x for English, and you still get Thai.

Or when on a website and you select the english language button (if they even have one) and you get a mix of english and thai.

The new AIS app is great too. Select the english option and the menus change to english, but NOT the body of text on the page. The older version of the app actually had english pages.

Edited May 8, 2016 by WhizBang

[Pib]

What I love is when you press x for English, and you still get Thai.

Or when on a website and you select the english language button (if they even have one) and you get a mix of english and thai.

The new AIS app is great too. Select the english option and the menus change to english, but NOT the body of text on the page. The older version of the app actually had english pages.

Yea, it seems more and more websites are shifting to "graphics-based" text which translators like Google Translate can not translate because the text is not really in text format but image format. Sometimes for those pages with an English and Thai language selection it seems the only English is the button you clicked to select English as most everything or even everything still shows up in Thai.

Seems to me that over the last five years or so many Thai websites (but not all) have went backwards in including Thai and English webpages to just Thai webpages with ever increasing fancy graphics....or just having a few pages on their website in good English with scaled down info. Yea, they have an English language selection but it just slows the Thai language pages again with maybe a little English here and there or you can see Google Translate possibly translate some words (a translation that might not be correct).

I guess Thai companies/websites hope app translators may help us Thai language challenged folks plus it is Thailand where Thai is the primary and official language. And in the big scheme of things English speaking farangs in comparison to the entire Thai population is small. Over the many years I've been in Thailand I've seen little improvement in the overall population's desire or need to learn English as a second language, regardless of the govt's propaganda saying they are pushing the learning of English. And I guess the lack of desire to truly learn a second language is," Why should I?..I'm Thai and will be living and working in Thailand all my life."

Now for English language speaking folks who didn't learn a second language it's probably not because of thinking they will only live/work in their home country all their life, but because they know English is used as the primary or secondary language in many countries where they might work/live. With that in mind, why put too much effort into learning a second language.

[WorkingTourist]

Over the many years I've been in Thailand I've seen little improvement in the overall population's desire or need to learn English as a second language, regardless of the govt's propaganda saying they are pushing the learning of English. And I guess the lack of desire to truly learn a second language is," Why should I?..I'm Thai and will be living and working in Thailand all my life."

Without exposure it is very hard to learn a second language, you have the same problem in the larger European countries because they dub movies, translate literature, have their own music scene, etc., and these countries use languages that are not that far from English, though move away from the larger cities or people with higher education, and they struggle to communicate in English.

For a Thai to learn English they have to be extremely dedicated because they have little to no exposure to the language, a language that is very differently structured and with multiple versions of each word (tenses and pluralization).

And even for a Thai that is dedicated and have learned English, e.g. by spending a year in Australia, there might still be big holes in their vocabulary. After my first year in Thailand, I had no problems small talking with my barber, but when I went to the bank, a lot of words were used that I had never encountered before.

This could also be the OP’s problem, i.e. using terms that the clerks are just not familiar with, for example a thread from a few days ago talked about “securing outside funding […] for debt equity”. If you call your bank and talk like that, nobody is going to understand you

[fletchsmile]

Maybe open an account with one with better English. Always find Stan Chart OK. Some of the traditional Thai Thai ones or government owned/ influenced really aren't aimed at foreigners.

Or if you've got THB 3mn up look at Priority/Pemier banking etc. Most banks have and that usually gets you a relationship manager who you can go to for any questions. First point of contact.

true, tmb is highly thai centric, fair enough it is thailand.

reckon i have changed banks maybe 4 times, i am not even an expat, interesting to know if expats new and old change banks.

I also use TMB and BBL in addition to Stan Chart. BBL's website in English is probably about the best of all the banks for English info. Their call centre seemed OK on the rare occasion I've used it, and there's usually staff in the big branches that speak English should someone need it, although it's variable. Don't use them much these days to be honest as Stan Charta and TMB meet most of my needs, but I keep the accounts open with BBL as occasionally useful.

TMB as you say don't really target foreigners and their focus is naturally Thai people. Can't say I've ever dialled their call centre, so I don't know, but the face to face transactions I do mainly in Thai anyway. Their plus for me is their online systems and internet banking/ fundsonline system. Cuts out the people element and easy to use.

I don't really change banks, but it's worth having more than one, and using them for different things according to what you find them to be useful for.