Editor;
This truly is an amazing place, this Pattaya Thailand.
I’m not so sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. I suppose
it is a big reason why some people choose to stay here, whilst it is also
a big reason why others to choose not to. But I’m getting ahead of
myself.
Last week I had one of those typical (atypical?)
“East meets West” experiences that has left me scratching my head.
All’s well that ends well, although the journey is sometimes baffling. I
purchased a video CD player/audio cassette/radio stereo system with fancy
blinking lights and five, yes five speakers, from one of the superstores
here in Pattaya. It was on sale, which should have been my first clue that
things might not be as they seemed. Of course, when I got it home the
video CD player didn’t work, or more correctly only worked
intermittently. Since this was my first purchase of its kind, at first I
thought maybe I was doing something wrong. It took a few days before I
finally came to the conclusion that there was, indeed, something wrong
with the system.
So, five days after I had purchased it, I boxed it back
up and without a whole lot of confidence, brought it back to the
superstore to see if they might assist me in my dilemma. The following two
hours were an absolute roller coaster ride. As soon as I arrived, the
security guard very helpfully directed me to the correct counter, where a
young woman asked what the problem was and would I like to exchange it for
a new one. Wow, that was easy, I thought. The young woman then called the
stereo department and with a smile assured me it would be “just a
moment”.
When the stereo man arrived, he conversed with the
woman in Thai, and although I cannot speak the language, I could
nonetheless tell that perhaps this wasn’t going to be as easy as the
woman first led me to believe. Phone calls were made, other customers were
brought into the conversation to try and explain to me what was going on,
there were long stretches of silence when no one even looked at each other
or at me, and occasional reassurances that it would still be, “just a
moment”.
Finally, and somewhat reluctantly, the stereo man
motioned for me to follow him back to the stereo department where we were
joined by a handful of other stereo sales people. They unboxed the system
and set it up, hooked it into one of the display televisions and popped in
a video CD. The first time they pushed “play” it didn’t work. So
they changed CDs and of course the second time they tried, it did work.
They changed CDs again and it worked again, whereupon they were convinced
there was nothing wrong with the system. At that point it very much looked
like they were going to send me out the door with the same system I
arrived with, and at one point one of the salespeople even suggested I
take the stereo to one of the local repair shops.
Throughout all this, I maintained a good attitude and a
smile, as I have heard that this would be the best course of action for
this type of encounter. I politely asked them to try one more time, and
when it failed to work that time, they seemed now to be convinced that
indeed there was a problem.
Off goes the stereo guy back into the bowels of the
superstore to track down a new unit. He returned with a brand new box,
proceeded to cut the tape and open it up, only to find that the stereo
looked as though it had fallen off the back of a truck. So, back he goes
again to get another. This time this one was fine, it worked and all
agreed that the problem was solved. I would be returning home with this
new system.
As we began the trek from the stereo department back to
the front of the superstore, I was thinking to myself that I had worried
for nothing, and that I would most likely make all my purchases of this
kind from this establishment. I should have known those thoughts would
only jinx my luck.
Sure enough, once we got back to the front counter the
young woman discovered that the sale had ended and that the unit I had
purchased just 5 days before now costs almost 3,000 baht more. Nobody
seemed to know how to handle this situation. So we waited. And waited. And
waited. For what? I enquired. “You pay more” the young woman told me.
I politely declined that option.
Finally, an English speaking manager turned up, and
after much deliberation agreed that I shouldn’t have to pay more. This
deliberation, by the way, involved the manager and several employees, in
Thai, and did not involve me. I was just a silent bystander.
At what appeared to be the right time, I politely asked
if I could go now, which elicited a round of laughter from all those
involved. Following their gestures towards the exit, I tepidly made my way
out the door and back home. I am happy to report that the new system works
just fine, thank you. All’s well that ends well.
Confused but happy,
Paul Millard
