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Confused but happy

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Keep casinos out of Thailand

Confused but happy

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

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