LETTERS
HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Pay up or your window gets it

Fed up with whingeing

Who are the losers?

Thanks Khai Khem

Signed contract evidently isn’t a receipt

Pay up or your window gets it

Dear Sir,

Wow! I am certainly on my high horse. If my second letter gets printed I am doing well. A couple of years ago I sent you a letter, which you printed. This basically concerned a baht bus driver who agreed on a fare, then upped the price when he saw my house. I disagreed (being Scottish) and he lobbed a stone through my upstairs window. Okay now you are all current.

What would you do? Well it happened again. Last time, I got home, he wanted more money, so I told him where to go. He was going to beat the @$%# out of me. I told him not in this lifetime, so he chucked a brick through the upstairs window. Luckily nobody got hurt, but getting a small window in Pattaya fixed, took ages.

This time, I paid the money to the baht bus driver.

Billy Sheal


Fed up with whingeing

Editor;

Sir, I am fed up with the whingeing about the differential pricing policy at some Thai venues. Some complaints are from "Cheap Charlies", and these can be ignored. Others complain about the "principle" of it. Well, the principle is this: The Thais have a right to enjoy their heritage at a price they can afford. By paying extra, we are helping to support that right, as we are helping the Thai economy by out visits here; no one complains about that. These prices are still much lower than the equivalent venue at home.

If you can’t afford it, or your conscience is offended, then don’t go, or better still, find another country.

Please editor, we have worn this subject out. Can we concentrate on important issues?

Gwyn Parfitt


Who are the losers?

Editor;

Having read letters from other farangs who are not happy with the two tier pricing, I decided to express my feelings. I will go way back to 1976, I was personally responsible for the hiring of some of the first 40 Thais for Saudi Arabia. As most of you know that turned out to be a real boost for the Thai economy in the years to follow.

In the early 1980’s I retired and made my home here in Pattaya. I have not been involved in any business during this time, therefore, I have been quite active with charity in the area. We have even given sports equipment and made improvements in some of the government schools in the area.

As for the various places in the area which charges farangs 3 or 4 hundred percent more, we just don’t go and we don’t take or recommend them to our visiting friends. The only time that bothers me is when my son doesn’t understand why I wont take him to those places.

We have done quite a lot of camping and visiting national parks, waterfalls, etc. Last year we were going to Khao Yai as we have in the past when they informed me that as a farang I had to pay 200 baht to enter the park. We turned around and went elsewhere.

Later we found Nam Tok Pliew and discovered that I could get in for the normal 20 baht fee by showing my lifetime Thai driving permit. We visited there twice while my son was on school break, then we purchased a large new tent and went back for one more time before school started. The people on duty said their boss changed the rules and that all farangs will pay 200 baht from now on. Since we had driven quite far to get there I paid the 1,000% mark up; however, I don’t plan to do it again.

Also, my heart just isn’t in the charity work anymore and I don’t plan to do that in the future. I could afford to pay the price but so could many of the locals who come in their BMW’s and Mercedes. I ask, who are the losers?

K.W. Crow


Thanks Khai Khem

Editor;

Two excellent columns in a row, Khai Khem. Interesting, well written, and pointed. Keep up the good work.

Khun Dee


Signed contract evidently isn’t a receipt

Sir,

After reading a display advert in a Pattaya newspaper in December 2002 and January 2003 for 50% discount on a swimming pool cleaning service, I immediately jumped at the chance for a company to take over this laborious task.

I contacted the company who advertised, as I had noticed them many times when passing their showroom. They in turn came to my house to measure the swimming pool and gave me a quotation for a years contract. I duly signed it and paid for the year in advance, which was their proviso.

Anyway, it started off well in January 2003, with a visit twice weekly. But after about 2 months, the cleaner did not come for a couple of weeks and so I contacted the company and they gave me the excuse that the cleaning boy had been off, but had now returned and would continue to visit me.

Well he visited then, up until the beginning of Songkran and never visited again since. I contacted the company and after another 2 weeks they visited me and told me the cleaning boy had left their employ. They asked to see my contract and receipt. I showed them my contract, but had no receipt as I understood the issue of the contract was a receipt in itself and proved their responsibility towards me.

They then told me that they would clean it one more time but not again if I could not produce a separate receipt.

This seems to me blatant scam, as I can show them the contract that they issued but without the separate receipt, which I don’t think they even issued, they are now cutting short their contract and avoiding all their responsibilities to me, stating that they have never been paid.

Whether their cleaner or the person in their office has pocketed the money or it is just a scam that they are running, surely they are obliged to fill the terms of the contract, and cannot pass it on to either myself or the cleaning boy.

Is this what Thai companies call "goodwill" or just screw the farang?

H. Russell,

Banglamung


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It is noticed that the letters herein in no way reflect the opinions of the editor or writers for Pattaya Mail, but are unsolicited letters from our readers, expressing their own opinions. No anonymous letters or those without genuine addresses are printed, and, whilst we do not object to the use of a nom de plume, preference will be given to those signed.

 

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