- HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:
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Pay up or your window gets it
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Fed up with whingeing
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Who are the losers?
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Thanks Khai Khem
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Signed contract evidently isn’t a receipt
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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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