Thai people hate us when we don't pay for their services

[Johan]

Hi,

It's funny to see how people can be good with you when you pay and then when you think their service is too expensive and decide by yourself to go another way they look you like shit.

And by too expensive i mean really too expensive, not just a little. So expensive that you come back to them and show them numbers to ask them where their price is coming from.

It was the same story 1 year ago when i bought my pool table, i asked a quote at many different shops, then i checked the price at the factory and i contacted the sales manager to order one from them. It was half of the price with shipment. The guy at the shop wasn't that happy. I asked him for a better price before make the order but he refused. Then i came back to pick up my pool because the factory sent it to him as he passed a order for 10 tables. He was shocked that i got a pool table from the factory and really upset, he also has to install everything in my home, if he had accepted my offer he could make 30 000 bahts that day instead of 3 000 for the installation.

Everyone is trying to rip me off when i look at the numbers. I asked a quote for a swimming pool, then i found out who was the real builder of the shop pools because it was like "super expensive" and he's asking HALF of the price for the same job without the logo of the brand. So the shop is making half of that money for a very little service.

I don't even want to mention some real estate projets that are being build somewhere, the quality of the materials are like shit, he's paying something like 30% of the resale price and the customers are happy to pay a huge amount of money for that shit.

Well, i have so many examples so i will stop here. You guys, how are you dealing with stuff like this ? Are you trying to pay the real price of the things you want/need or you just pay what they are asking for without any research ? I can understand people who pay more for a better service, a better quality or anything like this, but it's exactly the same products i'm talking about. Should i open my shop to rip off people too ? Is that the only way to make money in Thailand ?

[MrPlum]

Quite agree. The mark up of some businesses is excessive. When I was doing business in Asia, the Thai margins were 30%+ while China companies were 10% and sometimes less. The Thais invariably wouldn't budge and didn't seem to care. Guess who got the orders?

Agree too, about poor quality fittings in properties. There is always something going wrong in our place... shoddy plumbing, shoddy electrics (a nightmare), cheap finishing.

It's not just small operators who overcharge. I've been ripped off by TOT workers installing internet and phone and when I complained at the head office, received a shrug. Other workers who may be on 300-500 thb per day have charged 2000 thb labour for a couple of hours. Having a Thai partner protects to a certain extent but not always. There's almost an expectation that your Thai wife or g/f should work with them to allow them to rip you off. Thai helping Thai.

Do they 'hate' us or just the lost opportunity? I prefer to see the latter. Makes living here easier. In the UK there's no shortage of dodgy builders, ripping off the elderly and unwitting. In other areas too. That's why the media called it 'Rip-off Britain'.

[chelsea]

Mr Plum, I do not think making a 30% margin is unreasonable, more to the fact that it would be the minimum that any business would work on in a retail/wholesale enviroment.

Johan
in my eyes, the guy who did wrong in your case would be the wholesaler, who undercut one of his retail customers by selling direct to the public.

If that had been done to me I would have (A) refused to accept delivery of your pool table. (B) sent your table back to the supplier as I as a seller had not ordered it and (C) told you to find someone else to install it.

In business, a wholesaler is as such a supplier to retail shops who then on sell his products at whatever price they deem fit to sell them at.

If any of my wholesale suppliers started undercutting my prices as a retailer by selling direct to the public, and then expecting me to complete the delivery for them, the goods would be sent straight back to them and told to complete the delivery and installation themselves.

I as a retailer would then go and find myself a more trustful supplier who is prepared to do business on a more professional wholesaler/retailer basis.

[MrPlum]

Mr Plum, I do not think making a 30% margin is unreasonable, more to the fact that it would be the minimum that any business would work on in a retail/wholesale enviroment.

Yes and no. I was working direct with factories in Thailand and China, where greedy middle men lean on the factories to cut their margins to the bone, especially when you are talking large volumes. Buyers for big U.S. chains were the worst. Experienced trading companies know the cost of raw materials, labour and overhead and so know how much slack factories have.

IMO those shoddy goods that break down after 2 months are due to factories using the cheapest materials and no QC to speak of. That and 'planned destruction'.

Pool tables don't fit this category.

[cozza]

This happens all over the world...its a fact of life.

IMHO, if you dont like the price, dont pay for it...common sense.

Johan,

Why the racist sentiment?

Careful...life is cheap in Thailand, showing your unhappiness with the wrong person could get you on the missing persons list...or just dead.

[ImThai]

Dear Johan,
First of all I have to say that I do not like your Subject. I’ve been in Thailand for 2 and a half month now and guess what!! I’ve been helping all those farang who came by around my area. I was helping countless of them to get what they wanted by translating and by telling them where they could go to get their things or even write a note in Thai for them to help them along the way without any CHARGE.

Not just the Thai will hate you when you don’t pay for their services because you would hate me too if you done something for me and I didn't even say thank you to you!!

Guess what!! There were 1 farang trying to buy a door and wanted something to be made for his new house. The owner of the shop was Thai and of course he can’t speak English so I went there to help them out. The farang was extremely RUDE showing off how big and where about his house is going to be. He didn’t even say HI or Thank you to me!! He was treating me like SHIT; I can see that he after Thai price that is why he came to that poor looking shop. Spoil brat because he has so much money and Thai people always give him what he wants and be toooooo nice to him and treated him like a King that why he is treating other like that.
I'm Thai and get the same problem with prices and quality of the goods!! Good on you that you manage to buy your things for a lot cheaper.
YOU DONT LIKE IT...DONT BUY IT...OR...LEAVE THE COUNTRY....BECAUSE YOU AINT GONA CHANGE SHIT?!?!?!

[ImThai]

Mr Plum, I do not think making a 30% margin is unreasonable, more to the fact that it would be the minimum that any business would work on in a retail/wholesale enviroment.

Johan
in my eyes, the guy who did wrong in your case would be the wholesaler, who undercut one of his retail customers by selling direct to the public.

If that had been done to me I would have (A) refused to accept delivery of your pool table. (B) sent your table back to the supplier as I as a seller had not ordered it and (C) told you to find someone else to install it.

In business, a wholesaler is as such a supplier to retail shops who then on sell his products at whatever price they deem fit to sell them at.

If any of my wholesale suppliers started undercutting my prices as a retailer by selling direct to the public, and then expecting me to complete the delivery for them, the goods would be sent straight back to them and told to complete the delivery and installation themselves.

I as a retailer would then go and find myself a more trustful supplier who is prepared to do business on a more professional wholesaler/retailer basis.

I'm with you

[ImThai]

This happens all over the world...its a fact of life.

IMHO, if you dont like the price, dont pay for it...common sense.

Johan,

Why the racist sentiment?

Careful...life is cheap in Thailand, showing your unhappiness with the wrong person could get you on the missing persons list...or just dead.

You guys should read Thai newspaper; a lot of people got kill because of this stupid shit. The latest one on the news is still in the hospital so be careful Johan he knows where you live

[STEVE G]

He was shocked that i got a pool table from the factory and really upset, he also has to install everything in my home,...

I'm not surprised he was upset, wouldn't anyone be in a situation like that, whatever their nationality?
I can understand you not using him if he's expensive, I would do the same thing but I would've got the thing delivered to my home or got a truck to pick it up from the factory and installed it myself, (theoretically speaking, I know nothing about pool tables!) I wouldn't have undercut him and then expected him to install it.

[TypicallyTropical]

Johan, what do you do with those girls who think your "services" are too expensive?

[moja]

Dear Johan,
First of all I have to say that I do not like your Subject. I’ve been in Thailand for 2 and a half month now and guess what!! I’ve been helping all those farang who came by around my area. I was helping countless of them to get what they wanted by translating and by telling them where they could go to get their things or even write a note in Thai for them to help them along the way without any CHARGE.

Not just the Thai will hate you when you don’t pay for their services because you would hate me too if you done something for me and I didn't even say thank you to you!!

Guess what!! There were 1 farang trying to buy a door and wanted something to be made for his new house. The owner of the shop was Thai and of course he can’t speak English so I went there to help them out. The farang was extremely RUDE showing off how big and where about his house is going to be. He didn’t even say HI or Thank you to me!! He was treating me like SHIT; I can see that he after Thai price that is why he came to that poor looking shop. Spoil brat because he has so much money and Thai people always give him what he wants and be toooooo nice to him and treated him like a King that why he is treating other like that.
I'm Thai and get the same problem with prices and quality of the goods!! Good on you that you manage to buy your things for a lot cheaper.
YOU DONT LIKE IT...DONT BUY IT...OR...LEAVE THE COUNTRY....BECAUSE YOU AINT GONA CHANGE SHIT?!?!?!

I am sorry to hear you have been "used" by Farangs - these are the type of people who give the rest of us who live here a bad name. I fully agree with your comment - please do not think we are all like Johan and the Farang with the door. Most of us are here because we love Thailand and the Thais. Ka

[Jimbob]

Dear Johan,

YOU DONT LIKE IT...DONT BUY IT...OR...LEAVE THE COUNTRY....BECAUSE YOU AINT GONA CHANGE SHIT?!?!?!

Good for you ImThai. (I think I have heard that said in Sydney to whingers.)

Rule 1. Cavet Emptor !
Rule 2 If rule 1 failed, don't go back

[Johan]

"YOU DONT LIKE IT...DONT BUY IT...OR...LEAVE THE COUNTRY....BECAUSE YOU AINT GONA CHANGE SHIT?!?!?!"

Your comment is the reflect of your mind, don't buy or leave the country, don't you think i can like many other things in Thailand without spend any money ? I'm not here to buy things, all the stuff you are selling i can have it in any other country. Thailand is pretty nice for a lot of things. But thai people still making ugly faces when you find out how to get things cheaper than they are trying to sell.

I found all the wholesaler of cloths, fake rolex and whatever, and it's like 10 times cheaper than the price people are trying to sell to farangs. 4 years ago, my first day in Thailand i was quoted 450 bahts for a t-shirt, the same you can buy at MBK for 99 bahts and still the same you can buy for 50 bahts at the wholesaler, and the same you can buy from the factory for 15 bahts.

How can you explain this price difference ? Because at that time i had the head of a new tourist, a pigeon. I can understand the 99 bahts price but not the 450 bahts price.

I also bought a fake rolex at patpong long time ago for 600 bahts, the guy wanted 2500 bahts... after that i went to show it to some thai friends who worked as "kai", they told me they could get the same for 150 bahts. So again, he tried to sell a 2500 bahts fake watch when in fact the real price was 150 bahts. And he was so upset at 600 bahts.

"The latest one on the news is still in the hospital so be careful Johan he knows where you live"

Again, a comment like that in France you could have the police at your door in less than 24 hours. All the farangs are not good, in fact most of them are bad. They come here to fuck bar girls, drink and shit on thai people. So i can understand why you guys are trying to rip them off, i would do the same, but i'm the farang so i get upset when someone is trying to rip me off, is fair game.

Once i had to pay 10 bahts instead of 5 at a street vendor, then i got upset about the price as i was a customer for 3 months at the same shop but that day it was another vendor who didn't know me, in fact, he was charging double price for every farang. It endeed in a fight as i had the food but didn't want to pay the double price that day. Normally i have just little problems, very few in 4 years, but these are real examples.

[redzonerocker]

Once i had to pay 10 bahts instead of 5 at a street vendor, then i got upset about the price . . . . . .

. . . . . . words fail me!

[STEVE G]

I'm afraid that the price of something in this world is what people are prepared to pay, not what it's worth.
Does it cost Loius Vuitton 4000 Euros to make a handbag?