TMT - this maybe Thailand

[bonnielass]

I often hear people saying TIT, this is Thailand.
Normally as a way of explaining poor or shoddy service.

In defence of the place, I have always found exactly the opposite to be true.

During my recent visit, I purchased a wooden door from a company on Petchkasem. I wasn't exactly sure of the size but the lady said she would exchange it if need be.
It was delivered next day, and fitted, exactly when the company said it would be.
The carpenter was extremely professional and did a good job.

I also needed a repair to a window frame. Something as trivial as a single rivet dropping out.
The guys turned up at the agreed time, and within minutes had done the job.
They wouldn't take any payment from me. Apparently, not everyone wants to rip off a Farang.

I can only think those who frequently blast the Thais may have spent rather too long away from their native soil. I know in my neck of the woods, any of the services mentioned above would have taken weeks to arrange, if the people bothered to turn up at all.

Just saying....

BL

[Big Boy]

It was delivered next day, and fitted, exactly when the company said it would be.
The carpenter was extremely professional and did a good job.

I also needed a repair to a window frame. Something as trivial as a single rivet dropping out.
The guys turned up at the agreed time, and within minutes had done the job.
They wouldn't take any payment from me. Apparently, not everyone wants to rip off a Farang.

I can relate to this kind of service a fair bit. I agree they don't want to charge for many small services, but I always insist Mrs BB give them a decent tip, and they are usually very grateful. We never have any worries with repeat work. A few Baht isn't going to break the bank.

[Gregjam]

I don't think that TIT is referring to poor or shoddy service in particular but often to the casual 'Mai Pen Rai' approach to many things and open racism as demonstrated by the double pricing. The reaction I get when I point out that I can read the sign in Thai with Thai numbers that charges a different price than that in English is a case of 'So what!, you are still going to pay the higher price' but in a friendly rather than confrontational way. Service on the whole is far superior to that in the West and a lot cheaper.

The quality of work varies from both ends of the spectrum and if you get a craftsman as mention by the OP then all is well. If you get a problem then trying to sort it out can be extremely difficult. That is where forums like this come in as you can usually be guided to someone who will get the job done at the first attempt.

Thailand is not unique in this but living here exposes us to the Thai variety of this attitude which it is unlikely we could change and it is best to work together to get round the issue.

[Dannie Boy]

I also have had many instances of good service. The latest one involved the hire of a man with a tractor to spread a lorry load of sand delivered to help with drainage of the approach road (dirt track) to our house. This was the 2nd lorry load, the first I spread myself which took ages and was too much like hard work. It took the tractor man about 20 mins to level it all out (it took me more than 2 hours) and when he was finished my wife asked him how much and he said 100 baht. I felt guilty giving him 200 baht but he was more than happy.

[Bristolian]

Thailand is not unique in this but living here exposes us to the Thai variety of this attitude which it is unlikely we could change and it is best to work together to get round the issue.

I could not agree more except to say that originally I was from the UK and there also was subject to a similar variety of ability from so called tradesmen, some good and some bluddy orful TIUK (same same, no different)
But... Same as here there are professionals who take a pride in their work and customer satisfaction. Same same no different, except mostly here it's cheaper. IMHO

[margaretcarnes]

Agree with Bristolian - I've had excellent work done in the past by people like the sign maker and tilers. Buying furniture has included a tour of the factory and freebies thrown in. Deliveries of large items is usually immediate and you get a lift home with the stuff. Taxi lads who have done errands to pay bills. And where else could you just pop in to see your lawyer without an appontment? Certainly not in the UK.
The 'TIT' part for me is more to do with things like said lawyer making a full day out of going to Immigration for example, including lunch. It's the 'mai pen rai' side of business in Thailand which, once you've got the hang of it, (which doesn't take long) becomes a better way of life.

[Gérard]

Agree with all of you and I had many good surprises when dealing with Thai people and getting better job than expected for a fair price.

I admit that sometimes I was disappointed too, but not so often.

Compared to my country (France), service is quick and easy for a small price and you can get things done that you couldn't in Europe. Example : yesterday I was quoted 4000 bahts for a tailor-made radiator for a Yamaha 750 FZX, whereas the new original part is 600 euro = 25000 bahts.

Amazing Thailand !

[hhfarang]

Maybe we should have "good service" thread on here so when you guys get all this good free service you can post some numbers for the rest of the members. That has not been my experience. I have had a few that are friends of my missus that fixed small things and did not want payment (but we tipped them anyway) but even their service has been more Thai style or stop-gap fixes instead of repairs done the proper way.

Building a large house here and maintaining it for nearly 8 years I encountered maybe 3 or 4 workers who did satisfactory (western style) work out of probably 300 we've had to hire either to build or maintain from time to time. Sure most of the things we wanted got done or fixed, but not in a professional way. They use unsightly Thai workarounds or fixes that didn't last, over charged me in most instances as few Thais (that I've found) will give you an up front estimate, or they fixed what we called them for while breaking or damaging something else for which they assumed no responsibility. They've also usually left a big mess behind for us to clean up.

Thais just don't seem to care. I'll give you a recent example. I'm now renting a western style house from a Thai builder. The plumbing is a mess and we found out quickly that we could not put tp in the toilet (we did that for all those years in 3 previous houses with no problem). Anyway, the plumbing stopped up and the owner told us we couldn't put paper down it any longer. That's ok now that we know but his regular plumber did a laughable job of fixing the problem and I would have fired him immediately had I owned the house but the builder who owns the house seemed satisfied with the job. It's hard to tell from the photos but one is a "before" which is actually another identical bathroom. The other is after the work was done. He took out the toilet to fix the problem but when he replaced the toilet he moved it 10 cm away from the wall (was previously against the wall) making it a shin knocker blocking much of the narrow shower entrance, and 15 cm closer to the side wall (making it a bit cramped for space) plus left the unsightly cement mess on the floor instead of putting new tiles down. This is the perfect example of the type of work I have encountered here 90% of the time.

We also had a shower and sink drain blockage problem and the same plumber immediately decided to jackhammer up the entire back patio to get to the pipes underneath to take a look. After two 4 days of head scratching and a big mess of dirt and broken tiles and cement on the patio, he solved the problem by pouring some liquid drain block desolver down both drains. I won't even go into the mess he left the patio in for us to clean up.

That's why I say TIT! Sure in the U.S. workmen are expensive and maybe busy so you have to wait for work on their schedule, but I nearly always found the work to be perfect and come with an up front estimate of cost and guarantee of quality of work (maybe different where you come from). Professional workers there like plumbers, electricians, etc., are educated and licensed in their craft. Here, any rube fresh off the Issan rice paddy can claim to be anything and set up shop.

[Big Boy]

Well that last shower put a hole in my roof . This will be a good test. The builder is already on his way - I doubt (hope) the repair will cost no more than a few hundred Baht, if anything at all.

I hope to post later with a good news story, but maybe I'll end up with a HHF cowboy. Watch this space........

[Big Boy]

There we go, 2 hours later and we get a call - he can't come until tomorrow . HHF is right so far, let's see what tomorrow brings. I just hope it doesn't rain tonight - better wear my water wings, just in case.

[Big Boy]

Just found out - he was too drunk to come today . Well we did call him at about 2 in the afternoon.

[Big Boy]

........................................../still waiting

When I made the response about our roof problem, I was honestly expecting a very quick, very cheap repair and thought it would go a long way towards proving the OP correct. Little did I know that we'd arranged for the Mr Fix-it from Hell to resolve our leaking roof (it will still turn out as good/probably better than a similar problem in the UK).

.........../ Continue to watch this space

[sargeant]

sorry BB i couldnt resist it

are you actually asking us to watch paint dry

[PeteC]

In the meantime........if it's still raining over there try to get your son up into the attic area and hopefully spot where the leak is, or appears to be. That should save the need for the repair guy to get up on the roof top with a water hose if it's sunny and dry when he arrives. If the hole(s) are small, you may not be able to see sun shining through them on the inside once things dry out, it all depends. Pete

[Big Boy]

........................................../still waiting

A light at the end of the tunnel, and probably very relevant to this thread. Mrs BB has been whinging to a guy laying tiles next door, saying she's known a wait like it in Thailand. Tiler says that he does roof tiles as well, and offers to fix it. He's up there now, and has seen the problem. Will report on fix and cost soon.