Quality of material

Post by **Cowtown Comedy** » Tue May 20, 2008 9:50 am

Am I just unlucky or are other people spending money on products in LOS that are beyond repair after 8-12 months? Are you also having trouble getting warranty work done? Ha ha, maybe I'm just too cheap and go for the lower priced tools, but now I have 2 power drills that are beyond repair, each after only 1 year of minimal use. Warranty???haha.." oh kortod krup, you too hard on tool sir" I also have a mountain bike that spends more time getting fixed than it does on the road, a blender that wont blend, and microwave that wont mike....maybe I'm just unlucky..

Let me know your bad quality stories...thanks

Post by **niggle** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:24 am

We bought quite a few wlwctrical things fromo HomePro and although a couple of them packed up we found the repair service very good.
I think th eold adage needs bearing in mind in Thailand (especially) - buy cheap - buy crap

Post by **buksida** » Tue May 20, 2008 11:04 am

I think it has a lot to do with the crappy electrical system here in Thailand, no insulation, no grounding and 30 year old power cables dangling precariously from crumbling posts. Surges, spikes, brownouts, and complete outages are extremely common and do electrical appliances no favours at all.

Post by **barrys** » Tue May 20, 2008 9:25 pm

I've found over the years that the small shops will very rarely honour a guarantee but Tesco Lotus and Makro do!

Post by **dtaai-maai** » Tue May 20, 2008 9:28 pm

Must be your Irish charm, Barry!

Super Joe · Post by **Super Joe** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:11 pm

i found out shortly after i got here that the european brand name power tools bought in the smaller hardware shops are actually copies.

so yeah they ain't gonna last long, guess it's only wishful thinking by us to expect anything else.

Post by **STEVE G** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:19 pm

If anyone needs industrial quality power-tools they should go to a large market up in Issan. They often have stalls selling second hand Makita and Wolf tools of every description for reasonable prices.
I’ve been led to believe that these have been “liberated” by the locals whilst working on construction projects in Bangkok, but I would hate to slur the good people of Issan with this suggestion.

Post by **kendo** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:33 pm

My wife,perchased a interior door to go on the en-suite, stained glass flower patern quite nice, but the door its self had a plastic fablon type covering that started to peel off even before if was hung.One good thing,it put me off buying a kitchen from the big shop,i had one built instead from real wood.

Post by **miked** » Tue May 20, 2008 11:28 pm

Generally i find the quality of goods in thailand to be absolute rubbish. this even goes for "branded" goods that are made here. example a sharp freezer and a honda jazz car. quality control doesn't exist.
now i try and buy not made in thailand.
a guarantee here means nothing which is why now even with a 3 year warranty from honda, i service my 7 month old car myself.
i'm happy to pay for quality but its hard to find. when you do the u.k. price is cheaper.
the last thai product i bought was a mountain bike from tesco lotus 7 weeks ago. first day out it broke, tesco didn't couldn't give a toss. got the part from a local repair shop, 35 baht took 2 minutes to fix.
let the buyer beware, buy thai made last.
miked

Post by **Vital Spark** » Wed May 21, 2008 12:02 am

I'm with CC and Miked here. The quality of anything made in the land of mai pen rai is sh*te.

We bought a stereo (not expensive) for the kitchen from Home Pro. Got it home and the remote didn't work. Took it back to Home Pro and they said that the batteries in the remote were too high quality

We should use cheap, crappy Chinese batteries. Did they have any to prove this ridiculous theory. No. Can we perhaps have our money back, or exchange our stereo for another one. No! So what do we do now? Many little bodies diving under desks. We've still got it. I'm going to give it to a young lass in the village...maybe she's got some cheap Chinese batteries.

VS

Post by **Little treefrog** » Wed May 21, 2008 12:11 am

kendo wrote:My wife,perchased a interior door to go on the en-suite, stained glass flower patern quite nice, but the door its self had a plastic fablon type covering that started to peel off even before if was hung.One good thing,it put me off buying a kitchen from the big shop,i had one built instead from real wood.

So did I, hand made kitchen and bedroom doors from real wood

Wouldn´t pay a penny for the plastic crap they sell

Post by **Randy Cornhole** » Wed May 21, 2008 2:04 am

A hand made kitchen sounds good. Was it much more expensive? what wood did they use?
I wonder if I can find a craftsman up in the Issan jungle...

Post by **Little treefrog** » Wed May 21, 2008 2:41 am

Randy Cornhole wrote:A hand made kitchen sounds good. Was it much more expensive? what wood did they use?
I wonder if I can find a craftsman up in the Issan jungle...

I´m not sure where Issan jungle is

But I went around and checked all of the small wood shops where they make wooden doors, bar counters, & misc furniture. I made a drawing (CAD) of the kitchen including measurements and gave it to them, showing them what motif I wanted carved into the doors. They made the cabinets and once done, they came to my house and installed the kitchen.
Expensive? Not really, only slightly more expensive than the junk I found being peddled at Index and their likes when I was checking out what was available. Very much cheaper than the "designer kitchen" stores I went to at close to their "quality/ finnish". I don´t know what type of wood it is but it looks awfully nice. After four years of use it is still nice and I have had no problems with it.

Post by **Randy Cornhole** » Wed May 21, 2008 3:11 am

What a fantastic idea. Think i'll give it a go...cheers.

Post by **Big Boy** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:06 am

miked wrote:

the last thai product i bought was a mountain bike from tesco lotus 7 weeks ago. first day out it broke, tesco didn't couldn't give a toss.

VS wrote:

We bought a stereo (not expensive) for the kitchen from Home Pro. Got it home and the remote didn't work. Took it back to Home Pro and they said that the batteries in the remote were too high quality We should use cheap, crappy Chinese batteries. Did they have any to prove this ridiculous theory. No. Can we perhaps have our money back, or exchange our stereo for another one. No!

2 days ago I had to buy a new mouse for the laptop. I saw one that looked the part when walking through Tesco, so bought it. When I got home, it didn't work. Took it it back and they were ever so helpful:

1. Checked the original didn't work.

2. Obtained a replacement, showed me how to set it up (Vista does all of that for you anyway), showed me how tune it etc.

They then sent me on my way with the replacement mouse and a smile.