!@%$#%@ Consumer Rights In Thailand
Wow. Am I pissed off. Just bought a brand new submersible water pump for the fish pond. Two weeks later the pump breaks down. The fish would quickly die without water and air circulation. Heading back to Carrefour, where I bought the pump, they smirk maliciously. Sorry, replacement only within seven days.
Forget all Thai virtues and traditions in such a moment. At any price, don’t smile. It would just give them the feeling of getting the upper hand. If you keep on being polite, you’re getting fucked – sorry to use that word, but it’s creator George Carlin just died and there is none more matching.
Boy was I boiling. Forget not raising your voice. You have to raise your voice, and rightly so and dramatically so. The customer service desk witnessed a targeted verbal attack. Around me faces all pale, but still smiling. Within minutes I got my brand new, rightful replacement pump.
What about people who keep on being polite? Kind, hard working people who bought a product in good faith – but once it’s paid the seller couldn’t care less? Ok, sometimes the products have a warranty card included you have to send in. Maybe, some faraway day in the future, you’d get a new water pump. The fishes would long be dead.
Again, an electric appliance breaking down after a few days and you’re left with it – no. I don’t care if they state the Seven-Day-Rule in seven meter high warning letters behind the customer service desk. And if you face arrest: Grab a replacement. It’s the consumer’s right to buy proper goods. Problem though is, consumer rights don’t really exist in beautiful Thailand.
Or you never had such an experiences? That the minute something’s paid the seller gives a tinker’s damn?
Remember that petite Thai lady some year ago who bought a CR-V lemon from Honda? And Honda didn’t care? The petite lady started demolishing the CR-V in front of her Honda dealer. First the windshield, then the hood.
And she didn’t use any hammer. She used a sledgehammer. The petite lady.
Instants later Honda handed over a cashier’s check. The petite lady got the original price back. And the petite lady went straight to Toyota where they rolled out the red carpet for her, rubbing their hands with glee.
Honda’s sales figures crashed the following weeks. Other car brands were quietly cheering the petite lady. But what must happen. The sledgehammer set a precedent. Other cheated consumers launched their own spectacular operations. Some even threatened to burn their lemon.
Most of them got their rightful way. They had talked enough. Action was needed. To get what was rightfully theirs. A properly working product.
Our dear politicians always knew that consumer protection was a neglected right in the kingdom. Some politicians back then even tried to show themselves in solidarity with angry consumers. Senator Damrong Puttan was one of them and demanded: “Consumers, unite!”
The constitution of 1997 even stipulated that an independent body for the protection of consumer rights had to be established.
Not much happened since then. The constitution is anyway waste paper since the coup of September 2006 and the kingdom seems to face much graver problems than a consumer’s rights. Or does it?
Not enjoying basic consumer protection is just another form of abuse.
We all know, Thailand is a country of con artists. Some department stores here seem to be their most eager students.
I had never had any problem with a mom-and-pop store pak soi. Be it a faucet or a pair of pliers, if it’s clearly substandard, mom or pop change it with no questions asked.
Thailand dearly needs better consumer protection. To be fair, the protection for condo buyers has just been improved. Other laws look nice on paper. Reality though sucks.
Or you always want to go shopping with a sledgehammer in your bag?
In a case like this, I do not normally talk to a seller. I often make a scene. The best thing to do is to gather family and friends and even a mob and unceremoniously shriek!
Interesting topic.
Indeed, the Honda-Petite-Lady was famous. All the press was after her story. She did good. Very good.
As for the customer service, I think it’s not natural because… it’s simply not natural (cultural would be better) for thais … to complain in public. Ask for something. To be impolite. To show feelings etc.
The whole nine yards.
Good old buddhism atavism if I may say … Plus a few hundred years of slavery and feudal system…
Okay, okay I go too far.
However, I agree, it changes. The americanization of trade between supplier/customer is on its way.
But it’s going to be long…
As for us… westerners, perfect outsiders … if you think about it … there are many situations where you can be a real winner if you do exactly the contrary of the text book (don’t shout, don’t blablabla).
Because the Thais just don’t dare, if you dare, you have already won. The resistance of the other party collapses.
This is what you did for your water pump.
However, let’s be honest … there are many other situations where this anti-Thai behavior will create the exact reverse effect.
Way to go oneditorial! Would like to see that on video.
ThaiCrisis: I’m fully aware of my rude imperialist behavior and that it doesn’t do me much good.
Point is, that sacrosanct culture of politeness, krieng jai and smile-at-whatever-cost is an outlived cliché that serves mainly the phu yai.
Ever seen Thai women shouting, swearing and screaming? At a market? It’s a very Thai thing, but is not found in the glossy “rules of etiquette” the tourism authorities print for foreigners.
Thailand’s failed education system ranges in the very same field.
Says the elite: Keep them down and may your privileges last forever.
This system of not having to be responsible for the quality of goods you’re selling allows that anything goes.
You may have a point that a certain americanization of trade changes the old feudal ways. But slowly. Very slowly.
BangkokDan
Just came across two other completely new experiences regarding consumer rights in Thailand:
One has to do with Index Living Mall selling furniture made from artificial leather that’s subsub-quality, the other one with a consumer electronics giant.
In both cases I have something to fix – hardly used, already repaired (!) chairs that break apart, and a brand new camera.
Took a shortcut in both cases: “Kidnapped” a show-chair at Index and told them better quickly and properly repair the ones returned or the kidnapped chair is considered mine. Security didn’t dare to stop me.
For the camera they gave me a loaner – but a much more expensive one. Well the loaner’s used. Nevertheless a great combo with the lens I have.
If the brand new camera that has obvious shortcomings won’t be replaced, well, I dare to keep the loaner.
Sometimes, as a consumer, you’re forced to threaten around here. There’s no other way to get things done.
BangkokDan
More Thai trader problems – watch out for absolute crap stage/sequin clothes made by Samantha Mo Traders are ‘nice as pie’ to take money, but hopeless and out right swindlers in fixing defective goods. The Thai consumer agency was notified … will anything happen??? Guess? Thailand desperately needs better consumer protection against shonky traders like these.