When you live in Thailand, sometimes tackle simple things getting complicated for no reason. Always remember: the solution usually is not going to be expensive. Thai people are honest. Don't think of it as everyone is the same as the people you meet in tourist spot. Taxi drivers blowing prices, touts, on a daily basis Thai people are honest. However there are problems, arguments, it's part of life.
In a case of an argument, it's a known thing that one should not get upset, yell, and lose composure. Have a polite, honorable, discussion. Anger would not bring you anywhere. The problem: when a Thai person is certain, it gets to the point he is locked and it's almost impossible to convince him otherwise.
When I was living in Bangkok, I had a long-term lease in a hotel in a central place in town. The hotel offered a long-term lease in the time of the pandemic, when there were no tourists. It was a good hotel, the location was great, and I was pleased. Most of the days I was outside, not in my room, so my bills were low. A normal electric bill could be 60-100 THB. Then I got a bill of 1200 THB and I realized we got a problem. I went to the receptionist and he talked to the electrician. Turns out, the counter was running even when I was not in the room. They agreed there's a problem and they need to take care of it. That week I went to Israel for a visit and they took care of the problem. When I was in Israel, I got the message that the wiring was fixed, the counter was changed, and the room was ready.
I came back to Thailand before end of the month just before the time of reading the counter to make the electric bill. After one week I got the bill: 350 Baht! Mistake! I just came back to Thailand, and was in the room just one week. It should have been 20 to 30 Baht, not 350. I headed to the front desk explaining the problem. He explained that "we already changed the counter" and he thinks problem solved. "if so", I said, "I am going to go for a one week vacation, and when I will come back we'll see if the counter has moved". I went for a week, came back, counter didn't move. Anyway, I thought, there must be a problem, bill shouldn't be so high. I have to figure it out.
I examined the aircon unit, it was saying consumption is 1KWH, exactly one unit of electric. I run the air-conditioning and after half an hour went to look at the counter. 5KWH for just half an hour! Then I noticed the marking on top of those digits: the lower one is showing 0.1KWH, and now it's makes sense, half an hour is 0.5KWH. I'm checking the other counters in the board, and all the old type counters the lower digits says 1KWH. Now it's all makes sense to me. The person who reads the counters, is used to write all digits and that's what he did with the new counter not knowing the difference. Simple, isn't it? Not really!
I took a picture of the counter and headed to the front desk. I am will explain what is the problem, and he will fix the bill - easy! So I'm explaining the problem and he's asking me to wait. After a few minutes he says "sir, in this counter you need to read all digits", and shows me an output from a Google search he conducted about current-specs shown on the counter. That's marking is on any counter, and irrelevant. Now go prove him wrong. "You are paying counter sir" - case closed! So I asked to talk with a manager. I've shown the manager pictures of the new counter and the old counters, explaining a difference, but she said "it's the same thing" and retreated to her office. The following two weeks I continued to try to explain but it never went through. It's a communication problem, I was thinking. At this stage, I decided to ask my girlfriend to come and explain Thai.
She came and I explained to her what is the problem. She asked to look at all my electric bills of recent months to figure out the situation. Together, we went and talked with the management. So my girlfriend is sitting with them, I am with her (following her order not to say anything), and she runs through the bills and explaining that "usually its 60 Baht, this month he was in Israel, here he was just one week in the room", and this goes on for about 40 minutes. In the meantime, I know that this is just not going to get us anywhere. Why? because the point is they don't know how to read them meter and we didn't even discuss this. I'm starting to move in my chair feeling angry, and eventually I blow up! she tries to calm me down, I'm trying to explain to the manager - getting upset. The manager laughing in my face, I'm even more upset, and the meeting blows!
My girlfriend's leaves the lobby quickly. She is shaking her head, "unbelievable". I'm after her. "I just can't believe you did this, what an embarrassment. I'm not coming back here", she says. I'm trying to explain "the manager I laughed in my face!". She says, "she didn't laugh in your face, she just didn't know what you're talking about, and it was embarrassing". what now? they want a letter from Mitsubishi, the manufacturer of the counter, that says that explains how to read the counter. I thought I was losing my mind, "it's written on the counter! what is so complicated?"
Where do we go from here? I'm looking at the picture of the counter, checking every detail. here, I found the name of the model. A quick search finds a manual from Mitsubishi, including an example how to read a counter - we're golden! I reported this to my girlfriend and she agrees to come and show the document to the manager. Here we are with the manager, and this time guns are loaded with a manual. The manager goes back to the room and then comes back with a Mitsubishi representative on the phone. The talk is on the speaker so we can all hear. At this stage my girlfriend is asking the representative directive questions "this counter, the last you shows 0.1KWH, right?", so he will not make a mistake. The manager is convinced and now she has excuses: "You know, In our house we're paying 1,500 Baht, so it was awkward to see a 35 Baht bill". We won! I got a 860 Baht refund.
Conclusion, what have we learned?
A whole month to solve a simple problem. I moved out of that place, because I didn't want to have a whole month of arguments to solve such a simple things.
I tried to understand what happened. My girlfriend says they did not try to cheat. They really believed they are reading the counter correctly. I have spoken with 5-6 workers, including the electrician, and none of them figured such a simple thing? "They are really believe in this" she said. "You got to understand: these are ignorant people, including the management, they don't even know decimal point". I replied "Don't know decimal point? one of the people I talked to was the accountant". Just couldn't believe it. well, that's how it is.
Alright ,I'm asking my girlfriend: what would you do if it happened to you? and you know the bill is wrong. "I would have complained just once, and if they don't don't agree with me I would pay. I'm very happy we won this, we can learn from it". Me "yes, you got it from me". She: There is an Italian restaurant I want to go to...
Yes, this is how an 860 Baht refund, going to cost me 1,500 Baht. What a win! HOME