Package Delivery Issue: Thailand Style

[Tonray's Ghost]

Here in SE Asia we have our version of Amazon.com, a company originally started in Singapore but now owned by Alibaba Group. I order quite a bit from there as their selection is good and service pretty on spot too.

Recently I ordered a small item (some cushions for backpack Straps), only cost about 7 bucks. The driver shows up at my house on the day the online status told me he would (they actually status you that delivery will be made in the next hour and give you the courier name and phone #). I go out to greet him (he has a massive box/crate on the back of his motorcycle with a massive number of packages...that is how it's done here for smaller packages), and he tells me after looking for my package, that he'll be back, maybe he left it at the depot. About an hour later he calls me and tells me he lost the package, maybe it dropped off in the road somewhere. I tell him Ok..no issue just report it and we'll go thru the process of refund etc. He then switches to text (as our language barrier is brutal) to translate to me that if I send him my account number he'll transfer the $$ to me and I will mark the package as delivered successfully. He explains that he'll likely get fired if he or I report it. Now I don't want to get any hardworking guy fired for an honest mistake, so I send him the order details and my acct number and he promptly send me $7. I then mark in the app delivered and give the driver a good rating. Later that evening, detail event to GF and she is a manager for a large retail company and she said yup... misdelivery or other mishaps and that's it...you get fired in Thailand..no if ands or buts.

Different process here entirely, the guy seemed like a good chap but what if the item was $700 instead...what happens then ?

[tonebender]

He gets fired.

[tlarson58]

^ Awesome.

[peskypesky1]

Damn!

[Tonray's Ghost]

Damn!

When in Thailand....

[toomanycats]

When I first moved to North Carolina in 2010 I kept hearing this phrase "right to work." By the wording I assumed it was a law that protected employees. My Aspergers inclines me to believe that people in positions of authority are obligated to speak truthfully. When I finally asked somebody to clarify what "right to work" actually meant it was explained to me that that this particularly egregious example of Orwellian doublespeak means that an employer can fire you at any time for no reason. Government employees are exempt. Right to work only applies to the peasants.

[Tonray's Ghost]

When I first moved to North Carolina in 2010 I kept hearing this phrase "right to work." By the wording I assumed it was a law that protected employees. My Aspergers inclines me to believe that people in positions of authority are obligated to speak truthfully. When I finally asked somebody to clarify what "right to work" actually meant it was explained to me that that this particularly egregious example of Orwellian doublespeak means that an employer can fire you at any time for no reason. Government employees are exempt. Right to work only applies to the peasants.

Well I'm just happy I didn't end up unintentionally getting some poor guy fired. Now I know how the system here works.

[toomanycats]

When I first moved to North Carolina in 2010 I kept hearing this phrase "right to work." By the wording I assumed it was a law that protected employees. My Aspergers inclines me to believe that people in positions of authority are obligated to speak truthfully. When I finally asked somebody to clarify what "right to work" actually meant it was explained to me that that this particularly egregious example of Orwellian doublespeak means that an employer can fire you at any time for no reason. Government employees are exempt. Right to work only applies to the peasants.

Well I'm just happy I didn't end up unintentionally getting some poor guy fired. Now I know how the system here works.

I completely understand and I have done the exact same thing in your situation.

A year ago AT&T hired Asplundh to cut some trees surrounding the 2 acre property owned by Mrs TMC and myself, which is landlocked within hundreds of acres owned by Microsoft. When the coaxial cable which is our only connection to the outside world was severed, a young guy who was operating the pole saw looked me straight in the eyes, while I held up the severed cable in his face, and said to me, "A squirrel must have gnawed through that line." It was partly out of sympathy for this dumb bastard, and party out of knowing that I could not fight this cooperation, that I didn't make an issue out of it with this basement dweller.

[golem]

Does Thailand have street addresses?

I got to the point where I just give GPS coordinates with the street address. I'm finding that works well in the Philippines.

When I lived in Jeddah I had a lot of delivery failures. No one ever sent me money though.

[tonebender]

I had a run in with the tree people as well. They cleared trees and limbs from the power lines. I came home to find them on the back side of my farm. They had cut down several small oaks in the area they were parked, that had popped up as volunteers several years before and I had been mowing around them to let them grow into might oaks. It seems they were in their way and they could not get close enough with the boom truck to the power line easement that bordered my property on the south side. When I pulled up they were all taking a break, just laying around in the shade and had strewn water bottles, banana peelings and other debris throughout the area. Further it was rainy season and they had cut across the arena where my wife trained horses, putting ruts all through it.

After assessing the situation, I went into the house retrieved my pump shotgun. I came back out, armed, and in a bad mood. I proceeded to oversee the removal of all debris. They were very cooperative. Then the sheriff trespassed the company from the property. They also had to deliver and plant replacement trees for those they killed. They never came on the property again. They had to walk the right away and climb to get the work done year after year. No more bucket trucks and equipment was ever allowed on my property. I did not care how many of them got fired.

[Tonray's Ghost]

Does Thailand have street addresses?

I got to the point where I just give GPS coordinates with the street address. I'm finding that works well in the Philippines.

When I lived in Jeddah I had a lot of delivery failures. No one ever sent me money though.

Finding the house is not a problem. The driver actually lost the package.