Yet Another Cultural Experience!

The Land of Smiles offers many things: good Thai food, cheap foot massages, accessible public transportation, and a host of others things.

But.

One thing it does not offer are refunds. As in may I have my money back?

Case in point - One of my co-workers was going to the mall to take care of some business for Bro. Tom, so two of us decided to send along with her two things that needed to be mailed back to the States. I gave my co-worker 200 baht (approximately $6.00) to cover a birthday package for my nephew. I figured if it was more than that, I could always send it home with Ben who is heading home next Tuesday and he could mail it.

After my co-worker mailed my package, she called me up and said it was actually 400 baht (approximately $12.00 and 200 baht more than I wanted to pay). I asked her to see if she could get the package back and waited for her to call back. She did so and said this to me: "The lady at the post office said you could have your package back, but not your money."

Umm, I'm sorry? Why in the world would I want my package back without the money? It would be like making an unnecessary donation to the postal system of Thailand. Uh, no thanks!

Another time I was shopping at Food Land (clever title for a grocery store, don't you think?) and I looked at a price wrong. I didn't realize it until after the transaction was made and so while I was still in the store, I went to the customer service desk and explained my mistake. The lady just looked at me and proceeded to explain that they couldn't give me back my money. After making a big enough fuss (I was dealing with almost $10.00), they finally told me in hush, hush terms that they were going to make one huge exception for me since they knew I came grocery shopping every week.

We've all made this mistake at one point or another and have pretty much come to terms with the fact that Thailand is good for many things, but not refunds! Apparently it's a foreign concept:).