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We have had more “issues” with the office here at The Mansion. They told Chalerm that we had not paid the utilities for April.
When the maid came the next day she began talking about our utilities bills and looking through my receipts in the kitchen, “helping” me. She was sent as a spy from the office, and she reported on the phone to them that no receipt was found even before I was finished searching for it.
The maid gave me this look as if I had been caught cheating. This is typical. I often get this look if I happen to give the wrong amount in a shop when paying for something. Don’t they realise that honest mistakes happen?
Of course if the other side makes a mistake with the change (usually in their favour) they act as if they are completely innocent.
After some pondering I realised I had never seen any utilities bill for April. I remember having waited for a bill and when it came I paid. But that turned out to be one for May. I agreed to pay the April bill if they gave me the original documents, which they did.
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The Mansion staff then said we had not paid utilities for January 2006, which was too long ago for me to remember. I checked (again with the maid looking over my shoulder) and the bill for February 2006 had no “paid” stamp on it. January or February? It is foggy as the bill doesn’t cover the month they write on it.
Having ignored the issue for more than a year The Mansion suddenly wanted their money right away. This is also typical. They do nothing for so long and then suddenly it is the most urgent thing. They kept talking to Chalerm and calling the maid about it. We should pay the same day, they thought.
Chalerm didn’t like this and went to the office to lay down the law. He said it was too late for The Mansion to present us with a bill from January 2006. It was their problem if they had a bad accounting system, said Chalerm.
I had no faith in his protest. Surely we had to pay if we had no receipt. But amazingly they agreed to drop the claim. Bravo Chalerm.
Tags: apartment, gay Thailand, Thai boys
May 25th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Good for him for standing up for you.
May 25th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Seems like your Chalerm has a bit of an ‘advocacy’ streak.
First it was the rights of gay boys to be treated humanely by the Thai army, now it’s tenants rights. Next he’ll be taking up the case of the soi dogs.
May 26th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Well done Chalerm!
May 26th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Bravo!!
May 27th, 2007 at 2:25 am
Gosh SF, time for you to be more organised. Get a folder and file all the receipts.
I usually go an anal step further by recording all my payments with dates, invoice numbers, payment modes onto an Excel sheet. Takes me all of 5 minutes at the beginning of each month.