Thank you Hatari and no thanks to Lotus’s

I want to share with you a situation where one of my stand up fans from Hatari malfunctioned and how responsible Hatari were as a manufacturer and how totally useless and irresponsible Lotus’s Hua Hin in Market Village Hua Hin was.

I have had these first class stand up fans, with a remote control box, from Hatari for a year or two now and many visitors have admired them, some have purchased them after seeing them in action.

As well as being able to raise or lower them on their stand, you can set them to 5 speeds, and to sweep left and right via the white remote control. 

Perfect for an old chap like me as I do not have to get up each time I want to turn them on and off, alter the speed or sweep. Great product, well done Hatari!

I purchased them in my Bangkok home from Lotus’s On Nut. I tried to ring the On Nut Store Mamager on his mobile telephone. He answered, did not speak English and cut the line twice then directed mel to voicemail.

They were obviously more expensive, around 10,000B but worth their weight in gold.

The other day one of them malfunctioned in my home in Hua Hin. I turned it on via the remote, it started then stopped? I went to the fan and could smell burning so obviously it had shorted inside. 

I thought that the warranty would have expired but when I checked it was to July 2023. I rang Hatari they found someone that could speak English and I asked for a Service Centre but the helpful young lady asked me where I purchased it and instructed me to return it to the retailer. 

I put it in my car and drove to Lotus’s. (Lotus’s is not even a proper word in the English language! For Lotus, we use ” Lotuses ” because that’s how you pluralise proper nouns ending in “s,” according to the Associated Press Stylebook. You would have thought that someone at Tesco who CP bought the business from, would have had the common sense to inform their Thai colleagues, but they were obviously all too concerned with hanging on to their overpaid jobs!).

It is quite large so not easy to carry, but I took it into the store in Market Village. The little girl that was behind the counter when I presented the Warranty asked me for the till receipt?

Of course, we all keep till receipts from 18 months don’t we? Be serious! 

I said that I did not have the till receipt but I had the Warranty and that Hatari had instructed me to return it to the retailer. 

She called someone from the electrical department. Who called someone else. Who called someone else and each one asked me for the till receipt. None of them spoke English and sadly my Thai did not extend to arguing with them. Eventually I asked to speak to the Store Manager hoping that he would understand a little more about retail marketing than all these junior staff, each one I was old enough to be their grandfather.

Eventually…. I mean 10 minutes or so later. Thai staff all try to wear you down – it is like a war of attrition, the Store Manager arrived. He did not speak a word of English, so I suggested respectfully that he sought a staff member that did speak the world’s business language.

I know what you are thinking “But you do not speak Thai”! You are right I don’t. 

However only 0.83% of the world’s population of 8bn do. Thailand is the only country that speaks Thai. Whereas they state that 23% of the world’s population speak English (I think that it is probably more than that)! America, Australia, NZ, the UK, Scandinavia, most of Europe – I could go on but, importantly most of the so called “richer developed countries in the world” that Thailand is trying to attract to as tourists, but sadly very few Thai people do.

In the end I was surrounded by 7/8 Thai Lotus’s staff trying to intimidate me and they would not accept the fan or any liability, and wanted me to take it away.

I left the store, minus the fan, but the outcome is as follows after I called Hatari and used their Line App.

Hatari sent the simple message: As Lotus HH. We have already coordinated and acknowledged the audit. We urged the staff to submit a report to the business. There is no expense to you and no need to worry about this repair because it is covered by the products 3 year guarantee.

Thank you Hatari for being a responsible manufacturer. Absolutely no thanks whatsoever to Lotus’s for failing to be a responsible retailer and for arguing the toss and trying to intimidate a customer instead of dealing with the issue in a grown up businesslike manner.