fullcave Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Incompetence is hard for many to accept. Welcome to Thailand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattayadgw Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Why all 10 fingers need scanning... in Malaysia where they have had a finger scan system in place for many many years they only scan the index fingers from both hands... done at the immigration counter takes 2 seconds... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fex Bluse Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 13 minutes ago, pattayadgw said: Why all 10 fingers need scanning... in Malaysia where they have had a finger scan system in place for many many years they only scan the index fingers from both hands... done at the immigration counter takes 2 seconds... The Thais commonly take something that works outside of Thailand and Thai-ify it. Meaning, they make it idiotic, inefficient and often ineffective. Sawatdi Krap ???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEFLKrabi Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 There are times when it’s empty and times when it’s overcrowded. Even with all desks open, that many people arriving at the same time is always going to create a long queue. It’s just not possible to process that many people quickly. Sorry to destroy the fun of immigration bashing but it’s just too many people; nobody’s fault. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamyai3 Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 22 hours ago, webfact said: Krisada Suyasien said: "That's OTT - Thailand has given you a good living now you call us hell". NITI said: "I've seen the same abroad. This (criticism) is too much. It's not always like this”. Perhaps stung by the criticism he posted the next day (Thursday): "OK it's not hell. But it's the front door to the country we love. I was frustrated by what I saw yesterday because I am concerned about the image of Thailand." He was quite right in highlighting it, and shouldn't have backed down so easily. These criticisms are off topic, and deflect from a real issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emdog Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 You can't close what you never open..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisperone Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 22 hours ago, Orton Rd said: Typical Thai over reaction to justified comments, he was not calling Thais or Thailand hell, just the ludicrously long immigration queue. Can't lose face???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamyai3 Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 21 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said: 35 minutes ago, pattayadgw said: Why all 10 fingers need scanning... The Thais commonly take something that works outside of Thailand and Thai-ify it. Meaning, they make it idiotic, inefficient and often ineffective. It's the Spinal Tap approach to airport security. The Thai fingerprint scanners go up to eleven... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superal Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 21 hours ago, Chivas said: So are these finger scans ( I assume prints) being immediately checked against worldwide databases ?? You could well be right and that would stop the criminals from going to Thailand . Could that be the reason why the tourism is down now ? For the criminals already in Thailand , how can they get out of the country and avoid the finger print checks . I assume the checks are used at departures as well as arrivals ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boonrawdcnx Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Excuses, excuses nothing else from immigration! Hello Thai immigration if you don’t know how it’s done go to other countries and learn. This is the 21st century! Most of the tasks described could be completed online in advance. It’s your xenophobic obsession to control that causes these lines. 99 % of the people you are pissing off standing in line for hours are innocent tourists, honest people treated like they are criminals as a welcome to your country. The tiny percentage of crooks always seem to get undetected into this country anyway. “It’s not an easy job” he said ? Excuse me? It takes what kind of education, intelligence and a generals uniform with lots of stripes to complete the same tasks in and out every day and to put a freakin stamp into a passport ? It might be frustrating -yes - to be working on a “conveyor belt “ day in day out but it is surely not a difficult job that requires much brain or physical strength.If this country would not waste insane amounts of money on corruption you could have a thousand people sitting there stamping passports giving visitors the welcome they deserve because they are going to spend their hard earned money here! Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaiyen Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 How can they deny closing counters ? Andrew said 7 counters were unmanned, so they were closed ! Simple answer, but not to Immigration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Thai bashing post reported and removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttrd Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 22 hours ago, darksidedog said: Yes, but it's not as if those flights suddenly turned up as a surprise is it? They know what flights are coming in and when, and ought to be capable of providing sufficient immigration staff to deal with these rushes. I spent many years flying all over the place and while I have seen some bad queues in lots of places, Thailand has REALLY bad ones way more regularly than anywhere else I have ever seen. You have right, but we should as well look at the bright side - long queues meaning longer protection against lawless trafic, overpriced taxidrivers, violent tuk-tuk drivers, crazy soi dogs, ladyboy pickpockets, jet-ski scammers, annoying bar ladies and drunk countrymen - to mention some …. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcnx Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 23 hours ago, webfact said: Immigration officers have to do 8 things in 50 seconds," he said. These are passport check, visa check, face recognition, blacklist check, scan, interview, take a picture and stamp. Like every other immigration officer in the world. Thais are just slow and inefficient, own it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcnx Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 1 hour ago, lamyai3 said: He was quite right in highlighting it, and shouldn't have backed down so easily. These criticisms are off topic, and deflect from a real issue. He’s lived here long enough to know he risks a visit from the police / army or a group attack with weapons as he leaves his condo. Backing off was the right thing to do in his situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcnx Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 8 hours ago, Mel52 said: THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE! Some of these people are literally insane and just want to believe that it’s just Thailand when a lot of airports around the world are extremely crowded some a lot more than Thailand and have THE SAME PROCEDURES THAT THAILAND HAS WHEN ENTERING THE COUNTRY. Some countries are even stricter than Thailand. But on Thai Visas conspiracy theorists come together on here for some reason. I’ve been to 102 countries. Bangkok has the slowest immigration I’ve experienced by far. All airports can get backed up. It happens. But it happens all the time here. That’s the difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fex Bluse Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 16 minutes ago, dcnx said: Like every other immigration officer in the world. Thais are just slow and inefficient, own it. True. As we all know, for many Thais, it's NEVER their fault. Fault is placed furthest from them and moves closer with each excuse but never lands on them. "We have too many things to do" "There are too many (foreign) tourists" "The (foreign) computers are too slow" "Too many planes came at once" "The (foreign) scanners are not good" "We already setup food stalls in the queues so tourists can snack while waiting in line" "My fingers (not me, not my essence) won't work fast enough" "It's too hard (not just for me but too hard for anyone anywhere)" "Other (foreign) passport control is also like this (in other words, nobody is better than us)" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emptypockets Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 18 hours ago, phantomfiddler said: Mr Biggs is, in my opinion, totally correct. An absolute disgrace for a modern airport, and one that many people are afraid to use because of the incredible length of time it can take to get through immigration. The time, plus the usually hostile manner of the officials processing passports, gives any visitor an incredibly bad first impression. In contrast, Singapore, also a busy airport, takes an average time of around 30 seconds waiting, and less than that to be processed ! Nonsense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcpattaya Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Apparently your name needs to be "Andrew Biggs" to be heard? We all know how Thais work: Slow, slower, not at all... NONE of the clerks at the airport seem to get bothered about the length of their queues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumballl Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 This past Tuesday night (at approximately 2320), my family and I stepped off the aircraft, walked a good distance, and yet still made it through immigration in less than 15 minutes. Five minutes of that time was spent walking to the immigration queues. The only thing that surprised me was that minors under the age of 18 are being fingerprinted. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Thailand! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StayinThailand2much Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 1 hour ago, lamyai3 said: It's the Spinal Tap approach to airport security. The Thai fingerprint scanners go up to eleven... I can only imagine the planning stage for the scanners... Thai engineer to IO: "So, how many fingers do the Chinese have?" ... "Sure?? Wow, same as khon Thai! And the falang...?" ... "Okay, let's have them scan ten fingers then..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fex Bluse Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 29 minutes ago, dcnx said: He’s lived here long enough to know he risks a visit from the police / army or a group attack with weapons as he leaves his condo. Backing off was the right thing to do in his situation. Exactly, and I noted he pulled a Thai style excuse of "I love Thailand" and "I am worried about Thailand's good image" He knows how to play Thais at their own stupid games Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardColeman Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Been in delayed cues many times when they shut all the lines and then spend about 30 minutes doing a simple 'shift change' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeN Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 18 hours ago, phantomfiddler said: Mr Biggs is, in my opinion, totally correct. An absolute disgrace for a modern airport, and one that many people are afraid to use because of the incredible length of time it can take to get through immigration. The time, plus the usually hostile manner of the officials processing passports, gives any visitor an incredibly bad first impression. In contrast, Singapore, also a busy airport, takes an average time of around 30 seconds waiting, and less than that to be processed ! Went to Hong Kong last year, about three quarters of the immigration counters were open with about 4 or 5 people waiting at each one. As we walked up to the queue 2 officers rushed over to open the next counters, and apologised for the delay ! Cannot imagine that ever happening here .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deez Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 18 hours ago, Denim said: Can't they just build a great big long wall to keep these pesky tourists out . And .............. make them pay for it ! They would love to keep them out...as long as they could find a way to still get your money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzedude Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 18 hours ago, webfact said: Suvarnabhumi immigration police deny closing counters during rush hours By The Nation In response to celebrity English-language teacher Andrew Biggs complaining about the long queues at Suvarnabhumi Airport, the Immigration Bureau has clarified that it had already mobilised more personnel to facilitate immigration clearance. On Wednesday, Biggs, the owner of Andrew Biggs Academy and co- director of andrewbiggs.com, an English language-learning website for Thais, posted a Twitter message: “Suvarnabhumi hell for tourists. Look at queues today. Never seen this long.” He posted another Twitter message: “Several counters are closed during rush hours. Don’t understand.” The posts were made in Thai. On Thursday, Biggs posted another Twitter message in Thai: “Suvarnabhumi is not hell but it is the gateway to our beloved Thailand. Yesterday, I was very dissatisfied with what I saw because I was worried about Thailand’s image in the eyes of foreign tourists who have just arrived. I would like to ask the authorities to consider this issue and I believe we could solve it.” Later on Thursday, Pol Colonel Choengron Rimpadee, deputy commander of Immigration Police Division 2 and spokesman of the division, said he ordered an inquiry into the issue. Choengron said their inquiry found that Biggs had got off a plane when 44 flights with 4,500 passengers arrived between noon and 2pm. The spokesman said the Immigration Police Division 2 always mobilises all its immigration officers to be stationed at all counters in all zones to speed up clearance of arriving passengers when many flights arrive at the same time. Each immigration officer is in charge of carrying out seven steps for immigration clearance: checking each passenger’s face with the passport photo, checking visas, checking possible blacklisting, scanning fingerprints, taking a photo, stamping the entry approval, and interviewing the passenger. He said each immigration officer took about 50 seconds to handle a passenger’s clearance. During rush hours, the immigration counters at Suvarnabhumi Airport could clear about 2,000 passengers within an hour, but the immigration officers also had to be on alert for foreign criminals trying to pass themselves off as tourists, and many passengers were not allowed to enter the Kingdom, Choengron added. He said their inquiry found that Biggs had waited for about an hour to pass through an immigration counter. He said Biggs used a Bus gate, coming by a bus from his plane to the arrival terminal at 1.01pm. He said Biggs started waiting in his queue at 1.06pm and he passed through the counter at 2:06pm. Choengron said the hall where Biggs had waited for immigration clearance could accommodate some 500 passengers but some 20 flights arrived at nearly the same time and hence more than 1,200 passengers had to wait in queues in the hall, causing the lines to extend beyond the hall. He added that officials managed to shorten the lines within 30 minutes. He said all officers, including supervisors of the shift, were normally stationed at all counters to help speed up clearance, but sometimes supervisors had to leave their counters to solve problems of other officers and this might have prompted Biggs to think that the counters were vacant without officials, Choengron said. He said Immigration Bureau acting commissioner Lt-General Sompong Chingduang had heeded Biggs’s messages and attached importance to the posts as they could affect the bureau’s image. The spokesman added that the bureau had contingency plans to handle the overwhelming number of passengers arriving at the same time. For example, officials resting after their shifts are called in urgently to help, and volunteers are also called in to advise passengers on filling the immigration forms. During rush hours priority channels are also opened for the disabled, young children, pregnant women and the elderly are also opened, Choengron said. He said Thais and Hong Kong and Singapore citizens, who have registered online for the clearance process, can use the automatic clearance channels that take about 20 seconds. The bureau has plans to expand this automatic service for other nationals as well, he added. He said the bureau had also consulted with the airport to deal with the increasing number of passengers, which increase by about 6 per cent each year. The bureau has recruited more personnel from police officers and outsiders to become immigration officers, and immigration officers who had requested transfers had been ordered to continue working until the end of Setpember, he added. The spokesman said the bureau appreciated Biggs’s concerns and would invite him for consultation and his opinions would be referred to when the bureau consults with other concerned agencies on how to deal with long queues at the airport. Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30373244 -- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-07-19 Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info Excuses, excuses, excuses. Spin, Spin, Spin. Promises, Promises, Promises. Why bother to defend a broken system? We'll read the same next year and the year after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leggo Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 I have been coming to Thailand for over thirty years and the queues at airports seem to get longer and longer; probably because the amont of tourists has grown ten fold. I have always found immigration to be actually pretty efficient considering the challenges but I must say the waits are getting so bad I think twice about flying into Suvarnabhumi and now try to avoid doing so. So probably a lot of tourists will do the same. I live in Hanoi, which has similar problems mainly caused by personnel who on the whole are extremely lackadaisical. Coming into Bangkok after a short flight is not so bad but if I was flying from Europe I would get really pissed off with the delays. For sure the Thai administration needs to address the problem especially as visitor figure are down and the image is not a good one. Employ and train more staff would seem to be the answer; one can't keep refusing to accept that responsibility just to save face! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StayinThailand2much Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 27 minutes ago, dcnx said: I’ve been to 102 countries. Bangkok has the slowest immigration I’ve experienced by far. All airports can get backed up. It happens. But it happens all the time here. That’s the difference. Agree. Have only been to 28, but yes, between those, Thailand immigration gets the 1st prize for: longest queues at passport control, longest time to process each passport, lowest English language proficiency, and most sour faces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucegoniners Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 There are always lots of counters closed. They obviously take lunch at noon and half of there staff is gone. Same thing happened to me at noon last time I came in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thingamabob Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 18 hours ago, KamalaRider said: Thai response are too often, *snivel, why do you criticize Thailand*, "it's equally bad in other countries" *snivel*, *sound of blowing his nose*. "We are such a good people, how dare you come here and say bad things about us, *snivel*". Every time "Thai" people defends incompetence or bad behavior from officials, someone (Thai) has to defend them, no wonder why Thailand is so full of corruption, incompetence and illiterate people. What? are you saying that the posters doing this are the very same people getting bashed, NOOO, can't be, they are too stupid to know how to write in English or know how to handle a computer. When you've been here long enough you may just learn how to criticise without causing offence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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