A British man living here in the Thai eastern seaboard resort of Pattaya was subjected to an infuriating, frustrating and humiliating experience yesterday afternoon when, shopping in the Pattaya Tai branch of a supermarket, he was forced to wait 7 minutes for a refund on some Frosties.
The man, originally from Hull, purchased a 300g box of the tasty breakfast cereal for his two children, who are so fussy, they won't eat Corn Flakes, which are much cheaper.
The Frosties cost 97 Baht, but when the man passed through the check-out, he was charged 110 Baht - a significant discrepancy, if you don't mind me saying.
The man alerted staff at the Customer Service desk to the error, and was told to "Wait jas' momen."
What happened next, however, took far longer than a standard moment takes to pass in the West. Time seemed to stand still as the man waited and waited and waited and waited and waited for a male assistant to go and have a look at the shelf where the Frosties had been taken from, in order to verify the correct price.
Eventually he returned confirming the 97 Baht price ticket. The Customer Service girl, however, had now got involved in a long-and-drawn-out conversation with another customer over the price of some tampons, and a further eternity passed before she was able to refund 13 Baht to the tired, confused and bedraggled British man, who was now sorry he'd ever mentioned it.
He was also told his reward card was useless in this part of the world.
