News Forum - “We’re fixing it” – Government responds to Thailand Pass complaints

[AussieBob]

2 hours ago, Soidog said:

Not in the least bit surprised. Give it another 24 hours and many more to come.

Watching Thailand function is better than watching the best comedy series you will ever see on TV. I’ve often said they should make a tv series. They would make more money selling it around the world than they do from tourism. You can imagine it cant you. 
Episode 1 - 90 day Reporting

Episode 2 - PM tells people no more flooding

Episode 3 - Health Minister buys vaccines

4 - PM says Covid will be over in 4-5 weeks 6 weeks max (July 2020).

5 - Local Council spends millions of baht installing ornamental lamp posts for remote bush area with no power.

6 - Phuket Gov says sandbox will be closed for safety if covid cases reach 90 in a week.

I reckon I could make 99 episodes easily 

[AussieBob]

31 minutes ago, whitesnake said:

Don't!!! Find somewhere else in the world that's way better and less stressful to visit. Do not waste your money here!

The idiots and dweebs in charge of this country have demonstrated ineptitude from Covid DAY 1!! The prime minister is the biggest forehead trombone in ASEAN politics!!

Come on mate. The PM aint the biggest nobhead - have you heard what that new dictator in Myanmar has been saying?? 

[Soidog]

14 minutes ago, AussieBob said:

4 - PM says Covid will be over in 4-5 weeks 6 weeks max (July 2020).

5 - Local Council spends millions of baht installing ornamental lamp posts for remote bush area with no power.

6 - Phuket Gov says sandbox will be closed for safety if covid cases reach 90 in a week.

I reckon I could make 99 episodes easily 

. 20 seasons and 20 episodes a season 

Episode 7 - Bangkok police chief goes in search of bars with prostitution having claimed “There is no prostitution in Thailand” 

[gummy]

1 minute ago, Soidog said:

. 20 seasons and 20 episodes a season 

Episode 7 - Bangkok police chief goes in search of bars with prostitution having claimed “There is no prostitution in Thailand” 

Well he is  unlucky that he works in Thailand and has to strain his eyes looking for them whereas  if he were in some places in the UK sniffer dogs would be the order of the day.

[Soidog]

4 minutes ago, gummy said:

Well he is  unlucky that he works in Thailand and has to strain his eyes looking for them whereas  if he were in some places in the UK sniffer dogs would be the order of the day.

They did a trial in Liverpool I think it was a few years back in an attempt to make a “safe area” for prostitutes to work in. As most of them were mums on drugs it ended up just becoming a safe place for drug dealing. As such the locals complained and I believe it’s now closed down.
 

I must have a ride over that way  sometime to confirm my comments

[gummy]

1 minute ago, Soidog said:

They did a trial in Liverpool I think it was a few years back in an attempt to make a “safe area” for prostitutes to work in. As most of them were mums on drugs it ended up just becoming a safe place for drug dealing. As such the locals complained and I believe it’s now closed down.
 

I must have a ride over that way  sometime to confirm my comments

Keep moving slowly in your car if you do as you know as soon as you stop the scousers will have your wheels off and sold before you can say WTF. 

[Soidog]

48 minutes ago, gummy said:

Keep moving slowly in your car if you do as you know as soon as you stop the scousers will have your wheels off and sold before you can say WTF. 

I normally drive nice and slow in such areas. Someone told me it’s called “Kerb Crawling”, but I just think that’s nasty talk

[Cathat]

The real tradegy of this long running comedy of errors is that senior people from airlines and travel agencies are watching proceedings very closely.

It's going to take a lot to convince these people to start marketing thailand as a mass tourism destination anytime soon.

[Soidog]

37 minutes ago, Cathat said:

The real tradegy of this long running comedy of errors is that senior people from airlines and travel agencies are watching proceedings very closely.

It's going to take a lot to convince these people to start marketing thailand as a mass tourism destination anytime soon.

Agreed. I normally fly with EVA Air from either London or Amsterdam. Both are offering very limited flights even in to the New Year. One a week basically instead of daily flights. 

[AussieBob]

As I have said many times in many posts, there is too much complication and too much risk to travel to Thailand now.  The risks are not only catching Covid in a place where the medical system aint the best and is very much at breaking point, but there is the huge risk of testing positive on arrival.  

Richard Barrow has just published this story about someone that tested positive.  They are a family of four who came here for a 13-day holiday. The father tested positive and was sent to a hospital for ten days. The mother and the two children, aged two and four, are close contacts and so were told to stay in the quarantine hotel. Obviously at their own expense. He believes they will have to do another test on day 3 or 4 and if they test negative, then they might be able to go. But they would have to go without him as he is expecting to stay in hospital for at least ten days. He doesn’t have any symptoms and he is really hoping his insurance will cover the cost. He thinks it will cost him around 350,000 baht. What a nightmare and not really a good advertisement for coming to Thailand. 

Dont travel to Thailand now is my advice - too complicated and too risky.  We will be travelling to Thailand when/if they make it easy to apply and get a Tourist Visa (as in the past), when there are no tests required on arrival or at anytime during the stay (unless one gets sick), when more things are open and all the curfews are dropped, when inter-provincial travel is again easy and no worries about new rules suddenly emerging, when airfares are again at a reasonable level, when we dont have to book and pay for hotels etc all in advance before even applying to travel there, when we dont have to provide all of our private data to a Thai organisation that is IT illiterate, and when we dont have to load a Thai tracking app on our smartphones for the duration of the visit.  Happy to have vaccination certificates provided (here) and happy to test negative (here) and have travel insurance (from here) - but nothing else.  

[Nightflame]

17 hours ago, BBY said:

I myself was rejected because my passport has my middle name and my COVID certificate doesn’t, (remember, this was already approved on the COE) The COVID certification is provided by the NHS and they don’t use middle names. So that’s a massive chunk of people that cannot visit unless the problem is resolved.

UK NHS Vaccine Certificate not supporting middle names is a big fail. Most countries in the East require the name in your Passport to match your Vaccine Certificate. Singapore VTP has similar rules. A lot of UK folk are getting rejected.

Luckily I do not have a middle name, so got my Singapore VTP ok. My wife who is a Singaporean did not need a VTP. But when we got to Singapore, immigration were not happy that her NHS Vaccine Certificate was missing her Chinese middle name. They took some convincing to accept it and not quarantine her in a hotel for two weeks as unvaccinated!

After Singapore, we plan to go to Thailand so guess will face the same issue trying to get her a Thai Pass.

[TangoGuy]

The government says they are fixing the Thailand Pass, huh?  Unfortunately that has not been my experience!  I had originally begun applying for a COE at the very end of October but they rejected my application, and told me that I had to apply on the new Thailand pass.  I got on the system just after it opened, and encountered the buggy website and gave up after several crashes.  Twenty Four hours later, I was able to submit my application and got a confirmation email.  However, all I have heard since then is Crickets.  Today I began emailing them, and I also emailed the Thai Embassy.  The Thai Embassy says that they were advised by their colleagues in Thailand that I have been approved…..however, I NEVER received the email with the QR code, and NO, it is not in my spam folder.  So, now what do I do, as my trip and non-refundable flights are scheduled for later this week?!?!?!?!?

[Thommo]

51 minutes ago, AussieBob said:

As I have said many times in many posts, there is too much complication and too much risk to travel to Thailand now.  The risks are not only catching Covid in a place where the medical system aint the best and is very much at breaking point, but there is the huge risk of testing positive on arrival.  

Richard Barrow has just published this story about someone that tested positive.  They are a family of four who came here for a 13-day holiday. The father tested positive and was sent to a hospital for ten days. The mother and the two children, aged two and four, are close contacts and so were told to stay in the quarantine hotel. Obviously at their own expense. He believes they will have to do another test on day 3 or 4 and if they test negative, then they might be able to go. But they would have to go without him as he is expecting to stay in hospital for at least ten days. He doesn’t have any symptoms and he is really hoping his insurance will cover the cost. He thinks it will cost him around 350,000 baht. What a nightmare and not really a good advertisement for coming to Thailand. 

Dont travel to Thailand now is my advice - too complicated and too risky.  We will be travelling to Thailand when/if they make it easy to apply and get a Tourist Visa (as in the past), when there are no tests required on arrival or at anytime during the stay (unless one gets sick), when more things are open and all the curfews are dropped, when inter-provincial travel is again easy and no worries about new rules suddenly emerging, when airfares are again at a reasonable level, when we dont have to book and pay for hotels etc all in advance before even applying to travel there, when we dont have to provide all of our private data to a Thai organisation that is IT illiterate, and when we dont have to load a Thai tracking app on our smartphones for the duration of the visit.  Happy to have vaccination certificates provided (here) and happy to test negative (here) and have travel insurance (from here) - but nothing else.  

I would agree, as someone who is living/working in Thailand I dont see wahat the attraction would be to rush here for a holiday

[Cabra]

Having deployed 100s of systems in my day, it's astounding how poorly these Thai apps / systems function. I'd of been sacked long ago with these types of results. Ready, shoot, aim

[farang]

no way would i pay and book a flight after seeing  more and more failing at getting in the stack of crap now required.dont the embassy workers know this is costing  to be tourtist  thousands of dollars by missed flights,not to be used insurance,and not to be used rooms booked?? and if your looking for a refund;;;;;;;dream on.guess ill see phuket in 2025 maybe.

[Bob]

17 hours ago, whitesnake said:

Don't!!! Find somewhere else in the world that's way better and less stressful to visit. Do not waste your money here!

The idiots and dweebs in charge of this country have demonstrated ineptitude from Covid DAY 1!! The prime minister is the biggest forehead trombone in ASEAN politics!!

Totally agree. No faith in the idiots running this s#it show. Would of loved to return in December for my normal 6 weeks, but not having the slightest amount of confidence in the brain dead ideas they come up with, I decided to take myself to Tenerife instead. Yes it’s not Thailand. But I know I can actually get there and I won’t be wasting money on flights, tests etc. Hopefully return soon when the idiots have left the asylum 

[CHARLES_ARNESTAD]

 

Challenges that I found with the Thailand Pass application process:

1) If you are using Google Chrome you have to first install the CORS extension to avoid the application error reported by other users

2) All documents have to be uploaded in JPEG or PNG format, whereas most people I suspect have their documents in PDF format. Also, the insurance document is provided in PDF format, as is the vaccination certificate and the hotel booking. This requires that people convert their documents from PDF to JPEG and people may not have the technology and / or skill level to do that.

3) When the documents are converted from PDF to JPEG they come as numerous JPEG files. So if your hotel booking is two pages then you get two JPEG files. But the Thailand pass system only allows you to upload one page for each required document -- so I guess you just have to upload the first page of the document.

4) When I received my insurance document (from Axa) I got two PDF documents, one being the Insurance Certificate and one being 'The Schedule'. It is not clear which document is expected by the Thailand Pass system for upload so I just uploaded the Insurance Certificate.

Anyway, I finally submitted my application, using my G-Mail address, and await my application approval. I only fly mid-December so I have a few more weeks to go through the process.

 

[Soidog]

6 hours ago, AussieBob said:

As I have said many times in many posts, there is too much complication and too much risk to travel to Thailand now.  The risks are not only catching Covid in a place where the medical system aint the best and is very much at breaking point, but there is the huge risk of testing positive on arrival.  

Richard Barrow has just published this story about someone that tested positive.  They are a family of four who came here for a 13-day holiday. The father tested positive and was sent to a hospital for ten days. The mother and the two children, aged two and four, are close contacts and so were told to stay in the quarantine hotel. Obviously at their own expense. He believes they will have to do another test on day 3 or 4 and if they test negative, then they might be able to go. But they would have to go without him as he is expecting to stay in hospital for at least ten days. He doesn’t have any symptoms and he is really hoping his insurance will cover the cost. He thinks it will cost him around 350,000 baht. What a nightmare and not really a good advertisement for coming to Thailand. 

Dont travel to Thailand now is my advice - too complicated and too risky.  We will be travelling to Thailand when/if they make it easy to apply and get a Tourist Visa (as in the past), when there are no tests required on arrival or at anytime during the stay (unless one gets sick), when more things are open and all the curfews are dropped, when inter-provincial travel is again easy and no worries about new rules suddenly emerging, when airfares are again at a reasonable level, when we dont have to book and pay for hotels etc all in advance before even applying to travel there, when we dont have to provide all of our private data to a Thai organisation that is IT illiterate, and when we dont have to load a Thai tracking app on our smartphones for the duration of the visit.  Happy to have vaccination certificates provided (here) and happy to test negative (here) and have travel insurance (from here) - but nothing else.  

I must admit @AussieBob, when you lay it all out like that, you would have to be totally insane to go to Thailand for a holiday. If you have family reasons or a business reason then maybe. But if it’s just for Sun, Sea, Sand or a Shag, you would have to question yourself and can’t really complain if you end up in a mess  you are rolling the dice for sure  

[Soidog]

5 hours ago, Cabra said:

Having deployed 100s of systems in my day, it's astounding how poorly these Thai apps / systems function. I'd of been sacked long ago with these types of results. Ready, shoot, aim

Likewise mate. I’ve done numerous systems releases and integration projects over the years. I would be lying if I didn’t admit to all of them having some form of post release issue. These are normally minor ones affecting things like a monthly report formatting error, or a product code look up issue etc. However, this system looks like it should still be in the lab. To me, it’s still at the requirements and feasibility stage. It certainly should never have reached release or deployment in this condition.  It shows the kind of IT knowledge quality available to the Thais internally. 

[Alavan]

3 hours ago, CHARLES_ARNESTAD said:

Challenges that I found with the Thailand Pass application process:

1) If you are using Google Chrome you have to first install the CORS extension to avoid the application error reported by other users

2) All documents have to be uploaded in JPEG or PNG format, whereas most people I suspect have their documents in PDF format. Also, the insurance document is provided in PDF format, as is the vaccination certificate and the hotel booking. This requires that people convert their documents from PDF to JPEG and people may not have the technology and / or skill level to do that.

3) When the documents are converted from PDF to JPEG they come as numerous JPEG files. So if your hotel booking is two pages then you get two JPEG files. But the Thailand pass system only allows you to upload one page for each required document -- so I guess you just have to upload the first page of the document.

4) When I received my insurance document (from Axa) I got two PDF documents, one being the Insurance Certificate and one being 'The Schedule'. It is not clear which document is expected by the Thailand Pass system for upload so I just uploaded the Insurance Certificate.

Anyway, I finally submitted my application, using my G-Mail address, and await my application approval. I only fly mid-December so I have a few more weeks to go through the process.

For AXA: I just posted a jpeg of the one page that says your insurrance covers covid. I did not post the 2 pages with all the rest.
For hotel booking: I posted the one page pre-paid SHA Plus hotel confirmation that you receive after paying. It confirms hotel, dates and paid.
I have my pass.

[Thommo]

20 minutes ago, Alavan said:

For AXA: I just posted a jpeg of the one page that says your insurrance covers covid. I did not post the 2 pages with all the rest.
For hotel booking: I posted the one page pre-paid SHA Plus hotel confirmation that you receive after paying. It confirms hotel, dates and paid.
I have my pass.

how long did it take for you to get your TP are submitting 

[Alavan]

2 hours ago, Thommo said:

how long did it take for you to get your TP are submitting 

5 days

[Muck]

Should I register a second time if I have not received a QR code since registering on Wednesday evening and receiving the confirmation email? Thanks !

[Thommo]

4 hours ago, Muck said:

Should I register a second time if I have not received a QR code since registering on Wednesday evening and receiving the confirmation email? Thanks !

I have registered 3 times with different email addresses, its been 4 working days so far for the 1st one ( last Friday)

 

[Bluesofa]

A friend of mine in the US is trying to return after having to go to the US for family reasons.

He bought an insurance policy, as per the instructions. The policy had his name and the insurance company details on page one, with the coverage amount on page two. 

He found when he came to upload an image of the two pages - not possible, as only one image was allowed to be uploaded for that section.

The application failed as 'he didn't show proof of how much coverage he had'.
With the rejection email - a link to supply and upload any further details.