Leading bank messes up! Unwittingly uses offensive language to Thai speaking foreign customer

A call center employee didn’t realize that a foreign customer was on the line.

And that he was perfectly able to speak and understand Thai. 

While the customer was listening they referred to his request to want to speak in English as “seuak” in Thai.

This is a largely offensive term that means to butt in or interrupt. It carries the force in English of butting in in an unwanted manner. Hardly a term that should be used to a legitimate request from a valued customer. 

The Thai media said that online comment among Thais on the issue was rife. The media that reported the story – Daily News – would not even write the word in their headline or body of their report. 

Rather like writing “S*IT” or “F*CK” they wrote เ-ือก or “*euak”

The customer explained on Pantip that they had contacted the bank’s call center. They could converse in Thai after living and doing business in Thailand for more than ten years but after the bank asked for a Thai ID number to be keyed in they decided to opt for English. 

This led to the customer being transferred and the offensive term being used when a staff member did not realize they were listening in on the line. 

The bank contacted the foreigner to apologize and said that the employee had been sacked. 

The foreigner said that was not necessary, far better just to train them properly so it didn’t happen again.

The bank was not named in the story. 

Thaivisa notes that this is often the case due to Thailand’s strict defamation laws.  

Thai Visa / Daily News

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