Water supplier

Post by **Balthasar G.** » June 1, 2012, 10:01 am

And so do all my neighbours. They are all after my empty 6-liter bottles

Post by **redwolf** » June 2, 2012, 3:05 am

KB_Texas wrote:Yes, it is common for the water places to charge a 'deposit' for the bottles...I look at it as a charge to be their customer since the bottles sell for less than the deposit. With Holy Water, the deposit is 300 baht per bottle, and we pay 35 baht per 18.9 liters, so Diamond's deposit pricing is quite good.

I would be most interested in how long it takes them to respond when you need replacements, and if you have any issues going forward. They sound like a solid possibility. I have never tried to get the 'deposit' back, so do not know how hard that would be.

Thanks for the info!
KB

I think pretty fast replacement judging from how they first responded, I am down to 2 bottles so in a few days we'll know for certain, I'll note the result.

I agree about the concept of deposits here, I guess because the stakes are lower there might be a chance they'd fork over the cash, maybe. Or they'd just say you can keep the bottles.

Post by **Geoffrey** » June 5, 2012, 6:24 am

I'm drinking rain water. I have some extra if any one would like some.

Post by **udonthani** » June 5, 2012, 1:36 pm

It is common to pay a small fee in deposit first time, but then the refill is only 10 bht and they come every day in a small pick-up fully loaded. All you have to do is to place the empty bottle in sight and they will change, even if you not are present and can pay, and they will do it in the succeding days too, but ofcoutse you will put 50bath in a small envelope in the end of the week. This works fine in ban Mumon

Post by **redwolf** » June 16, 2012, 11:39 am

So yeah, they swapped the bottles and only charged for the new water. It's overall much cheaper than the 6 liter packs @ 60 baht, we'd buy 10, and plastic bottles everywhwre.

My wife tried to get them to come around again yesterday by calling in replacement order early in day, but around 9PM I told her to call them off till Sat AM, -Friday (delivery truck guy salary), -probably was his whiskey time. She called this 11 AM and after many times of not picking up the phone the guy who answered sounded clueless (even though # was the same) and promised to come by in 30 minutes.

We'll see. The idea of having an extra bottle or two in the house makes sense if various drivers are flakes. Some days they are.

Post by **redwolf** » June 16, 2012, 3:02 pm

So he lied, he said half an hour and never showed. Calls to his cell went unanswered. So we can say Diamond Water is just as unreliable as what KB-Texas was trying to get away from.

KB_Texas · Post by **KB_Texas** » June 16, 2012, 4:18 pm

Heh, glad to see I am not the only one, though I am sorry to hear you have the same issue. So yeah, stock a couple of extra bottles for the times they take a few extra days to show up. My wife told our guy the next time he was more than 2 days late after we called, we would find another supplier. So far he has shown up the next day the two times since we told him that. We will see if that continues.

KB

Post by **roland22** » June 16, 2012, 4:56 pm

Some weeks ago, someone told his water-business sold now, after long time. Seems to stay near Udon. Dont know new owner need more customers. Perhaps you give a try.
http://www.udonmap.com/udonthaniforum/d ... 21342.html

Post by **redwolf** » June 30, 2012, 6:40 pm

KB_Texas wrote:Heh, glad to see I am not the only one, though I am sorry to hear you have the same issue. So yeah, stock a couple of extra bottles for the times they take a few extra days to show up. My wife told our guy the next time he was more than 2 days late after we called, we would find another supplier. So far he has shown up the next day the two times since we told him that. We will see if that continues.

KB

That is exactrly what we had to tell the owner and his son of Diamond. That their driver was flaking out on orders to deliver, and doing his own thing. And that we'd find someone else.

ALSO: We found a water supplier right around the corner from 'ring road' Tesco. If you go out of Tesco parking lot, and go 2 sois, turn left (which for those of you with maps, happens to be a back street that goes all the way to Nong Prajak), and just a few buildings down, there's a water supply company. They charged about 30 baht more per plastic bottle ("curious farang just stopped & walked into my store price), and about 10-20 baht more per water.

You could see where they make the water in back. I wasn't ultra-impressed but it beats the rain/swamp water+purification tablet water everyone seems to be slowly poisoning themselves with.

We mentioned flaky drivers, -it seemed to be perfect timing, because a guy was there with his wife clinging to him, a "high hopes" look in her eyes, filling out a job application, -for of all things -being a delivery driver.

Of course their card is all in Thai, here's the translation:

499/112 Phibun Road, Makaeng, Muang, Udon Thani 41000
Borisat: (company) 042-325207
Rot Nam 1: (water truck 1) 088-5497458
Rot Nam 2: (water truck 2) 081-2622903

Here's some sat images of where they are:

KB_Texas · Post by **KB_Texas** » June 30, 2012, 7:01 pm

Thanks for the info Red. I know exactly where the place is. If it is more expensive for both bottles and refills, and you were not very impressed with the setup, I will probably pass unless Holy water gets really bad again. So far, so good. Again last week my wife called, and the guy showed up the next morning, so it seems to have sunk in.

If that place is convenient for you, you can try Holy water. It is past the second light towards Big-C (ring road) from Lotus, then turn left at the blue building before the third light. There is some sort of blue sign at that turn too. If you know where Lanna restaurant is, it is about 100-150 meters past there on the right going away from the ring road. 300 baht deposit for clear bottles, but only 35 baht for refills. My wife's Thai friend has used them for a lot of years, so it must not be too poisonous.

If you convince Mr. Air (heh) that you need timely delivery, it seems to be ok.

Let me know if your talk with Diamond produces results. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. I guess it depends on who the driver is related to.

KB

Post by **redwolf** » July 3, 2012, 5:22 pm

Wife officially notified Diamond Water to come pick up their bottles and give us a refund. The water might be good, but their service is terrible. It's all down to them saying they'll come by, then they never show. They'd repeat this daily.

When I woke up and called to ask why they hadn't shown up with our refund, they just hung up the phone and put it on voice mail.

KB_Texas · Post by **KB_Texas** » July 3, 2012, 6:40 pm

That pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

I guess it is another learning experience in the Land of Smiles...even if sometimes they are upside down.

I guess the driver was related to the boss (read wife).

Sorry to hear they are that lame that a couple of hundred baht makes them run for cover. I am glad I wasn't forced to try them out, and thanks for the heads up!

KB

Post by **Prenders88** » July 3, 2012, 7:18 pm

My wife uses Namphet after trying a few others.
Very reliable, according to my wife who runs her own mini-mart near Nong Prajak.

KB_Texas · Post by **KB_Texas** » July 3, 2012, 9:37 pm

Prenders88 wrote:My wife uses Namphet after trying a few others.
Very reliable, according to my wife who runs her own mini-mart near Nong Prajak.

Do you (or your wife) have a telephone number and/or pricing information Prenders?
Thanks,
KB

Post by **redwolf** » July 3, 2012, 11:41 pm

Yeah Prenders, -if you've got that info send it over some time. All we got from them was the number of the drivers. But do they have large bottles? All we've seen is 1.5 liter bottles.

BTW we called the new place we found by Tesco. Due to arrive tomorrow. Prices totally different over the phone by Thai vs. my farang walkin. 280THB per bottle farang price. 170THB Thai price. Due at 9:30 tomorrow (hah an actual clock time? this I gotta see).

KB_Texas · Post by **KB_Texas** » July 4, 2012, 7:59 am

redwolf wrote: BTW we called the new place we found by Tesco. Due to arrive tomorrow. Prices totally different over the phone by Thai vs. my farang walkin. 280THB per bottle farang price. 170THB Thai price. Due at 9:30 tomorrow (hah an actual clock time? this I gotta see).

That is the deposit? What is the refill price? Please keep us informed in how it works out.

Heh, and yeah, if they actually show up when they say, that would be a huge plus.

KB

Post by **tamada** » July 4, 2012, 9:27 pm

I got pissed off when Kitco started buggering about so I invested in some water filtration setups from Big-C for home use. Total cost would be around 800 baht and then changing the filters every 6 months costs about 500. We had 5 large bottles when I kicked Kitco to the curb and bought some of the smaller ones at Amorn, beside Big-C. When we were at the 'big house', we were easily a 2 large bottles/week user. Now there's just us three, one large one lasts over 2 weeks. Now have the big bottles on the cooler outside on the patio and bought a counter-top sized one for in the kitchen that uses the smaller bottles as Mrs Tam is a short arse and light weight and can't handle the big ones.... apart from mine!

Post by **redwolf** » July 4, 2012, 11:41 pm

KB_Texas wrote:
redwolf wrote: BTW we called the new place we found by Tesco. Due to arrive tomorrow. Prices totally different over the phone by Thai vs. my farang walkin. 280THB per bottle farang price. 170THB Thai price. Due at 9:30 tomorrow (hah an actual clock time? this I gotta see).
That is the deposit? What is the refill price? Please keep us informed in how it works out.

Heh, and yeah, if they actually show up when they say, that would be a huge plus.

KB

OK so the really basic 20 liter bottles were 170 deposit. Water 40. Refill 40. They said they were out of the cool "spout type" bottles (that was the one they were talking 280 deposit for).

So since Diamond has literally scampered off with our deposit money likely to never refund UNLESS I FIND THEIR OFFICE IN UDON we just transfer the water from one bottle type to the other.

The new water guys showed up right on time though at 9:30, just like they mentioned. (Full Moon? Solar Flares?)

Will see if they do like this often. From now on going to be real careful about who I "recommend".

Post by **Prenders88** » July 5, 2012, 11:35 am

Telephone number for NAMPHET

042 320064
042 320144

Post by **redwolf** » July 12, 2012, 6:57 pm

redwolf wrote:
KB_Texas wrote:
redwolf wrote: BTW we called the new place we found by Tesco. Due to arrive tomorrow. Prices totally different over the phone by Thai vs. my farang walkin. 280THB per bottle farang price. 170THB Thai price. Due at 9:30 tomorrow (hah an actual clock time? this I gotta see).
That is the deposit? What is the refill price? Please keep us informed in how it works out.

Heh, and yeah, if they actually show up when they say, that would be a huge plus.

KB
OK so the really basic 20 liter bottles were 170 deposit. Water 40. Refill 40. They said they were out of the cool "spout type" bottles (that was the one they were talking 280 deposit for).

So since Diamond has literally scampered off with our deposit money likely to never refund UNLESS I FIND THEIR OFFICE IN UDON we just transfer the water from one bottle type to the other.

The new water guys showed up right on time though at 9:30, just like they mentioned. (Full Moon? Solar Flares?)

Will see if they do like this often. From now on going to be real careful about who I "recommend".

@KB_texas, All,

The new water company I mentioned before near Tesco has come by our house EVERY day to replenish whatever water we have used. Often we use a whole bottle per day now that we have a Nanny for our daughter. So it's in perfect sync.

The caveat to this is that our housing village is about 5 minutes drive from their HQ, -probably a factor in the dependability.

I figured to wait a while till they did this repeatedly. So far so good. Diamond has never returned to give us back our money/swap the bottles even after repeated calls.