B11m bill gives hotel owner shock
published : 1 Aug 2023 at 11:11
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Post Reporters
The Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) on Monday apologised to a small hotel owner on Koh Samui for miscalculating her usage and sending her a bill for more than 11 million baht last month.
PEA's Communication Affairs Division said the agency discussed the error in the bill calculation with Apassanant Pattharapisithorn after the story went viral on social media.
Ms Apassanant originally posted a picture of the bill for July for the eight-room hotel on a Thai consumer protection website.
In the image, she is seen showing her horror at the news the hotel had used a shocking 5,099,939.87 units of electricity and racked up a bill of 11,780,004.62 baht.
Ms Apassanant said that her hotel normally only pays between 30,000–50,000 baht for its electricity so she immediately rang the Koh Samui PEA call centre but was diverted to an answerphone message asking her to call back on Thursday following the holiday weekend.
Anxious, she took to Facebook to air her grievance.
"[Koh Samui PEA's] call centre said that I have to wait until Aug 3 to hear back from them. I'm really concerned," she posted.
Eventually, the PEA apologised and explained that it was an employee keying a digit into the wrong row, which had jacked up the total charge.
The Koh Samui PEA has also assured Ms Apassanant that her amended July bill will be for 46,878.20 baht.
Vocabulary
- agency (noun): a company or organisation that arranges for some service or workers to be provided to other companies and people - บริษัทตัวแทน, สำนักงานตัวแทน, หน่วยงานบริการ
- amended (adj): (of a law, document, agreement, etc.) having been change, especially in order to improve it - ที่ถูกแก้ไขเพิ่มเติม
- assure: to tell someone that something is true or will definitely happen - ให้ความมั่นใจ, ยืนยัน
- calculation: the act or process of using numbers to find out an amount - การคาดการณ์
- concerned: worried about something - มีความกังวล
- consumer: someone who buys and uses goods and services - ผู้บริโภค
- diverted: caused something to change direction - เบนเส้นทางเดินน้ำ
- jack up: to hike, especially a price and often by a large amount - ขึ้นราคา
- shock: a strong feeling of surprise as a result of something happening, especially something unpleasant; the event that causes this feeling - ช็อค, ความสะดุ้ง, อาการช็อค
- shocking (adj): surprising or frightening someone - ทำให้ตกใจ, ทำให้สั่นสะเทือน
