angkorjohn wrote:

khmerhamster wrote: ↑Thu Aug 23, 2018 8:57 am

Hotdigr wrote:

John Bingham wrote: ↑Wed Aug 22, 2018 1:38 pm
The British Embassy don't give a fuck about any of that people business.

Not sure you are correct there mate. Back in 2015, we had a young guy from Jersey die in the G/H in S/ville I was working in. One of the, if not the, most respected expats in town was the British Embassy's representative ( I think he held the title "consul", but not sure") a wholly volunteer position. Within an hour he was on the scene and directing/organising everything from getting the body picked up by CT clinic (whose ambulance had arrived earlier, taken one look and driven off again) to the police ( I can say with 100% certainty that the G/H owner paid NO money to the police for the death on his premises) to bringing the family in to talk to us when they arrived 4 days later. Ok, the embassy itself got involved in no way that I am aware of, but the compassion and competency shown by their representative was amazing. That's definitely more a reflection on him rather then the embassy, but the point is that they DID have someone in place to deal with situations like this. 2015 was a particularly bad time in S/ville and I know this bloke dealt with many similar situations in the same way, with the same compassion and competency. I will stress again though - he was a local expat business man, not a bureaucrat. He is still performing the same role today btw.

That’s kinda the problem.
The embassy relies on good people who volunteer their time. I have found paid embassy staff to be disinterested and particularly useless.
I have a friend here who volunteered to visit a Brit in prison many years ago - at the embassy request. They plagued him for years after that asking him to continue this work with no payment or benefit bestowed. He ended up telling them to piss off and use their own paid staff.

Some people may volunteer their free time to go, well good for them, maybe you should go volunteer if you think it's such a worthy cause?

angkorjohn wrote:

khmerhamster wrote: ↑Thu Aug 23, 2018 10:14 am

angkorjohn wrote:

khmerhamster wrote: ↑Thu Aug 23, 2018 8:57 am

Hotdigr wrote: Not sure you are correct there mate. Back in 2015, we had a young guy from Jersey die in the G/H in S/ville I was working in. One of the, if not the, most respected expats in town was the British Embassy's representative ( I think he held the title "consul", but not sure") a wholly volunteer position. Within an hour he was on the scene and directing/organising everything from getting the body picked up by CT clinic (whose ambulance had arrived earlier, taken one look and driven off again) to the police ( I can say with 100% certainty that the G/H owner paid NO money to the police for the death on his premises) to bringing the family in to talk to us when they arrived 4 days later. Ok, the embassy itself got involved in no way that I am aware of, but the compassion and competency shown by their representative was amazing. That's definitely more a reflection on him rather then the embassy, but the point is that they DID have someone in place to deal with situations like this. 2015 was a particularly bad time in S/ville and I know this bloke dealt with many similar situations in the same way, with the same compassion and competency. I will stress again though - he was a local expat business man, not a bureaucrat. He is still performing the same role today btw.

That’s kinda the problem.
The embassy relies on good people who volunteer their time. I have found paid embassy staff to be disinterested and particularly useless.
I have a friend here who volunteered to visit a Brit in prison many years ago - at the embassy request. They plagued him for years after that asking him to continue this work with no payment or benefit bestowed. He ended up telling them to piss off and use their own paid staff.

Some people may volunteer their free time to go, well good for them, maybe you should go volunteer if you think it's such a worthy cause?

My point used prison visits as an example, the one above used a different example.
At the end of the day I am not paid to provide embassy or consular support to British citizens. Would I do it for a friend? probably, possibly depending on situation.
There aren’t many with positive tales to tell of embassy support in Cambodia. I think that tells a story in itself.
Several times I have heard ‘sorry we don’t provide that service’ when I have seen evidence that other embassies do. Not only do they not provide the service but offer no advice for a way forward.

see my earlier point, every embassy is different in what they can and cannot provide as determined by their own government's policy, so this is not specific to just the embassy of your country in Cambodia but will be a global policy. I have never had a need for the US Embassy save for a passport and a few notary things.

I'm interested to hear what services you expect from your embassy? What is it they haven't provided?

angkorjohn wrote:

khmerhamster wrote: ↑Thu Aug 23, 2018 10:55 am
And what is it about having to give up your phone when you go in? what a pain in the ass trying to compete forms when most of the pertinent information required is saved on your phone.

Ok fair points of your experience although if it genuinely isn't something they do then you can't be surprised if they don't do it. Although I take your points about how it was responded to which does seem to be the individual rather than the embassy.