Okay, so after this conversation I looked closer at the socket, and it turns out the culprit is not the electrician, but the painter, because they painted over top of the sideways part of the socket, making it appear to be only vertical, but actually it is supposed to also support horizontal tines. Wish I could post the picture, but I'm not sure how to do it on Google groups?

I guess I'll use an adapter for now since I don't think I want to play with trying to "clean up" the socket, unless there's an easy and safe way of doing it...?

I measured the volts again, and it comes up as 210-215V. From what I've read "230V" is actually a range between 220-240, but... does this difference matter, or is it within normal expected range for 230V devices (e.g. A/C)?

Thanks again for all your input!

Cheers,
Hoai