hobz

7 hours ago, BangkokBaksida said:

Many times over the years, I considered moving to Chiang Mai.  The total lack of a rational public transport system prevented me from doing so.  I suspect I'm not the only person who avoids living in Chiang Mai for this reason.  That can't be good for a city.

Yeah, that was the first thing I noticed when I moved to cm. In some places you can wait for taxi for 30 minutes... Now with grab it's much better as long as you have a smartphone with good internet.

Afaik the police is the mafia here... Go ahead and report to them and see how far it goes...

7 minutes ago, sanemax said:

How much money would they save on fuel and wear and tear , if they didnt spend so much driving around without any customers (also clogging up the roads and causing pollution )

Also they are really unsafe,,, no seat belts etc... and the black smoke the spew out is just disgusting.. they should all be replaced by a more modern public transport system.

38 minutes ago, YogaVeg said:

You are dead wrong. The red trucks are the main public local transit in CM. Thai working class folks, familys, tourists, shoppers... and fyi the school kids are the minority. 

 

What is obvious: you haven't been on the red trucks much.

 

 

It's clear you've been on them too much breathing in all those exhaust fumes.. hehe kidding aside, I haven't used one in 5 years... nobody that can afford or know about alternative uses them. 

58 minutes ago, The manic said:

In Pattaya Grab taxis are the same price as local rip off taxis. 

Yeah! I noticed that in Phuket as well! In Chiang Mai grab prices are really good! 

2 minutes ago, cyberfarang said:

The red taxis are not mainly used by school kids and poor people. Red taxis in Chiang Mai are part of the public transport system. It could be said that they are equivalent the to black cabs in London and the Yellow cabs of New York. If you really want to know how it feels to be ripped off by taxi drivers with attitude, try using the London black cabs.

 

A few examples of what red songthaew drivers have to deal with:

 

Red songthaews can be hired for tours and private parties. My friend told me that on 3 occasions Farangs have hired him to take them to the Doi Suthep temple. After waiting for them for several hours he became aware that something was not right. When he tried to find them, they`d done a runner and disappeared. Wasted a whole day, had to buy his own lunch and no payment of fares, including the fuel costs for taking them there.

 

Both Chinese and western tourists agree a fare. At the end of journey refuse to pay for full fare and offer 50%, take it or leave it. Tourists hail his taxi. Ask a fare to a destination. whatever my friend quotes they try to haggle down the fare to ridiculously low rates. So my friend just has to drive off, not viable taking them. This is only some of the crap they have to deal with.

 

You obviously have no idea how the transport system works in Chiang Mai.

 

Reread my post carefully. 

School children, poor people AND people that dont know that grab exists. 

1 hour ago, cyberfarang said:

One of my good friends is a red songthaew driver. He told me that the taxi business in Chiang Mai has become cut throat. Many rules and regulations have been placed on them by the local authority, and they are competing against the new blue baht buses, the set route buses and songthaews, less tourists and now have GRAB to content with. My friend confided in me that his average profit per day after petrol expenses on average is 400 baht, maybe 500 baht on a good day. This does not include wear and tear on his taxi, maintenance, servicing, tax and insurance and license. So being realistic he probably makes about 300 baht per day after all his expenses.

 

For this his day begins at 7.00 in the morning often not arriving home till 8.00 at night, working 7 days a week. So I really do feel for those guys and can understand why tensions are high. 

I think that's a different problem.

The red cars are used mostly by school kids / poor ppl that can't afford any other transportation. And people that dont know that grab exists.. 

In Sweden the equivalent would be the public transport system. And the way it works is that drivers get a monthly or hourly salary and it follows minimum wage laws etc. It's also subsidized by tax money, because it's for the common good that such a thing exists. 

But tit.

27 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

In Kuala Lumpur I shared a ride from the airport to the city, driven by a guy who does Grab driving but was hustling on his own at the airport when we encountered him.

 

There were a number of tolls on toll roads and an airport fee at least one way, maybe both (entering/departing).

 

He told us that the Grab fee doesn't include that and adds something like $5 USD to the quoted Uber fare.

 

If he had been taking us via a Grab trip, I'd rather have the extra charge added to my cc rather than have to fork over cash without time to find out if I'm being ripped off or not, and with no proof of the extra payment unless he agrees to provide a receipt.

 

It would definitely be preferable though if Grab would calculate the fees and add them to the quoted price.

 

 

That's the thing, the adjustment happened hours after I had paid... Since I paid cash they tried to add it to my next trip.. if I had used CC they would have just charged me.

Her face looks weird to me.. really alien / plastic / fake... What's wrong with me?? ????

9 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

 

It does state in Grab's policy that the fixed price does not include tolls and entrance/exit fees.

What happened to me was that the driver or grab added "airport fee" after the ride.... I'm not sure if it was the driver or the system... But grab support removed the fee after I complained.... Now imagine if I had used a cc and the support refused to correct it? Would be pretty annoying...

6 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

Taking a screen shot of the price agreed to is a good idea and I've never done so but will try to remember in the future.

 

Then at worst one can dispute it with one's cc company and get an overcharge refunded.

Although perhaps it wil also cause one to be banned? I don't know but I would hope they would be reasonable.

 

"Using a credit card has one downside. They can adjust the price afterwards. 

 

When taking a grab from the airport I was quoted like 100 and then the next day they tried to add like 50 more as some type of airport fee. I paid cash so I was supposed to pay this extra amount next time I ride.. I told customer service that I refuse and they corrected it."

 

It does state in Grab's policy that the fixed price does not include tolls and entrance/exit fees.

This is the one aspect of the Grab policy I dislike, as it leaves one open to abuse by a dishonest driver, although I've never had a problem.

My friend had screenshots and proof of everything. It was clearly stated in the Uber app that the price was adjusted after the ride... She couldn't do anything...

Hopefully grab will not start to behave like this.

She actually had a debit card not a cc ... So yeah cc always had the nuclear option of going to bank... But even then there would be a receipt that shows the adjustment with some justification... Anyway, I always pay cash with grab and Uber since.

I think the driver can adjust the price after the ride with grab. Ofcourse if they do that often without good reason they would quickly get banned...

On 10/9/2018 at 11:16 AM, Galactus said:

and what is wrong with that? you dont protect your own turf?

well, i sure do the same if i make my bread from that and feed my family and also sure help friends to protect their turf therefore families too if i was in that situation.

and that doesn't make me a mafia of course!

Just be fair.

 

Hoodlums, thugs, mafiosos, they use violence against competitors.

Good decent people adapt and try to outcompete the competition. They can join grab and use their taxi skills to get good ratings and become too earners in grab system. And they can start using the meter...

But no, they rather double down on the idiocy and keep overcharging, keep refusing meter and waste time chasing ghosts in form of grab drivers, imagined and real... And every time they make the news it's just free PR for grab. 

Adapt or die.

Has anyone ever managed to get a taximeter to turn on the meter in Chiang Mai? 

Instead of chasing grab drivers they might want to learn how to turn on the meter. If they used meter I would call them any time just like I do when I'm in BKK..

15 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

 

 

I use a credit card with Grab - it is advantageous in numerous ways.

 

 

Using a credit card has one downside. They can adjust the price afterwards. 

When taking a grab from the airport I was quoted like 100 and then the next day they tried to add like 50 more as some type of airport fee. I paid cash so I was supposed to pay this extra amount next time I ride.. I told customer service that I refuse and they corrected it.

My friend took an Uber into town. And then back out of town. Charged around 200 in total. Using credit card. The next day she woke up and the charge was 700 because the trip went outside some imaginary line that made it a 350 THB fixed price. She never got that 500 back...

I wouldn't worry about it too much as grab customer service has always been fair and responsive.. but if they become anything like Uber I wouldn't use my CC with them...

5 minutes ago, Chopperboy said:

Anything is huge where they want to make it huge - and tons of pedo stuff going on in Scandinavian countries just not generally in the fake news media.

You know what else is big? Violence against women.. sexual assault against women.. sure the whole movement thing is inflated massively by media and celebs.. but it's still a real thing. Overblown as hell, but real.

3 minutes ago, MaksimMislavsky said:

Trying to get the victim rounded up and delivered back to work without causing too much of a stir. Attention is the last thing their operation needs. And there is nothing unusual to neither of them about it.

The same logic applies to any Thai person, nobody wants to make a scene / everybody wants to get it over with as quick as possible. 

You know what I mean? 

Let's say it's a couple, and the other girl is just a friend. Both girls would be super embarrassed/ loss of face etc and would want to leave quickly.

I guess if that was the case the friend should have gotten angry,, but it could be that she knows this guy too well and doesn't want to get involved ... You know.. Thai culture.. don't get involved...

Just now, Chopperboy said:

#metoo is a fake left movement setup to muddy the waters and distract from all the Pedo allegations.

Maybe that's how it started but it's huge in Europe / Sweden and there's no pedo allegations in Sweden.. or is there? *Dramatic music* *adjusts tinfoil hat*

1 minute ago, mauGR1 said:

Fair point, but the thug looks almost professional in getting things done, not emotional at all.

More a hardened criminal than just a violent boy.

Yes, agreed. He definitely has done this before. Still doesn't rule out it's the boyfriend and he does this every week. 

1 minute ago, MaksimMislavsky said:

could be indicative of habitual intimidation, hopelessness. 

Exactly. Could be a couple and this is the hundredth time he gets crazy and does this.

Or it could be a pimp and this is the hundredth time he does this.

Could this be the thing that finally Sparks the #metoo movement in thailand.? Its way overdue...

9 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

That's true, but not many ordinary girls hang around with thugs like that.

Oh yes they do, this is Thailand, it's pretty common that guys hit their girls here, or so I heard. 

Also, everyone knows it's not uncommon for girls to be attracted to scum like this.

Also if you go to the original Facebook post there's tons of girls commenting that it reminds them of their ex etc.

7 minutes ago, Chopperboy said:

If you guys ever got past the look of a woman you might actually see whats really going on ?

Well, right now I was responding to a post specifically about the looks. If you read all my previous posts in this thread I didn't mention looks until now.

Also I said both normal girls and hookers dress like that, so my point is that it doesn't prove anything how she looked.

Maybe if you read more than half a post before you reply you might see what someone actually means.

50 minutes ago, Chopperboy said:

Are you guys blind ?

She's dressed like a hooker!

Aren't all Thai girls dressed like that right now?? Oh wait.. maybe they are all hookers.. hehe.. but yeah, sure, hookers do dress like that but so does many young pretty Thai girls..

53 minutes ago, MaksimMislavsky said:

You are making a very valid point, but the feel about this event is different, esp, given there is another woman, too, and how they all act. BTW, it is Bangkok, Ramintra km 7. There is quite an interesting nightlife spot nearby in the direction they left.

Good point about the other woman. I didn't put much thought into her behavior... she is really pretty ...must make good money if on the job...

7 minutes ago, MaksimMislavsky said:

No "expert" will tell you for sure from this video. Looks like a female, a very young one, probably migrant, probably in the trade, being coerced

Looks more like a Thai couple and this is not the first time it happened. She left with him because she wanted to leave as quickly as possible because the whole situation was so embarrassing.

That being said I wouldn't be totally suprised if it was something like you said.