richard_smith237

If she were providing quality banana’s clearly the monkeys would have still been hanging around and the Op would have been happy to pay 10x the going rate to feed the pesky primates... ... Even the monkeys know this woman was ripping everyone off and nicked off to better pastures !

Only thing you have said today that I agree with. Then you disagree that the Op was charged an inflated rate because he is a foreigner ??...

I never lived in a tourist area... but I have visited briefly... is this something new? You’ve never visited a tourist area where they automatically want to charge you an inflated dual rate and out of a sense of entitlement expect you to be perfectly happy to pay the inflated rate.... ???

You under-egged it...... pay the 20 and and tip the remaining 180 Baht !!!...

To be frank, you never really got started..... given the state of the arguments you presented, a Doctor of any type you most certainly are not !!!

You are confused - the ‘Christening' of an earthquake and ‘where it happened’ are one in the same... But... it happened, as in, it was felt in a lot of countries, you want all of those countries to be named in the headline of ‘where it happened’ .... it was also felt in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon... where do you draw the line ??? What do you want the headline to be ??? The epicentre was in Turkey, hence the headline earthquake in Turkey... and it was was also felt in other countries, the most significant of which was obviously Syria. Technically, as the epicentre was so close to the Syrian border it could also be called the Turkish-Syrian Earthquake... So, if you want to ‘split hairs’ you could call it that.... But from a scientific point of view an earthquake is named after the location of its epicentre - its just that simple an thats what the media would usually use when referring to an earthquake, its what the media did use in this case.

No... Earthquakes are always named after the town, province, or country, near or within which it originates, and by its date.... - This earthquake is / will be known as the Turkish Quake 2023. It was felt in Syriah, Greece, Northern Iraq, Lebanon... and other places... It can’t be named after all of them, its named after the place closest to its epicentre - Seems you are the only one struggling with that concept... ... perhaps you should change your handle to ‘lotsofplacesholder’ !!! ????

It's a perfectly valid statement, ( and choice) that's why it gets repeated so many times to whining post subjects like this one. This subject is one that any amount of angst and pointless debate will not change. No.. its not really a valid statement at all, its an unintelligent flippant remark used as a wise-crack to point score and is repeated by people who lack the intelligence to formulate a valid argument because there are no valid or intelligent arguments... IF this debate is so pointless, why have you joined it ?.... the starting point for any improvement is discussion... in this case when people recognise and object to double charging the message may get through... People complained about TM28, others such as you and I have benefited from that. People have publicised the negativity of dual pricing, some businesses no longer employ such tactics as they no recognise it to be a distasteful practice..... When there is dialogue, there is learning and improvement.... ... you may not recognise such, but people have already put in the ground work for how easy things are for you here today. You seem to present this argument from a perspective that if someone doesn’t like an aspect of Thailand they will not like any aspect of Thailand. In this case dual pricing is one of the negatives being discussed, there are also many many positives of Thailand... You seem to think people who recognise things which are not right are masochists or perennial moaners at all things Thai, in doing so you make a ridiculous generalisation and wholly unintelligent argument that fails on a basic level and is utterly absent of understanding that people can both like and dislike different aspects, experiences and facets of a place and its ok to discuss all of them.

Your analogy is flawed - I don’t go into a convenience store (i.e. a 7-11) that charges me 5x or 10x the price it charges Thai’s for the same item... IF it did, I’d walk away, also you mentioned the Op also had that option. Depending on where a person lives they will be exposed to varying degrees and frequency of attempted rip-offs.... I can imagine for some it just becomes an utter nuisance to witness such behaviour frequently. Its one of the reasons I don’t want to live in a Tourist area... because nearly every local seems to believe it their right to dual charge foreigners and that there is almost a sense of entitlement to fleece. IF someone feels they are getting ripped off all the time, they probably are - I can understand them getting fed up with such treatment.

Indeed… I can see how such issues are considered ridiculous by those who are so familiar with beating treated as a second class citizen they accept this behavior as the norm.

Agreed…. The Thai lady showed the foreign father contempt rather than humanity & compassion…. He responded in kind. Poor form by both parties. The Op should have just walked away at the first indication of disrespectful treatment.

Indeed…. I also wonder what viable alternatives there are if laws were strictly enforced….…. i.e would there be better alternatives because there becomes a demand for them (more baht busses / tuk tuks etc).

And you are happy to pay 10x the going rate for all of that without any complaint.... right ????

Erm.... So your message to the Op its ok to pay 10x the going rate because he wasn’t on the NYC Subway ???? The lady still tried to rip him off.... he should have just walked away. Of course, not a major issue... but I can understand that for some this constant ‘day to day’ attempt to rip you off becomes a little exhausting.... on another thread someone mentioned ‘death by a 1000 cuts’.... and for some people its kind of like that... at every corner there is someone else charging that little bit extra etc.... each individual event is insignificant, but for some its understandable that it can simply wear thin. Its one of the reasons I prefer Bangkok... its just easier to be ’normal normal’ when there is no consistent and persistent dual charging, attempts to rip us off or expectation that we should pay more than our Thai peers and neighbours etc....

Yup... as expected all the posts calling out the Op for being petty etc... The reality is the ‘poor banana seller’ was trying to rip-off the Op.... Whether someone feels sympathetic to her plight, working hard in the hot sun etc etc... is kind of beside the point somewhat... ... She saw a foreigner and tried to rip him off - her behaviour was wrong. The Op was of course petty for demanding a refund instead of just walking away in the first place, and then posting a story about such an insignificant issue on this forum and expecting anything other than distain from people who are attracted to posits such as this to for a chance to blame the Op. IF the Op charged a Thai 10x for some Bananas the same posters would be blaming him for ripping off a Thai.... In short, those same characters blaming the Op have somehow ‘gone native’ and accept unequal treatment as normal.... it shouldn’t be tolerated, but neither is it really a major point of contention worthy of an online complaint.... My point here is more against those who think there is nothing wrong with this lady attempting to rip off the Op just because he’s a foreigner.

Tragic... I hope that poor child does not grow up blaming themselves for their fathers demise. It was his responsibility and his alone to ensure he didn’t ‘fall off’ a moving motorcycle.

Exactly that.... In a nation where numbers are posted almost exclusively in Western Arabic numerals except for when they are trying to hide dual pricing it becomes obvious that the establishment itself is deliberately participating in discriminatory act of deception. Again to re-iterate for those who do no understand.... This is not a show stopper, it doesn’t destroy our day as some people want to believe, we are balanced enough to accept it and move on. But that doesn’t mean we have to participate in the brainwashing that any of this is ok, acceptable or ignore the fact that this practice is discriminatory.

The ‘if you don’t like it go home’ statement is a last ditch effort because you have no other intelligent argument to justify dual pricing practices....

It's not economics..... its profiteering and taking advantage of foreigners based on them being non-Thai. It is a discriminatory practice.

This is something you've made up to justify the system. As is there are many discussions with farangs who show Thai DL's, different colored cards, etc. Agreed..... there are many who in these debates will try and justify dual pricing as if they have been brainwashed into this ‘Thai is always right’ thinking.... when clearly their arguments remain flawed. It would be easy for a person to simply prove that they are a local resident with a Driving licence, Pink ID, work permit etc should be more than sufficient for an non-Thai to be treated with a degree of equality. Anything outside of this is wrong - its wrong that the government sanction this with their practices.

Most people are ‘over it’ and don’t let these issues disrupt their day out. BUT.... the practice itself remains distasteful and is a valid discussion point. The ‘mob handed’ argument is irrelevant - Thai’s or foreigners living here turn up at an attracting and the foreigners have to pay more ?... there is no justifiable explanation for this, the foreigners may not be weather than the Thai family of the same numbers - that mentality is extremely flawed.

Yet none of this justifies dual pricing with any fair or balanced argument or reason. IF foreign residents of Thailand get the price offered to Thai nationals, then thats fair and the attraction could be considered to charged based on residency rather than nationality. Tourists are charged more in many places, I don’t like it, but with that there is no decimation against anyone based on nationality - any local resident not matter where they are from is treated with equality. What we have with ‘dual pricing practices’ in Thailand is an extremely clumsy ‘non Thai pay more’ and that is unfair and distasteful for many who live here long term - there is no polishing this with flawed excuses - the practice is wrong, its really that simple. Those who call the practice of dual pricing racists are technically incorrect as the practice itself is ’nationalist’, but there is a hint of xenophobia about the practice that is distasteful, I can understand why some may levy accusations of racism, but that is because some Thai’s may execute the dual pricing based on the way people look rather than nationality.

Agreed... no fraud... But it's still ‘distatasteful’..... tantamount to cheating. Offering a ‘different’ menu to foreigners to charge them more is wrong and people would be right to walk out of such places to another which does not offer dual treatment. The reality is, Thai’s cheat each other too... how many times have we read of the restaurants over charging Thai tourists in places like Cha-am..... People behave like this because they can get away with it, until they can’t. Unfortunately, when the government sanctions dual pricing it sends the messages to businesses that they can do the same thing and potentially adds to a thin xenophobic underbelly... “the government do it, so the foreigners must deserve it”..... fortunately, many businesses are honest and show no hint of discrimination.

Agreed... but just because the pro’s outweigh the con’s it doesn’t not mean we should be perfectly happy with an accept the con’s... hence the discussions on this forum where people have had distasteful experiences. If my country treated my wife with the same ‘dual pricing standards’ I witness here I’d be terribly embarrassed, I’d kick up a stink.

No matter how some try to dress it up and polish it there is not one excuse I have every witnessed that justifies dual pricing. IF our wives and partners encountered any of the same dual pricing we do here we’d rightly disagree with it. So why do we accept it here. The closest I can think of to dual pricing is the ‘National Health Surcharge’ when foreign nationals move to the UK and apply for residency, they then get free healthcare as soon as their residency is approved.