josephbloggs

Jeez, it's like talking to a brick wall or someone who doesn't know how to read. They made several attempts to talk to him, they offered to meet and discuss, he refused all of them and kept posting. They made every single effort to deal with it like a grown up. Only the man child (who likes waving guns around in bars) put his fingers in his ears and went "I can't hear you". So who was refusing to deal with it like a grown up and who was the bully? After all of that and his refusal to speak or deal with it like an adult they took the only recourse left. And they didn't take it lightly. You are absolutely deluded in your defense of him and refusal to even contemplate that he might have actually slandered them (repeatedly) and refused to back down or talk. But yeah, Thailand third world (tingle tingle) and all that.

If you run an hospitality business you take the rough with the smooth, prosecution of a customer is the actions of an idiot.... Ok, it's not sinking in, I'll try one last time. Let's go step by step. No, I wasn't there. But I have read many reports and they weren't contested. I have also seen his posts. They ended up using a sledgehammer because conversation, negotiation, asking nicely over a period of time didn't work, he just refused to talk and kept posting slander. See above. And you're one of those that's gets a tingle out of calling Thailand a third world country, stands to reason. Yes, you take a bad review on the chin and try to improve. I am tired of saying it but I left a bad review of this very resort on TripAdvisor. Did I get sledgehammered? Did they sue me? No, they replied and thanked me for it as it was constructive and referred to genuine service issues during my stay that they could use to improve. You do not simply suck up a dedicated and sustained campaign of slander, accusing your hotel of slavery - no one would. Got it yet? It wasn't a single bad review, it was repeated campaign of slander and the perpetrator refused all offers of dialogue. At the end of the day the hotel had no other recourse and they do not make make the laws. But glad to hear you would let it go and watch your business go down the drain thanks to a violent bully spamming all review sites with lies. Read the facts, don't react to headlines and think a single bad review got him in trouble - far from it.

So imagine you own a business and you're doing well, then one day a violent and aggressive man comes in to your restaurant with his own alcohol and gets angry when the staff inform him there is a 500 baht corkage fee, then he gets more belligerent and the manager comes out and waives the fee to placate him (so he bullied his way to "success"). Then a few days later the man starts leaving nasty reviews saying all the staff in the hotel hate the manager, the hotel is guilty of modern day slavery (none of these "reviews" are about the actual experience). He does it across many sites repeatedly and, I repeat, accuses them of SLAVERY. You contact him and ask him to take them down but he refuses. You ask again but he refuses and keeps going. Meanwhile your business is suffering. Let me get this straight, you would happily let this go even after trying all civilised forms of communication. You would accept having slavery attached to your hotel for all eternity even though YOU DID NOTHING WRONG and you resolved a bad situation peacefully and sensibly by waiving the fee that applies to everyone else everywhere in the world because you were bullied in to it and other guests were getting disturbed. The hotel doesn't make the laws but they took the only option left to them. They even said at the time they don't agree with the harshness of the law but they had no other recourse to protect their business as this guy was on a one man crusade to bring them down and was refusing to talk. Don't confuse the people who make the laws with the people trying to protect their business against unjustified and vindictive attacks.

Maybe your internet got fried this morning. The link works fine for me.

The people who make these "you'll get arrested for leaving a negative review" are the same ones always bleating that "You'll get arrested for mowing your grass". No independent thought, no research, they can't even be bothered reading the articles that are in front of them! Sheep and trolls.

So you could have saved your self a lot of typing by just saying: "My experience? None". The internet would be 68 words better off.

Another well though out and reasoned post. Have you got anything intelligent to add to the debate? What's the con? And what's all this marketing we're all falling for? I don't remember seeing any, I just remember driving an EV for a few days then getting back in my ICE and feeling like I'd gone back in time. What's your experience?

Looks impressive.

Where is it then?

I agree with you that it shouldn't be a criminal offence, it should be a civil matter, but those are the laws currently. I disagree with the rest of your post. It wasn't "a bad review". It was a multitude of them full of lies, accusing the hotel of modern day slavery - seriously which business would or should take that lying down? They also got in touch to ask him to take the comments down and that would have been the ned of the matter, but he refused and continued posting his lies. That is slander in any country. Filing for defamation was a last resort, even the hotel said this and didn't agree with the severity of the punishment, but they had to protect their business, and rightly so. I said in another post that I have left a bad review of that very same hotel on TripAdvisor. Did they sue me? No, the manager replied publicly to say he was sorry and he would look into what happened and make improvements. I didn't bombard review sites with lies and I didn't accuse them of slavery. See the difference?

So now posting foreign language videos with no context. Care to explain what the guy is saying? How old are the videos? What is the context of each one? Admit it, you have no idea, you just like it because it a series of random fire videos. I used AI to translate them and he is on about EVs needing charging every 100kms, so it is either very very old, or he is talking nonsense. Incidentally I used two AI translation tools and in neither of them does he use the word "fire" or "flames" or anything related to burning. Anyway you posted a useless video but it obviously got your interest so care to explain to us what they are about and what is being said and why exactly you posted them?

Yawn. The Koh Chang hotel didn't have a tourist arrested for a review. He brought his own booze in to the restaurant and didn't want to pay corkage and caused a scene when the staff explained the 500 baht charge. Corkage charges are standard globally. The manager explained the policy but he got angry. Eventually the manager agreed to waive the corkage fee to keep the peace as it was disturbing other guests. Sounds quite entitled. He then went on to post a series of fake bad reviews of the resort on many sites, included accusing them of modern day slavery. The hotel contacted him and asked him to take them down but he refused. They asked him several times but he refused and doubled down and kept posting over several weeks. The hotel then made an complaint and the law followed its course. That idiot actually lived in Thailand so he really should have known better. I wish people would stop peddling this nonsense that you get arrested for leaving a review.

I don't think I can elaborate any more. Which part are you having trouble with?

Try reading more than just the headline. Or is it too hard for you to get past the big letters? No one in Thailand has ever been arrested for leaving a review saying the service was bad, or that the food wasn't good. I have done it myself for Sea View Resort in Koh Chang (yes, the one who prosecuted the other idiot) and the management responded and apologised for the incident and vowed to improve service because it was a fair and balanced review. This moron had a dispute over access to his condo and (allegedly) bombarded the restaurant with one star reviews and also got his mates to join in, such that their Google rating dropped from 4.9 to 3.1. That is obviously going to have a negative effect on their business and is a form of defamation. I don't believe it should be a criminal offence, but it is in this country and some others. Don't defame businesses or people and you'll be fine. He was stupid, vindictive and petty.

Says it all. You didn't believe someone who summarised the video and you asked for a link. You got the link which supports the summary given an all of a sudden you don't want to share your opinion despite having asked for it. Magnanimity is not one of your strong points is it...

Yes it is. A lovely day to make yourself a cup of tea, sit outside, enjoy the sunshine, watch the video you asked for, then let us know what you thought about it.

Never trust any video that is that low resolution. You are easily fooled (which explains how you believe any anti-EV rubbish that gets posted). Fact check: https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-biden-karine-jean-pierre-553342159944 Or if reading the article is too much here's the actual, unedited, exchange: https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-biden-karine-jean-pierre-553342159944

Hello? @transam? You asked for the link in a dismissive way, you got it. What are your thoughts? Hellooooooo?

I can't remember - it was about 15 years ago, but it was in Sydney. Oily and nasty. I have also had excellent fish and chips in Manly, probably the best I have ever had. Can't remember the name of that either. My point was isolated incidents of bad service can happen anywhere but we don't go creating whinging posts about entire countries based on these random incidents. (Well, one person does)

I think we know why no-one has replied, right @transam?

Will you please stop with this nonsense. Rips can AND DO flow straight out to sea. They exist in small pockets so of course all the water doesn't immediately disappear out to sea. Are you really that dense? I have been in the exact rip that sadly killed this guy and it almost killed me and I wasn't drunk or "on qualudes". Educate yourself. Speculating on the sobriety of the dead guy (who came from a land locked country) based on zero evidence. You really are a class act.

Are you sure you're not thinking of Pan Pan?

Your timelines are out of whack. Thai Airways stopped direct flights to the US in 2008 due to the high cost of operating them (thirsty A340-500s). It stopped "one stop" routes to the US in 2012 also due to financial reasons. The FAA downgraded Thailand to category 2 in 2015. And they were not banned from landing, they were just not allowed to expand their network or launch new routes but Category 2 countries to continue existing routes. But seeing as they hadn't had routes there for nearly four years that was moot anyway. Not sure what their status is in 2024. I certainly trust TG much more than other regional carriers and pick them above others for regional flights. I prefer other airlines for long haul but not because of any safety concerns.

All their modern planes have lie flat biz seats and have done for ages (A380, A350, B787). Older aircraft don't.

Sukhumvit 39.