RTP Shakedown - Who's to Blame?

[Spidey]

Just now, Lacessit said:

It's possible to have fun without being dishonest. But I get it. Your fun in life is cheating other people, then rationalizing it by saying they cheated me first. That's preferable to admitting you didn't do your homework.

I shouldn't have needed to "do my homework". It was the responsibility of the car hire company to inform me of the vagaries of driving a car with red plates, something they readily admitted to.

 

Sorry if this doesn't fit your trolling agenda.

[Lacessit]

5 hours ago, Spidey said:

I shouldn't have needed to "do my homework". It was the responsibility of the car hire company to inform me of the vagaries of driving a car with red plates, something they readily admitted to.

 

Sorry if this doesn't fit your trolling agenda.

So far on this thread, I've been called self-righteous, self-serving and a troll. It's always interesting people trot out the tired old ad hominem argument when they get a bit of uncomfortable truth explained to them.

If you don't like what I post, you are welcome to use the ignore button.

 

[Just Weird]

On ‎11‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 2:29 PM, Spidey said:

Maybe you are a troll. Maybe you don't have a clue what you are talking about. Maybe you have never been to Thailand. Maybe you are from another planet. Maybe you are just weird. 

 

Not for me to judge, I'll leave that to others.

...or, perhaps, I was right and you didn't have a sensible answer.  I won't leave that to others, I'll judge in this case.

[Just Weird]

On ‎11‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 2:50 PM, Spidey said:

Maybe on planet Zod, but not on planet earth and certainly not in Thailand.

Speaking for colinneal, now are you?  As everything that I said re my comment to him was accurate, this must now be Zod.

[fanjita]

On ‎11‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 7:02 AM, Spidey said:

... and my friend was genuinely outraged to point that the incident took the shine off the whole trip. He's insisting that he will email the Thai tourism office when he returns home.

Seriously, what is this nonsense?  Probably highlight of the holiday.

 

Good luck with the complaint, btw.

[Just Weird]

On ‎11‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 4:31 PM, joecoolfrog said:

Did you miss the fact that officer requested a bribe in the first place ?

Is it so difficult to believe that she was embarassed because a guest to her country was confronted with blatant corruption.

It may be endemic in Thailand , it may be accepted by most Thais ( and you ) but its nothing to be proud of , why wouldn't she feel ashamed ?

I know that in your eyes Thailand is a utopia , and all problems start and end with 'foreigners', but blaming the person who had a bribe demanded of him, is surely you sinking to a new low.

No, I didn't miss that because that was not as the OP reported it! The officer specifically said that they were being fined B1,000.  A fine is not a bribe, it became a bribe when the "fearsome", to quote the OP, wife started negotiating for a few hundred baht with no receipt.

 

"...blaming the person who had a bribe demanded of him, is surely you sinking to a new low".

Read the OP again.

Edited November 20, 2018 by Just Weird

[Spidey]

14 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

No, I didn't miss that because that was not as the OP reported it! The officer specifically said that they were being fined B1,000.  A fine is not a bribe, it became a bribe when the "fearsome", to quote the OP, wife started negotiating for a few hundred baht with no receipt.

 

"...blaming the person who had a bribe demanded of him, is surely you sinking to a new low".

Read the OP again.

Yet again, completely wrong. The standard fine for not filling in the brown book is 400 baht. Didn't offer a ticket with the 1000 baht "fine", which is why he was scamming us from the get go. Read the OP again.

[fanjita]

1 minute ago, Spidey said:

The standard fine for not filling in the brown book is 400 baht. Didn't offer a ticket with the 1000 baht "fine", which is why he was scamming us from the get go.

Nothing to get excited about.  TiT.  

[Spidey]

25 minutes ago, fanjita said:

Seriously, what is this nonsense?  Probably highlight of the holiday.

 

Good luck with the complaint, btw.

For me, it would have been, for my friend, not so much.

[Spidey]

Just now, fanjita said:

Nothing to get excited about.  TiT.  

Agreed. Have negotiated my way out of similar situations before. Just a game which I'm happy to play. Was stationary for no more than 5 minutes.

[fanjita]

5 minutes ago, Spidey said:

For me, it would have been, for my friend, not so much.

Good.  I would have given him a good back and stomach rub to soothe his insecurities and distress then subsequently informed him to pull himself together.

[Spidey]

26 minutes ago, fanjita said:

Good.  I would have given him a good back and stomach rub to soothe his insecurities and distress then subsequently informed him to pull himself together.

We'd travelled up to Buriram to pick his girlfriend up. I left all that to her. Didn't do much good, he still changed his flight to leave a week earlier than planned. Up to him.

[fanjita]

7 minutes ago, Spidey said:

We'd travelled up to Buriram to pick his girlfriend up. I left all that to her. Didn't do much good, he still changed his flight to leave a week earlier than planned. Up to him.

Understandable that the western sensibilities can be unnerved at such a dangerous incident as a pull by the RTP for 300 baht.  

[Spidey]

8 minutes ago, fanjita said:

Understandable that the western sensibilities can be unnerved at such a dangerous incident as a pull by the RTP for 300 baht.  

Which is why I included that in my story. In the UK and most Western countries, the average man in the street doesn't encounter corruption from officialdom. When they encounter it in Thailand, they are horrified, no matter what the level of corruption. 

 

You can call them snowflakes but, in reality, they are tourists who won't return to Thailand and will discourage their friends from visiting here too.

[fanjita]

1 minute ago, Spidey said:

You can call them snowflakes but, in reality, they are tourists who won't return to Thailand and will discourage their friends from visiting here too.

I'm guessing LOS won't be too concerned with your friend's continued absence.  Though, he'll be back.  

[Spidey]

Just now, fanjita said:

I'm guessing LOS won't be too concerned with your friend's continued absence.  Though, he'll be back.  

555. Correct and correct!

[tropo]

On 11/18/2018 at 7:41 AM, AhFarangJa said:

Many years ago the same happened to me. Hired a car in Bangkok to go to Surin. Hire company name is 4 letters beginning with A. ending in S.

Red plate car with about 300 km on it. Was stopped by the toll booth at Don Muang. Policeman asked for the book which, at the time I knew nothing about. No-one in the company told me about it, especially having to fill in every trip. Plod wanted 5K Baht. We eventually got it down to 2K, no ticket. If I had gone the ticket route we would have lost a day in Bangkok. I called the hire company who said if we had a ticket they would pay the fine, but as I said no ticket issued. Now when I drive from Hua Hin to Surin I always see red plate cars pulled at checkpoints. probably a nice little earner as it is your responsibility to fill in the book.

Youch! That's tricky. If you asked for a proper official fine, you would have been out of pocket 5k plus time running around to pay it, but by paying 2k you got no receipt and no evidence to show the rental company. I'm sure the rental companies are well aware of this conundrum and rely on it.

[AhFarangJa]

14 hours ago, tropo said:

Youch! That's tricky. If you asked for a proper official fine, you would have been out of pocket 5k plus time running around to pay it, but by paying 2k you got no receipt and no evidence to show the rental company. I'm sure the rental companies are well aware of this conundrum and rely on it.

Correct Sir, and the police know it. Rental companies will be happy also. What I would like to see is the ability to pay a ticket at ANY police station within, say, 5 days of issuance. It must be possible with today's computers, even here !!

I do realise however that if they introduced this then a HUGE portion of RTP backhanders would disappear.....

Edited November 21, 2018 by AhFarangJa

[jackdd]

44 minutes ago, AhFarangJa said:

Correct Sir, and the police know it. Rental companies will be happy also. What I would like to see is the ability to pay a ticket at ANY police station within, say, 5 days of issuance. It must be possible with today's computers, even here !!

I do realise however that if they introduced this then a HUGE portion of RTP backhanders would disappear.....

I think it is possible to pay the fine at any police station. In case this should not be possible: You can pay the fine at post offices.

Edited November 21, 2018 by jackdd

[AhFarangJa]

2 hours ago, jackdd said:

I think it is possible to pay the fine at any police station. In case this should not be possible: You can pay the fine at post offices.

Thanks Jackdd, I am still not sure, but will check up some more, however, when they are holding your license you do not have much choice. I think I read somewhere recently that they were not allowed to keep your licence any more, but you try telling that to mr plod looking for a backhander....

[Just Weird]

21 hours ago, Spidey said:

Yet again, completely wrong. The standard fine for not filling in the brown book is 400 baht. Didn't offer a ticket with the 1000 baht "fine", which is why he was scamming us from the get go. Read the OP again.

I don't need to read it again but you sure do.  You specifically stated that the officer said that (one of) you would be fined B1,000.  If you are now saying that is not the case why did you post the OP in that way?

 

By the way, an offence had been committed (or are you changing that part now also?) so it was not a scam!  If you wanted a receipt for a B1,000 fine all you had to do was to tell the officer to write a ticket and then pay it at a police station of your choice.   But it seems that all this is due to your wife wanting a corrupt discount.

[tropo]

4 hours ago, AhFarangJa said:

Thanks Jackdd, I am still not sure, but will check up some more, however, when they are holding your license you do not have much choice. I think I read somewhere recently that they were not allowed to keep your licence any more, but you try telling that to mr plod looking for a backhander....

In Pattaya, if you don't have a licence, they take your keys. That's why you see dozens of bikes parked at police stops. If you don't turn up with a receipt before they leave, they are impounded. I'm not sure how they handle cars.

[LeoTex]

On ‎11‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 8:18 AM, Spidey said:

Didn't follow up on detail? I didn't know the car had red plates until I picked it up. I trusted the car hire company, who I'd used several times before, for "detail".

"Red Plates"

With your proclaimed vast Thai experience and having your Thai wife with you, that should have been a clue that this wasn't right.

 

LeoTex