"C'est moi! But I'm not a taxi driver" Frenchman tells Samui cops as Thais urged to rat on foreigners

[hotchilli]

Time for foreigners to hit back... boycott Samui bars, restaurants, taxis everything for a week & see if they want to keep on ratting.... there's an old saying "don't bite the hand that feeds you" !!!

[ttrd]

8 hours ago, darksidedog said:

And no more than any decent person would do when a friend has helped them out. I have done the same many times when  a friend has taken me to the airport. The locals obviously want every penny in the pot and for friends not to help each other out. A mate doing someone a favour is seen as deliberately taking money out of their pockets, which is a very sad and greedy attitude.

Yes, and a tip for future friendship services - take payment in advance which will not be any issue between real friends or friends of real friends … 

[kevden]

Why would attention be drawn to the registration plate of the man's vehicle? It's information that is of use to someone that might behave unlawfully toward him. Innocent until proven guilty (Thais and Foreigners). 

[Sydebolle]

Pathetic rubbish - big smoke screen quite obviously. So what is the real big thing behind all this nonsense in the media lately? 

[dallen52]

9 hours ago, darksidedog said:

And no more than any decent person would do when a friend has helped them out. I have done the same many times when  a friend has taken me to the airport. The locals obviously want every penny in the pot and for friends not to help each other out. A mate doing someone a favour is seen as deliberately taking money out of their pockets, which is a very sad and greedy attitude.

Nothing for free in Thailand. 

 

I learned that on my first trip 10 years ago. 

[Bangkok Barry]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

After this a meeting was held on the island between many concerned individuals including the police, tourist cops, the Department of Land Transport rep and the head of the taxi drivers' association, reported Manager. 

 

They were discussing the way forward to stop foreigners taking jobs reserved for Thais and causing hardship to Thai people. 

 

Thais were urged to report any foreigners taking Thai jobs by calling 191 or 07742 1907. 

 

Is there any possibility of these 'criminal foreigners' having a meeting with the authorities and taxi association to discuss the non-use of meters? Or is it only one-way. Just asking.

[theboogeyman]

Time for foreigners to hit back... boycott Samui bars, restaurants, taxis everything for a week & see if they want to keep on ratting.... there's an old saying "don't bite the hand that feeds you" !!!

Maybe it was just a misunderstanding I don’t know but the legitimate cab drivers in Thailand have to make a living you know and they work really hard for very little money. I actually tip them extra once in a while especially when they are extra helpful such as sometimes they will help us with our groceries. LOL, they need to stop snitching right.


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[rollrunna]

Ridiculous if true.. i seem to remember a thai comment re " change being given  " ? We all have paid for gasoline when appropriate, i tend to fold the notes in my hand and pass with a handshake regardless of observation, ...and i choose to run my family to airports as they do with me... this is not stealing jobs.  ..and ... recently my Thai Wife was given a lift to the bus-station in a family members car...same rules apply

 

[batata]

7 minutes ago, Sydebolle said:

Pathetic rubbish - big smoke screen quite obviously. So what is the real big thing behind all this nonsense in the media lately? 

they call it Thainess

[kentrot]

How hard would it be to check out his EXPLANATION

that there is NO taxi or bus service

from their starting point to where he drove them ?

 

I always appreciate when visitors offer modest help with gas expenses 

as I am on a pension and not a free delivery service.

As a resident in a popular tourist destination I get more visitors than I would expect to entertain back home and 

the expenses of offering free transportation gets onerous after the first 10 or 15 years ....

 

Is the video clear enough to show the "red money" only (2 x  100's) ?

 

 

 

[flbkk]

Because he is a large Farang 

[batata]

1 minute ago, kentrot said:

How hard would it be to check out his EXPLANATION

that there is NO taxi or bus service

from their starting point to where he drove them ?

 

I always appreciate when visitors offer modest help with gas expenses 

as I am on a pension and not a free delivery service.

As a resident in a popular tourist destination I get more visitors than I would expect to entertain back home and 

the expenses of offering free transportation gets onerous after the first 10 or 15 years ....

 

Is the video clear enough to show the "red money" only (2 x  100's) ?

 

 

 

agree, know it too well... never knew that I had so many relatives and friends

[Happy Grumpy]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

his place is in Bang Kao in the Na Meuang area and there is no taxi service from there

 

So the Thai Taxis are up in arms, and they don't even service every community there?

 

 

[theboogeyman]

If I’m doing someone a favor I do it for free, but it’s definitely not a sin to ask for a little gas money if you’re giving someone a ride.


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[leiftheswede]

If taxi drivers on the island would follow the law and use taxa-meters the problem would be much smaller. No taxi driver use or has ever used meter. Instead the most horrific prices are charged tourists - for example 500-600 thb for a taxi from Chaweng to Lamai at day time. If the island police had any what so ever interest in giving tourists on the island a fare treatment - this is where they should spend there effort and time. It's hardly difficult to stop this over charging but obviously there are bigger interests involved and the police has no interest in stopping this tourist trap and nobody seems to understand the bad reputation it gives to the island.

 

[richard_smith237]

Does anyone ever accept any money at all when 'running friends to the Airport' ?... I would never ask money of friends to do this, neither would I expect friends to ask or expect money of me if they were to run me to the airport. 

 

I think it is much more likely that this guy was providing a service for a fee and was caught in the act - it looks pretty obvious to me that we was being paid. 

 

The reason he may have been providing this service makes more sense to me as well - he may own an Air b'n'b or guest house etc... and doesn't want to see his guests ripped off by the taxi guys, so he provided the service at a more reasonable cost - seems fair to me, but of course, the Thai's don't like it as they want to operate high charges for transport without competition. 

 

[AAArdvark]

Anyone know the approximate distance between the dock and where this guy says he lives, to see if ฿200 sounds justifiable?

[AdamTheFarang]

Thailand is for Thais, all others are just on Visas which can be cancelled at any time, like when you money runs out, even if you are married and have kids with a Thai.

[Scouse123]

1 hour ago, rwill said:

report all those Burmese taking construction jobs from Thais!

 

 

Haha,

 

They won't do that because the Thais are employing them because their own Thais, at the level in society, don't want to earn an honest living or one that involves work.

[manarak]

Quote

The officers listened patiently to this explanation before checking the French man's record and warning him as to his future behavior especially when it comes to taking jobs reserved for Thais.

this bit is actually quite insulting.

 

if just 200 baht for gas were given, an APOLOGY would have been in order.

[PoorSucker]

32 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

Anyone know the approximate distance between the dock and where this guy says he lives, to see if ฿200 sounds justifiable?

20 min drive 

[LomSak27]

12 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

I think it is much more likely that this guy was providing a service for a fee and was caught in the act - it looks pretty obvious to me that we was being paid. 

Well great to hear you have it all sorted. 

As I would not trust a taxi driver in Thailand period and this is based on a couple decades experience, I will withold judgement at present. ... Like the pom pom's though. 

[brian2f2f]

2 hours ago, theboogeyman said:

They need to rat out the crooked “phony” taxi drivers at the airports and the bus stations in Bangkok.  I just got back home from a trip down to Bangkok last night and we actually did encounter just one phony cab driver at the Mo Chit Bus Station.  As soon as he led us to his personally owed vehicle I immediately knew something wasn’t right with that picture, up here in Korat we never have problems with crooked cab or took took drivers.

 

I was very hesitant about getting into his car which wasn’t even a real cab, my wife immediately jumped in and was like “let’s just get to the hotel” because she was tired and not as street smart as most Thai wives because she only grew up here in Thailand she lived most of her life in the United States and now we’re retired here.  

 

So I was considering going with him for a second but I was just very hesitant about it.  I sat down in his back seat for a second and then the driver demanded 500 baht UP FRONT just to drive 6 kilometers to our hotel in light traffic only about a 10 minute drive.  So I got out and I said to my wife “hun please get out of this man’s car right now”.  Then I flagged down a real taxi cab that just happened to be driving by and he stopped.  Then the other scam driver grabbed my arm and said “I take you to hotel you pay me 500 baht right now”.  Then I very calmly replied to him “if you don’t take your hand off me and take a step back you’re going to be seeing the inside of an ambulance instead of your car right here” and he immediately walked away.  

 

Then we got into the legitimate cab and got to our hotel in less than 15 minutes from the Mo Chit bus station we stayed at the My Bed Ratchada hotel.  The legitimate cab driver was very friendly and he knew exactly what was going on when he stopped for us and he was even telling us during the ride to avoid drivers like that because it’s a scam and I was like “oh yeah I know thank you so much for stopping”.  And he only charged me 200 baht to drive 6K in less than 15 minutes NOT 500 baht like the other scam artist wanted up front.  

 

Those scam cab drivers like that in Bangkok are the ones they need to rat out.  I thought the local cops in Bangkok were supposedly cracking down on scam cab drivers Bangkok.  We got approached by a scam cab driver literally within 30 seconds of getting off the bus at Mo Chit.  

 

You never see that up here where we live in Korat obviously it’s because Bangkok is full of tourists who don’t know any better. So some take advantage of that.  You can’t trust people as much in Bangkok as you can up here in Bangkok there are scams everywhere.  Other than that it was a really good, fun, and well planned trip, we had no problems at all.  I don’t really consider that one incident at Mo Chit a problem because I knew exactly what it was and I very quickly just dealt with it and just simply got a legitimate cab driver. So we had a really good time no problems.  

 

Except for the traffic in southern Bangkok but we just decided to take the Sky Train and the MRT so that wasn’t a big deal either.  It went really well.  Next time we’re going to Chiangmai to see the Hill Tribes Villages again up in those steep mountains we have not been there in years and that area is absolutely beautiful I remember.  

200 baht for 6 km is still a maseive scam and rip off. My wife paid only 120 for 20km to get home from work. At 200 baht for 6 km thats 33.33 baht per km. Check the thai legal taxi fare rate. Its drastically lower then that. So you got scammed but not as bad. At most maybe should have paid 70 baht for the trip. 

[huberthammer]

2 hours ago, Booboo101 said:

Just another pathetic example of how low the cops will go to scrape the barrel, instead of stopping all the drunk drivers and speeding Thai idiots, let’s just stop all these farangs from helping out their friends with a cheap ride home ! 

instead of stopping all the drunk drivers and speeding Thai idiots, 

[KhaoYai]

8 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

There's actually a story from someone here on thaivisa where police was checking in on him for doing work on his own house.

I've heard these stories before but I've never heard of anyone actually being prosecuted. I very much doubt that even a Thai court would be able to secure a conviction on someone for working on their own house. Any half decent lawyer would be able to successfully defend such a charge.

 

I've been carrying out work on my house for over 2 years and the guy next door is a cop.

 

I was once told that it works like this - you can paint the inside of your perimeter wall but not the outside, that would be classed as taking the job from a Thai. I doubted that when I was told it and I doubt it now, I think these stories may have been brought about by corrupt local police officers simply trying it on but the phrase 'Old Wives Tale' comes to mind.

 

The guy in this story was probably breaking the law but I hope the police on Samui also now start applying the laws on taxi operation and make those complaining of the foreigner's actions comply with the laws they are governed by.

[oslooskar]

Kudos to the Thais! I am very happy to see that the Thais are at least somewhat concerned with trying to protect their taxi drivers. After all, UBER, along with political corruption, has devastated the taxi industry in numerous Western nations.

[Ian Pickles]

11 hours ago, Vacuum said:

Can this number be used for reporting Thais not doing what they're paid for?

Same number good for reporting gouging Thai taxi drivers?

[MiNombreEsFicticious]

I wonder how long before the first mob beats a farang to death? That seems to be where this anti-foreigner campaign is heading. I hope I'm wrong.

[Ian Pickles]

7 minutes ago, Ian Pickles said:

Same number good for reporting gouging Thai taxi drivers?

That said, it would have to be a very long way for me to charge a friend for a ride somewhere.

[theboogeyman]

200 baht for 6 km is still a maseive scam and rip off. My wife paid only 120 for 20km to get home from work. At 200 baht for 6 km thats 33.33 baht per km. Check the thai legal taxi fare rate. Its drastically lower then that. So you got scammed but not as bad. At most maybe should have paid 70 baht for the trip. 

I’ve been living here for 5 years now and the took took and taxi fares are normally about the same and I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing what it’s supposed to cost. I figured it would cost between 100 and 200 baht from Mo Chit bus station to the My Bed Ratchada Hotel which was 6K approximately if I recall right, I remember that’s what my Google maps said but depending on the route he drove it might have been a little further then 6K. That’s an estimate it could have been as far as 10K for all I know depending on the route he drove. But according to Google it was about 6K.

I think your wife was just lucky, although every once in a while I do run into an extra cheap taxi or took took driver that charges me less for more but nothing excessive sometimes it just depends on the driver and I use them all the time for years so I know what I’m doing. It’s quite possible that your wife only got charged 120 baht for 20K if traffic was smooth. I’ve had drivers only charge me about the same before for 10 or 20K like what you said about your wife, but that’s very rare though. Sometimes you do get lucky and get a cheaper driver but normally what he changed me is about right. In Korat I normally pay a took took driver about 100 or 120 baht for 2 to 10K depending on the driver. If it’s only less than 800 meters and I don’t want to walk because I’m buying a lot of groceries or something that usually costs about 40 baht. It depends on the driver, traffic, distance, and if I ask him to make multiple stops along the way and wait for me. All that effects the cost as well.

I actually did have a took took driver in Korat try to over charge me once, just last week in fact, but he was one of the few drivers who haven’t seen me around Korat before. Korat isn’t a big city and most of the drivers around Korat know me because I’ve been around here for almost 5 years now. And the taxi fares in Bangkok weren’t much different than Korat although we took the MRT and Sky Train mostly only a few cabs. In Bangkok I actually got out of one cab and went to the Sky Train because the traffic was just so damn slow it was going to take an hour just to drive 10K lol, so we took the train instead. LOL, when I was still in shape I used to be able to run 10K in almost half that time in 36 minutes.

Anyway last week in Korat I had a took took driver take us only about 4K I think it is from nearby our house to Terminal 21 and when I got out and asked how much he said 400 baht, and I replied “excuse me, HOW MUCH DID YOU JUST SAY???” Then he immediately replied “100 baht” really fast lol. That’s the only time I’ve ever had a took took or cab driver in Korat ever even try to scam me. I still look pretty young and he probably thought it was my first day here or something because I had never seen or remembered that driver before. Just a coincidence that happened last week.

You also have to take into account that Bangkok is more expensive than the smaller cities like where I live, but I thought 200 baht was about right and fair. And I was expecting it to be between 100 and 200 baht that’s actually what I thought it would be. Like I said I’ve gotten used to knowing what taxi and took took fare is going to be for where I’m going after 5 years and it’s almost always about the same depending on where I’m going.

I don’t know how long you’ve been in Thailand or where you live in Thailand. But no actually I did not get scammed I avoided a scam that night.


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