Man arrested for over charging for face masks

[webfact]

Man arrested for over charging for face masks

 

 

A man has been held in custody for allegedly over charging for face masks in a sting operation the Internal Trade Department.

 

The department’s deputy director-general, Prayote Pensut, said today that officials, on routine surfing of the internet to look for face masks for sale online, found an advertisement offering masks for sale at 14 baht each.

 

Posing as a customer, an official contacted the vendor via the mobile phone number provided and offered to buy 29 boxes, containing 50 face masks each, for 20,300 baht to be delivered to the Siam Rath newspaper office in Bang Plad district.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/man-arrested-for-over-charging-for-face-masks/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2020-02-20

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[PatOngo]

The greedy sod...……............…….! 

[jastheace]

it's a shame that taxi services in Phuket are not on a 'controlled ' list. that would f the mafia up.

[xtrnuno41]

so there is a very strict law against overcharging?!

How come "farang" is overcharged then In parks, hospitals and probably way more ? 

 

[Thian]

This is why there aren't any mouthmasks for sale in BKK....when will the new stock arrive general?

[CLW]

What's the exact definition of overcharging?

 

If I remember correctly two 3M surgical masks at 7-11 are 25 Baht.

So can I also report them?

[saengd]

14 Baht! 3M N95 masks were fetching 150 baht each, if you could find them! 

 

And hand gel is being sold in the open at 300 baht for a small bottle in most of the malls in the north.

[Canuck1966]

Shame they didn't do the same with Suthep for all those times he was gouging ????

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

13 minutes ago, CLW said:

What's the exact definition of overcharging?

 

If I remember correctly two 3M surgical masks at 7-11 are 25 Baht.

So can I also report them?

 

10 minutes ago, saengd said:

14 Baht! 3M N95 masks were fetching 150 baht each, if you could find them! 

 

And hand gel is being sold in the open at 300 baht for a small bottle in most of the malls in the north.

 

I think the masks in the OP here are the (normally cheap) paper drugstore variety -- not the N95 particulate type masks... 

 

When the govt here talks about overcharging for masks, they seem to be focused entirely on the cheap paper kind, which are the same kind the government has been distributing to the public and/or selling on its own.

 

The status of the N95 masks and their pricing, when they can be found here, seems to be absolutely nowhere in the picture. In better times, you could find legit 3M N95 masks here sold for about 30 baht a piece or less....but never for a couple baht as with the paper masks.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, Thian said:

This is why there aren't any mouthmasks for sale in BKK....when will the new stock arrive general?

 

I think they'll need to form a committee to investigate about that!  

[Bluespunk]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

The department’s deputy director-general, Prayote Pensut, said today that officials, on routine surfing of the internet to look for face masks for sale online, found an advertisement offering masks for sale at 14 baht each.

Supply and demand...

[userabcd]

Was in the Indra shopping centre a few days ago and noticed a group of South Asians loudly haggling over the cost of 20 baht for a mouth mask with one of the Thai small business sellers. One of them picked it up and then ungraciously threw it down when the old Thai lady would not agree to his price. 

[Canuck1966]

Price gouging all the time, especially when there are holidays and hotels/airlines etc want to squeeze a bit more out of everybody

[leeneeds]

Soon a ban on kissing will be enforced 

[Gulfsailor]

8 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

 

I think the masks in the OP here are the (normally cheap) paper drugstore variety -- not the N95 particulate type masks... 

 

When the govt here talks about overcharging for masks, they seem to be focused entirely on the cheap paper kind, which are the same kind the government has been distributing to the public and/or selling on its own.

 

The status of the N95 masks and their pricing, when they can be found here, seems to be absolutely nowhere in the picture. In better times, you could find legit 3M N95 masks here sold for about 30 baht a piece or less....but never for a couple baht as with the paper masks.

 

 

When the Coronavirus news was just starting to be noticed, I ordered a box of 50 3M N95 respirators on Lazada. Total cost 790 Baht. Since then prices have gone up 10 fold!

[userabcd]

Last week noticed a lot of people were wearing these masks whilst travelling on the BTS and in the shopping malls. Yesterday there was noticeably much less people wearing face protection, seems the people are coming to terms with their paranoia.

Edited February 20, 2020 by userabcd

[JerseytoBKK]

3 hours ago, Thian said:

This is why there aren't any mouthmasks for sale in BKK....when will the new stock arrive general?

The local Home Pro had plenty yesterday. The cheap ones were 99 B for 10 pack and they had lots of different better quality masks also.

[Don Mega]

so if 14b each is overcharging what is the government controlled price ?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3 hours ago, Don Mega said:

so if 14b each is overcharging what is the government controlled price ?

 

I think the government has been selling the cheap paper drugstore type masks for a couple baht a piece, and I think they indicated their own cost to produce them was 1 or 2 baht a apiece.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3 hours ago, JerseytoBKK said:

The local Home Pro had plenty yesterday. The cheap ones were 99 B for 10 pack and they had lots of different better quality masks also.

 

Those, I'm pretty sure, are the NON N95 variety... of which they seem to be pretty universally out of stock and have been for weeks now.

 

Last weekend, I spent some time with the HomePro website. For N95 masks, their online ordering system is totally out. But via their website, it supposedly also shows when some items are instead in stock in local stores. And the website showed that the supposedly had some 3M and other N95 masks in very small numbers at various branches around BKK.

 

So, I had my wife call around to various of those HomePro branches and have the store staff check their stock, before we made a potential trip to those various somewhat far away locations from our home. And, for every HP store that my wife called, they didn't actually have any of the N95 masks that their website said they supposedly had in stock.

[Don Mega]

2 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I think the government has been selling the cheap paper drugstore type masks for a couple baht a piece, and I think they indicated their own cost to produce them was 1 or 2 baht a apiece.

 

Right, so he should have been selling them for the government price ?...

 

Sounds like someone is <deleted> cause this person made more money than him !!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

Right, so he should have been selling them for the government price ?...

 

Sounds like someone is <deleted> cause this person made more money than him !!

 

The government supposedly has been selling their masks at cost or close to cost... Just what they expected private merchants to do with their prices for the same type of product, I'm not clear beyond that they weren't supposed to be raising their prices to take advantage of the shortage.

 

 

[mok199]

Today at our newest DIY store I was totally impressed, as they offer free masks , on the honour system no less ,1/ customer.....

Edited February 20, 2020 by mok199

[Don Mega]

18 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

The government supposedly has been selling their masks at cost or close to cost... Just what they expected private merchants to do with their prices for the same type of product, I'm not clear beyond that they weren't supposed to be raising their prices to take advantage of the shortage.

 

 

If they were N95 masks is 14b excessive ?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

6 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

If they were N95 masks is 14b excessive ?

 

14b would be cheap for a real N95 mask, which is an entirely different product from the paper drugstore variety.

 

[terminatorchiangmai]

meanwhile on the internet : https://www.ubuy.co.th/en/search/?q=surgical+masks

 

Makes me wonder who has a share in this company.