American expat charged with defamation after leaving multiple negative reviews online

[ScotBkk]

14 minutes ago, Kaopad999 said:

I think it's the complete opposite, the ones that usually complain about everything Thai are the "old miserly grumpy faced farts"
The ones that  actually enjoy living here don't need to complain every 2 minutes. 

Kaopad999

It's just like the old adage life's too short and should be enjoyed to the fullest. Nothing is forever in this world not even our problems. Have a great day and all the best and thanks for your reply

 

[Foghorn]

I hope the hotel gets the publicity it deserves 

[rott]

13 minutes ago, Leef said:

Sure the only think that matters is is what he said true or a lie. If he lied then he deserves trouble if he told the truth then he should be left alone.

Not according to the law, you do not "impair a person's reputation". Also "the truth is not a defence for private matters that are not a benefit to the public." 

 

Extracts from the Thai Criminal Code on Defamation. 

[Alanmel]

14 hours ago, sucit said:

Let's get past step one first.

 

HOW is it even ok to ever contact a guest who has left a review? There are all sorts of things the hotel could hold over the head of the reviewer to "convince" him to change it. If this is ok, maybe it should be ok for people to contact jury members in court cases during a trial. I hope we can all see how damaging that could be. 

 

The hotel cannot contact a guest after a review, will never be appropriate. Contacting the website about removing the review for inappropriateness, go ahead. 

Actually that is exactly how TripAdvisor works, once a review has been submitted, the business gets a chance to answer the reviewers comments. Also before the review is published it is cleared by TripAdvisor for profanity hate speech etc, which is why the reveiw with slavery comment was not published. 

[Ventenio]

This is why it's great to be a business in Thailand!!!!!!  These farangs come here, give me 100,000,000 billion baht and then IF they complain I will sue them for 100 zillion baht and throw them in jail.

 

These farangs love not having rights.  The farangs love being controlled.  The farangs enjoy not being able to do or say anything.   And these farangs keep coming.......wow, really not very clever these people.   soon farangs will be jailed if not tip and leave me best review ever.   

[Don Mega]

24 minutes ago, TSF said:

Agree entirely, damned if I'd pay 6000bt a night to stay there, sounds like a horrible place to stay. 

Yeah I would not pay 6k a night there either, the price of 5000 for 2 nights however.... I will enjoy my weekend away !!

[Don Mega]

2 minutes ago, Ventenio said:

This is why it's great to be a business in Thailand!!!!!!  These farangs come here, give me 100,000,000 billion baht and then IF they complain I will sue them for 100 zillion baht and throw them in jail.

 

These farangs love not having rights.  The farangs love being controlled.  The farangs enjoy not being able to do or say anything.   And these farangs keep coming.......wow, really not very clever these people.   soon farangs will be jailed if not tip and leave me best review ever.   

utter dribble.

 

[rott]

28 minutes ago, riclag said:

Spot on ! May I apologize for this individual, he obviously has delusions of entitlement ! No wonder why Thais say many falangs are kee neow! I believe you Brits would say a cheap Charlie

Cheap Charlie is a Thai phrase adopted here by many nationalities. Not heard very much for a while, in my experience anyway. 

[rott]

6 minutes ago, tandor said:

...a private matter. There really are more important things to worry about! 

He made it public, no-one else. 

[Neeranam]

Look at this and tell me whose side you believe.

 

https://www.kmbc.com/article/kc-man-charged-with-firing-shots-outside-waldo-bar-2nd-business/13054510?fbclid=IwAR2bT1klWHEV4yDRyb8eACRoMBElI_p3NShVduxVz13nH28WqoV2j02xk4o#

[Mansell]

Between the quarantine and being arrested for leaving a bad review about a hotel experience .....tourists will be flocking back in their droves....NOT!

l stayed at a place on an island in Thailand, and the Thai owner took a dislike to me based on nothing. She would make disparaging remarks about me as I walked into the restaurant. I pointed out to her that her customer service skills were lacking, which was like water off a ducks back. She never gave up slagging me. Eventually I used to just laugh at her and shout, “Ting Tong!” The rest of the staff were fine with me.

I am an easy going person, but found it all bizarre. If I hadn’t paid for a month ahead of time, I would have left. I figured eventually she was actually mentally unbalanced.

[OneMoreFarang]

A low class American who has no idea what corkage charge is and with an attitude problem. What could possibly go wrong?

[polpott]

7 minutes ago, Ventenio said:

This is why it's great to be a business in Thailand!!!!!!  These farangs come here, give me 100,000,000 billion baht and then IF they complain I will sue them for 100 zillion baht and throw them in jail.

 

These farangs love not having rights.  The farangs love being controlled.  The farangs enjoy not being able to do or say anything.   And these farangs keep coming.......wow, really not very clever these people.   soon farangs will be jailed if not tip and leave me best review ever.   

I live in Thailand and realize I don't have rights and it's futile to complain about service. If I ever have problems with a hotel I just urinate on the curtains before I leave.

[rott]

3 hours ago, Don Mega said:

I think it is great, these internet bullies need to dealt with.

 

and FWIW I booked a 2 night stay and the cost is Bt.5,000.

That makes three of your posts that I've agreed with, I must give up the drink. 

[marinediscoking]

1 hour ago, chuang said:

Kee Nok farang.....????

Hotel room was 6k 

[Neeranam]

16 minutes ago, Expat Tom said:

"You aren't in Kansas anymore Dorothy." 

And you can't fire guns in bars in Kansas.

Shocking that this guy fled the US and got a job teaching kids. He'll never work again in Thailand.

https://www.kmbc.com/article/kc-man-charged-with-firing-shots-outside-waldo-bar-2nd-business/13054510?fbclid=IwAR2bT1klWHEV4yDRyb8eACRoMBElI_p3NShVduxVz13nH28WqoV2j02xk4o#

[polpott]

Just now, marinediscoking said:

Hotel room was 6k 

I think the guy made a number of "exaggerations". The price of the room being one of them.

[djayz]

The very fact that this guy posted reviews on numerous sites about the same place/incident tells me all I need to know about him. 

 

[rexall]

1 hour ago, Bogbrush said:

I once wrote in an (otherwise fairly complimentary) review on the Hyatt hotel in Kwantan that ‘the reception area was as large and bleak as a North Korean parade ground.’ TA wouldn’t publish it.

 

 

I have no doubt that TA would balk at you besmerking North Korea in that way!  Bleak parade grounds, indeed!

[Neeranam]

? 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Neeranam

[Baerboxer]

2 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

And you can't fire guns in bars in Kansas.

Shocking that this guy fled the US and got a job teaching kids. He'll never work again in Thailand.

https://www.kmbc.com/article/kc-man-charged-with-firing-shots-outside-waldo-bar-2nd-business/13054510?fbclid=IwAR2bT1klWHEV4yDRyb8eACRoMBElI_p3NShVduxVz13nH28WqoV2j02xk4o#

 

Wow! How on earth do people like this get jobs teaching? Background clearance checks should have revealed this. Seems very unstable from this report if it's the same person.

[Mansell]

Simple answer. I don’t want to go to prison based on my hotel review. I won’t be leaving any reviews of any hotel I stay at....can’t keep track of all the passwords I need for leaving reviews anyway. Bye Bye reviews.

[Don Mega]

5 minutes ago, marinediscoking said:

Hotel room was 6k 

And if he had of booked online, like the hotel suggested he could have got the room a lot cheaper !!

[Susco]

1 minute ago, Don Mega said:

7 minutes ago, marinediscoking said:

Hotel room was 6k 

And if he had of booked online, like the hotel suggested he could have got the room a lot cheaper !!

Do you know which room he had, as they have rooms as high as 7600 Baht per night, booked online

 

Maybe he didn't want to go for the cheapest, unlike you?

[rexall]

20 minutes ago, Foghorn said:

They want reviews for help give good name but cry at bad reviews , shouldn’t have it both ways .

I understand hotel are suffering but ain’t foreigners fault , the virus is chinese

It's just "honor culture" poo-poo!  A morbid intolerance of anything that smacks of an insult. "You can't say that about my mama!!!!   Grrrrrrr!!!"  Psychologically, very primitive stuff. The Hatfields vs. the McCoys.  Romeo and Juliet.  The solution is to grow a thicker hide rather than trying to control what other people say (and thereby control what they think).

[John Drake]

1 hour ago, Tchooptip said:

Oh well to say that the way the hotel uses its staff is modern slavery for you that's just a negative review?

He didn't say it "is" slavery. He said "The foreigners treat the staff like slaves." That is a simile, in the same manner that "my love is like a red, red rose." My love is not actually a rose. It is a figure of speech, a comparison. Similarly read what the earlier term, "modern day slavery" means. The US State Department says: "Forced labor, sometimes also referred to as labor trafficking, encompasses the range of activities—recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining—involved when a person uses force or physical threats, psychological coercion, abuse of the legal process, deception, or other coercive means to compel someone to work."  https://www.state.gov/what-is-modern-slavery/ . I certainly cannot claim that is the case in this instance. I have no knowledge about the resort whatsoever and would never make a judgment on the rightness or wrongness of their complaint. 

   https://twitter.com/RichardBarrow/status/1309817382559391745/photo/1

[DirtyHarry55]

7 minutes ago, djayz said:

The very fact that this guy posted reviews on numerous sites about the same place/incident tells me all I need to know about him. 

 

Originally he posted om Tripadvisor which the Hotel had removed so then he posted 2 reviews on Google as far as I know that's all.
 

[TKDfella]

16 hours ago, HiSoLowSoNoSo said:

Thrown in jail for giving a bad review! Even if he is wrong, this is not good PR for Thailand as a tourist destination.

Quite! I see it the same way. It doesn't matter if the guy was wrong in what he did or not, the hotel could have handled it differently. Suing someone for defamation is a risk in itself because of the bad publicity that BOTH parties get. Putting the guy in jail does not necessarily exonerate the hotel and some are bound to see it that way.

[nervona81732]

I'll never go there now. There just XXXX canned my BIZ. 

[tomauasia]

17 hours ago, CorpusChristie said:

Fully deserved , using websites to attack a resort, all because they wouldnt let him beer from 7/11 in 

 

He has every right to his opinion. I don't even bother myself. But l wouldn't invest 5 baht there. This law needs to abolished with a civilian gov. It's used for corrupt bullying. This is why good family's won't go to Thailand. They fear and my brother in law is one. A quick Google sends fear into some.