Frustrated with Pattaya beach deckchair businesses!

[BE88]

But didn't you go to Turkey and then to Mauritania recently ?

Why are you in Pattaya now ?

[richard_smith237]

46 minutes ago, thierryviteau said:

As you haven't just landed, it seems that even 20 years later you still know nothing about the country where you live...

... by the way, any idea where is the next place where you will fail and then move again ?

not opening a bar in Pattaya ? so maybe it's not totally useless if at least you have learnt something from your past...

Why attack the Op in this pathetic childish manner... 

 

He makes a valid point about the deck-chair vendors being pushy....  

 

Is there something in the water in Thailand that makes some guys ‘go native’ and find the pushy and sometimes aggressive behaviour acceptable when a tourist (visitor), expat of foreigner complains about such behaviour ?

 

These deck-chair operators have been a problem in Thailand for a long time - they have been enough of a problem that the government has tried to do something about it a number of times in the past (a google search finds plenty of news articles about that).

 

 

Some guys just can’t accept a perfectly reasonable observation - these deck-chair vendors can be unfriendly, unwelcoming and attempt to rip people off....  because it has happened for a long time does not make it acceptable.

 

The Op is quite right, he’d paid 100B, why should he be refused a 30 minute seat or charged extra for the seat. Why should he be rushed along, especially when no one else was waiting for seats etc...

 

This is just horrible behaviour by uneducated scum trying to rip off a tourist...  they may have had no business for the past couple of years, but lets not pretend that these folk are nice innocent business folk, they are solely in the game of ripping off tourists. 

 

 

 

 

[simon43]

48 minutes ago, Denim said:

Ah.....I think I'll nip down Ladbrokes and see what odds I can get on you remaining there for more than 6 months .

At least when I'm on my deathbed, I can look back at the memories (good and bad) of all these places that I've visited during my life. I'd say that's better than living in only one place.

[simon43]

3 minutes ago, BE88 said:

But didn't you go to Turkey and then to Mauritania recently ?

Why are you in Pattaya now ?

Yawn - read the posts FGS, I'm not explaining again.....

[simon43]

39 minutes ago, jippytum said:

The price of a coconut is 30 baht and to rent a chair is 100 baht. You arranged a free chair while you drank the coconut. The vendor assuming you would do that in a reasonable time. I think you tried to linger too long and have a 'free' chair. 

Nope - all the other, previous vendors last month said 100 baht for a coconut and chair for as long as you want to sit there ????

 

Update:  In any case, it's their loss.  Tomorrow I'll go and sit in the bar opposite and wave at them while I enjoy my 'fixed-price' drink!

Edited May 13, 2022 by simon43

[bbko]

3 minutes ago, simon43 said:

Nope - all the other, previous vendors last month said 100 baht for a coconut and chair for as long as you want to sit there ????

You realize the cost of living has taken a sharp upturn in the past few weeks right? Everything from Mama noodles to pork, to eggs, to cooking oil, to gasoline, is on the increase.  

[ThailandRyan]

7 minutes ago, simon43 said:

At least when I'm on my deathbed, I can look back at the memories (good and bad) of all these places that I've visited during my life. I'd say that's better than living in only one place.

Are you headed back to Cambodia anytime soon? If so let us know how things are going over there now.

[ThailandRyan]

1 minute ago, bbko said:

You realize the cost of living has taken a sharp upturn in the past few weeks right? Everything from Mama noodles to pork, to eggs, to cooking oil, to gasoline, is on the increase.  

So the cost of a beach chair has risen in that time as well as coconuts?  I dont think the vendors have bought those chairs in the past two weeks and coconuts are selling out of the back of truck and on the roadsides for between 10 and 20 baht.  I even observed pineapples being sold for as low as 10 baht on the roadsides on our return from Phuket a week and a half ago.

[bbko]

1 minute ago, ThailandRyan said:

So the cost of a beach chair has risen in that time as well as coconuts?  I dont think the vendors have bought those chairs in the past two weeks and coconuts are selling out of the back of truck and on the roadsides for between 10 and 20 baht.  I even observed pineapples being sold for as low as 10 baht on the roadsides on our return from Phuket a week and a half ago.

The OP himself said the vendors are pulling up in new cars, those cars don't run on coconuts.  Vendors gotta eat, their cost of living is on the rise.  The OP can buy a coconut for your said 10-20b and sit on the promenade, free of cost and drama.

[Kinnock]

A friend has the concession for deck chairs on Bangsaen beach.  He has to pay 5 million THB to the local government each year for one narrow strip of the beach, and he got no refund for when the beach was closed due to COVID.

 

It's his only business, so people paying to sit in his chairs is his only revenue, so I understand why he does not want to offer discounts.

[chickenslegs]

3 minutes ago, Kinnock said:

A friend has the concession for deck chairs on Bangsaen beach.  He has to pay 5 million THB to the local government each year for one narrow strip of the beach, and he got no refund for when the beach was closed due to COVID.

 

It's his only business, so people paying to sit in his chairs is his only revenue, so I understand why he does not want to offer discounts.

He has to clear 14,000 baht each day just to break even?

[Daffy D]

Here's a strange concept.

 

Instead of chasing the only customer away why not encourage them to stay thereby encouraging more customers to come in.?

 

Don't know about you, I rarely go into a place that is totally empty of customers.

 

Just a thought. 

[Olmate]

2 minutes ago, bbko said:

The OP himself said the vendors are pulling up in new cars, those cars don't run on coconuts.  Vendors gotta eat, their cost of living is on the rise.  The OP can buy a coconut for your said 10-20b and sit on the promenade, free of cost and drama.

Spot On. Anyway most vendors have seats n table nearby to sit n consume drinks free without disrupting lounges. 

[orchis]

Just now, 2009 said:

And to think: tourists choose to come HERE!! LOL

and yourself.

[ThailandRyan]

4 minutes ago, bbko said:

The OP himself said the vendors are pulling up in new cars, those cars don't run on coconuts.  Vendors gotta eat, their cost of living is on the rise.  The OP can buy a coconut for your said 10-20b and sit on the promenade, free of cost and drama.

Your a riot. Well don't that beat all, a coconut chair vendor needing to pay for their new supercar or Mercedes, shame on me for thinking they were regular folks.  A new car can be as little as 300k to 450k depending on the make and model.  If they are pulling up in new trucks then they are still only paying a max of 6k to 8k a month, so lets just say they need to rent their coconut fueled chair 5,000 times in one month to pay off that vehicle, so they must be rich folks. 

 

When we visited Pattaya Beach I pulled out our own beach chairs from the back of my car to sit on, and you should have seen the consternation on their faces especially when I walked the cooler full of food and drinks down to where we were sitting.  It got pretty uncomfortable with the dirty looks the vendors were giving us, so after about 30 minutes we decided to pack up and drive out to Bang Saray where we stayed on the beach which was fairly empty.  As another poster mentioned, the issues brought up are why the government boys got involved and kicked many of the vendors off of the beaches and even tore down the stands they had built.

[JonnyF]

2 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

They have experienced real hardship over the last two years  and they are  desperate.

Yeah, because they were all so polite, friendly and welcoming before Covid ????.

 

A lot of them are just ripoff merchants. I remember ordering a bottle of water from them and when it came the water was luke warm and the seal on the lid had already been broken. Checked with the girlfriend who confirmed they were refilling it from the 1-2 Baht vending machines and then selling it for twice the price of a legit, unopened bottle from 711. They probably hadn't even washed the bottle since they did the same thing to the previous customer. Scammers. The OP was right to complain IMO. People who tolerate this nonsense only encourage it.

[ThailandRyan]

5 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

He has to clear 14,000 baht each day just to break even?

That would be 140 chair rentals for the day and the gravy would be the selling of drinks. Doable during the high season

[simon43]

13 minutes ago, Kinnock said:

A friend has the concession for deck chairs on Bangsaen beach.  He has to pay 5 million THB to the local government each year for one narrow strip of the beach, and he got no refund for when the beach was closed due to COVID.

 

It's his only business, so people paying to sit in his chairs is his only revenue, so I understand why he does not want to offer discounts.

I'm not asking for a frigging discount!  When I ask "is the deckchair free if I buy your coconut drink for 100 baht" and they say "yes", I don't expect that to mean "yes, if you drink up quick and <deleted> off!!".

[StayinThailand2much]

40 minutes ago, simon43 said:

Nope - all the other, previous vendors last month said 100 baht for a coconut (...)

You'd have to be nuts to pay 100 baht for a coconut! - Maybe some Saudis or Russians could be made to believe that this is the price of a coconut...

[2009]

45 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

This is just horrible behaviour by uneducated scum trying to rip off a tourist...  they may have had no business for the past couple of years, but lets not pretend that these folk are nice innocent business folk, they are solely in the game of ripping off tourists. 

 

Exactly

 

These kinds of people deserve no business; they can do something else.

 

They don't even attemp to serve their valued customer well.

 

I don't mind incompetent people if they are trying, but these ones are a different breed.

[Ohyesuare]

8 minutes ago, simon43 said:

I'm not asking for a frigging discount!  When I ask "is the deckchair free if I buy your coconut drink for 100 baht" and they say "yes", I don't expect that to mean "yes, if you drink up quick and <deleted> off!!".

Now you know and should expect that. Pattaya is a tourist city with the majority focused on squeezing the most they can out of each tourist and not worrying at all about repeat business or friendly customer service. I find all the vendors much more friendlier in Jomtien.

[2009]

1 minute ago, StayinThailand2much said:

You'd have to be nuts to pay 100 baht for a coconut! - Maybe some Saudis or Russians could be made to believe that this is the price of a coconut...

I agree.... however its probably better value than a small bottle of Leo for 120

[StayinThailand2much]

23 minutes ago, simon43 said:

It's his only business, so people paying to sit in his chairs is his only revenue, so I understand why he does not want to offer discounts.

Fair enough. Even though, I consider some of these people scum (nothing to do with the business as such), I still understand their need to make an income with fewer tourists. As long as they clearly tell what their prices are, I have no problem with that. But I don't want to go on a beach holiday, where I, just before leaving, am presented with a huge bill like in an upstairs Patpong bar... Tell me upfront that the price of a chair is 150 baht, and 120 for a coconut, and I will just chuckle and walk past. Once they know that they have to consume all their overpriced nuts themselves, prices will come down (probably not for the chairs, but for everything else)...

Edited May 13, 2022 by StayinThailand2much

[StayinThailand2much]

3 hours ago, 1FinickyOne said:

In the old days, we would sit for hours in the beach chairs in Cha'am... I think 20 baht for the day... and ladies would parade past selling plates of mussels and som tam and whatever delicacies for 20 baht a plate... 

I can remember, how a guy, about 20 years ago in Patong, regularly gave me one of those big wooden chairs (then 100 baht rent) for free. "Just don't tell my boss", he always said... Something like that never happened to me in Pattaya.

[lahgon29]

1 hour ago, StayinThailand2much said:

Wow, that's what I call inflation! Only 4-5 years ago 'a chair' on Pattaya's beach was 40 or 50 baht. (A coconut cost about the same as mentioned.) - Looking forward to my beach holiday in Cairns...

Mate, the last time I was in Cairns there was no beach, just a small strip of sand. Crocs in the estuary, stingers in the sea, no deckchairs and, I think 4 bucks up for a coconut.

Maybe things have cha ged, but I doubt it. 

[2009]

3 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

You looked for a confrontation and you got  one - well done. These vendors  are poverty stricken and their families can barely  afford  to send their kids to school. They have experienced real hardship over the last two years  and they are  desperate.

I am astonished, embarrassed and a little bit sickened  by the entitled  arrogance of some foreigners here. But not the OP of course whose daily expenditure of 35 baht is a valuable  contribution  to the micro economy  of the beach vendors.

There's no excuse treating people like that. And ironically, they chase away customers.

 

Mate, if you think they care about their children's education more than money, you are naïve.

 

If they were scamming people, I'd have sympathy for their 2 year loss if earnings, but that's not the way it is.

 

I don't think the OP was looking for confrontation; in fact he come across as very reasonable. It was the business owner that confronted him.

 

The only thing thst matters to them is money and ego.

 

 

[StayinThailand2much]

17 minutes ago, lahgon29 said:

Mate, the last time I was in Cairns there was no beach, just a small strip of sand. Crocs in the estuary, stingers in the sea, no deckchairs and, I think 4 bucks up for a coconut.

Maybe things have cha ged, but I doubt it. 

Will be my first trip to Cairns. At least it will be a nice change. Love Oz!

Edited May 13, 2022 by StayinThailand2much

[Jai Dee]

21 minutes ago, StayinThailand2much said:

Will be my first trip to Cairns.

Off-topic I know, but just to help you out... Guide to Cairns beaches

[allanos]

At  Jomtien, I can look at the sea from the comfort of the open restaurant area of 

the EuroStar Hotel, sit at a table in a cozy chair, and sip coconut juice for as long as

I like for around 45b a pop.

 

Why would I go through the repeated "ordeals" of the OP? Lol

Edited May 13, 2022 by allanos
typo

[StayinThailand2much]

13 minutes ago, Jai Dee said:

Off-topic I know, but just to help you out... Guide to Cairns beaches

Thanks! I'm hoping to visit Daintree Rainforest further up north too. Been planning that trip since 2019.