A taxi driver has been banned from picking up passengers at Thailand’s largest airport for allegedly using a fake list of flat-rate fares to overcharge a Taiwanese visitor for a ride from Suvarnabhumi International Airport to central Bangkok.

 

The driver allegedly charged her 1,200 to 1,500 baht. The cost by meter is about 300 baht.

 

Besides being banned from the airport for life, he may lose his license to operate a taxi.

 

Airport management said on Sunday that the unnamed taxi driver had been using a fake list of fares that used flat rates per destination.

 

Full story: https://bangkokone.news/taxi-driver-banned-from-picking-up-passengers/

 

-- © Copyright BANGKOK ONE NEWS 2023-03-20

 

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I'm thinking if they looked harder they may just find a few more????  ????

Edited March 19, 20233 yr by mushroomdave

can you trust anyone in this place ... I doubt it.   hahaha

31 minutes ago, steven100 said:

can you trust anyone in this place

including you ? right.

Just now, stoner said:

including you ? right.

and you ?  right. 

1 minute ago, stoner said:

including you ? right.

lets just say if i was a taxi driver i wouldn't go around ripping off customers.

Just now, steven100 said:

lets just say if i was a taxi driver i wouldn't go around ripping off customers.

riiiiiight. and your choice of avatar backs that up solidly. 

2 minutes ago, steven100 said:

and you ?  right. 

right. 

1 hour ago, mushroomdave said:

I'm thinking if they looked harder they may just find a few more????  ????

Without question... although I am expecting a 'honest taxi driver returns bag to tourist containing 50,000 baht' any time now.

4 minutes ago, stoner said:

riiiiiight. and your choice of avatar backs that up solidly. 

She or he was certainly being greedy,  I mean 1200 baht for a 300-400 baht fare normally.  I bet there's others trying that on to tourists who don't know the price ....

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The driver allegedly charged her 1,200 to 1,500 baht. The cost by meter is about 300 baht.

Welcome to Thailand.

This guy makes the pirates on some islands look cheap

I find it always amazing when news like this is presented like: We finally found the one. Problem solved.

 

And he probably thinks, and maybe argues: So many others do this. I learned it from them. Why me? When I do just the same as everybody else.

 

TiT 

1 hour ago, mushroomdave said:

I'm thinking if they looked harder they may just find a few more????  ????

A few. That's being modest. 

It's all one big mistake, the Taiwanese passenger misread the cheat-sheet and the cabbie thought the extra was a generous tip.

"Besides being banned from the airport for life, he may lose his license to operate a taxi."

 

Should have added:

 

"On the other hand, we normally will allow him to keep his license and continue victimizing passengers as long as he doesn't pick them up at the airport."

Edited March 19, 20233 yr by JimmyJ

Airport taxis have been ripping people off since Noah was a lad.

I had many arguments going from DM to my apartment back in the early 90's.

I suppose that the only  reason this is news is that they have stopped one driver.

I say name and shame with a mugshot of the driver and his vehicle with licence plate numbers shown. That would act as a deterrent to others (loss of face).

 

2 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

Airport taxis have been ripping people off since Noah was a lad.

I had many arguments going from DM to my apartment back in the early 90's.

I suppose that the only  reason this is news is that they have stopped one driver.

I now use the A2 bus for DMK at just 30 Baht. Avoids the taxi driver menace and often long wait times and rejections for Bolt/Grab too.

 

2 hours ago, steven100 said:

She or he was certainly being greedy,  I mean 1200 baht for a 300-400 baht fare normally.  I bet there's others trying that on to tourists who don't know the price ....

Another thing is when you're new to a country you don't have a keen handle on the value of the currency.

 

1 dollar

35 baht

15000 IDR

 

Oh, it's only 300b - yes, that's ten dollars US!

2 hours ago, steven100 said:

She or he was certainly being greedy,  I mean 1200 baht for a 300-400 baht fare normally.  I bet there's others trying that on to tourists who don't know the price ....

Best I can recall was the taxi driver who could speak some English, half way swampy to the city said 'please show me the taxi card you received at the airport, see, it says 50Baht for airport taxi service, it's a printing error, it's actually 500Baht'.

Airport link train from BKK or Red Line from DMK to City Centre 44 bt and 33bt respectively.

Ok, tourists with luggage want the convenience of a taxi so prominent notices at Immigration in many languages should inform tourists to insist on the use of meter.

In decades of using Bangkok taxis I've had one bad experience and that was on my first visit.

Bangkok taxis are among the best in the world.

25 minutes ago, Menken said:

Another thing is when you're new to a country you don't have a keen handle on the value of the currency.

 

1 dollar

35 baht

15000 IDR

 

Oh, it's only 300b - yes, that's ten dollars US!

For many arriving from wealthy countries for the first time, they might not consider 1,200 Baht expensive for a 1 hour taxi ride from an official airport service. In their home country, a 1 hour taxi ride can easily be $100-$200 USD.

 

6 minutes ago, soi3eddie said:

For many arriving from wealthy countries for the first time, they might not consider 1,200 Baht expensive for a 1 hour taxi ride from an official airport service. In their home country, a 1 hour taxi ride can easily be $100-$200 USD.

 

That was not my point at all. It's easy to get tripped up in calculating prices especially jetlag.

 

The problem with this joker is obviously that he hid the tariff card and didn't use the meter.

 

Great job of pointing out the obvious though

Edited March 20, 20233 yr by Menken

20 minutes ago, Red Forever said:

Airport link train from BKK or Red Line from DMK to City Centre 44 bt and 33bt respectively.

Ok, tourists with luggage want the convenience of a taxi so prominent notices at Immigration in many languages should inform tourists to insist on the use of meter.

In decades of using Bangkok taxis I've had one bad experience and that was on my first visit.

Bangkok taxis are among the best in the world.

I guess you have never been to Singapore ?

1 hour ago, Tropicalevo said:

Airport taxis have been ripping people off since Noah was a lad.

I had many arguments going from DM to my apartment back in the early 90's.

I suppose that the only  reason this is news is that they have stopped one driver.

ONLY ONE......thats the problem.......there are hundreds of them!!!!

4 hours ago, JimmyJ said:

"Besides being banned from the airport for life, he may lose his license to operate a taxi."

 

Should have added:

 

"On the other hand, we normally will allow him to keep his license and continue victimizing passengers as long as he doesn't pick them up at the airport."

Yes. And I assume that extortion isn't a crime that can lead to arrest in Thailand. Well, we know that don't we, because I'm told that the police are quite adept at it so it must be legal.

People who use the airport can call 1584 if see any taxi driver at the airport refusing to use a meter.

 

Very funny. I called 1584 once and they told me to call the tourist police number. I did, and they told me to call 1584.

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

Best I can recall was the taxi driver who could speak some English, half way swampy to the city said 'please show me the taxi card you received at the airport, see, it says 50Baht for airport taxi service, it's a printing error, it's actually 500Baht'.

did you suggest returning to the airport to sort out the problem ????

3 hours ago, Red Forever said:

Bangkok taxis are among the best in the world.

[Bangkok taxis are among the best cheapest in the world]

 

There... I corrected it for you....  Bangkok taxi’s are by far, not the best in the world. 

But, they are excellent value for money when the driver is doing things ‘properly’... 

 

By ‘properly’ I mean not attempting some angle to take advantage of the customer, not driving recklessly, not drunk, not high, not overloaded on M-150... 

 

In many cases the taxi drivers are excellent, also in many cases they are not....

 

The anecdotal “I’ve never had a problem” ergo Bangkok Taxi’s are great types of posts are ridiculous. Clearly the standards, service and degree of rip-off attempts vary significantly.

 

-------

 

One point though - New tourists (people who do not know their way around) often suspect the taxi driver of taking the ‘long way round’.... I thought so too when first in Bangkok. But, I actually find this to be a very rare issue, the one way systems can get in the way of logical navigation which is perhaps what lends to the ’suspicions’ of newbies who do not know the intricacies of the routing through or around Bangkok (its often quicker to take a long way round on an expressway for example).