How I Got Cheated

[klons]

(I didn't write this, just passing it along))

How I Got Cheated While Waiting for a Bangkok Airport Bus

Sunday, 11th January 2009

Crazy Bangkok BusI was standing at a bus stop at the On Nut BTS station waiting for the Bangkok airport bus 552 at about 12 noon yesterday. I was told the bus goes directly to the Suvarnabhumi international airport and only costs 32 THB.

I thought I was going to have a pleasant journey to the airport but I was wrong, dead wrong.

This noisy bus stopped in front of the bus stop and this ruffian came down and snatched my luggage, which was less than 1 feet away from me. I was left speechless and stunned for a couple of seconds. Then I realised this man was running back to his bus with my luggage!

His bus then started driving away. What did I do? I was not going to stand there and let him steal my luggage so I ran after his moving bus and jumped aboard. I asked him what he was doing and where his bus was going. I told him I wanted to go to the Suvarnabhumi airport and he told me it would cost me 80 THB.

I paid him the money and sulked at my bad luck. 80 THB is not a lot of money as long as they get me to the airport. I thought that was the end of the whole crazy incident but I was wrong.

You see the 3 guys in my picture above? The fat guy standing next to the door was the guy who snatched my luggage. Whenever they went past a bus stop, the 3 guys would run down the bus and yell at people to board their bus. They kept doing that at every single bus stop and they would gesture rudely at people who refused to board the bus.

I sensed something was amiss. If they kept doing this at every bus stop, maybe they aren’t going directly to the airport. All these people who boarded their bus did not look like people who were going to the airport! dam_n! I was right. They stopped for a toilet break or something a drink/snack seller boarded the bus and tried to sell us his stuff. This never happened when I took the airport bus from the airport to the city area.

At one of the bus stops, a rather attractive Thai lady boarded the bus and sat on the seat the skinny guy on the left was sitting on. Bad mistake! The guy on the right started getting really close to her and kept on staring at her. I could see she was unhappy and uncomfortable with the man’s advances.

I saw the bus headed for an expressway and I thought they were going to drive me to the airport. Instead, the pulled over and dropped me where 2 motorcycle taxis were. One of the men told me to get a taxi from there to the airport. I was in no mood to argue and quickly alighted the bus without saying thank you or anything nice. I was outnumbered and outsmarted by these cunning bastards. I wish I could take a picture of their faces but this photo was the best I could get.

I flagged a taxi and paid another 125 THB before I could reach the airport. What was supposed to be a 30 minute journey for 32 THB, cost me 295 THB and more than 1 hour of my time.

I learnt 1 thing from this experience…

1. Sit on or hold onto your luggage when you are at a bus stop to avoid getting your luggage snatched away like mine. If you’re a farang (Caucasian), you’re a more prominent target than an Asian guy like me so be vigilant!

This is by far my worst Thailand experience. I have had taxi drivers who drove me around in circles, Tuk Tuk drivers who drove to a different destination but this is on totally different level of scamming.

http://www.vincentrich.com/2009/01/11/how-...irport-bus.html

[UncleFrank]

Typical.

Just another scam.

I even hear they have been selling fake city tours at a tour office in the airport.

The company sells you a 'city tour' and they take you to gem shops, ripoff tailors and generally scam everybody.

No temples as they are "closed" today!

Try calling the Tourist Police or TAT and you will be disappointed with their response.

[syd barrett]

At Ekamai beware of the Pattaya bus hawkers. They will get you on an old bus that takes 5 hours to Pattaya for 150 Baht, when you should really take a Rung Rong bus at 130 Baht 1.5 hours.

[bensalu]

there is a mini van that you can catch from On Nut to the airport about 25 baht every 30 minutes

[loong]

At Ekamai beware of the Pattaya bus hawkers. They will get you on an old bus that takes 5 hours to Pattaya for 150 Baht, when you should really take a Rung Rong bus at 130 Baht 1.5 hours.

Always buy your ticket at the sales window, never get on a bus outside without a ticket. These bus Hawkers (good name) will tell you no time as the bus is just leaving then will drive 100 meters down the road for 20 minutes while harassing for new passengers. This will be repeated many times before getting to your destination.

I made this mistake once - never again Also that bus did not go to the bus station. They actually told me to get off near Jomtien and even asked for a tip. This was my second trip to Thailand and I actually had no idea where I was!

[colino]

The 552 Airport bus is yellow and is an Air con bus with just a driver and a lady conductress, last time i caught it it even had an

English sign saying Suvarnabhumi Airport on the side and the fare was 32 baht,

colino

[hungryhippo]

Tuk Tuk drivers who drove to a different destination

To be fair this is a "glass half empty" kind of thing. Maybe in your situation they were trying to scam you however some tuk tuk driver generally don't know where to go or misunderstand you. It's important that "you're being scammed" is your last thought when it comes to that because otherwise it will just leave you angry. If you take that anger out on a tuktuk driver who went somewhere else because of a misunderstanding then he's never going to pick white people up again.

The original story about the bus is bad. Thanks for sharing it.

[junkofdavid2]

The OP is a scam himself after all!

This post was designed to make us click the OP's link... and you are brought to a sight where you MUST register to sign up, etc... to join his "advertising network" and earn "commissions" ,etc.

Interesting marketing strategy, OP; it really had me for a while.

(All's well end's well... but still, this is SPAM. Sorry. )

Edited January 18, 2009 by junkofdavid2

[Zpete]

The OP is a scam himself after all!

This post was designed to make us click the OP's link... and you are brought to a sight where you MUST register to sign up, etc... to join his "advertising network" and earn "commissions" ,etc.

Interesting marketing strategy, OP; it really had me for a while.

(All's well end's well... but still, this is SPAM. Sorry. )

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaah, ya wrong, I clicked on the spot saying, close, no enter nuffin, you the fool there matey.

Just came straight here.

In LoS, be aware, you were not.

[klons]

The OP is a scam himself after all!

This post was designed to make us click the OP's link... and you are brought to a sight where you MUST register to sign up, etc... to join his "advertising network" and earn "commissions" ,etc.

Interesting marketing strategy, OP; it really had me for a while.

(All's well end's well... but still, this is SPAM. Sorry. )

The OP, me, has a financial interest in natural gas buses. I came across the posted story while googling for bangkok bus. I thought it was an amusing story and quite possibly true. The link was provided to show the source of the story. It is quite common for websites to solicit subscriptions. There is nothing on that webpage that says you MUST sign up for anything.

[junkofdavid2]

Ya, I guess...

I tried it again now but the "close" button didn't appear until after a while.

Using Firefox and not Explorer though... maybe that has something to do with it.

[geriatrickid]

aw gawwd, another lure to a url using the I lost 50 baht format. What is it with satang pinchers that quibble over 100, 200 or 300 baht. It's a frickin pittance. If you have to obsess over saving 100baht to and from the airport, you shouldn't have left your homeland.

Edited January 21, 2009 by geriatrickid

[BigSnake]

Be warn all there are many Scammers out there, it goes withouy saying it is worse in these hard economic times