Abhisit Asks Airport Officials To End Malpractice Problems, Scams

[ChiangMaiFurnishedApts]

Also VERY VERY confusing is the 'limosine Taxi' boot inside and all these limo-agents!

Tourists tend to think that this is the only taxi there is, and don't get informed of more than 100 Bangkok taxi's with meter, waiting for yoy outside!!

Please kick these limo-guys out!! and give CLEAR info where tourist can get a normal taxi, for a normal price (on the meter).

Ciao

I came thru there last week and while I was waiting for the bags to appear I went up to the limo taxi booth that is inside the arrivals hall before Customs. I was shown a sheet with pictures of some cars ranging from a limo down to a regular sedan. I was told that the sedan ( Nissan something ) was " only 950 Bt " and that included taxes !!!

Thats to the city and not Chiang Mai by the way

[Robroy]

Cambodia (where I live now) has caught the official Thai habit: lots of hot air.

Every second day the government announces a 'crackdown' on something or other. A minister blows smoke for an afternoon, & fulminates about touts/corruption/tuk tuk drivers/illegal vehicles/illegal logging/human rights abuses etc...and how it must end NOW!

It's all forgotten by the next morning's editions.

It reminds me of the governor of Chiang Mai reacting to the fires blanketing hundreds of thousands of acres in northern Thailand with smoke in 2007...by banning Korean barbeque restaurants. I think he also ordered the firetrucks into the streets - to spray them with water, moisten the air, & thus encourage rain.

Using Bangkok's Airports since 1983 - first good ol' Don Muang now Suvarnabhumi

I confirm the scams and other "assorted malpractice" hasn't changed in all these years.

Every year an "official" announcement, a good PR- same same but different...

With all respect I have for Abhisit I doubt things will change soon....

[sedeflonga]

better late then never.

I concur. BUT:

I think in any other western country the PM would not ask the airport officials to fix the problem because it is to easy that the culprits get away with it. Abhisit should order a spcial investigation 'without' any Airport officials and take the bad guys in. Airport officials are the cuplrits!!! So don't make cockroach the gardener...

Last time I went to Penang I just passed Immigration and I saw a 10 Ringit Note on the floor, just 5-10meters from immigration checkpoint. I was suspicious because of all I read of scams at Suvannabum Airport. Anyways, I picked it up and was already prepared to get thrown on the ground by Special Airport Swat Unit. It didn't happen. LOL. Still got the 10 Ringit, didnt spend it as a sign of courage!

Do I have Airport paranoia?

EDIT: Typos

Edited August 16, 2009 by sedeflonga

[tim73]

There are no easy solutions for this. If they start prosecuting, most likely the people in lower ranks will be put to jail. That will make Thai people more angry and desperate because more and more families will lose their only source of income. That income supports whole families from kids to grandfathers back in the north or south.

[sedeflonga]

There are no easy solutions for this. If they start prosecuting, most likely the people in lower ranks will be put to jail. That will make Thai people more angry and desperate because more and more families will lose their only source of income. That income supports whole families from kids to grandfathers back in the north or south.

That can happen to 'anyone' who breaks the law. You break it, u pay for it.

[tim73]

That can happen to 'anyone' who breaks the law. You break it, u pay for it.

Easy for you to say when you are not the one living on 5000 Baht salary or less and still trying to send money to your family.

"You break it, u pay for it."

Except Wall Street banksters? Or London Banksters.

[Brewsta]

better late then never.

Here's hoping some concrete and credible policies and actions occur.....

I will, however, be pleasantly surprised if the scammers & handlers are ever identified, let alone convicted.

Sadly, I fear the scammers and their trade will just mutate and continue in an altered form at the Swamp and elsewhere -- this modus operandi is oxygen to this region from cradle to grave - IMHO, of course.

regardz,

Brewsta

[thaiphoon]

Mr. Abhisit said guidelines would be laid out so that transparency and tourist confidence could be restored at the airport.

But he does not say when the guidelines will be implemented ...

[lor]

That can happen to 'anyone' who breaks the law. You break it, u pay for it.

Easy for you to say when you are not the one living on 5000 Baht salary or less and still trying to send money to your family.

"You break it, u pay for it."

Except Wall Street banksters? Or London Banksters.

Sorry but I do not get your point. Are you saying that because some con men in UK and America manage to get away with millions then there should be no rule of law anywhere in the world?

Chris

Edited August 16, 2009 by lor

[BarryM]

I travelled with thai through bkk on Friday. When I opened my luggage on arrival found the contents had been rummaged through with zipped up bags inside also left unzipped. Travelling first class must have made them think they were going to find rich pickings but it's happened so many times everythingvof value goes in hand luggage.

[eurozhongguo]

It is, of course, awful how this airport has been treating foreign tourists who are after all the backbone of the Thai economy and without whom Thailand would more closely resemble Cambodia than the modern country it is today. However, coming from an area of my own country that is very touristy and overtaken by tourists in high season many of whom decide to stay permanently, just like in Thailand, I can sympathise to a certain extent as we here also hate tourists even though they are the backbone of our economy here too.

I here a lot on this forum and others about bribery and corruption, the allegations often being made by Americans. I find this rather strange since a bribe is a pre-service tip, or put another way, a tip is a post-service bribe. In the US, you have to pay this post-service bribe to all and sundry. Americans say this is because the post-service bribe makes up most of the servers' etc salary since they are poorly-paid. They are paid a million times better than Third-World employees. Therefore, no wonder the latter prefer a pre-service tip.

These comments in no way justify the events at Subarnabhumi, but is a case of maybe you should put your own house in order first.

Edited August 16, 2009 by eurozhongguo

[copndocsdad]

In the duty free shop I have never been left alone long enough to try and take anything anywhere other than to the nearest register. I do not like to have s sales person under my armpit while I am browsing which assortment of "buy three get one free chocolate bars." As for perfume and such, I can see there are no boundaries between shops so it would be easy to walk from one area to another without knowing you had left someone's small four meter square cosmetics or skin whitener counter.

I'm betting nothing gets done to make the situation improve in the duty free shops but if one Is STUPID enough to walk away from an area without paying after reading this go ahead, dummy....

Baggage handlers; what baggage handlers? I have been in and out of both airports many times in the past two years and have never even seen a baggage handler offer their services. Tote your own luggage; the carts are free and NOBODy checks ANYBODY'S baggage claim ticket anyway so the thief could just as esily be a Farang. all you gotta do is watch the bags go around and if it is not picked up the second time around chances are you could take it out without being challenged.

the theft most likely occurs when unloading the plane and the luggage is picked over and diverted to another location known by the thieves and airport officials who are getting their tea money for turning a blind eye.

All in all I have lost more goods at some of the finer hotels on Soi 4 and Soi 8 than anywhere else. Locked storage rooms mean nothing.

[tim73]

Sorry but I do not get your point. Are you saying that because some con men in UK and America manage to get away with millions then there should be no rule of law anywhere in the world?

Chris

No, just saying corruption and scams are always a big problem where the population is poor and you got rich tourists in their eyes coming in. Scams and especially thieves are a big problem even in relatively rich Spain in many tourist destinations there. There is no easy way out of it.

[Hannibal]

My feeling is that Abi had been offended because his fellows British mention the story.

Abi is sooooooooooooooooo terrifying, virile, strong...

He'll give a warning. After 30 warnings , they could receive a reprimand.

In French we say "pisser dans un violon".

In English, I guess it's "raking water up a hill" or "herding cats".

More like "pissing in the wind!"

[jb5music]

Hot topic I think!

They should get rid of these offensive attitude of the so called TAXI-AGENTS !!

As a tourist you get afraid of these people!!

Also VERY VERY confusing is the 'limosine Taxi' boot inside and all these limo-agents!

Tourists tend to think that this is the only taxi there is, and don't get informed of more than 100 Bangkok taxi's with meter, waiting for yoy outside!!

Please kick these limo-guys out!! and give CLEAR info where tourist can get a normal taxi, for a normal price (on the meter).

Ciao

You walk upstairs to the arrival platform and out to the street. Don't talk to anyone. Ignore them.

On the sidewalk most of the way down towards where the cars are coming in - you stand there and wait for

a sort of orangish free shuttle bus. Mostly filled with employees. Take the free shuttle bus to where it

goes which is the Airport bus terminal (like three blocks). Go inside to the window - they sell tickets to all over Thailand It's 106 baht to Pattaya. Or bus to Ekamai station (in Bangkok) for buses to the northeast of

thailand. Or Southern bus station for buses to north west of Thailand or south of Thailand.

I don't think you could go to the farthest corner of Thailand and spend more than 500 baht on the aircon busses.

Edited August 16, 2009 by jb5music

[lennois]

That can happen to 'anyone' who breaks the law. You break it, u pay for it.

Easy for you to say when you are not the one living on 5000 Baht salary or less and still trying to send money to your family.

"You break it, u pay for it."

Except Wall Street banksters? Or London Banksters.

There are plenty of very rich people who run scams, and there are plenty of very poor people who don't. It is not about how much money you earn, it is about the moral makeup of your character.

Yeah there are scams in other countries too - so what? That means scams are fine here?

[hardy1943]

Does anyone think the profiteers are trembling in fear..................

Reminds me of a eunuch trying to act like Don Cassanova.

Exactly, without CNN and public media nothing would have been said.

Now it is all talk . Where is the action? Why are the predators not charge yet and arrested?

[hardy1943]

Am I the only one that sees that after these things happen time and time again that Thailand just isn't ready to run with the big dogs yet? They are still a second world developing country trying to take matters that are too big into their hands. It screaming out of everything from education to medicine, tourism and politics. None of this surprises me.

Does not surprise me either but things seem to get worse every year and

how about a 3rd rate Banana Country.

[tpatrickc1969]

I here a lot on this forum and others about bribery and corruption, the allegations often being made by Americans. I find this rather strange since a bribe is a pre-service tip, or put another way, a tip is a post-service bribe. In the US, you have to pay this post-service bribe to all and sundry. Americans say this is because the post-service bribe makes up most of the servers' etc salary since they are poorly-paid. They are paid a million times better than Third-World employees. Therefore, no wonder the latter prefer a pre-service tip.

These comments in no way justify the events at Subarnabhumi, but is a case of maybe you should put your own house in order first.

Wait, let me get this straight. You are equating giving someone a tip with someone extorting money from me. If I go to a restaurant and eat, I have an option of leaving a tip. If I don't, I may not get a very nice reaction, but I won't be thrown in jail or worse. I also won't be taken to a seedy hotel and asked to many thousand time the bill in order to clear my indiscretion of not leaving a tip. That has got to be the most assinine statement I have ever heard. Oh, and by the way, if you leave a tip, so to speak (even an after service one), for someone to help you cheat the system, you go to jail.

As for scams being OK because of low salaries, let me ask you this, how much lower are the salaries going to get when tourist stop showing up or divert their holidays to places like Vietnam.

Finally, most of the expats living in Thailand are teaching english or writing or retired. They are living on these enormous salaries that you seem to think they are. And why is it that you don't think they have families to help back home which requires a great deal more money than it does here?

In the end, I doubt anything will ever happen. Corruption is built into the Thai system at every level. It is so ingrained into the society that most Thais don't even see it as corruption. The ones who have to pay complain but as soon as the role is reversed, they will ask for the money. Its a situation that foreigners living here must either learn to cope with or pack up and leave. You can complain all you want but I seriously doubt anything will change. Besides, I think some of the expats here would rather not have it all change... there are certain business that are illegal that many of the expats seem to enjoy endulging in.

[barry]

without scams

will it still be thailand?

[sedeflonga]

That can happen to 'anyone' who breaks the law. You break it, u pay for it.

Easy for you to say when you are not the one living on 5000 Baht salary or less and still trying to send money to your family.

"You break it, u pay for it."

Except Wall Street banksters? Or London Banksters.

Tim, for your information: Thailand has a law and if you break it you pay for it, whether you like it or not. You can try to tell the judge that you only have 5,000 Baht per month and have to send money. You will not get any compassion because it is not the victims fault that you can not find more money in your situation, be realistic.

By the way: There are countries were people get much less then 5,000 Baht and as we know the law is much tougher then in Thailand (e.g. Africa - cross-amputation). It is a very heinous crime to accuse someone of theft without that person has doing it, EXTORT RANSOM and let them go, now is that what u want to see in Thailand, I ask you? And what would you think if you would be one of these guys who gets without reason detained?

This is not a simple scam where a soup shop charges a farang 50 Baht instead 25/30baht. It affects the whole country, Thailand.

There is absolutely no excuse.

Think again

Edited August 16, 2009 by sedeflonga

[animatic]

In French we say "pisser dans un violon".

In English, I guess it's "raking water up a hill" or "herding cats".

Pissing into the wind..........

comes to mind.

Never heard of the others.

Sailors avoid; Pissing to windward

Herding kittens; even more fun than cats.

J'ai toujour adorait; pisser dans un violin...

[asean]

Yes!! But it is unlikely to ever happen (any change) Corruption is built into the Thai psyche.

Try living with 5000 Baht in a month or less and support your family back in home at the same time. I'd bet you would be collecting all kinds of "fees" pretty soon if you were a cop here. Of course it is wrong but being hungry makes people do all kinds of things.

The problem is the ridiculous low salaries but if those salaries were any better, you guys would complain why Thailand is so expensive. Then you would complain about corruption in Cambodia. You cannot have it both ways. Corruption is a big problem all the countries in which the salaries are too low.

It is even big problem even in the US where Wall Street has basically bought the whole system and are given hundreds of billions to pay big bonuses to banksters by the US government! So maybe corruption is also built into American psyche too? Or European psyche when dealing with EU support money for various shady projects all around?

You hit it right on the head. Most farangs live here because most things in life are cheaper than back home. But it doesn't stop them complaining everyday. If you were earning what these people get paid then you would also get on board the gravy train in case your kids get sick. I am not excusing the scams but at ground level accept that it is a side affect of an underlying cause. Considering how low these people are paid (a situation that most farangs take full advantage of) i believe the level of service and honesty is surprisingly high. We can fix all this buy improving education, social health, workers compensation, workers benefits, police salaries, highly paid internal affairs, higher salaries all around, funded by higher taxes and guess what? It will then be too expensive for most farangs to retire here on their paltry by western standard pensions. Add to that the fact that once all the girls here have real education, degrees, good paying jobs or a Thai husband with same, they won't have to feign affections or sexual attraction with old fat desperate farang drunks. But then i guess there is always the Philippines. But wait a minute what was the reason you all preferred Thailand? Someone mentioned Singapore. Why are so many SG expats moving to Thailand? Some one mentioned Kingpower Exclusive right. Sounds like Halliburton's exclusive right to Iraq.

[pepi2005]

Stop it on the airport ...

-- but in the rest of the country (where exactly the same happens hundreds if not thousands of times every day), it's still 'accepted' ...

Edited August 16, 2009 by pepi2005

[cinner]

While he's at it he should require the sourpuss immigration staff to go through some retraining on customer service. For the "land of smiles" having your first and last impression being these disgruntled Thais at immigration isn't helping tourism. In general the Thai immigration staff I've encounter at BKK are the rudest and most unhappy people I've encountered in any country--- and compared to many other Thais they make a pretty good salary.. Perhaps they can install one of those "how am I doing" systems like they did in Beijing … because I was very impressed by the wonderful immigration staff in China.

[tim73]

Corruption is built into the Thai system at every level. It is so ingrained into the society that most Thais don't even see it as corruption.

Well, corruption is nowadays built into the American system too. Judges giving extra long sentences because they got money from PRIVATIZED prison industry...real big pot calling the kettle black. Hundreds of thousands of de facto slave workers working for private prison companies for mere pennies. Whole towns dependent on their dear prisons as the main source of income. After privatization the number of prisons and prisoners skyrocketed in the US, I wonder why...

Still you guys are here...nothing to do with the fact it is dirt cheap and you can live like a big boss here, even with rather minimal pension or income? Could not possible be...

[mark2552]

better late then never.

[hardy1943]

It is, of course, awful how this airport has been treating foreign tourists who are after all the backbone of the Thai economy and without whom Thailand would more closely resemble Cambodia than the modern country it is today. However, coming from an area of my own country that is very touristy and overtaken by tourists in high season many of whom decide to stay permanently, just like in Thailand, I can sympathise to a certain extent as we here also hate tourists even though they are the backbone of our economy here too.

I here a lot on this forum and others about bribery and corruption, the allegations often being made by Americans. I find this rather strange since a bribe is a pre-service tip, or put another way, a tip is a post-service bribe. In the US, you have to pay this post-service bribe to all and sundry. Americans say this is because the post-service bribe makes up most of the servers' etc salary since they are poorly-paid. They are paid a million times better than Third-World employees. Therefore, no wonder the latter prefer a pre-service tip.

These comments in no way justify the events at Subarnabhumi, but is a case of maybe you should put your own house in order first.

I do not know where you come from, I was born in Germany, immigrated to America in the 1957

we all did farm work before we learned the language while we where going to school. We ended up now many

years later because of honest work with 3 rocket science professors 4 teachers and 2 engineers.

I have lived in 6 different countries, some much poorer then here. All I can tell you that you do not have the slightest idea what you talking about.

[Brewsta]

I here a lot on this forum and others about bribery and corruption, the allegations often being made by Americans. I find this rather strange since a bribe is a pre-service tip, or put another way, a tip is a post-service bribe. In the US, you have to pay this post-service bribe to all and sundry. Americans say this is because the post-service bribe makes up most of the servers' etc salary since they are poorly-paid. They are paid a million times better than Third-World employees. Therefore, no wonder the latter prefer a pre-service tip.

These comments in no way justify the events at Subarnabhumi, but is a case of maybe you should put your own house in order first.

Wait, let me get this straight. You are equating giving someone a tip with someone extorting money from me. If I go to a restaurant and eat, I have an option of leaving a tip. If I don't, I may not get a very nice reaction, but I won't be thrown in jail or worse. I also won't be taken to a seedy hotel and asked to many thousand time the bill in order to clear my indiscretion of not leaving a tip. That has got to be the most assinine statement I have ever heard. Oh, and by the way, if you leave a tip, so to speak (even an after service one), for someone to help you cheat the system, you go to jail.

As for scams being OK because of low salaries, let me ask you this, how much lower are the salaries going to get when tourist stop showing up or divert their holidays to places like Vietnam.

Finally, most of the expats living in Thailand are teaching english or writing or retired. They are living on these enormous salaries that you seem to think they are. And why is it that you don't think they have families to help back home which requires a great deal more money than it does here?

In the end, I doubt anything will ever happen. Corruption is built into the Thai system at every level. It is so ingrained into the society that most Thais don't even see it as corruption. The ones who have to pay complain but as soon as the role is reversed, they will ask for the money. Its a situation that foreigners living here must either learn to cope with or pack up and leave. You can complain all you want but I seriously doubt anything will change. Besides, I think some of the expats here would rather not have it all change... there are certain business that are illegal that many of the expats seem to enjoy endulging in.

Fragrant Grease , or the art of extortion gracefully or otherwise undertaken, is everywhere humans congregate, yes?

Yes.

...and I wonder what these certain illegal business(es - sic) are that seem to be widely enjoyed by huge numbers of tourists or immigrants......must investigate, methinks.

Stay safe and solvent, All.

regardz,

Brewsta

[mark2552]

Its never too late to enfore the law. Its never too late to go after these dirt bags, arrest them where arrests can be made, and fine them where fines can be imposed, its never too late to fire them, its never to late to make an example of them and many others until they get the message.