Who To Write To?

[hunghung]

are you sure this woman is not from MOTS hence the use of a hotmail account, seems that may the case and she is just hoping you drop everything.

Miss L is from MOTS and I think she is a lawyer. In the lastest email, she uses an official email account ([email protected]) instead of a hotmail account. However, she still hasn't provided her official title and full name.

I was expecting a positive outcome from Mr./Ms. A, but he/she didn't follow through, probably trying to cover up the bad acts.

[JurgenG]

You're from Hong Kong, where people are so nice, speak so good English, where legislators reply personally to every complain and where tourists are regularly abused, locked in shop for hours until the tour organizer decide they have spent enough, just before dropping them in middle of nowhere because he can't make any more money out of them ?

YOU are all cheapskates. That's what a Hong Kong tour guide called a group of China tourists for not spending enough on a shopping trip. The guide cancelled a trip to popular temple Wong Tai Sin and took the group to a watch shop.

"Don't tell me you don't need (to shop). Later, are you going to say you don't need to eat, and don't need to stay at a hotel?

"I will lock up the hotel rooms tonight.

"You didn't spend enough."

http://www.relax.com.sg/relax/news/417406/Hong_Kong_tour_guide_abuses_tourists_for_spending_too_little.html

[hunghung]

There are consumer traps everywhere. In where I live, government agencies or trade organizations look at complaints that have merit seriously.

For the high-profile case you mentioned, both the guide and the tour operator had their licenses revoked. (One may sympathize the guide since her income totally depended on commission from shops. However, she did choose to take the job anyway and so she should be responsible for her behavior.)

[DP25]

In any case, the letter is written in Thai, which I have no knowledge of. Can someone please help translate it into English?

I'll get right on it, Chief

[hunghung]

Hi DP25, I thank you in advance.

[mca]

Please. Constructive criticism that is respectfully advanced without malice and over a genuine grievance will not get you into trouble. This isn't North Korea.

It certainly isn't. They've got elephants here.

[Forethat]

[hunghung]

A happy ending for me: I got 20,000B back (out of the 31,000B I paid for the Cambodia tour).

To make a long story short, I found out last month from the travel agent that it had paid someone in MOTS (specifically, Tourism Business and Guide Registration Office in Bnagkok) 20,000B back in Sept. 2009 (a few months after I filed my complaint there). The travel agent thought the money had gone to me and that the matter was settled. Of course, I was never informed about the 20,000B. I presented this fact to MOTS and I finally got the 20,000B (actually less because of bank wiring fees).

I don't think I would ever find out the whole truth, but here is what I think happened:

Mr. K (the lawyer who received my complaint) contacted the travel agent and it sent a staff to MOTS National Stadium office to meet Mr. K (or someone else in MOTS). The staff was asked to pay me a partial refund of 20,000B and the money was transferred bank to bank on Sept. 16, 2009 to a personal, rather than an official MOTS, bank account given to the staff (I have a copy of the bank transfer receipt provided by the travel agent). The last name of the money recipient is the same as that of Ms.L's, but their first names aren't the same. Since Ms. L might not have given me her real first name (which is likely as she kept avoiding to give me her full name and official title), Ms. L herself might have been the money recipient.

When I presented the 20,000B story to MOTS, Ms. L emailed to me, saying that she found my story true and that I wasn't informed about the money because MOTS didn't know what the money was for (but she didn't tell if she was the money recipient). Here is the intriguing part: Why didn't MOTS know what the money was for? For bank to bank transfer, the recipient knows who the sender is. If MOTS didn't know what the 20,000B was for, all it had to do was to contact the sender, which is the travel agent in Pattaya (the bank transfer receipt clearly stated that the sender was the travel agent, not an individual). So I think Ms. L or someone else in MOTS wanted to keep the 20,000B, hoping that I would never find out.

My persistence paid off.

I can ask MOTS to investigate this matter, which is full of irregularities on the part of MOTS. However, I am satisfied as I got most of the money back.

What is your thought?

[dumball]

The gist of the problem is that most people just shrug their shoulders saying " What is the point , nothing ever gets done " . That is precisely why nothing gets done when no one complains , no one is aware that a problem exists within a company or agency , so why or how will anything ever change ?

For many years I told my customers " If you like my work tell your friends , if you do not , tell me " this produced ideas to improve my business simply because I had a better grasp of what people called ' A problem ' as apposed to not having a clue of peoples mind set .I feel that every one should make a complaint no matter how small they may think it is , it could be endemic within a company , the people in charge would just sit back and wonder why customers where going elsewhere .

It has been my experience in Asian countries where I have lived , that they do not like to answer e-mails , for whatever reasons .

[krading]

I wonder how many complaints have been 'resolved' and the complainant then being fobbed off without receiving their refund.

Keep the case going through MOTS or the ombudsman.