Beetlejuice Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 (edited) Yesterday I arrived back to Lamphun after spending a few days in Pattaya. While in Pattaya I decided to have a meal at a steak restaurant that looked decent enough from the outside. When inside the restaurant there were no tables and chairs as such, instead there is a long counter with stools where the customers sit and ate. A middle aged lady handed me a menu. I choose the pork steak with potatoes and veg, price on menu 245 baht, it was as clear as day. Reasonable I thought, I'll go for that one. Seated near me was another farang, we were the only customers in the restaurant at the time. My meal was served. During eating a girl began speaking to me. All I wanted to do was eat my meal in peace and not be disturbed, but for politeness I spoke back with the girl. Usual conversation, where you come from, what your name BS. After 10 minutes or so the girl offered me her services in my hotel room, only 200 baht she said. The girl was not all that good looking and I thought, only 200 baht, don't believe it, this must be some sort of con. Soon the girl caught on that I wasn't interested in her services and she asked me to buy her a drink. I told her sorry, all I want is to eat and go. By then the girl was beginning to irritate me that she could tell by the expression on my face. So she got up and walked over to the other farang sitting on the stool next to me. He obliged and bought her a drink. I finished the main meal and ordered a dessert. Another 15 minutes had passed and I asked for the bill. Gasp! My pork steak was quoted as 569 baht. I called the lady and said, this cannot be correct and asked to see the menu. On the menu there it was, priced as 569 baht and not 245 baht that I saw when I first ordered the meal. I guessed that they must have 2 menus each with different prices. When I began to argue the women shouted, YOU PAY THAT IS PRICE! In the meantime the guy sitting next to me received his bill. His face turned white and he called over the women. What is this 1000 baht for he asked? The women said, this is charge for lady hostess. I never asked for a hostess the man told the waitress. She drink with you and now you pay for service. That was the scam, once a customer buys the girl a drink, she becomes his hostess and that goes on the bill. The offer of her services for 200 baht is only a ploy to get men to buy her a drink, after which I`m sure the 200 baht offer would be dropped. The guy began going ballistic, but the staff looked like a rough crowd and I could see there was going to be some big trouble with the guy, so I decided to pay what they asked and cut out of there, which I did. I put it down to experience, but do be alert when in these places. Edited August 27, 2010 by Beetlejuice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boater Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 wow, what a shit experiance , could you name the Rest, thus other TV members can avoid this place ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLaughingMan Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 Shit like this makes me feel angee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetlejuice Posted August 27, 2010 Author Share Posted August 27, 2010 wow, what a shit experiance , could you name the Rest, thus other TV members can avoid this place ! Sorry but I cannot remember the name of the place, only it had a green sign with steak restaurant in neon lights on it. It was in soi 4 central Pattaya. After the incident I never returned again, but have no doubts this is also happening in other restaurants around the area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrdeedee Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 200 FOR AN ugly girl......where i am they getv a lot more than that.............thats a good deal...................lol. im not your momma but dont go eating in a place with one customer! for one thing food doesnt turnover and who knows what else goes on in a place w no customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
actiondell4 Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 (edited) Does anyone know this place ? Soi 4 Central pattaya green neon lights . WHY ON EARTH DIDNT YOU POST THIS IN THE PATTAYA SECTION? How does this place want to do repeat business? Dont they care in getting customers back? If they charged me 1000 b because I bought a girl a drink I wouldnt pay,call the Police if they want. Do we know if a farang owns this place? Edited August 27, 2010 by actiondell4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 OK, that's awful. A tip though. If you think there might be this kind of problem, HOLD ON to the menu after you order. Make up any excuse, I like to read it, maybe order more food. Then it is much harder to pull the two menu scam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenallday Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 This post is crap - Thai people would never scam a farang they have way too much respect for us. I think you are making it up especially about a girl wanting to have sex with you for money - utter rubbish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyTheMook Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 wow, what a shit experiance , could you name the Rest, thus other TV members can avoid this place ! It must be called the Delusional Steak Counter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chunky1 Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 (edited) Good job running away and leaving the other farang to fend for himself. Did you just pay or also wai them before leaving? :lol: :lol: Edited August 27, 2010 by Chunky1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heng Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 Dammit, I ran all the way over here with my bag of salt only to find Ch1 has already done the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
contemplating Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 Thanks for the tip, but I would think that if there were two of you, that got scammed at the same time, you could have just called the tourist police, and let them take care of it. I can understand letting a few extra baht go, but this is a lot of money, and how many more times will this happen? Seems its getting just too easy to get ripped off here, so more and more rip off artist are coming to Pattaya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 Its easy to say call the tourist police but people have been beat up and worse for resisting organized crime operations like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syd barrett Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 The OP should have paid his bill and then walked the short walk to the Tourist Police on 2nd Road in Pattaya and made an official complaint. Also writing to the Pattaya Mail would help and also photographing the premises and warning everyone on the Thailand forums. Once news of this con got around their business would suffer. The double price menu trick is nothing new and I have suffered that scam in the Philippines but never Thailand (yet). The scam regarding the girl is a typical London Soho scam. I will take a stroll down Soi 4 tomorrow and photograph the place and post it here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmer Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 Please do not post photographs or name the restaurant in the open forum. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Conners Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 I find this story a bit hard to swallow. I've never been scammed in a restaurant in Pattaya and if I was I'd sure take note of the name and remember it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 I find this story a bit hard to swallow. I've never been scammed in a restaurant in Pattaya and if I was I'd sure take note of the name and remember it. I don't. I believe it 100 percent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surayu Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 ....you could have just called the tourist police and they would likely dismiss the whole matter with a "did you spoke to the staff? yes? then you have to pay", just ask for "Josh" if you have any doubts.... The police in Pattaya, what an oxymoron.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chunky1 Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 I disagree, that British guy who doesn't speak any Thai but runs the Tourist police division seems to really know what he is doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 Didn't he resign already to become the British consul here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anothertorres Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 i like the protection we give these restaurants. there is money to be made here, people! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 i like the protection we give these restaurants. there is money to be made here, people! It is a shame we can't know the exact name of this criminal operation. I suppose we will have to wait until a foreigner is attacked there for refusing to go along with it and it makes the Pattaya crime news section. Then, we will learn, but really, why do we have to wait for that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anothertorres Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 i like the protection we give these restaurants. there is money to be made here, people! It is a shame we can't know the exact name of this criminal operation. I suppose we will have to wait until a foreigner is attacked there for refusing to go along with it and it makes the Pattaya crime news section. Then, we will learn, but really, why do we have to wait for that? banner ads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 They probably justify it with business is slow, we need to do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarangBuddha Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 While I am not going to argue the facts of your experience as you relate them, I can assure everyone that it is certainly an exception. I have eaten basically 2-3 meals a day out in Thailand for over a decade (so we're talking around 10,000 restaurant meals) and have never come across a scam such as you relate. However, there are many such scams in business that cater to sex-tourists and sexpats (which this place appears to be one judging by the fact that they have those kind of "hostesses" on staff at a RESTAURANT. I would suggest that maybe you upgrade the class of establishments in which you fill your hunger and therefore avoid such unpleasantness at the end of your meal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 (edited) I would agree that a "restaurant" having "sex hostesses" is a warning sign to be more on your guard. However, not all such places are scam zones. It may have helped to hold on to the menu as I suggested, and another thing you could try if you suspect a possible scam place, is to get the waiter to verbally acknowledge the price, preferably in Thai. Better yet of course is if you get a bad vibe, don't eat there, but that's not always easy to tell in advance. Edited August 27, 2010 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syd barrett Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 ....you could have just called the tourist police and they would likely dismiss the whole matter with a "did you spoke to the staff? yes? then you have to pay", just ask for "Josh" if you have any doubts.... The police in Pattaya, what an oxymoron.... If you approach the Tourist Police in a sober manner, dressed properly, without offensive tattoos and a grazed shaven head and multiple body piercings and facial ironmongery, then they will listen to your complaint in a sympathetic and professional way. Sadly, less than 1% of Pattaya dwellers fall into the ideal above said guise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cardholder Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 (edited) I would agree that a "restaurant" having "sex hostesses" is a warning sign to be more on your guard. However, not all such places are scam zones. It may have helped to hold on to the menu as I suggested, and another thing you could try if you suspect a possible scam place, is to get the waiter to verbally acknowledge the price, preferably in Thai. Better yet of course is if you get a bad vibe, don't eat there, but that's not always easy to tell in advance. In hindsight it is easy to suggest advice like this. In reality if you suspect a scam - GET OUT ! There cannot be many eateries in Soi 4. Edited August 27, 2010 by Rimmer Discussion of moderation is against forum rules Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilf Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 easy go there with a volunteer copper not in uniform and let them do it then he can call his mates -------see what happens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricklev Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 It's always amazing to me how many people think that the Thaa tourist police are paragons of virtue on the side of the tourist. I guess that belief makes people feel safer, like someone, somewhere out there is on your side...... I'm sure some of the tourist police are fine people doing their best to help, just like some of the regular Thai police are...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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