Attempted Taxi Scam In Bangkok

[britmaveric]

Requested a taxi from MBK taxi rank to Soi8 Suk and the taxi lad did not put his meter on. Needless to say I was curious how much the 52bht trip to lower suk would cost me. Any rate he seemed to go the long way around and well I got where I needed to go and the muppet came to the conclusion that 200bht was the correct fare.

Anyways I gave him 60baht and off I went. He said, but its 200bht I told him lucky I didnt have 52bht in change or you would have gotten that. Needless to say I walked away without any further problem.

[JohnnyFeelIt]

If you do that too many times ya'll end up getting a 2 by 4 round the back of your head. How dare you pay the correct fare!

[britmaveric]

Well I was going to tell him to put the meter on but I wanted to see how big he wanted to mug me -4x the normal fare is taking the piss royally.

[onnut]

Once the meter was on and the fare said 56 baht but the muppet turned around with his hand out and said 200 baht please!

I pointed at the meter and said no 56 baht. But he said 200 hundred again!!!

<deleted>. He got 60 also.

[britmaveric]

good job onnut - he knew he was wrong because I saw it on his face. Just wondering how many who do not know better get taken?

Edited October 30, 2010 by britmaveric

[Goshawk]

Well I was going to tell him to put the meter on but I wanted to see how big he wanted to mug me

pretty foolish thing to do that..

you knew he was ripping you by not turning on the meter.. & in the end after you confronted him, he will have known full well that you were just going with the scam to its conclusion for a confrontation, even if he did go the long way round & burn that extra fuel..

at this point, you've both crossed a line.. depending on the taxi guy's ability to be sensible, it could've turned nasty for you. Seems you were lucky..

i wouldn't advise anyone else to do this sort of thing. Either point out immediatly that the meter is not on, or pay up & shut up.. don't try to play a devious Thai at his own game, you're vastly out numbered & it could seriously damage your health..

[britmaveric]

grow a pair mate - he knew he was wrong that is why he didnt put up a fight. Not to mention dare say he ripped off enough already that day!

[DP25]

Well I was going to tell him to put the meter on but I wanted to see how big he wanted to mug me

pretty foolish thing to do that..

I agree. It's so ridiculously easy to avoid taxi scams I see no reason to ever tempt fate by doing something like that.

[Longbow212]

This seems a common tactic from MBK or any other tourist areas (patpong, nana, cowboy, khao san, jatujak) where taxis are parked up. I suspect they pay a premium to the people that own that stretch of concrete. Most of the time they ask upfront for a ludicrous fee - I just laugh in their face and tell them where to go in Thai. If you walk a few metres and wave a taxi down from the main road (in full view of the first taxi driver) they put the metre on without even asking. I have even told tourists this info when they are trying to negotiate a taxi fare and being quoted ridiculous prices - this normally really pisses the taxi people off!

What you did was pretty much what I would have done, telling him in Thai also would have let him know you know the score here and can't be taken advantage of and make him shut up quicker - I believe the Thai word for this is 'sa jai' - not being able to argue because he knows you know he knows that he is in the wrong. I do agree that such behaviour could lead to negative consequences so one has to judge the situation at the time. If everyone was firm and fair in standing their ground with these people then the attempts at ripping off white people would be much less.

[TheCleaner]

You been in Thailand for a while since you joined ThaiVisa in 2003 and you still feel the need to write about this ?

Come on everyone knows, when you take a taxi from a tourist destination make sure he puts the meter on or take an other cab. This is a business actually, if the taxi feels he doesnt need to put the meter because you didnt ask him to, its his right to charge you what he feels, otherwise ask for the price before the ride. That is what we do in any country where taxis have no meter....

Same would happen everywhere in the world. If I take a limo in NY I will make sure I know how much the ride with the limo to the airport is before I get in... I said limo but even taxis in NY from the airport dont put the meter, you have to negotiate with them, they have the fix rate of course, but they always try to cheat you.

So get on and you should be the one to grow a pair and negotiate the cost of the ride if you dont want him to put a meter. The working people have other things to do than playing games. And if you get in and ask the price, he tells you 200 or 2000 bath just say thank you and find an other taxi.

I dont see any scam here.

[onnut]

I dont agree with all this play safe crap all the time, yes, sometimes we need to. but most times we can play be ear! I think Britmaveric played the cab driver at his own game and got him back just a little for all the farangs that get scammed daily.

these guys need a lesson every now and then and it is great to get one up on them. you guys who have no balls to do this make it easier for the cab drivers to rip us all off because so many times guys like you just pay up, and that is wrong in my mind. why allow them to rip you off? would you let a cab driver in London do that? I doubt it, so why let them do it here. be polite but assertive and you will not have a problem.

[onnut]

You been in Thailand for a while since you joined ThaiVisa in 2003 and you still feel the need to write about this ?

Come on everyone knows, when you take a taxi from a tourist destination make sure he puts the meter on or take an other cab. This is a business actually, if the taxi feels he doesnt need to put the meter because you didnt ask him to, its his right to charge you what he feels, otherwise ask for the price before the ride. That is what we do in any country where taxis have no meter....

Same would happen everywhere in the world. If I take a limo in NY I will make sure I know how much the ride with the limo to the airport is before I get in... I said limo but even taxis in NY from the airport dont put the meter, you have to negotiate with them, they have the fix rate of course, but they always try to cheat you.

So get on and you should be the one to grow a pair and negotiate the cost of the ride if you dont want him to put a meter. The working people have other things to do than playing games. And if you get in and ask the price, he tells you 200 or 2000 bath just say thank you and find an other taxi.

I dont see any scam here.

First time I will use this emoticon, :jerk:

Go back to NY and take your limos then!

[TheCleaner]

You been in Thailand for a while since you joined ThaiVisa in 2003 and you still feel the need to write about this ?

Come on everyone knows, when you take a taxi from a tourist destination make sure he puts the meter on or take an other cab. This is a business actually, if the taxi feels he doesnt need to put the meter because you didnt ask him to, its his right to charge you what he feels, otherwise ask for the price before the ride. That is what we do in any country where taxis have no meter....

Same would happen everywhere in the world. If I take a limo in NY I will make sure I know how much the ride with the limo to the airport is before I get in... I said limo but even taxis in NY from the airport dont put the meter, you have to negotiate with them, they have the fix rate of course, but they always try to cheat you.

So get on and you should be the one to grow a pair and negotiate the cost of the ride if you dont want him to put a meter. The working people have other things to do than playing games. And if you get in and ask the price, he tells you 200 or 2000 bath just say thank you and find an other taxi.

I dont see any scam here.

First time I will use this emoticon, :jerk:

Go back to NY and take your limos then!

Well you dont need to be rude, and im not from NY nor do I travel by Limos but ive been there a couple of times and had customers travel by Limos and know how this thing works.

All i am saying is if you dont want him to put the meter, ask him the cost of the ride before you take it. Its ok to say tell him that you will give him 60 bath if he asks you for 200, but you should have negotiate the fare before if you know how much it is.

Its like if you come to a jewelry shop and want to buy a ring. You see a nice one and you say ooh I want the same but with a different thing or whatever so they have to make it custom for you without asking the price. Than the staff calls you when its done and brings you to the cashier and say this is the price. And you say its too expensive, you start weighing the gold and the diamonds and you give your price according to the market value. Well the shop will look at you and say well what kind of person is this, he says he will buy without asking the price and once its done, he doesnt want to pay my price ???

All I say is get on with it, if he doesnt put the meter and you didnt ask for the price before, than its your fault because you took the service already. Would be the same in any country... No scams at all here

[mca]

I had one about a year ago.

My car was being serviced so I went and did some shopping. After shopping I went to the tuk tuk rank to get a ride to the car dealer. As I was about to ask the price my phone rang and it was my aircon engineer inquiring when he could come and service the aircon. Seeing as he speaks about as much English as my refrigerator I told him in my passable Thai that I'd be home within the hour as I was picking my car up. All this within about 6 feet of the tuk tuk driver. When I finished the call I asked the tuk tuk bloke how much to the dealer ( a 70 baht journey ).

300 baht.

Now I'm not Captain Thailand but one would have assumed after earwigging my phone conversation the tuk tuk driver would have gleaned that I didn't get off the boat yesterday.

I let him go back to sleep and got the next one.

[DP25]

you guys who have no balls to do this make it easier for the cab drivers to rip us all off because so many times

It's not so easy to rip us off, anyone who has been here more than a week should never have a problem with a taxi. Heck, even when I was fresh off the boat I never had a problem getting a meter taxi anywhere. It's incredibly easy. I just don't see the point in intentionally trolling a taxi driver who is waiting for FOB tourists in front of tourist zones, they could be psychos and it's a silly risk to take.

[Longbow212]

It's my understand that is the law (for what it's worth) that taxi's should be using the metre. It's standard practice to turn the metre on and If the driver wants to play it another way he should agree a price before hand. Being at a tourist spot should not make a difference. <deleted> like this leave a bad impression on decent foreigners that come here. He knows the rules and even if he genuinely forgot to put the metre on he knows it is not 200bht - he was simply trying to take the piss.

Personally I do not check the metre is on religiously every time I get a taxi and nor do I think I should. I expect a fair service and not to have someone try and rip me off after making assumptions after racially profiling me.

The fact is Britmaverick paid him for the official price of the journey. Comparing a bespoke piece of jewellery to a taxi trying rip someone off is completely different. Turning the metre on is standard practice. It's like walking into macdonalds and ordering a big mac and then the girl being the counter asks for a 1000bht......you try to argue the offical price but she says no that's only for people that point to the price on the menu before they order.

I endeavour to be a fair and decent person in this world and I detest such acts of deceit. It's dam_n hard for me to walk away when I see an injustice or one person trying to take advantage of another. By allowing <deleted> to get away with this you are only increasing the problem and allowing the decline of society. Stand up for what's right I say. The taxi driver got what he deserved, maybe he will think twice before trying that stunt again. Maybe the taxi driver could get violent - maybe he will then bite of more than he can chew learn that not all farangs are a soft as sh!te easy target.

I had one taxi driver try and charge me 200bht on top of the normal fare because I had some stuff in the back..... I asked him why he did not tell me before.....then told him where to go. All my Thai friends have said it was the right thing to do.Some friends recently just got out of a taxi without paying after the driver decided to do laps of the city thinking they were straight off the boat. Another friend of mine was moving house with a Thai friend, when the taxi driver saw it was a whitey the price suddenly doubled.....the fact whitey was a teacher that paid tax and lived here made no difference. Many taxi drivers are <deleted> just trying to screw money out of people for any pathetic excuse. These events are an opportunity to correct their misconception that it is acceptable to attempt to take advantage of people. Be calm, firm and polite about it.

[elshaheen]

I never take any of those Taxi's or Tuk Tuks right outside of MBK, this includes in front of Siam Paragon. They will rip you off far and square.

Suggestion. If you cross the street and go to the side where Siam square is at, then you are most likely to get a metered taxi. If not, just tell the driver to stop, open the door and get out. Or, pick up your cell phone and call Tourist Police.

[CharlieH]

I had one with a dodgy meter, took me from the Airport to Mochit, I noticed about half way that the meter was going at atleast dounle the speed and asked why, he didnt answer, got to mochit and the meter read 523 baht !! I refused to pay that and told him if he wanted that he should call the Police, he then quickly changed and asked me how much I would pay, i gave him 200 and that was that.So, even if the meter is on it doesnt mean its right.

The other ones to watch are the ones sat waiting outside the Hotel, always better to flag down your own in my experience. Every Taxi "waiting outside" has always been a problem, everyone I have flagged down on the main street has been fine.Seems to me the guys "working and moving" are Ok, the idle gits waiting to pounce are to be avoided.

[kuffki]

They been doing this for years.

1 sure way to shut them up is to ask them for their taxi number, not only they will accept the correct fair, but in many cases will not even take any money(have tried it many times)

What i love the most is that BKK taxi drivers never never have the change, so if the ride was 52 baht and you give 60 or 100, they never have 8 baht change and always presume that this is a tip.

I do not mind to tip, but when i do not get a hello, have to listen to either Isaan tunes or "reds" talk show, last thing i am going to do is tip.

Another one they tried on me many times is go long way around, despite me telling them in Thai where to go, but when i say go straight, they go right.

Last but not least is when he pulls over for toilet, or buy himself a drink or food, he leaves the meter running.

[britmaveric]

As I said I was doing this as mere experiment, normally I would have told him put the meter on or I walk. I just wanted to see how far he would push it for such a short ride. Would I advocate this to everyone - no since most people don't have the balls to carry through with it.

[chainarong]

Interesting, I was in a Taxi yesterday, from the airport in Perth , just arrived in from Thai , the driver George was telling me that a few drivers in Perth have been in trouble for similar stuff but the long way around with the meter going ,needless to say they are new comers to the country and me no understand , why me crap, same happened to me a few times in Honkers, the drivers then went into retard ,me no understand english, so yeah, its happening everywhere , especially if U don't know the way .

[smokie36]

I had one with a dodgy meter, took me from the Airport to Mochit, I noticed about half way that the meter was going at atleast dounle the speed and asked why, he didnt answer, got to mochit and the meter read 523 baht !! I refused to pay that and told him if he wanted that he should call the Police, he then quickly changed and asked me how much I would pay, i gave him 200 and that was that.So, even if the meter is on it doesnt mean its right.

The other ones to watch are the ones sat waiting outside the Hotel, always better to flag down your own in my experience. Every Taxi "waiting outside" has always been a problem, everyone I have flagged down on the main street has been fine.Seems to me the guys "working and moving" are Ok, the idle gits waiting to pounce are to be avoided.

Good advice.

[Goshawk]

Would I advocate this to everyone - no since most people don't have the balls to carry through with it.

i'm always amused at the number of people suffering from the Brit Invincibility Complex whilst in Thailand...

right up until the point when they get their asses massively kicked for being under this delusion.

[stickman]

To the OP,

To get from MBK to Sukhumvit soi 8, the taxi has to go what you termed "the long way around"! A taxi cannot drive along Ploenchit, under the expressway, and on to Sukhumvit. There is a sign that states that all vehicles apart from buses must turn left on to the expressway!

It might cost 50 odd baht to get from soi 8 to MBK, but the other way will always be MUCH more expensive because the cab has to travel down to Rama 4, along to Asoke, all the way up to Sukhumvit and along to soi 8. The distance is much greater and you're going through some of the busiest roads in Bangkok!

Were you carrying too much not to use the skytrain?

You should have checked the meter in the cab had been turned on - and if it had not, you should have got out.

You were not scammed at all. It was you who scammed the driver...

21,000 posts and you did not know that or could not work it out?!

Edited October 31, 2010 by stickman

[onnut]

Would I advocate this to everyone - no since most people don't have the balls to carry through with it.

i'm always amused at the number of people suffering from the Brit Invincibility Complex whilst in Thailand...

right up until the point when they get their asses massively kicked for being under this delusion.

Oh Golly Gosh! not just in Thailand mate, I have lived in many countries and I refuse to be ripped off by anybody. Like I said, there is no need to get upset with them, just explain in a calm but stern manner and you will be fine. but people like you make the cab drivers realise how easy it is to rip us off, which in turn makes it harder for us.

[britmaveric]

I know the route Stick, and let's say he went further out then described. I asked him if he knew where he was going and he assured me he did. I prob should have taken the Sky train since taxi que was so long. Anyways prob would cost a tad more, but no where near 200bht I think you would agree.

Goshawk - not invincible, but being strong/standing up for yourself has always served me right. I haven't taken a beating in my life yet!

Edited October 31, 2010 by britmaveric

[smokie36]

To the OP,

To get from MBK to Sukhumvit soi 8, the taxi has to go what you termed "the long way around"! A taxi cannot drive along Ploenchit, under the expressway, and on to Sukhumvit. There is a sign that states that all vehicles apart from buses must turn left on to the expressway!

It might cost 50 odd baht to get from soi 8 to MBK, but the other way will always be MUCH more expensive because the cab has to travel down to Rama 4, along to Asoke, all the way up to Sukhumvit and along to soi 8. The distance is much greater and you're going through some of the busiest roads in Bangkok!

Were you carrying too much not to use the skytrain?

You should have checked the meter in the cab had been turned on - and if it had not, you should have got out.

You were not scammed at all. It was you who scammed the driver...

21,000 posts and you did not know that or could not work it out?!

I hear what you're saying but 200 Baht. For example recently took a meter taxi from Sukhumvit Soi 23 to the airport....no expressway....took 40 mins at a cost of 182 Baht.

Its still a rip off fare.

[Goshawk]

yet!

then long may you remain intact whilst playing future bangkok cabbies.. (or anyone else)

[stickman]

I hear what you're saying but 200 Baht. For example recently took a meter taxi from Sukhumvit Soi 23 to the airport....no expressway....took 40 mins at a cost of 182 Baht.

Its still a rip off fare.

200 baht is as much of a rip off fare as the fare the OP gave the driver. In a cab ANYWHERE in the world you check that the meter is turned on and that it is ascending at roughly the correct rate. If the meter is not on and you missed that, then you're as much at fault as the driver in my opinion, unless there was a reason you were unaware, such as the meter being concealed.

[britmaveric]

yet!

then long may you remain intact whilst playing future bangkok cabbies.. (or anyone else)

Ta mate - btw like I said I was curious to see how stupid he thought I was. However prob best to tell the muppet to put the meter on, but curiosity got the better of me.