A good friend of mine from China she just came back from a company trip to Thailand with colleagues from her software firm.

When we enter Thailand Customs in Phuket, they charged us fees only for Chinese

If we did not give them they will refuse to return our passports we had to give them 50 baht for a pass.

I feel very angry and when we went back they keep us waiting for 4 hours we fly at 01:00 they allow us to check until 24：00 and when we queue up, they changed our gate without telling us they did not know anything info about our flight always gave us wrong info

I do not want to be there again

Well done Phuket Immigration and airport officials !

but if they dont like it they can just lea... oops

Edited July 29, 201114 yr by seriouseats

In the OP it says Customs officials, not Immigration.

In the OP it says Customs officials, not Immigration.

There is much about that OP that makes no sense at all .... you really think that officials would only ask 50 baht if they were 'on the make'. Get real please ....

This makes no sense at all.

give us a deeper explanation, what happened?

give us a deeper explanation, what happened?

It's just what she told me in a chat. All 33 Chinese in the group of colleagues got their passports confiscated by the customs upon arrival, had few holidays in/around Phuket and at departure they had to pay 50b and got their passport back.

Passport confiscating does not sound like official rules, and they felt insulted and very annoyed etc.

50 baht times 33 people = 1650 baht.

Sounds like the tour operator was just skimming a little cream for themselves.

To immigration officials, that's slim pickings.

Next troll please..

maybe this was in place of a visa - China doesn't appear to be on the Visa Exemption list so I would assume they would need Visa on Arrival at 1900 baht.

Or it could just be a scam!

This makes no sense at all. You only see customs when you arrive in Phuket and they have never asked for my passport. You do see immigration arriving and only at the counter and they process one person at a time. Did they have a visa? Immigration and Customs has nothing to do with the gate assignment of flights. I have arrived and departed internationally from Phuket many times. There is something lost in the translation of this story. Sounds more like a tour operator collecting passports and possibly a small service fee.

Edited July 29, 201114 yr by Jimi007

maybe this was in place of a visa - China doesn't appear to be on the Visa Exemption list so I would assume they would need Visa on Arrival at 1900 baht.

Or it could just be a scam!

Will ask the friend some more details tomorrow when she is at the office. she just mentioned it was only Chinese travellers who got this treatment.

China is not a member of Asean but Germany is also not and they can stay for 30 days without visa. Not understand this.

Will come back to this tomorrow with more details.

Will ask the friend some more details tomorrow when she is at the office. she just mentioned it was only Chinese travellers who got this treatment.

China is not a member of Asean but Germany is also not and they can stay for 30 days without visa. Not understand this.

Will come back to this tomorrow with more details.

Please get the... Facts...there has got to be a reason for this...if the facts are correct,this can be reported through the corect chanels..

This makes no sense at all. You only see customs when you arrive in Phuket and they have never asked for my passport. You do see immigration arriving and only at the counter and they process one person at a time. Did they have a visa? Immigration and Customs has nothing to do with the gate assignment of flights. I have arrived and departed internationally from Phuket many times. There is something lost in the translation of this story. Sounds more like a tour operator collecting passports and possibly a small service fee.

Yes, my feeling as well.

Sounds like the tour operator has collected all the passports and told everyone there is a 50 baht fee at immigration and/or customs. The tour operator just pocketed the money. Whether it be Customs, Immigration or the tour operator, they got ripped off. It probably will not matter to the victims who got the money, just the fact they got ripped off. Either way, it's not a great advertisement for Phuket/Thailand tourism.

not really a rip off when u know that tourist are dam_n dumb and keep giving their passport to crooks left and right..

that 50baht might have saved them 50k+

that 50baht might have saved them 50k+

How did you work that out, then?

not really a rip off when u know that tourist are dam_n dumb and keep giving their passport to crooks left and right..

That's not a fair thing to say. A big group of tourists would expect the tour guide to deal with immigration, and especially a group of Chinese who most likely have never traveled much.

not really a rip off when u know that tourist are dam_n dumb and keep giving their passport to crooks left and right..

that 50baht might have saved them 50k+

I'm not sure where you get spending 50 baht may save you 50,000 baht if you are on a guided tour package holiday???? Anyway, there is now 30 odd Chinese people who have as ther final experience in Thailand, being ripped off. One can only imagine how much they were ripped off over their holiday with this tour guide.

So, 30 unhappy tourists go home and tell 10 friends each about their negative experience. That's 300 people who may not holiday here in Phuket. Yet, farang can not get work permits to be tour guides here.

Nothing new here. Same old "rip off the tourist today - don't care about tomorrow" attitude. Funny thing is, the tour guide will be complaining in a few years why there are no tourists coming to Phuket.

so what.. im one of the people anxiously waiting for that day to happen.

Will give me pure tears of joy.

not really a rip off when u know that tourist are dam_n dumb and keep giving their passport to crooks left and right..

that 50baht might have saved them 50k+

I'm not sure where you get spending 50 baht may save you 50,000 baht if you are on a guided tour package holiday???? Anyway, there is now 30 odd Chinese people who have as ther final experience in Thailand, being ripped off. One can only imagine how much they were ripped off over their holiday with this tour guide.

So, 30 unhappy tourists go home and tell 10 friends each about their negative experience. That's 300 people who may not holiday here in Phuket. Yet, farang can not get work permits to be tour guides here.

Nothing new here. Same old "rip off the tourist today - don't care about tomorrow" attitude. Funny thing is, the tour guide will be complaining in a few years why there are no tourists coming to Phuket.

Want to bet this was the tourguide from China that did this, organising the trip and 'ripping them off'?

Probably no Thais involved at all.

why do the Chinese need tour guides when they come to thailand lol?

Will come back to this tomorrow with more details.

:whistling: :whistling: :whistling:

Will come back to this tomorrow with more details.

:whistling: :whistling: :whistling:

why do the Chinese need tour guides when they come to thailand lol?

Maybe because they have never traveled much, or they only speak Chinese. I would image this is a big mysterious adventure for many of these tourists.

why do the Chinese need tour guides when they come to thailand lol?

Maybe because they have never traveled much, or they only speak Chinese. I would image this is a big mysterious adventure for many of these tourists.

Both of these reasons are valid. They also tend to do exactly what they are told by their tour guide to avoid any trouble. It would not surprise me at all if the guide just made up this story about the "fee" to get a little extra for themself.

why do the Chinese need tour guides when they come to thailand lol?

Maybe because they have never traveled much, or they only speak Chinese. I would image this is a big mysterious adventure for many of these tourists.

Both of these reasons are valid. They also tend to do exactly what they are told by their tour guide to avoid any trouble. It would not surprise me at all if the guide just made up this story about the "fee" to get a little extra for themself.

It happens all the time with Chinese tourists they hand their passports to their Chinese tourguide, only to be returned on the plane back home. It would really surprise me if this is something different, except that the tourguide is also charging them 50 Baht pp for his 'service'.

maybe this was in place of a visa - China doesn't appear to be on the Visa Exemption list so I would assume they would need Visa on Arrival at 1900 baht.

Or it could just be a scam!

Will ask the friend some more details tomorrow when she is at the office. she just mentioned it was only Chinese travellers who got this treatment.

China is not a member of Asean but Germany is also not and they can stay for 30 days without visa. Not understand this.

Will come back to this tomorrow with more details.

Maybe you should get all the facts before you swear at immigration

Want to bet this was the tourguide from China that did this, organising the trip and 'ripping them off'?

Probably no Thais involved at all.

Happy to see your bet and raise you. Definately a typical Thai scum , ahhh, scam, run by Thai's. The latest information is hte tour guide also drives a tuk-tuk when he is not being a tour guide. Case closed. :) :)

Phuket is a real crap hole, next time tell your friend to go somewhere nice.

Phuket is a real crap hole, next time tell your friend to go somewhere nice.

Member hasn't bothered to come with the promissed update of the facts. So i don't think immigration did anything wrong.