Motorbike Rental Turns Into Stickup

[BigC]

Ahh....The Land of Smiles eh!!!

Something very peticular about the quality of "service" and "hospitality" on these little Islands in the Gulf!!

What a statement. No licence, never ridden a bike of this type before, you never know what lip service he gave them & it's always the islands & Thailand's fault. Get real.

Get real?....yeah right, about time this region and it's inhabitants woke up to the real World....but then..this aint the real World if you can accept everyday situations like this as normal.

AGREE totaly with you .Amd again : Samui is in Thailand , but definitly NOT thailand.

These little Islands in the Gulf have a mountain to learn..... about hospitality..... versus scams.

Your comments reflect the sad reality of what these little islands became in a few years,and people accepting these everyday situations

should take out their pink glasses at least one day in their life. Not everyone , certainly, but a n impressive percentage are either thieves, conmans ( woman) or extortionists .

It's improving since two years ,yes we got a new major, but so slowly that the tourist having their information on the REAL Internet , not only here , are staying away (look how empty are the streets in July...) from the islands and they are right compared to what they can get on the mainland. The prices here are absolutely STUPIDS and make the place the most expensive of the whole country.

Certainly too much sun damaged the brain of a lot of people here, changing the reality in a nice pink sweet and comfortable unreal dream...

what the hell r u going on about. yes the it is quiet in July just like every July hence called low season. BBK airways don't help. well they tried to and loweredd their prices.

August the streets are already filling up.

as for people not coming here u only have to look at the traffic and the demand for more roads to see that that is not true.

maybe less people staying in hotels but how many people staying here live un registered in a bungalow or resort or even longterm lease somewhere or buy a how.

The statics for working out tourists is not 100 per cent correct. infact very far from correct. also allot of people go home to the uk for the summer and hot season. and rtn about sept anfd go home again around april.

yes it is expensive but that is the price of living on an island.

funny thing is that u talk to someone that might own a resturant and they would agree that it is expensive then charge u allot for your meal.

then again. forangs have to set up a business, employ 5 thai staff. have to million share capital to get a work permit. have a salary of 30 k per month for himself plus salary for the staff.

then no wonder why they are more pricey.

where as a Thai can just open a resturant get permission from the tesabaan and work away and only pay themselve or maybe get a helper if needed.

so there are many sides to a story

[DharmaBumm]

Didn't expect this would get so much attention... I'll add:

The shop only had one passport, my friends, and it wasn't even a valid one. He had no stamps in it, as it was an old replacement, but they didn't look. A couple other shops that we went to after this experience denied his passport. I was of the opinion that we should simply walk away and leave the passport there, but my friend really wanted it back (for whatever reason), and when the boss came in and the gun came out, we had no choice but to pay.

Yes, it was stupid to rent a bike here as a first time experience. I knew it was a bad idea but ignored my better judgement-- lesson learned.

To be honest, I put the experience out of mind after about 2 hours of snorkeling and enjoying the views. After that, about 100% of the people that I dealt with on the island were awesome people, calling me by name after only a day or two.

There's so much to like about KT: the food, weather, scenery, recreation, etc... that little things like this can be overlooked (in my opinion). Paying negligibly higher prices for goods and services is still not going to break the bank of any Westerners. And like you guys said, when I go back, I'll have some bike-riding experience, or I'll just buy my own to crash up

Edited July 31, 2011 by DharmaBumm

[doingok]

you definitely to get it out there,pictures,name of the shop,put it on advisor,facebook etc.It's bad news

there is a lot of names on TripAdvisor that i have found to be a no no but people also saying good things about others so all you have to do is search specially in koh tao one name also pops up what bad comments,so just look and you will find,mind saying that i will do my best to buy a scooter then to rent one cause of the hassle bullsh.. you have but up with and i guess i would be the perfect renter for 6 month but a scratch here and a scratch there its a joke and i will never hand over my passport just a copy of it as not mine.

i agree if u r here for more than 6 months then i think it works out cheaper to buy one but if u r going to koh tao for a couple of days then u might have to bite to bullet and rent but if u cannot drive it then u have to take the rough with the smooth should anything happen.

thailand they like to say " no problem " but when there is a problem it is a big problem. be warned.

there is 2 sides to every story though have a shooter pulled on you for scratching a bike even if he did do it and giving a bit of lip is a bit extreme. if someone done that to me i would have gone mental.

well mental then i am now lol

ps i 80 per cent believe your story because i see not reson for u to make it up unless u were a tour operater competitor if not then it is not hard to beleive

Well i Have Ridden bikes(not drived)now for around 20yrs now and rebulid many in that time so Ridding A bike is not the problem for me BigC just the hassle of renting and i would be willing to rent if it was less hassle then getting the bike in my name on the green book and insurance

and so on. surly they must know what damgae they are doing to they business if not then they have no good reason to complan. when i go the koh tao i will once there see to rent or not but if it wasnt for all the crap you get i wouldnt even thing about it..But there is one guy on koh tao that i know of that has had nothing but good review as a nice honest guy and even a couple of dive shops to.RPM

[BigC]

yes looks like the op has told both sides of the story. looks like allot of the time most people do rent stuff and give back with no problem. problem is that when everything runs smooth. there is no reason to complain. so the deed goes un noticed.

where as when something goes bad is the onlu time when we tend to hear about it.

[BigC]

sometimes all you can do is DO IT !

[doingok]

sometimes all you can do is DO IT !

should have a page with good renters on so we know who they are which would be very handy for people like myself TripAdvisor has good drivers list in bali which work great maybe something like that could work here but on good honest renters?

[smokie36]

sometimes all you can do is DO IT !

should have a page with good renters on so we know who they are which would be very handy for people like myself TripAdvisor has good drivers list in bali which work great maybe something like that could work here but on good honest renters?

Its ba good idea...not just for bikes either but I suspect it aint gonna happen.

[BigC]

sometimes all you can do is DO IT !

should have a page with good renters on so we know who they are which would be very handy for people like myself TripAdvisor has good drivers list in bali which work great maybe something like that could work here but on good honest renters?

no bad. people like me would but people i knows name up just for a laugh and people that i have fallen out with. i ain't Big C the shopping center u know than there are plently like me

[doingok]

sometimes all you can do is DO IT !

should have a page with good renters on so we know who they are which would be very handy for people like myself TripAdvisor has good drivers list in bali which work great maybe something like that could work here but on good honest renters?

no bad. people like me would but people i knows name up just for a laugh and people that i have fallen out with. i ain't Big C the shopping center u know than there are plently like me

mean a list of good people to rent off and only reviews off your traveler who have had a good experience with that renter

[BigC]

sometimes all you can do is DO IT !

should have a page with good renters on so we know who they are which would be very handy for people like myself TripAdvisor has good drivers list in bali which work great maybe something like that could work here but on good honest renters?

no bad. people like me would but people i knows name up just for a laugh and people that i have fallen out with. i ain't Big C the shopping center u know than there are plently like me

mean a list of good people to rent off and only reviews off your traveler who have had a good experience with that renter

i dunno it ain't really worth it. it is not that serious. if renting was regualated like the hotels with stars. that would be interesting.

the problem is that people come here for the freedome of being able to do these types of businesses but some people take the piss but that is the price u pay from freedome.

Majority of people are not that bad business people. some people do get ripped off with heavy money but they are normally victims off there own greed.

what makes me laugh is when a drug dealer gets caught and they say they wanted to exetend their holiday.

well they normally do. In the bangkok hilton. i know england is shit.but it has to be better than jail. better to go home work come back and forth. anyway where am i going with this. sorry got lost on this topic

[doingok]

[BigC]

yep got lost down a cul de sac lol

[marcres41]

i have just had a similar experience

rented scooter for 3 days, gave guy 3000 baht deposit drove thing carefully around without the slightest incident

when i took the scooter back he just walked up straight away pointed at 3 scratches that i had aparently made and told me it was 3000 baht to repair

argued enough and got price to 1500 baht which still ticked me off

ironically enough there was a woman returning a car who (suprise suprise) was told of scratches and told to pay 2000 baht

i can understand in someways why the rental places do this but ripping off all and sundry is not good publicity for the island

note the scooter i hired was put straight back out for hire so the next mug will also get charged, if anyone interested this shop is at from the port to the right of the irish bar

second note and a lesson for all

if you are going to hire go over the car/bike with a fine tooth comb with the owner and get him to document every last scratch (they wont unless you insist)

[Rooo]

How many times has it been mentioned on this forum , for people to take pictures of the bike before leaving the place.

[koheesti]

Ahh....The Land of Smiles eh!!!

Something very peticular about the quality of "service" and "hospitality" on these little Islands in the Gulf!!

AGREE 100 p/c with you . Samui is in Thailand , but definitly NOT thailand.

Was on holidays one month ago in the North , Chiang Mai,Rai ,Mae hong sorn etc.... one real dream : nice people , food , hotels ,

roads(real ones yes ) clean....polite educated.....etc etc

And YES these little Islands in the Gulf have a lot to learn..... from the North for example about hospitality.....

But it takes time...... and they aren't in a hurry!

Unlike in Chiang Mai, I've never heard of a hotel around Samui-KPG-Tao that caused the death of a dozen or so guests over a period of time and they along with the police just swept it under the rug allowing more people to die.

Edited August 15, 2011 by koheesti

[brd]

Don't rent anything in thailand keep your money in your pocket and your body intact.

UNFORTUNATELY AFTER 35 years visiting here especially most of those superb attractive islands and more inland this is the correct attitude and the wisest recommendation to avoid to be blackmailed one way or an other YOU COULD but only you are aware of the risks in advance ( jeeps, motorbikes, motorcycles, cycles, jet skis, etc...etc... ) .

Frustrations are for farangs.

[doingok]

Don't rent anything in thailand keep your money in your pocket and your body intact.

UNFORTUNATELY AFTER 35 years visiting here especially most of those superb attractive islands and more inland this is the correct attitude and the wisest recommendation to avoid to be blackmailed one way or an other YOU COULD but only you are aware of the risks in advance ( jeeps, motorbikes, motorcycles, cycles, jet skis, etc...etc... ) .

Frustrations are for farangs.

that doesn't just happen on samui but all over thailand by the sounds of it.