Food Vendor Tricks And Scams...

[mitsubishi]

Just to let you know, that the latest 'thing' to scam farang's on is water.

The usual deal is you pay for your noodles, som tam, whatever and if you want water you pay for it, either by a few baht for ice and water from a jug.

Well nowadays the deal is for you to buy a bottle of the stuff. So about 10 baht.

WELL, the latest addition to this is the scam angle.

You do all that and when you come to take the bottle home with you the vendor scam is to keep the water and bottle!!! EVEN IF YOU'VE PAID FOR WATER!

You might be saying why are you taking the bottle home?

Well, unless you drink like a horse, normally half a bottle is left after drinking it with a meal.

So my advice is take your own water with you if your going to eat at the vendor places where they do this

The scam's are suprising even this jaded hand and I wonder what on earth they'll come up with next??!!

[melvinmelvin]

next? maybe charging a corking fee if you bring your own water?

[CMSteve]

The glass bottles that they use are returnables(they pay a deposit fee for them). If its plastic bottles, then you should walk out with it without thinking twice.

And why is this a Farang scam? Do you see the Thai's being able to take the bottles home???

[impulse]

The leftovers of a $0.33 bottle of water isn't much of a scam.

If you're sitting at their table and they serve you and they clean up after you, and you take up space that could be used by another customer ($$$), they have every right to charge you a corking fee- or do what almost every American (and probably most European) restaurant does- and forbid outside food and drink being brought in.

Put yourself in their shoes and pay the pocket change for their bottle of water. They've probably earned it and your 1, 5 and 10 baht pieces probably just end up in a jar somewhere.....

[aussiebebe]

Sorry but I've lived in Bangkok for five years and this is no scam. Customers have always had a choice between free water or purchasing bottled water but never had the option to take glass bottles with them, the vendor keeps them and they are returned to the bottling factory. If they didn't, they'd be charged for a lost bottle. This practice is clearer to understand when you visit a local shop; a 250ml soft drink retailing for ฿10 in 7/11 (where you keep the bottle) is commonly sold for ฿5 at the shop; they pour the coke into a bag with ice and a straw and keep the bottle.

[p_brownstone]

next? maybe charging a corking fee if you bring your own water?

I took my girlfriend to a Bar in Soi Cowboy last weekend and they charged me Corkage.

Patrick

[Jingthing]

The only "scam" I have noticed is smaller and smaller portions. Often vendors feel they are better off doing that than raising prices when their food costs go up.

[Ulysses G.]

Sorry but I've lived in Bangkok for five years and this is no scam. Customers have always had a choice between free water or purchasing bottled water but never had the option to take glass bottles with them

Correct indeed.

[givenall]

One thing I know is that never allow the water vendor to open the bottle for me. A lot of time when they open I have notices that the safety caps are broken and most likely they are giving you refill bottle with tab or who know what kind of water which is unsafe to drink.

Edited December 8, 2011 by Scott

[vtjforyou]

What a scam ! You know a lot and are so smart, nobody can cheat you even 10 thb !

[Bpuumike]

*(quotes which messed up formatting have been deleted)*

You took your girlfriend to a bar in Soi Cowboy?

[djayz]

I've eaten at many food vendors and never once had any problems...

If you were talking about a glass bottle, I can understand the vendors not wanting you to take it - there's a deposit on the bottle.

Calling this a "scam" is a bit over the top...

Edited December 8, 2011 by Scott

[Gippy]

Just do what I saw somebody doing in a restaurant a couple of months ago. She had the similar problem of not being able to finish her glass bottle of water so she got a bag and took the water home with her, problem solved!

[Nisa]

An even bigger scam I've found is that they don't let you take the plates and silverware home with you either.

[seahorse]

The leftovers of a $0.33 bottle of water isn't much of a scam.

Hey, Dorothy, you're not in Kansas anymore.

[CharlieH]

For Chr**t sake !!! a few baht, just go home ! or at least find something worth moaning about, you'll be complaining that people around you are talking a different language next.

Pathetic !

[E1717007]

not a scam, just a misunderstanding about the norm and culture in LOS

[PattayaParent]

From what I have been reading on here there has not been a shortage of water due to the floods, but a shortage of plastic bottles to fill with available water.It could be possible that the restaurants has been asked by the supplier to return the plastic bottles as well as the glass bottles.

[pitrevie]

I well remember in a German restaurant that I frequent, the sight of an elderly American lady pouring the remaining water from her glass back into the bottle and taking it with her. I do hope it sustained her on the journey back to her residence. However it is quite common to see in top class hotels those flip flop wearing tourists venturing forth with water bottles as if they were on some trek across a desert somewhere.

[pomchop]

One person's idea of a "scam" is often just a lack of understanding of a different culture and a different way of doing things.

I am ashamed to say that many years ago I often got irritated at bangkok taxi drivers who i thought were driving me around in circles to increase the fare...then after living there for a while i realized that they did it because of various one way streets etc. So who was the idiot? I was.

Or when i lived with a Korean gal for many years and one day made some remark about how primitive it is to eat food with chopsticks rather than a fork. She explained to me that Koreans used to think that westerners who ate with a fork were "barbarians"...huh? I said. Because she explained until fairly recently in Korean there was not much hot water to wash dishes with and it is much easier and better to clean chopsticks than to try and clean in between the tines of a fork with cold water...so if you ate with a fork you were eating with a dirty instrument...who was the idiot? I was.

Or when many blacks in big American cities shot a few korean store clerks because they the clerk laid their change on the counter rather than put it in their outstretched hand? The blacks said the Koreans did it so as not to touch them and it was a sign of disrespect...ah not so said the ex...very common practice OF RESPECT by koreans to lay change on counter so you can see that you are not being short changed. Who was the idiot?

So my unsolicited advice is to think twice before being too critical of what you may hastily interpret as a scam or a stupid way of doing things. It is entirely possible that you may end up looking like an idiot. I sure have.

[Bakseedaa]

next? maybe charging a corking fee if you bring your own water?

I took my girlfriend to a Bar in Soi Cowboy last weekend and they charged me Corkage.

Patrick

Yoy should have taken a girl from Dublin instead...!

[Familyonthemove]

next? maybe charging a corking fee if you bring your own water?

I took my girlfriend to a Bar in Soi Cowboy last weekend and they charged me Corkage.

Patrick

:D:D

[MunterHunter]

If you are getting stressed over a 10b bottle of water, then you are likely to explode when a real problem comes along... suggest you chill out a bit mate.

[MrJohnson]

What an outrage! Letter to the Editor of the BP!

[chuang]

The OP must have got out from the wrong side of the bed...

[Payboy]

next? maybe charging a corking fee if you bring your own water?

I took my girlfriend to a Bar in Soi Cowboy last weekend and they charged me Corkage.

Patrick

Did you get mixers?

[Soboringtochooseaname]

One person's idea of a "scam" is often just a lack of understanding of a different culture and a different way of doing things.

I am ashamed to say that many years ago I often got irritated at bangkok taxi drivers who i thought were driving me around in circles to increase the fare...then after living there for a while i realized that they did it because of various one way streets etc. So who was the idiot? I was.

Or when i lived with a Korean gal for many years and one day made some remark about how primitive it is to eat food with chopsticks rather than a fork. She explained to me that Koreans used to think that westerners who ate with a fork were "barbarians"...huh? I said. Because she explained until fairly recently in Korean there was not much hot water to wash dishes with and it is much easier and better to clean chopsticks than to try and clean in between the tines of a fork with cold water...so if you ate with a fork you were eating with a dirty instrument...who was the idiot? I was.

Or when many blacks in big American cities shot a few korean store clerks because they the clerk laid their change on the counter rather than put it in their outstretched hand? The blacks said the Koreans did it so as not to touch them and it was a sign of disrespect...ah not so said the ex...very common practice OF RESPECT by koreans to lay change on counter so you can see that you are not being short changed. Who was the idiot?

So my unsolicited advice is to think twice before being too critical of what you may hastily interpret as a scam or a stupid way of doing things. It is entirely possible that you may end up looking like an idiot. I sure have.

You are smart and right, we ned to think twice, but I still don't think that it is smart to eat rice or noodles with chopsticks and I never give change to anyone directly in their hands because they are usually dirty.

[jybkk]

You are smart and right, we ned to think twice, but I still don't think that it is smart to eat rice or noodles with chopsticks and I never give change to anyone directly in their hands because they are usually dirty.

We're sliding abit off-topic, but I find chopsticks, fork+knife or fork+spoon equally practical. It just depends on the dish.

For bite-sized stuff or noodles, chopsticks are the most convenient to me. It's quite convenient too sometimes for cooking (flipping little stuff in the pan for example).

For rice with chopped meat or vegetables, the thai "fork+spoon" is the most practical.

For anything with big chunks, fork+knife is the best.

It makes sense, however, that cultures did not try to multiply the number of combination of utensils used and rather tried to find a middle ground, and this is why we use different tools which are never the most practical solution for 100% of the situations.

[Ulysses G.]

One person's idea of a "scam" is often just a lack of understanding of a different culture and a different way of doing things.

I am ashamed to say that many years ago I often got irritated at bangkok taxi drivers who i thought were driving me around in circles to increase the fare...then after living there for a while i realized that they did it because of various one way streets etc. So who was the idiot? I was.

Or when i lived with a Korean gal for many years and one day made some remark about how primitive it is to eat food with chopsticks rather than a fork. She explained to me that Koreans used to think that westerners who ate with a fork were "barbarians"...huh? I said. Because she explained until fairly recently in Korean there was not much hot water to wash dishes with and it is much easier and better to clean chopsticks than to try and clean in between the tines of a fork with cold water...so if you ate with a fork you were eating with a dirty instrument...who was the idiot? I was.

Or when many blacks in big American cities shot a few korean store clerks because they the clerk laid their change on the counter rather than put it in their outstretched hand? The blacks said the Koreans did it so as not to touch them and it was a sign of disrespect...ah not so said the ex...very common practice OF RESPECT by koreans to lay change on counter so you can see that you are not being short changed. Who was the idiot?

So my unsolicited advice is to think twice before being too critical of what you may hastily interpret as a scam or a stupid way of doing things. It is entirely possible that you may end up looking like an idiot. I sure have.

Good post and my experience also. I do not know how many times that I was sure I was being cheated when I first came here and later realized that it was my mistake.

[JohnnyFeelIt]

Did you file a police report OP?