Bell Travel: I'm Going To Be Renewing My Thaivisacom Rose-Tinted Brigade Subscription...

[AbeSurd]

Sorry, this is a trivial little story, but I get a bit fed up of the Thai bashers...

I've always found the Bell Travel bus service to be very good. So around the New Year, like many times before, I went online to the Bell Travel website intending to make a reservation on a bus from Pattaya to the airport. There I discovered things had changed and you now had to pay for your seat in advance. So I dug out a UK credit card and got on with it.

On the website this meant that at the end of the procedure I was linked to Kasikorn Bank's website to complete the payment (presumably Kasikorn is Bell's bank). All was going well until the very last step when my browser (Firefox) suddenly warned me that if I clicked 'yes' (or 'confirm', can't remember which) the information I had entered would potentially be made available for anyone on the internet to read. As this didn't sound like a good idea I clicked the Firefox cancel button.

That was it. I got no confirmation email from Bell, nothing. So I phoned Bell in Pattaya the following day and was told they had no record of my booking. When I explained about the website they said I'd have to contact their Bangkok branch.

I didn't want to leave booking the bus any longer as I wanted to be sure I had a booking, so I went along to the Pattaya office in person and paid for another ticket in cash.

After my short trip and back in Pattaya I noticed that my UK credit card had indeed been charged for the ticket I'd been trying to book online unsuccessfully. So I'd been charged twice.

I phoned Bell's Bangkok office, spoke to a helpful young lady who said she'd look into it. She took my details and said someone would call me back. But after a few days no one had called me back and there was no re-credit on my credit card. The ticket and bank fee added up to less than £5 so I just chalked it up to experience: namely, don't pay for tickets on the Bell Travel website.

This morning, two weeks on, I checked my UK credit card statement online - and lo and behold I've been re-credited.

Me, I'm still in paradise

[breadbin]

If you didn't complete the last step and instead pressed cancel there is no way you would have been charged.

And.. From what I remember bell bus to airport is very cheap 180bt so even if you were charged you could claim it back on credit card if bell refused to pay. Very easy to do if you are being honest.

Mmmm......

[BlackPuddingBertha]

There is no way on earth that I would use any Thai online payment system to pay a Thai company. In fact there is no way I would use any online payment system to pay anyone outside of the EU or US.

I speak as an IT professional (retired with a shed-load of honestly earned money).

That said, I have no issues with Bell and have used them myself on occasions (I dont any more as I now live just a couple of minutes walk from the bus station). Quite why they have introduced such a complex and pointless payment system is a mystery to me.

[Semper]

If you didn't complete the last step and instead pressed cancel there is no way you would have been charged.

A programming glitch?

[brewsterbudgen]

There is no way on earth that I would use any Thai online payment system to pay a Thai company. In fact there is no way I would use any online payment system to pay anyone outside of the EU or US.

I speak as an IT professional (retired with a shed-load of honestly earned money).

That said, I have no issues with Bell and have used them myself on occasions (I dont any more as I now live just a couple of minutes walk from the bus station). Quite why they have introduced such a complex and pointless payment system is a mystery to me.

I've paid online countless times for Air Asia and Nok Air in Thailand without any problems. I think you're being unnecessarily cautious.

[petermik]

If you didn't complete the last step and instead pressed cancel there is no way you would have been charged.

And.. From what I remember bell bus to airport is very cheap 180bt so even if you were charged you could claim it back on credit card if bell refused to pay. Very easy to do if you are being honest.

Mmmm......

Bell bus is now 230 baht-your memory is well out of date LOL

[AbeSurd]

If you didn't complete the last step and instead pressed cancel there is no way you would have been charged.

As I explained in my OP, the warning came from my browser, not from Kasikorn or Bell Travel. As far as Kasikorn was concerned the transaction was complete.

I think Semper is right. It was a programming glitch between Bell and Kasikorn. Or maybe the whole setup doesn't work well with Firefox.

And.. From what I remember bell bus to airport is very cheap 180bt so even if you were charged you could claim it back on credit card if bell refused to pay. Very easy to do if you are being honest.

Yes but that wasn't the point of my post. As well as warning everyone here about the glitch, I wanted to give kudos to Bell and Kasikorn for refunding my money.

[gk10002000]

I used to always use Bell but not anymore. This year they did NOT respond to several emails I sent them. having to use a credit card to reserve a bus in nonsense. having to go to the Pattaya bus station in person to pay in advance for bus seat, defeats a lot of the purpose and convenience of their min van pickup at your hotel on the day you travel! This trip in December from BKK to Pattaya I took the 134 baht bus that only made two quick additional stops between the airport and Pattaya then dropped me off at the top of Pattaya Klang which is fine with me since I only had one small carry on. Going back to the airport I actually took the bus to Ekamai as I spent one night in Bangkok before flying out. I did take the BTS to the Airport rail connection and that was pretty good. 90 baht for the rail link I think it was. Not sure that is viable as it does not stop any where along the way. I would not mind a few stops. I just want a way to take mass transit to the airport.

Bye bye Bell. I enjoyed your services to and from Pattaya many times, but don't see me bothering with you again.

[whybother]

I used to always use Bell but not anymore. This year they did NOT respond to several emails I sent them. having to use a credit card to reserve a bus in nonsense. having to go to the Pattaya bus station in person to pay in advance for bus seat, defeats a lot of the purpose and convenience of their min van pickup at your hotel on the day you travel! This trip in December from BKK to Pattaya I took the 134 baht bus that only made two quick additional stops between the airport and Pattaya then dropped me off at the top of Pattaya Klang which is fine with me since I only had one small carry on. Going back to the airport I actually took the bus to Ekamai as I spent one night in Bangkok before flying out. I did take the BTS to the Airport rail connection and that was pretty good. 90 baht for the rail link I think it was. Not sure that is viable as it does not stop any where along the way. I would not mind a few stops. I just want a way to take mass transit to the airport.

Bye bye Bell. I enjoyed your services to and from Pattaya many times, but don't see me bothering with you again.

Slighty O/T ... There is the express line, which not surprisingly doesn't stop at other stations, and the "City Line" which stops at all stations. The City Line costs about 45 baht from Phayathai to the airport and takes a few minutes longer.

[miksguevara]

yeah I would say bell travel are one of the better companies I've dealt with

[miksguevara]

I used to always use Bell but not anymore. This year they did NOT respond to several emails I sent them. having to use a credit card to reserve a bus in nonsense. having to go to the Pattaya bus station in person to pay in advance for bus seat, defeats a lot of the purpose and convenience of their min van pickup at your hotel on the day you travel! This trip in December from BKK to Pattaya I took the 134 baht bus that only made two quick additional stops between the airport and Pattaya then dropped me off at the top of Pattaya Klang which is fine with me since I only had one small carry on. Going back to the airport I actually took the bus to Ekamai as I spent one night in Bangkok before flying out. I did take the BTS to the Airport rail connection and that was pretty good. 90 baht for the rail link I think it was. Not sure that is viable as it does not stop any where along the way. I would not mind a few stops. I just want a way to take mass transit to the airport.

Bye bye Bell. I enjoyed your services to and from Pattaya many times, but don't see me bothering with you again.

were your emails in Thai?

[joepattaya1961]

On another forum someone was writing, that he made a reservation/booking in the old Bell-system.

With the transition to the new system, all the old-bookings seem to have disappeared.

Please check whether your booking, made in the old Bell-system, is still alive!!!!

[petermik]

On another forum someone was writing, that he made a reservation/booking in the old Bell-system.

With the transition to the new system, all the old-bookings seem to have disappeared.

Please check whether your booking, made in the old Bell-system, is still alive!!!!

That may have been me-and yes ALL reservations under the old system were lost

[wpcoe]

I don't blame Bell for collecting payment at time of booking. Without advance payment, how do they sell that empty seat at the last minute when they find out that person is a no-show? I think we were all spoiled because for so long they did NOT collect funds at time of booking, but as a business, I don't blame them.

I haven't been to Pattaya much in the past year, but prior to that with frequent use of the Bell buses to/from BKK airport, I got the impression that individual passengers were a small fraction of their business. It seemed the buses were full of Indian (Pakistani?) prepaid groups. So, maybe "our" business isn't so much of a priority to them?

[Swiss1960]

There is no way on earth that I would use any Thai online payment system to pay a Thai company. In fact there is no way I would use any online payment system to pay anyone outside of the EU or US.

I speak as an IT professional (retired with a shed-load of honestly earned money).

That is limiting your ability to make bookings for hotels or flights (i.e. Thai Air) pretty much, if you can't book them over a European website... their are a few simple security things you have to look into:

- is it a reputable company (i.e. Thai Air, big hotel chain)

- is the payment connection on https and is the certificate of the website valid

- is it a trusted website (i.e. from McAffee or any other AV provider)

- is your credit card set up for 3D Secure (Verified by Visa or MasterCard Secure Code)

and it helps to have a Western Credit Card with high consumer protection against theft

and... speaking as an active IT security professional working for a credit card company... the most insecure and the most hacked websites with millions of stolen credit cards are located in the wonderful US of A...

[stailmanki]

I don't blame Bell for collecting payment at time of booking. Without advance payment, how do they sell that empty seat at the last minute when they find out that person is a no-show? I think we were all spoiled because for so long they did NOT collect funds at time of booking, but as a business, I don't blame them.

I haven't been to Pattaya much in the past year, but prior to that with frequent use of the Bell buses to/from BKK airport, I got the impression that individual passengers were a small fraction of their business. It seemed the buses were full of Indian (Pakistani?) prepaid groups. So, maybe "our" business isn't so much of a priority to them?

I used them for a year every second month from the airport to Pattaya and the bus was always full ( mainly Indians/Sri lankans/Pakistanis)

If you don't book you won't get a seat even in low season , I think you are right they are prepaid tour groups , but wrong that they will not fill the bus if somebody cancels.

I don't use them any more , not because I don't trust their payment system but because the regular Ruen Ruang bus is faster and terminates where I live , NB it's also newer & not as noisy,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Edited January 28, 2013 by stailmanki