Hi,

I took a taxi from at airport to go to Bangkok. I gave a paper with the name and the address of the hotel to the taxi driver. Everything was going fine until the taxi driver ask me in Bangkok if it was ok if he stopped here. I asked him where my hotel was and he show me a direction but I did not see any hotel. I told him it was not ok to stop I wanted him to bring me to my hotel. He continued driving for a while and then stopped in a parking of another hotel and show me my hotel which was just beside. Strange. Why did he ask me if I wanted to stop someplace maybe a km from my hotel? It does not make any sense to me..Is it usual to have such bad service?

Renoir

Answer is yes .

Welcome to the taxi scum of bangkok renoir.Did you get the drivers number and name from inside taxi?

Then you can get the phone number to report the driver and wait while nothing happens.

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Edited May 24, 201313 yr by allalong

He was going to get lady for you

Maybe he needed to stop for NGV (fuel)? I've had this happen 3 or 4 times in a few thousand taxi trips, but the driver has usually mentioned this requirement prior to departing, and the meter gets paused during the stop.

Other than that, I could not say as I have never experienced such a thing.

When ya gotta pee, ya gotta pee.

Even if it's a km from the final destination...

Poor guy, probably has prostrate troubles- I can relate.

Sounds like a strange thing to do if he knew where the hotel was, maybe he knew dropping you off at the hotel would get him stuck in traffic or put him on a one way system that would take him longer to return to the airport. No excuse, yet again a negative taxi story, there are good ones though .

Taxi drivers the world over, possibly with the exception of London, often get lost or do not know where certain buildings/hotels actually are. Your guy probably found it by accident in the end ! I've been 'lost' in Taxi's in Hong Kong, Macau, New York, Brussels and Paris, to mention a few.

London is different because they have to take tests and know just about everything there is to know about the City before they get a license.

Sounds like a strange thing to do if he knew where the hotel was, maybe he knew dropping you off at the hotel would get him stuck in traffic or put him on a one way system that would take him longer to return to the airport. No excuse, yet again a negative taxi story, there are good ones though .

Yes, either traffic and he wanted to do an early U-turn or then he was afraid of a police check-point when he might have issues with his licence

Sounds like a strange thing to do if he knew where the hotel was, maybe he knew dropping you off at the hotel would get him stuck in traffic or put him on a one way system that would take him longer to return to the airport. No excuse, yet again a negative taxi story, there are good ones though .

Yes, either traffic and he wanted to do an early U-turn or then he was afraid of a police check-point when he might have issues with his licence

^^^

This or an organised taxi 'mafia' working around that hotel.

Perhaps there was someone at your hotel that he would rather avoid. Maybe he had some trouble there before.

I agree he was probably afraid to go to that particular hotel for some reason, such as problem with mafia or police.

If you take the taxi from the airport, you don't give the address to the driver. You give it to the staff at the counter. they will also give you a postcard showing the name of the driver and the licence plate. If the driver pulls anything funny, you write it onto that card and mail it in.

Most likely he had to turn the car in. Try to get a cab between 2.00 - 3.30 pm; impossible to drive further than just around the block. Another idiocy here; all drivers change shift at 3 pm. Same like Wednesdays is pavement cleaning day on lower Sukhumvit.

Question remains why and, in the case of pavement sweepers - what do they do from Thursdays to Tuesdays?

In all likelihood a traffic issue,

some roads are even worse than others

Did he charge you according to the meter and toll costs, or did he ask for some extra "contribution"? If the latter, then he certainly would like to avoid being at your hotel where you might get help to sort the fare out.

He did it because he can simple as that. I often get taxis here and if any of them try anything stupid I simply get out my phone and take a few pictures and this seems to do the trick. If they don't listen I have been known to get out of the taxi and get into another leaving the idiot behind with a loss of fare.

....nonsense....especially if you have luggage....

Taxi drivers the world over, possibly with the exception of London, often get lost or do not know where certain buildings/hotels actually are. Your guy probably found it by accident in the end ! I've been 'lost' in Taxi's in Hong Kong, Macau, New York, Brussels and Paris, to mention a few.

London is different because they have to take tests and know just about everything there is to know about the City before they get a license.

I once had a limo driver at JFK who had problems finding Stamford CT

The scam I hate the most is when I "bargain" in Bangkok for a taxi to go to Pattaya. I have learned to ask, "you driver, yes" (of course I get smile and the driver says "chi"). I get in the taxi and once out of the city center he tells me his "time" using the taxi will be around 3pm so he will switch me to his "brother" who is "good driver". The bastard then drives into a parking lot on the edge of the city and then I have to switch cars and the car is not a taxi, but just a old used car with a driver that cannnot speak English. Totally pisses me off. But what can you do once you are in the taxi and get stopped in an empty area?

Maybe he needed to stop for NGV (fuel)? I've had this happen 3 or 4 times in a few thousand taxi trips, but the driver has usually mentioned this requirement prior to departing, and the meter gets paused during the stop.

Other than that, I could not say as I have never experienced such a thing.

#1 His choice of hotel will give him a kick-back for bringing in a live newbie tourist, he cares less than nothing about "your" booking and choice of hotel/area.

#2 Makes fine business sense for him to re-fuel and take a piss when the taxi-metre is running on your Dollar/Baht, to 1/4 fill the gas tank every time he gets a farang passenger that will not complain about the paid-for delay in the journey will probably pay for the fuel for a 20Km?

Why didn't you just ask him?

The scam I hate the most is when I "bargain" in Bangkok for a taxi to go to Pattaya. I have learned to ask, "you driver, yes" (of course I get smile and the driver says "chi"). I get in the taxi and once out of the city center he tells me his "time" using the taxi will be around 3pm so he will switch me to his "brother" who is "good driver". The bastard then drives into a parking lot on the edge of the city and then I have to switch cars and the car is not a taxi, but just a old used car with a driver that cannnot speak English. Totally pisses me off. But what can you do once you are in the taxi and get stopped in an empty area?

It is soooooo simple to avoid that scam... however, you should stop to try and safe 100 or 200 Baht by getting an "empty" driver...

At the airport, order the taxy from the counter and no such scam will happen (as the aiport has written down their fare and give you a call number), taxis are in general clean with working air-con and the driver understands simple sentences like "stop for cigarette please"... from a hotel, order the taxi through the hotel staff... or make your reservation through one the the well know taxi companies...

Otherwise... you wanna safe 100 baht... don't complain about being scammed. Simple as that. 7y of coming to Thailand, never once been transferred to another driver.

Edited May 25, 201313 yr by Swiss1960

The scam I hate the most is when I "bargain" in Bangkok for a taxi to go to Pattaya. I have learned to ask, "you driver, yes" (of course I get smile and the driver says "chi"). I get in the taxi and once out of the city center he tells me his "time" using the taxi will be around 3pm so he will switch me to his "brother" who is "good driver". The bastard then drives into a parking lot on the edge of the city and then I have to switch cars and the car is not a taxi, but just a old used car with a driver that cannnot speak English. Totally pisses me off. But what can you do once you are in the taxi and get stopped in an empty area?

It is soooooo simple to avoid that scam... however, you should stop to try and safe 100 or 200 Baht by getting an "empty" driver...

At the airport, order the taxy from the counter and no such scam will happen (as the aiport has written down their fare and give you a call number), taxis are in general clean with working air-con and the driver understands simple sentences like "stop for cigarette please"... from a hotel, order the taxi through the hotel staff... or make your reservation through one the the well know taxi companies...

Otherwise... you wanna safe 100 baht... don't complain about being scammed. Simple as that. 7y of coming to Thailand, never once been transferred to another driver.

The arrangements at the airport do a great job of making sure that there are always taxis waiting for passengers coming out.

SC

He probably sexually assaulted a previous fare to that hotel and is avoiding the place in case he's recognised.There was no mention of taking a leak or refueling. It's possible`!

He probably sexually assaulted a previous fare to that hotel and is avoiding the place in case he's recognised.There was no mention of taking a leak or refueling. It's possible`!

He probably had a bet on with his mates to see who could get mentioned on TV first

Did you book the taxi at the official airport taxi area (just outside the doors of the terminal) or did you simply accept an offer from some guy who shouted 'taxi?' at you. Did the taxi look like a real taxi, or was it just some guy in a car (even more likely to scam you)? As others have said, if you go to the official taxi queue, you give the name of the hotel to a person who writes it down on a slip of paper for you along with the driver's license/ID number and that person tells the driver your destination (which you should confirm, of course). There's added small fee, but the overall cost of the ride is very low compared to most other countries.

I suspect you had a 'fake' driver. This happened to me on my first trip to China in 2000. As I came into the arrivals area with my gf, a businessy-looking guy approached me and asked if I wanted a taxi. I was a naive traveller then, and accepted. He took us to the basement parking lot to a nice looking car, but with another guy inside. That should have been enough to dissuade us, but I was younger and stupider then. We'd been on road for a couple of minutes when the guy started trying to renegotiate the price (i.e., double it). I got pissed and demanded that the stop the car right there on the road (highway?) and we would get out right there. They backed down (surprisingly enough, given how theoretically vulnerable we were). But when we rolled up to the hotel they did not want to go in the hotel driveway but instead asked to drop us off on the sidewalk outside. I guess they didn't want to be identified as bogus 'taxi' drivers. Perhaps this is what happened in your case...

You are assuming he could read the address written on a paper you gave him. Probably wanted to ask directions.

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I've had taxis stop short to get gas
Taxis stop to ask for directions
Taxis stop short to pee on the side of the road (and poop, once in 13 years).
One taxi stopped short to give his kid lunch money when we happened to be in the neighborhood
Taxis stop to buy a bottle of water (and always offered me one, too)
Taxis stop on the road to drop off paperwork (No clue what it was)
I even had a taxi once stop on the road to return the cell phone one of his previous passengers left behind.

They're human. They have lives, families and an occasional need to interrupt their fares for other priorities.

Vigilance and caution is a good thing, but not everyone in Asia is out to rip you off and not every time.

I have rarely been ripped off by a taxi driver, and never for more than $3. (Well, okay $6 but that was just once)

Edited May 25, 201313 yr by impulse

Taxi drivers the world over, possibly with the exception of London, often get lost or do not know where certain buildings/hotels actually are. Your guy probably found it by accident in the end ! I've been 'lost' in Taxi's in Hong Kong, Macau, New York, Brussels and Paris, to mention a few.

London is different because they have to take tests and know just about everything there is to know about the City before they get a license.

or those london cabbies just know how a tom tom works

When ya gotta pee, ya gotta pee.

Even if it's a km from the final destination...

Poor guy, probably has prostrate troubles- I can relate.

+1