overcharged by taxi at ground floor

[homsiam]

Rule #1: only ride taxis who use the meter.

Rule #2: note drivers license number, take picture with mobile.

Rule #3: if getting a taxi by hotel bell boy tell bell boy you destination and want to use meter.

Rule #4: make sure you have 100 and 20 baht notes in your wallet.

You a foul.If you need a taxi i give you a number here.09-2929-6769MR Piamsiri.I go whith this guy fore many year him charge me 4000b from Bangkok to Surin about 650km o so.When i stay Bangkok go from airport to Sukumwhit 250b

Forget to tell you you need to pay for tolway sheckpoints about 60-70 b

[Ajaan]

Don't know where Ratchada is, if it's not in BKK, they may give you a quote instead. Always tell the driver to turn on the meter right when you get in, if he refuses, tell him to stop the car and get out, take another one.

3rd (departure) floor or the ground floor - doesn't matter you can get overcharged anywhere if you're naive, the only difference is that on the 3rd floor you don't need to stay in the line up and you don't pay airport fee (they still may ask you to pay it though).

Hint: If you go to the 3rd floor, don't take a cab that stays there waiting for someone to come out (there will be few even though they're not allowed to wait there), talk to a driver that just dropped someone off. Those drivers also are more likely to refuse turning on the meter.

You don't know where Ratchada is?! Seriously? Or are you saying the taxi driver didn't (100% impossible)??

[Tomtomtom69]

Sure you can continue to catch airport taxis from Suvarnabhumi, but now that the airport link is up and running, why would anyone in their right mind catch a cab to the city, unless they are heading somewhere far away from a skytrain station? I have gotten into cabs headed for Siam and the driver only wanted to take me as far as Mo Chit since there's a skytrain station there. I was a bit lazy at the time but then I thought about it and I was like: you know what, he's doing me a favour, so I got out of the cab and caught the skytrain from there. On numerous other occasions I haven't been able to catch cabs if my origin and destination are served by the skytrain and/or airport link. Drivers have told me exactly this. Nowadays I drive everywhere, but if I'm heading into the city I'd rather park my car somewhere and then catch the skytrain to my final destination rather than catch a cab.

It's much faster and cheaper to catch the airport link to Makkasan or Phayathai and then from there you can catch a cab if you need one.

Another way of avoiding the airport scamsters and to save 35 Baht (50 Baht airport taxi surcharge - 15 Baht for the airport link city line one station = 35 Baht) at the same time is to catch the cityline one station to Lad Krabang for 15 Baht. Get off there, then catch a cab to your destination. There are guaranteed to be fewer scamsters as those taxi drivers are less used to dealing with foreigners just getting off planes.

Edited February 14, 2014 by Tomtomtom69

[Shurup]

Don't know where Ratchada is, if it's not in BKK, they may give you a quote instead. Always tell the driver to turn on the meter right when you get in, if he refuses, tell him to stop the car and get out, take another one.

3rd (departure) floor or the ground floor - doesn't matter you can get overcharged anywhere if you're naive, the only difference is that on the 3rd floor you don't need to stay in the line up and you don't pay airport fee (they still may ask you to pay it though).

Hint: If you go to the 3rd floor, don't take a cab that stays there waiting for someone to come out (there will be few even though they're not allowed to wait there), talk to a driver that just dropped someone off. Those drivers also are more likely to refuse turning on the meter.

You don't know where Ratchada is?! Seriously? Or are you saying the taxi driver didn't (100% impossible)??

No I don't know and don't care as it's not one of the areas that I ever visited.

As been already said, I don't need to know Bangkok to know how to get a taxi and not get scammed.

End of discussion.

[evadgib]

No Meter = No Punter!

[NanLaew]

... It's much faster and cheaper to catch the airport link to Makkasan or Phayathai and then from there you can catch a cab if you need one. ...

Maybe once upon a time you mean? Certainly for Makkasan.

In 2011 when I was commuting from Udon to work in Bangkok where I was living on Ratchada Soi 5, I famously posted the amazing 20 minute trip I had from airport to apartment that cost me all of 128 baht; 90 baht for the train and 38 baht for the taxi. It was repeated once more before the taxis decided that Makkasan is a total pain in the arse since I was in the (probably) 5% of passenger pickups that wanted to go north whereas the other 95% need to go the other way where the one-way system makes getting stuck in traffic gridlock an inevitability.

How about Phayatai to the lower-end of Sukhumvit? How do-able is that in a reasonable time by taxi? In rush-hour? In the rain?

[Chicog]

I use these taxis ona frequent basis and the trick they try is to get the paper they give the girl and she tears it in 2 and keeps one and give you the other one they then try to get you to give them that which of course then you have no recourse.

Upon entering the cab they say 450 baht, I always say Meter, they say no Meter, I say Ok i get out and go back to the girl,

SUDDENLY meter is turned on and off we go.

Very simple.

I use these taxis a dozen times a year, I state my destination, pocket the complaint form and get in.

Since Swampy opened, not *once* has the meter not been turned on; I have twice been asked if I want a fixed fare, and I just said no, the meter please, and off we went.

Back in the day I filled out the card and posted it off after I was too tired to argue with the driver who hadn't turned the meter on from Don Muang.

I got a letter from the transport ministry, or whatever it was, a few months later telling me the driver had been fined Bt1000.

[Chicog]

... It's much faster and cheaper to catch the airport link to Makkasan or Phayathai and then from there you can catch a cab if you need one. ...

Maybe once upon a time you mean? Certainly for Makkasan.

In 2011 when I was commuting from Udon to work in Bangkok where I was living on Ratchada Soi 5, I famously posted the amazing 20 minute trip I had from airport to apartment that cost me all of 128 baht; 90 baht for the train and 38 baht for the taxi. It was repeated once more before the taxis decided that Makkasan is a total pain in the arse since I was in the (probably) 5% of passenger pickups that wanted to go north whereas the other 95% need to go the other way where the one-way system makes getting stuck in traffic gridlock an inevitability.

How about Phayatai to the lower-end of Sukhumvit? How do-able is that in a reasonable time by taxi? In rush-hour? In the rain?

Swampy to Cowboy via the airport link and motosai taxi was a breeze the one time I did it (no luggage).

[Ajaan]

Don't know where Ratchada is, if it's not in BKK, they may give you a quote instead. Always tell the driver to turn on the meter right when you get in, if he refuses, tell him to stop the car and get out, take another one.

3rd (departure) floor or the ground floor - doesn't matter you can get overcharged anywhere if you're naive, the only difference is that on the 3rd floor you don't need to stay in the line up and you don't pay airport fee (they still may ask you to pay it though).

Hint: If you go to the 3rd floor, don't take a cab that stays there waiting for someone to come out (there will be few even though they're not allowed to wait there), talk to a driver that just dropped someone off. Those drivers also are more likely to refuse turning on the meter.

You don't know where Ratchada is?! Seriously? Or are you saying the taxi driver didn't (100% impossible)??

No I don't know and don't care as it's not one of the areas that I ever visited.

As been already said, I don't need to know Bangkok to know how to get a taxi and not get scammed.

End of discussion.

haha...NO. The discussion is over when *I* say it's over!! Learn some respect.

While it is true that if one applies general world traveler principles (i.e. never get in a stationary taxi except at an official queue; if meter is normal in the country you're traveling, insist on meter use, etc.), one is much less likely to get scammed, it is also a no-brainer that THE BETTER YOU KNOW THE CITY IN WHICH YOU ARE TRAVELING, THE LESS LIKELY THE DRIVER IS TO TRY TO RIP YOU OFF. I mean, duh!

I would also add that, in Thailand, if one speaks Thai well, one will never even encounter taxi drivers TRYING to scam one, let alone actually get scammed. If you travel to Bangkok frequently, 1) know the city and 2) know Thai...or risk being called an idiot.

NOW the conversation is over. BTW: I was directing my incredulity in my previous post much more at the fact that a taxi driver wouldn't know where Ratchada was, and not you...but since you decided to be a smartass, you paid the price.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Ajaan

[Shurup]

haha...NO. The discussion is over when *I* say it's over!! Learn some respect.

And you are who, may I ask???

Don't try to sound more important that you really are, you're just another TV user here, nothing more.

Also what does respect have to do with anything???

If you read my original reply, it's pretty clear that I said I don't know where Ratchada is.

If you read the whole tread, you'd see I've got "cyber attacked" by some idiots claiming that I'm not qualified to say how to get a taxi because I don't know Ratchada?!? I thought you were another one of them, but if your question was genuine, than I apologize.

It's been said, and I repeat, I (or anyone else for that matter) don't need to know the city to know how to get a taxi and not get scammed.

In BKK I know pretty much whole of Sukhumvit and Srinahkarin and I know all the major roads and tollways to get there..

Ratchada? Why would I care where that is if I never been there and not plan on going?

Been traveling trough Swampy and DM on average once per month for 6 years. never got scammed, that's all that counts.