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Another example how much they love foreigners. NOT?


jbrain

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So for the past 2 years I used a car-wash on road #36 not far from my house.

When I started going there the price for a regular clean of a pick up truck was 170 Baht which is not too bad.

Then about 6 months ago the service actually went down, probably because the laid of half of the staff, but at the same time the price also went up to 200 Baht. Still no complaints as I think in Pattaya the price will probably be higher, but we are talking about Nong Plalai which is out of the tourist zone. Of course we all know that for that price you don't get a upper-class cleaning, but it was reasonable.

There is also no price list or whatever, but hey who in his right mind would ever think about two tiered pricing in Thailand, after all it is a car-wash not a National park.

Also keep in mind that I own 1 pick up and 2 motorbikes and use this car wash exclusively, due to the convenience of being nearby, so I guess i can be considered a regular customer.

Today it was time again to clean the pick up. On arrival I'm third car in the queue. First car is a Isuzu Dmax and when his truck is finished the Thai driver takes 160 Baht out of his pocket, and shouts to the owner 160 Baht, which get's confirmed.

Secaond car is a fairly new Mitsubishi SUV, and when finished the lady driver takes two notes of 100 Baht and hands them to the owner.

I think it is normal that a SUV fetches a higher price for cleaning as a pick up, isn't it ?

This is actually the first time I take notice of what other customers are paying, as the car wash owner never leaves his office and it is paid in there, but this time he was outside near the cleaning area.

I'm getting a bit confused and start thinking that, or I must be wrong by thinking I paid 200 Baht for the past 6 months, or prices have come down.

When my pick up is finished I go to the office and hand them a 500 Baht note, and notice that my change contains some 20 Baht notes, so I assume that it actually has come down to 160 Baht now. However when I count I see that I have been handed back 230 Baht change only. ( 1 x 100, 1x 50 and 4x 20 Baht) which brings the price to 270 Baht.

I turn back and ask what the price is on which he comments 220 Baht, so I ask him why the Thai Isuzu owner only paid 160 Baht. His answer is " clean not same ", so probably they used less water.

When asking why the bigger SUV owner, and from which I had seen it got the same cleaning as mine, also paid only 200 Baht, so less than me, he has no answer but I tell him already that the farang will never return.

By the way I've never in all those times ever noticed that they had different cleaning options.

So apart from trying to cheat me 50 Baht in change, which was corrected afterwards, they have all those years charged me a 60% premium only because I have a white nose. ( 220 Baht compared to 160 Baht)

I don't know what happened with my throttle when I left, but I noticed in my rear view mirror, that a huge cloud of dust entered the cleaning area.

You think this was fair ? Or should I have treated them to at least double the amount of dust and dirt .

Now who's gonna be the first to tell me that I can leave if I don't like it.

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I will comment that some washes do have cleaning options. One that comes to mind is when they clean the under carriage also an engine clean can be extra.

I'm well aware that some car-washes have options to choose from, and maybe he has them as well but difficult to know if there is no pricelist, but in those 2 years I've been going there I've never seen a car receiving more or less than what I got.

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Try Nakonsawan on Theprassit Road. I don't have a car cleaned, but they're always done my bike for 60 baht.

To be honest, the car-wash was pretty convenient for me as it is only about 1 km from my place, and even if he had charged the same price or even a little more than the Pattaya car-washes it wouldn't have mattered to me. Keep in mind that Pattaya is a 15 km drive for me.

But the fact that one charges a different price based on race, makes me want to destroy that place, and however it cost me considerably more the next cleaning I will have to make the trip to Pattaya.

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So essentially the moral of your story is that you let yourself get ripped off for a couple of years. coffee1.gif

There always have to be one, isn't it.

No, the moral of my story is that I just found out today that I got ripped off for a couple of years, and decided to vote with my feet .

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Try Nakonsawan on Theprassit Road. I don't have a car cleaned, but they're always done my bike for 60 baht.

To be honest, the car-wash was pretty convenient for me as it is only about 1 km from my place, and even if he had charged the same price or even a little more than the Pattaya car-washes it wouldn't have mattered to me. Keep in mind that Pattaya is a 15 km drive for me.

But the fact that one charges a different price based on race, makes me want to destroy that place, and however it cost me considerably more the next cleaning I will have to make the trip to Pattaya.

Sorry, I read your post too quickly and thought you were talking about 3rd Road.smile.png .. but I see it's Road # 36.

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Thainess -- the gift that keeps on giving.

Nobody is surprised by stories like this.

Wait for it.

You cheap foreigner, just bend over take it, and if you don't like it, go home.....

What the OP is riled about is what riles most of us. Why should foreigners be treated like idiots ? Us foreigners spend enormous amounts of baht here in Pattaya adding greatly to the economy. Most of us do not like having the piss taken. You may choose to "bend over and take it" but most of us foreigners do not choose that option.

Have you heard of the phrase "Caveat Emptor". It applies world wide. If you don't have the intelligence to inform yourself about the local going rate for goods and services, and negotiate the best price you can get, then more fool you. It's a game played in many countries and if Falang in Thailand can't figure it out then they deserve what they get. Willing seller - willing buyer. Then OP was happy to pay the price he was charged, and that's the reality of the commercial world in every country on the globe.

Learn some basic language and always and without fail tell the vendor it's too expensive and the price should be XX.

Most of this two tier pricing is not about Foreigner v. Thai......it's abut streetsmarts v. Falang with the wisdom and intellect of Bambi.

I still pay 50b for a taxi ride that Thais pay 70B for. Why?.....because I'm a frequent flyer and the taxi blokes know that I don't carry vaseline with me. They even call me Kuhn haa-sib-baht.

The educated and streetwise blokes that live here will agree with me. The dickheads that are too quick to blame all those racist Thais for their own repeated stupidity will no doubt strongly disagree, but I don't really give a flying phark.

Cheers w00t.gif

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Take you Mrs along. You obviously have trouble understanding the miriad of cleaning options offered to you.

If you have no Mrs. Short time one and shag her while your car is being washed.

Win win.

I don't think that there was any misunderstanding, first of all my eyes saw for 2 years including today that all cars were cleaned in a similar way as mine, and I'm very well aware what the meaning is of " Tamada " . As that is how I replied to their question the first time ever I arrived there, and that is what me and everyone else got every time I was there.

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Thainess -- the gift that keeps on giving.

Nobody is surprised by stories like this.

no, but i am surprised at the need to harp on about it endlessly and preface it with ridiculously indignant thread titles.

i get unfairly done i talk to the manager, never go back or both.

I certainly dont write a novella begging others to commiserate with me over the injustice of it all.

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Thainess -- the gift that keeps on giving.

Nobody is surprised by stories like this.

Wait for it.

You cheap foreigner, just bend over take it, and if you don't like it, go home.....

What the OP is riled about is what riles most of us. Why should foreigners be treated like idiots ? Us foreigners spend enormous amounts of baht here in Pattaya adding greatly to the economy. Most of us do not like having the piss taken. You may choose to "bend over and take it" but most of us foreigners do not choose that option.

Have you heard of the phrase "Caveat Emptor". It applies world wide. If you don't have the intelligence to inform yourself about the local going rate for goods and services, and negotiate the best price you can get, then more fool you. It's a game played in many countries and if Falang in Thailand can't figure it out then they deserve what they get. Willing seller - willing buyer. Then OP was happy to pay the price he was charged, and that's the reality of the commercial world in every country on the globe.

Learn some basic language and always and without fail tell the vendor it's too expensive and the price should be XX.

Most of this two tier pricing is not about Foreigner v. Thai......it's abut streetsmarts v. Falang with the wisdom and intellect of Bambi.

I still pay 50b for a taxi ride that Thais pay 70B for. Why?.....because I'm a frequent flyer and the taxi blokes know that I don't carry vaseline with me. They even call me Kuhn haa-sib-baht.

The educated and streetwise blokes that live here will agree with me. The dickheads that are too quick to blame all those racist Thais for their own repeated stupidity will no doubt strongly disagree, but I don't really give a flying phark.

Cheers w00t.gif

I'm glad that you are so superior that you have managed to get a better price for a taxi ride as the locals, or at least that is what they make you believe.

After 2 decades here, I was also not aware that you had to negotiate a price for a carwash, especially not in a place where i've never encountered another foreigner.

I was also not aware that this was common practice in most countries worldwide.

I have to bow to your unlimited knowledge. wai.gifwai.gif

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Thainess -- the gift that keeps on giving.

Nobody is surprised by stories like this.

no, but i am surprised at the need to harp on about it endlessly and preface it with ridiculously indignant thread titles.

i get unfairly done i talk to the manager, never go back or both.

I certainly dont write a novella begging others to commiserate with me over the injustice of it all.

I didn't ask anyone to commiserate with me, I asked if I had given them enough dust to eat or if I should have returned for an extra round.

And now come on GirlDrinkDrunk, how do you always manage to get a new username so quickly ?

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Thainess -- the gift that keeps on giving.

Nobody is surprised by stories like this.

no, but i am surprised at the need to harp on about it endlessly and preface it with ridiculously indignant thread titles.

i get unfairly done i talk to the manager, never go back or both.

I certainly dont write a novella begging others to commiserate with me over the injustice of it all.

I didn't ask anyone to commiserate with me, I asked if I had given them enough dust to eat or if I should have returned for an extra round.

And now come on GirlDrinkDrunk, how do you always manage to get a new username so quickly ?

i beg your pardon, im not a girl and i dont drink much anymore.

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So for the past 2 years I used a car-wash on road #36 not far from my house.

When I started going there the price for a regular clean of a pick up truck was 170 Baht which is not too bad.

Then about 6 months ago the service actually went down, probably because the laid of half of the staff, but at the same time the price also went up to 200 Baht. Still no complaints as I think in Pattaya the price will probably be higher, but we are talking about Nong Plalai which is out of the tourist zone. Of course we all know that for that price you don't get a upper-class cleaning, but it was reasonable.

There is also no price list or whatever, but hey who in his right mind would ever think about two tiered pricing in Thailand, after all it is a car-wash not a National park.

Also keep in mind that I own 1 pick up and 2 motorbikes and use this car wash exclusively, due to the convenience of being nearby, so I guess i can be considered a regular customer.

Today it was time again to clean the pick up. On arrival I'm third car in the queue. First car is a Isuzu Dmax and when his truck is finished the Thai driver takes 160 Baht out of his pocket, and shouts to the owner 160 Baht, which get's confirmed.

Secaond car is a fairly new Mitsubishi SUV, and when finished the lady driver takes two notes of 100 Baht and hands them to the owner.

I think it is normal that a SUV fetches a higher price for cleaning as a pick up, isn't it ?

This is actually the first time I take notice of what other customers are paying, as the car wash owner never leaves his office and it is paid in there, but this time he was outside near the cleaning area.

I'm getting a bit confused and start thinking that, or I must be wrong by thinking I paid 200 Baht for the past 6 months, or prices have come down.

When my pick up is finished I go to the office and hand them a 500 Baht note, and notice that my change contains some 20 Baht notes, so I assume that it actually has come down to 160 Baht now. However when I count I see that I have been handed back 230 Baht change only. ( 1 x 100, 1x 50 and 4x 20 Baht) which brings the price to 270 Baht.

I turn back and ask what the price is on which he comments 220 Baht, so I ask him why the Thai Isuzu owner only paid 160 Baht. His answer is " clean not same ", so probably they used less water.

When asking why the bigger SUV owner, and from which I had seen it got the same cleaning as mine, also paid only 200 Baht, so less than me, he has no answer but I tell him already that the farang will never return.

By the way I've never in all those times ever noticed that they had different cleaning options.

So apart from trying to cheat me 50 Baht in change, which was corrected afterwards, they have all those years charged me a 60% premium only because I have a white nose. ( 220 Baht compared to 160 Baht)

I don't know what happened with my throttle when I left, but I noticed in my rear view mirror, that a huge cloud of dust entered the cleaning area.

You think this was fair ? Or should I have treated them to at least double the amount of dust and dirt .

Now who's gonna be the first to tell me that I can leave if I don't like it.

I would of applied the brake and sat on the spot 15 seconds then left!! Would of made it fair then!

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

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Thainess -- the gift that keeps on giving.

Nobody is surprised by stories like this.

Wait for it.

You cheap foreigner, just bend over take it, and if you don't like it, go home.....

What the OP is riled about is what riles most of us. Why should foreigners be treated like idiots ? Us foreigners spend enormous amounts of baht here in Pattaya adding greatly to the economy. Most of us do not like having the piss taken. You may choose to "bend over and take it" but most of us foreigners do not choose that option.

I was being sarcastic. Normally by now, someone has chimed in.

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