How should i have handled this: bad service/scam

[oxo1947]

If it were me, and it happened a few years ago, I would have been over it by now.

Unless you wanted to Troll on about it ---page after Page......

[wprime]

The first I have encountered but I'm yet to find a good solution to it.

The second, assuming we're talking about a reasonable establishment, can be fixed with a bit of diplomacy. Just remain calm, smile and talk to the owner/manager. They will usually fix it up for you - they will often ask which staff member served you, just say you can't remember. They will likely take the drink value off the staff member's pay - their pay is low enough as it is so have some pity.

[Pinot]

Never get mad at a Thai. It never does any good. They laugh at you. Calmly and insistantly complain, let them know you mean business but never show anger. If you do...you lose.

[marko kok prong]

The first I have encountered but I'm yet to find a good solution to it.

The second, assuming we're talking about a reasonable establishment, can be fixed with a bit of diplomacy. Just remain calm, smile and talk to the owner/manager. They will usually fix it up for you - they will often ask which staff member served you, just say you can't remember. They will likely take the drink value off the staff member's pay - their pay is low enough as it is so have some pity.

Or do like i suggest.hell,you can even give a chocolate milkshake,if you have the right ingredients.

[richard_smith237]

First event: Laugh at the guy, smile, its funny he's just trying it on.. Say nothing and just give him 200 when you get to your destination... If he pursues the issue, pay the extra 70 baht. Its highly likely it was an innocent mistake - Its surprising how many Thai's misunderstand Thai's... I'm not sure if its lack of attention to detail, careless listening skills etc... regularly I understand perfectly what my Wife orders in a restaurant only to have the waiter make a mistake.... an innocent mistake simply because they are not paying attention - this happens to Thai's an awful lot.

Second event: Laugh it off and say no chance.. if they insist just leave the money for one drink and walk off. It it looks like it might get nasty, pay for both drinks and don't return.

Its very basic stuff - attempt to stand up for whats right, but don't let it become a major issue... and definitely don't let it become such an issue it bothers you for 2 years !...

Edited May 21, 2014 by richard_smith237

[smotherb]

Just remember next trip Thais have a zero accountability when mistakes are made, They expect you to pay up and smile.When served an incorrect drink just drink it and be sure to let them know exactly what you want next round.

just shut up and drink it? No, make your order certain, do not to drink or pay for the mistake; and talk quietly, but firmly.

[marko kok prong]

Just remember next trip Thais have a zero accountability when mistakes are made, They expect you to pay up and smile.When served an incorrect drink just drink it and be sure to let them know exactly what you want next round.

just shut up and drink it? No, make your order certain, do not to drink or pay for the mistake; and talk quietly, but firmly.

If that fails,go to another bar,and hope it does not happen all over again.

[hellohello123]

Just remember next trip Thais have a zero accountability when mistakes are made, They expect you to pay up and smile.When served an incorrect drink just drink it and be sure to let them know exactly what you want next round.

just shut up and drink it? No, make your order certain, do not to drink or pay for the mistake; and talk quietly, but firmly.

Exactly, and what do you do if you order a $20 bottle of champagne and they bring and open a $500 bottle of red wine??? Just pay for it!?!?!?!

[Pralaad]

Just remember next trip Thais have a zero accountability when mistakes are made, They expect you to pay up and smile.When served an incorrect drink just drink it and be sure to let them know exactly what you want next round.

just shut up and drink it? No, make your order certain, do not to drink or pay for the mistake; and talk quietly, but firmly.

Exactly, and what do you do if you order a $20 bottle of champagne and they bring and open a $500 bottle of red wine??? Just pay for it!?!?!?!

No, you wait for 2 years and then make a post about it on Thai visa

[PiPiFFS]

I was also staying in a $150 per night hotel which I didn't deem relevant, but it was one of the better hotels in the area

so you staying at THB 5k/night hotel and you getting yourself worked up over THB 70 a few years ago ?.... USD 2.0 or there about' s...

I don't like getting scammed period!

I'd rather have dropped a $20 note on the ground , then to be scammed out of $2

Had the taxi driver asked me for $2 for his sick buffalo , I would have given it to him

I guess it sort of relates to when I used to manage a restaurant,

The change from a bill was supposed to be $9, because I was busy, I accidentally, gave them $6 on the change tray

They quickly let me know of the mistake, and I apologised profusely and gave them $15 change, as I didn't want them to think I was ripping them off

They came up to me and said "appreciate your honesty" and left it all as a tip!

Its not really about the dollar value for me

I was wondering when the old "it isn't about the money its the principle " BS would come into play.

I can't understand anyone getting "Furious " over such a piddling amount. Slightly annoyed OK but furious ?

Just once I would love to have someone admit that yes it really is about the 2-3 Dollars and nothing to do with principles

I think as they say in the USA you need to get some therapy my friend and especially if you are going to continue coming to Thailand where this type of thing is a regular occurrence and even more so if you intend to stay a long time.

I got taken for several thousand Dollars a few years ago but have got over it and even then wasn't furious.

[hellohello123]

Just remember next trip Thais have a zero accountability when mistakes are made, They expect you to pay up and smile.When served an incorrect drink just drink it and be sure to let them know exactly what you want next round.

just shut up and drink it? No, make your order certain, do not to drink or pay for the mistake; and talk quietly, but firmly.

Exactly, and what do you do if you order a $20 bottle of champagne and they bring and open a $500 bottle of red wine??? Just pay for it!?!?!?!

No, you wait for 2 years and then make a post about it on Thai visa

Blah blah blah blah

Do you think you are funny?

Surely you have better things to do then waste bandwidth?

[hellohello123]

I was also staying in a $150 per night hotel which I didn't deem relevant, but it was one of the better hotels in the area

so you staying at THB 5k/night hotel and you getting yourself worked up over THB 70 a few years ago ?.... USD 2.0 or there about' s...

I don't like getting scammed period!

I'd rather have dropped a $20 note on the ground , then to be scammed out of $2

Had the taxi driver asked me for $2 for his sick buffalo , I would have given it to him

I guess it sort of relates to when I used to manage a restaurant,

The change from a bill was supposed to be $9, because I was busy, I accidentally, gave them $6 on the change tray

They quickly let me know of the mistake, and I apologised profusely and gave them $15 change, as I didn't want them to think I was ripping them off

They came up to me and said "appreciate your honesty" and left it all as a tip!

Its not really about the dollar value for me

I was wondering when the old "it isn't about the money its the principle " BS would come into play.

I can't understand anyone getting "Furious " over such a piddling amount. Slightly annoyed OK but furious ?

Just once I would love to have someone admit that yes it really is about the 2-3 Dollars and nothing to do with principles

I think as they say in the USA you need to get some therapy my friend and especially if you are going to continue coming to Thailand where this type of thing is a regular occurrence and even more so if you intend to stay a long time.

I got taken for several thousand Dollars a few years ago but have got over it and even then wasn't furious.

I would have thought that the amount of $2 would prove that it's principle

It's also the inconvenience of a ten minute trip now taking 30 mins

And yes furious was probably a too strong word,

[asdecas]

I sat at a table in the Dubliner Irish pub on Sukhumvit Road near Emporium. I was drinking a pint of Guinness. I'd only taken a few sips from it when Somchai comes over with a ladder, sets it next to my table, and climbs it. I'm not there, apparently.

He reaches over my table and tries to unscrew a halogen lightbulb. It breaks. Glass falls in my beer.

Problem one: when I asked him to get a new beer, he actually said nothing went in the beer. Then he walked away.

I went to the bartender, told him what happened, and he gave me a fresh one with a smile, and without saying a word.

When I asked for the bill, there were two beers on it. The bartender wouldn't take one off, nor would the manager after hearing my story.

I waited until everyone was busy, left the exact money on the table for the one beer, and walked out. Never have returned.

Any Thai would know better than to sit under a lightbulb. Clearly your Thainess is not all that could be desired.

[Soutpeel]

Blah blah blah blah

Do you think you are funny?

Surely you have better things to do then waste bandwidth?

well I for one thought is was a very witty comment..

[Soutpeel]

I would have thought that the amount of $2 would prove that it's principle

Or of course it may prove your a cheap Charlie and you also steal toilet paper from Mall bathrooms so you don't have to buy any, or you go into a fast food place and steal the small packs of Ketchup for you don't need to buy any Heinz 57....

[nithisa78]

Pay the frieght , learn the lesson and move on. In my Country of birth, our children are 4th and 5th generation at what they do. In Thailand and much of the rest of God's green Earth. Many if not most are 1st generation. In my life it seems the more I try not to mess up, the more I mess up. We're all at our own stage of unfoldment and doing the best we can. The people in the world that speak English including me, I don't always get it right or understand and I'm not trying to get over on anybody. Good sharing principles with you. Good living by the code of life. When I was still kid in school, dispatched for Taxi company, metro NY. Holy cow and kittens. In Thailand my jokes rarely fly, when I dispatched, if not for my jokes, wouldn't be posting here.

[nithisa78]

I sat at a table in the Dubliner Irish pub on Sukhumvit Road near Emporium. I was drinking a pint of Guinness. I'd only taken a few sips from it when Somchai comes over with a ladder, sets it next to my table, and climbs it. I'm not there, apparently.

He reaches over my table and tries to unscrew a halogen lightbulb. It breaks. Glass falls in my beer.

Problem one: when I asked him to get a new beer, he actually said nothing went in the beer. Then he walked away.

I went to the bartender, told him what happened, and he gave me a fresh one with a smile, and without saying a word.

When I asked for the bill, there were two beers on it. The bartender wouldn't take one off, nor would the manager after hearing my story.

I waited until everyone was busy, left the exact money on the table for the one beer, and walked out. Never have returned.

Any Thai would know better than to sit under a lightbulb. Clearly your Thainess is not all that could be desired.

The first word I thought of wasn't Thai. However, the over petty among us have taken well your point. While in very nice hotel lounge with friend.....he spent the first 1/2 hour+ carrying on with staff over 10bh. I offered him 100 to sit and enjoy the view. He would not let go of it. He and his principle got the 10bh. I got the view and to make laugh talk with another of the staff. No society has monopoly on losers. Or those that just don't see themselves. He provided us all on slow day with live entertainment. Boring but live.

[johninbkk71]

Agreed on the price? Use a meter. They go the wrong way get out. Never had the misfortune to end up in Pattaya, but works in Bkk.

[Sandman77]

The craziest story ever a expat from nz running a small restaurant in Pattaya told me!

His friend come first time to Thailand

On the way to the hotel

Taxi have an accident !

The taxi driver says you are responsible for accident because you come to Thailand and sit in my car

Was some fake police cooperate with the driver forced him to payed hi amount for damage

On next day he leave Thailand and never come back again..

[thamteak]

It's all quite simple, really.

Get a few 11 year olds in charge of taxis, bars, restaurants, a country, and see what it would be like.

[Gandtee]

I have always thought that the Thai language is not very precise and a simple statement can have a few different interpretations. Look at Members of Parliament. How many times have you read, that after making a statement which went a bit wobbly the speaker then says 'I didn't mean that'. Imprecise, or mouth going off before brain engages? Better not to lose ones rag and face, and heed the advice supposedly given to British colonial ladies, 'When being raped, lay back and think of England'.

[HooHaa]

My god.. slow news day or what........ however there is a bright side to this post and the other collection of the shared experiences where heinous crimes and inequalities have been occasioned... apparently the Nation Insomnia Council is now prescribing the reading of this post as mandatory front line treatment..... words to the effect of more powerful than any sleeping pill.......

2 years ago and we are whinging about 70 Baht <deleted>

yes slow news day.

Martial law really seems to kill the thaivisa buzz

[Sheryl]

The taxi thing in my experience is pretty standard...you pay for the distance actually travelled ( of course in a meter taxi it is automatic) and the burden of giving crystal clear information on the desired destination is on the passenger. As for it being the driver's fault, you don't really know that. That he was told in Thai doesn't necessarily mean he was told clearly. There are many hotels with similar names. Always take care to provide not just the name but street location, the more detail the better. Don't assume that when Thais talk to Thais they necessarily communicate well, often they don't. For same reason there is a love of vagueness.

The second incident though I have never encountered and is not the norm here. I suspect that the server tried to cover up their error by telling the boss you had changed your order rather than admit she erred (assuming the boss was ware of the issue). As it is definitely not expected that people pay for wrong orders (and wrong orders are common enough).

As to how you should have handled it:

taxi: pay a fair price for the actual distance travelled and in future, give instructions to the driver yourself including as much detail as possible.

bar: ask to speak to the owner or manager (that alone may solve it), politely but firmly explain the situation.

Should you be furious? Goodness no, life is way too short and contains things far more worthy of rage than this.

[zaZa9]

Why does this almost always happens to someone with a female friend who is not a hooker?!

I have a theory that when someone goes to great lengths to point out the lady concerned is not a BG etc. they have already admitted to world that the young lady concerned is a hooker, its a defensive mechanism me thinks, certainly when the statements concerned have absolutely no relevance to the topic being discussed

bit like the posts on TV that start...."My wife/GF is a well educated non-EX BG, Hi-So Thai/Chinese Nuclear physicist and would like to know where to get a Thai drivers license BKK ? "

I actually thought it was fairly relevant because if it was a bar girl, she would just assume me being a rich faring, I would simply pay up.

if it was a decent girl, the probably would have handled it differently

I was also staying in a $150 per night hotel which I didn't deem relevant, but it was one of the better hotels in the area

Wow , you stay in $150 a night hotels and worry about being charged for a drink you didn't like?

I went in a taxi with a bar girl to Kata Beach in Phuket who told me, after a brief exchange with the driver along the way , that the taxi man had suggested he charge me 600 baht when the fare was 300 and suggested he and her could split the difference . I knew the price anyway so hadnt asked. The driver looked pretty embarrassed/annoyed when he heard her tell me that and then received 300 . He was not offered a return trip either as he had hoped.

Just goes to show you cant always tell a book by its cover ...

Edited May 21, 2014 by zaZa9

[1FinickyOne]

As to the taxi, he was likely misled by the Thai girl who misspoke and sent him on a longer trip - so, since she likely caused the problem, it would be gracious to pay since you likely have more $$ and nobody intended to cheat you...

In the bar, they flat out cheated you… and rather than raise a stink, just don't leave a big tip [ just joking ] - I would pay knowing i was taken and never go back...

I have had times where mistakes were made, not on my part, but i foot the bill anyway because i know the mistake was not intentional and I was more able to afford it, as usually it is a small amount - I look to intent.

[wvavin]

hellohello 123, the first incident could be an honest mistake or miscommunication but the second one was clearly coming head-on.

[Pralaad]

Surely you have better things to do then waste bandwidth?

Its not that i am funny, its more that you are sad

Why? its ok for you to waste bandwidth over $2, but not ok for me to entertain myself at your expense

[Pralaad]

I have always thought that the Thai language is not very precise and a simple statement can have a few different interpretations. Look at Members of Parliament. How many times have you read, that after making a statement which went a bit wobbly the speaker then says 'I didn't mean that'. Imprecise, or mouth going off before brain engages? Better not to lose ones rag and face, and heed the advice supposedly given to British colonial ladies, 'When being raped, lay back and think of England'.

Very little to do with Thai language.

The truth is, all taxi drivers know the big hotels.

And big hotels do not have similar names.

I am more than certain, OP stayed at $15 guesthouse instead of $150 hotel.

Example being, Every taxi driver knows Holiday Inn, but there are also Holiday Mansion, Holiday Resort, Pattaya Holiday Lodge, Pattaya Holiday City Lodge.

The non-hooker said one of the cheap ones, but taxi driver only heard and understood "HOLIDAY" so he drove from Walking Street to North Pattaya, thats a 200 bah fare. Once OP realized it was wrong, driver had to turn around and come back to one of the others in Pattaya Klang.

Of course the name of the hotels was just an example.

Second incident. could partially be due to OP speaking not clear English. See it all the time, For some reason many newbies do not seem to understand Thai in service sector do not speak good English, so speaking fast and with say Oz accent, will not get you far. They just talk as they would back home, assuming locals understand and know the lingo.

Yes it may well also be a mistake by the staff, who was now responsible to pay for the drink.

This is also pretty easy to deal with, they put bill for each drink, check the bill and if the wrong drink is on there, bring it up with cashier, instead of service, because naturally service will deny it.

[NCFC]

I was also staying in a $150 per night hotel which I didn't deem relevant, but it was one of the better hotels in the area

so you staying at THB 5k/night hotel and you getting yourself worked up over THB 70 a few years ago ?.... USD 2.0 or there about' s...

I don't like getting scammed period!

I'd rather have dropped a $20 note on the ground , then to be scammed out of $2

Had the taxi driver asked me for $2 for his sick buffalo , I would have given it to him

I guess it sort of relates to when I used to manage a restaurant,

The change from a bill was supposed to be $9, because I was busy, I accidentally, gave them $6 on the change tray

They quickly let me know of the mistake, and I apologised profusely and gave them $15 change, as I didn't want them to think I was ripping them off

They came up to me and said "appreciate your honesty" and left it all as a tip!

Its not really about the dollar value for me

The root of the problem, like the majority of problems that farangs face in Thailand, is that you are not in charge of the situation. You rely on your lady friend to instruct the taxi guy correctly. You rely on the taxi guy not to mishear. You depend on others for your existence. This isn't a criticism of you, we all suffer from it to some extent or others. A lot of guys here are dependent on their wife/gf for the simplest of tasks and when it goes wrong, and in Thailand it often goes wrong, we get worked up about it and resort to TV to vent our frustrations.

It isn't about the 70baht extra you had to pay, it is that you don't have control over your life in the way you would in your own country and it frustrates you.

[ableguy]

Is this the most interesting thing ever happened to you here ?????? Get a life.