22 restaurants in Hua Hin guilty of overcharging their customers

[webfact]

Twenty-two restaurants in Hua-Hin guilty of overcharging their customers

PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN, 12 August 2014 (NNT) - Police in the famous Hua-Hin beach area of Prachuap Khiri Khan province have recommended locals and tourists to file complaints against restaurants who have overcharged them.

Facebook users have shared photos online regarding a case where a group of customers were forced to pay up to 3,820 baht for ordering only nine menu items from one particular beach restaurant in Hua-Hin.

Some of these dishes such as the Thai papaya salad or “Som Tam” and grilled squid were priced at around 300 baht and 500 baht respectively, which were more than twice the prices of what most restaurants in Thailand would offer.

Investigations reveal that there have been 22 restaurants in the Hua-Hin beach area that were allegedly guilty of charging exorbitant prices from their customers. However, the names of those restaurants have not been disclosed to the public.

At this point, police are now working with related agencies such as the Hua-Hin Municipality and the Consumer Protection Bureau to ensure that consumers are being treated fairly.

[nnt]2014-08-12[/nnt]

[horsewell]

No one should care what prices a certain restaurant charges and neither should the government. That is unless for some reason people are coerced to purchase from it like tour groups that are told that they must pay for deck chairs on each island or the guide wont look after their property, and not stating it when looking at the brochure that this is a required extra. The PiPi island 20 baht fee for tour groups as well...  but then it's just 20 baht, right!

 

I get annoyed at having to ask the price / for a menu everywhere I go. That I can go to the same shop, that doesn't show prices, and get different prices on different days leads me to always ask the prices every time. However, that is the way it works. Another thing to watch for is when you ask the price and they prepare the item (especially food) for you without giving a price. I've asked prices then sent in my savvy local friends in to get a better price.

 

If the restaurant has menus with prices on and wants to charge whatever prices suits them, it should be their business. If they add extra dishes that where not ordered or served or manipulate the price after ordering then it should be a criminal issue.

 

PS. I just thought of a great scam. Two menus one with low prices and one with high prices. Then when the bill comes the high prices are charged rather than the low prices and when the customer asks to see the menu the high priced menu is shown. I wonder if that has ever been done!?

[marsstar14]

Restaurants should always list the prices of their food items to ensure that they are being honest with their customers. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Thailand. Now this particular group of customers who were charged for 3,820 baht have probably ordered the menu items without asking for their prices in the beginning, giving the restaurant owners a chance to manipulate the food prices after ordering. A som-tam dish for 300 baht? That's ridiculously expensive.

[iReason]

In Samui, some restaurants will have menus in Thai on the wall and hand a menu to the suckers (i.e: foreigners) for double and triple the price... 

My UK friend, who could speak, read and write Thai, would always make a point of ordering for us from the wall. 

Perplexed the thieving, air-headed rascals...

[Thai at Heart]

Who judges if something is expensive?

Can we complain about the price of wine?

[JustAnotherFarang]

I don't know if we can complain about the price of wine because on a recent trip to Tesco Lotus I saw that they had quite a large selection of wines including Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot for 199 bht per bottle.  I bought 5 bottles and polished off a bottle of Pinot Grigio last night.  I would not say it was the best bottle of wine I had but it was passable.

 

JAF

Who judges if something is expensive?

Can we complain about the price of wine?

 

[canuckamuck]

If you know what the price is before you order it, there is no problem.

[GeorgeO]

No one should care what prices a certain restaurant charges and neither should the government. That is unless for some reason people are coerced to purchase from it like tour groups that are told that they must pay for deck chairs on each island or the guide wont look after their property, and not stating it when looking at the brochure that this is a required extra. The PiPi island 20 baht fee for tour groups as well...  but then it's just 20 baht, right!

 

I get annoyed at having to ask the price / for a menu everywhere I go. That I can go to the same shop, that doesn't show prices, and get different prices on different days leads me to always ask the prices every time. However, that is the way it works. Another thing to watch for is when you ask the price and they prepare the item (especially food) for you without giving a price. I've asked prices then sent in my savvy local friends in to get a better price.

 

If the restaurant has menus with prices on and wants to charge whatever prices suits them, it should be their business. If they add extra dishes that where not ordered or served or manipulate the price after ordering then it should be a criminal issue.

 

PS. I just thought of a great scam. Two menus one with low prices and one with high prices. Then when the bill comes the high prices are charged rather than the low prices and when the customer asks to see the menu the high priced menu is shown. I wonder if that has ever been done!?

 

That has been an "old trick" in Pattaya for years...!!

[WitawatWatawit]

Horsewell:
"If the restaurant has menus with prices on and wants to charge whatever prices suits them, it should be their business."

Wrong (unless it's a lower price). Even in Thailand it's an offence to display a price and then charge a higher figure.

So now another problem for Prayuth to rsolve. The Consumer Affairs Bureau has the teeth, it just lacks the bite - it is one of the most gutless, mostinefficient govt agencies, yet it should be a very important one.

[Spoonman]

Ive just realized ive been overcharged every time I go out for a beer because they are always more expensive in bars/gogo's than the 7/11.... who should I complain to ?

[sirocco]

Already, when you a "colonial egg", we do not drink beer, like that Thou shalt have no you complain if it is more expensive or less expensive ..

[edwinchester]

Ive just realized ive been overcharged every time I go out for a beer because they are always more expensive in bars/gogo's than the 7/11.... who should I complain to ?

The guy in the mirror for not having the sense to find out the price of a beer in a bar before ordering.

[Spoonman]

 

Ive just realized ive been overcharged every time I go out for a beer because they are always more expensive in bars/gogo's than the 7/11.... who should I complain to ?

The guy in the mirror for not having the sense to find out the price of a beer in a bar before ordering.

 

 

So kinda like the people in the OP complaining about a meal price after they accepted/selected  then complain it is more expensive than other places.......

 

 

Go figure................................
 

[Docno]

Not all restaurants -- especially seafood restaurants with a lot of seasonal items-- post prices. I've gone with locals in Thailand and Indonesia to such places and always ask the server for the price of items before I order. Sometimes my friends look at me as if I'm from another planet and I have to explain that the price might be made higher due to the strange colour of my skin and hair (i.e. western). Some of my friends will simply walk into a restaurant and order what they want without seeing a menu (som tam etc.) because they have expected price range in their heads. Not what we're used to, but it seems to work well enough (except perhaps in places where the presence of tourists tempts restaurants to 'cheat'). [I just experienced this very thing at a seaside place in Java this past weekend].

[harrycallahan]

No court's going to insist you come up with 100,000 baht for the pad thai for which you never requested a price, so obviously a line of common sense is drawn somewhere.

[Globeman]

No one should care what prices a certain restaurant charges and neither should the government. That is unless for some reason people are coerced to purchase from it like tour groups that are told that they must pay for deck chairs on each island or the guide wont look after their property, and not stating it when looking at the brochure that this is a required extra. The PiPi island 20 baht fee for tour groups as well...  but then it's just 20 baht, right!

 

I get annoyed at having to ask the price / for a menu everywhere I go. That I can go to the same shop, that doesn't show prices, and get different prices on different days leads me to always ask the prices every time. However, that is the way it works. Another thing to watch for is when you ask the price and they prepare the item (especially food) for you without giving a price. I've asked prices then sent in my savvy local friends in to get a better price.

 

If the restaurant has menus with prices on and wants to charge whatever prices suits them, it should be their business. If they add extra dishes that where not ordered or served or manipulate the price after ordering then it should be a criminal issue.

 

PS. I just thought of a great scam. Two menus one with low prices and one with high prices. Then when the bill comes the high prices are charged rather than the low prices and when the customer asks to see the menu the high priced menu is shown. I wonder if that has ever been done!?

 

I had that done to me on the train from Bkk to Chiang Mai several years ago. 

[lumply]

 

Ive just realized ive been overcharged every time I go out for a beer because they are always more expensive in bars/gogo's than the 7/11.... who should I complain to ?

No One. The answer lies in the overheads. 7/11's are largely self service and with a lower cost base than a typical bar I would venture to suggest.

[Krataiboy]

I don't mind paying these sort of prices if they are merited by the cuisine and ambience of the restaurant concerned. The problem is that in places like Hua Hin you can pay ridiculously high prices for poor food, in mediocre surroundings, with quite appalling customer service. The answer is not for local government or the police to start dictating what they can or cannot charge but for the public to vote with their feet and not patronise restaurants which give poor value.

 

I hate to say this, but Thais have a penchant for showing off (wer) that sometimes leads them to throw their money away on relatively poor food at the latest "in" restaurant - and brag afterwards how they were charged an arm and a leg. Europeans tend to put value for money before social cache, which is why one often sees well-heeled Brits and Scandinavians slumming it at cheap Thai cafes or roadside stalls in my home town of Cha Am. Of course, the food at these modest places is often vastly superior to the pretentiously served stuff at the more trendy restaurants - but a Merc-driving Thai and family, down from Big Mango for the weekend, wouldn't be seen dead in such surroundings.

[sensei]

I hope they do the same in Phuket where everything is overpriced.

I really do not understand how all of the shops there can get away with it.
Even KFC and Swensen's have different prices.

 

What really annoys me the most are the effin' TIP BOXES that they have in front of the cashier.
They still have the guts to ask for a tip after overcharging the customer?

[ukrules]

Already, when you a "colonial egg", we do not drink beer, like that Thou shalt have no you complain if it is more expensive or less expensive ..

 

The problem here is that they were doing this to Thai tourists, not foreigners.

 

This is the only reason you are reading about it now.
 

[ebean001]

Foreign tourist should not be charged more but Thais should be given a discount... In any case, the meals are way cheaper in Chiang Mai then the rest of Thailand and the rest of the world. Chiang Mai is getting to be the mecca while BKK, etc are getting to expensive. We still only charge 400 bahts for bar fines and 65 for a small beer at the better bars in CM.

[TheWizardofRnR]

In NEW ORLEANS there was a very High Class Restaurant that had a Menu with no prices ,

my roommate was a waiter there and I believe it was in the St. Louis Hotel , in the French Quarter,

which is the area where Bourbon St.is located

If a customer asked for a Menu with prices , my roommate simply told the customer

" We are sorry ,but if you need to ask the Prices ,you cannot afford to eat here!"

As long as a restaurant is up front about their prices and not switching Menus ,like some other Posts suggested,

it should not be the Governments business what the restaurants want to price their Menus at !

If the Govt. wants to be involved , what they should be checking into ; is the ridiculous prices the landlords

charge for key money & rent , which Restaurant owners can either pay or find a different location.

That also has a bearing on the prices some places charge , to cover that cost , it is reflected in higher

prices on the menus.Plus how many employees are on the payroll & if there's any entertainment.

If your not forced to go into a place their prices should be their biz not the govts !

[realenglish1]

Hey I don't necessarily  agree  with higher prices but its up to the restaurant what they charge If people don't like the price then don't go there This is not a police matter

this is a straight forward matter for the people

 

If you don't go the restaurant will eventually lower prices or not stay open. This is free enterprise

[HUAHIN62]

Som tam at B 300, 555 the best in town can be bought for B 45. Instead of concentrating on the prices, force them to have multi lingual menus with prices on them.

[ianf]

No one should care what prices a certain restaurant charges and neither should the government. That is unless for some reason people are coerced to purchase from it like tour groups that are told that they must pay for deck chairs on each island or the guide wont look after their property, and not stating it when looking at the brochure that this is a required extra. The PiPi island 20 baht fee for tour groups as well...  but then it's just 20 baht, right!

 

I get annoyed at having to ask the price / for a menu everywhere I go. That I can go to the same shop, that doesn't show prices, and get different prices on different days leads me to always ask the prices every time. However, that is the way it works. Another thing to watch for is when you ask the price and they prepare the item (especially food) for you without giving a price. I've asked prices then sent in my savvy local friends in to get a better price.

 

If the restaurant has menus with prices on and wants to charge whatever prices suits them, it should be their business. If they add extra dishes that where not ordered or served or manipulate the price after ordering then it should be a criminal issue.

 

PS. I just thought of a great scam. Two menus one with low prices and one with high prices. Then when the bill comes the high prices are charged rather than the low prices and when the customer asks to see the menu the high priced menu is shown. I wonder if that has ever been done!?

 

Please Horsewell ...... Don't give them ideas .........

[wabothai]

Most restaurants list their prices on menucard. What are you talking about?
When you are overcharged you have the choice to refuse to pay.
I don't see the problem.

[Brian Corrigan]

I don't know if we can complain about the price of wine because on a recent trip to Tesco Lotus I saw that they had quite a large selection of wines including Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot for 199 bht per bottle.  I bought 5 bottles and polished off a bottle of Pinot Grigio last night.  I would not say it was the best bottle of wine I had but it was passable.

 

JAF

Who judges if something is expensive?

Can we complain about the price of wine?

 

Can you tell me where the Tesco store is.............please!

[franck1972]

I don't know if we can complain about the price of wine because on a recent trip to Tesco Lotus I saw that they had quite a large selection of wines including Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot for 199 bht per bottle.  I bought 5 bottles and polished off a bottle of Pinot Grigio last night.  I would not say it was the best bottle of wine I had but it was passable.

 

JAF

Who judges if something is expensive?

Can we complain about the price of wine?

 

 

Fully agree...

Yesterday, I've seen a low quality french cheese for 230 B for 125g, that'd be 460 B for a regular 250 g cheese...and that's around 8 times the price in France.

300 B for a som tam ? That's "'only" 4-5 times the price in Bangkok.

[phuketrichard]

all the Seaside ( above the water) restaurants in Hua Hin i have eaten at charge at least 100% more than regular Thai restaurants,

got to pay extra for the view!!!

 

BUT

 

IN Ko Lanta, same food half the price better view

[Pundi6446]

It would certainly help to have the names of these places, and locations.