For tourists: Potential scams or misunderstandings in Pattaya

[gk10002000]

Here is a funny one. Normally in McDonalds, Burger King etc. if you ask for a glass of cock-no-eye (coke no ice), you'll get it no problem. But some eateries want to charge you more, sometimes twice for a "no-eye" drink (mostly juice). Once upon a time I had a sore throat and asked for a tall glass of orange juice without ice in one of numerous Robinson coffee counters. "No-eye 90 Baht" came the reply (normal price in the menu was 45 Baht). So I asked the salesgirl to show in the menu a 90 Baht price for orange juice. Of course there wasn't one. She became very irritated and tried to argue - to no avail. I paid 45 Baht an left. Next day I went there for a rerun - same scenario - 90 baht for "no ice", but had to call for a manager (the salesgirl was unyielding that time), who promptly apologized and charged me 45 baht as in the menu. Next day - you guessed it - I was there again just to see a sign plate which read "Orange Juice with Ice 45 Baht, Orange Juice without Ice 90 Baht." They did it just for me!!! And for orange juice only!!! I took pity on the salesgirl and didn't ask for another juice without ice (there were 10 more in the menu). Then I asked her why the hell she couldn't give me a smaller glass of orange juice without ice (there were no indication of the glass size in the menu) in the first place? A puzzled look, then a smile of understanding... Now we are friends and I teach her some more of weird farang logic.

haha. I get it. Of course the chain wants to fill up the cup with ice. Might try: OK, just give me 1/2 filled cup no eye. Not likely to work, but might be fun to try

[SunLover2]

Have enough small bills so you can pay with exact change. Break lager bills at established shops.

If you order a mixed drink (say a gin and tonic) you are really ordering two drinks and will be charged for both items. Pay for alcohol when consumed. Resist the temptation to run a multi-hour tab.

SL

[Emster23]

At 7 a couple of times they added an item to the bill I didn't buy, perhaps hoping I wouldn't notice. For mental exercise I like to add up what bill should be in head while waiting. Get some oops! and looks of amazement that I could do such a feat. But when have to use calculator to figure change for 99 baht purchase and give a 100 baht note what can you expect?

[balo]

I have never been cheated in Thailand except one time no meter in taxi. So you guys probably visit other places than me. Always correct change back in 7 eleven and I am a regular customer. Always paid 10 baht for a baht bus, but please carry on about potential scams in Pattaya.

Edited September 7, 2015 by balo

[oxforddon]

^^^

I think in close to 50 years here, I have only been cheated once also. At a gas station that did not put in what I had paid for and I realised it only much later.

Edited September 7, 2015 by oxforddon

[dennis123]

Bit of a complicated one that happened lately:

- Sitting in a Thai club with some friends, some other Thais enter the club with their bottle of whisky from 7/11 and ask if they can join you, yeah sure

- End of the night the bill comes, you pay for opening the whisky, you pay the extra mixers, you pay your own bottle + mixers as well and the bill is 2600 Thai baht.

1) When I buy 2 bottles in the club + the mixers and all that the final bill is approx 2400-2500 baht.

2) Why nag about 100-200 baht? Well the bottle that they brought is only half empty and they let the cashier put their name on it.

So you end up paying sighly more for just 1.5 bottle instead of 2, and it was far from closing time but they had to go.

I got them back as one of these guys owns a bar that I never visit anymore while I used to spend there at least 10k baht/mo. That'll teach them!

I'm a generous guy but I don't let people cheat me with such little dirty tricks, even if it's less than a 1000 baht.

Another similar thing:

When you frequent clubs where they have a lot of friends, don't be surprised when half a bottle of Whisky gets swapped for a near empty one while going to the toilet. That's your reward for taking a hooker with their friends to a club, happened more than once! Yeah you could mark a bottle but I don't know if they really swap the bottle of just fill a few glasses pure and pass it on.

If you own a bar yourself:

If you're so silly to start a bar with your boy/girlfriend that you only know for say 6 months like me, don't be surprised when a bottle of whisky is sold that it gets replaced with a bottle from the 7/11, and obvious nothing written down. Anyway probably don't need to tell anyone that.

Edited September 7, 2015 by dennis123

[HLover]

Bit of a complicated one that happened lately:

- Sitting in a Thai club with some friends, some other Thais enter the club with their bottle of whisky from 7/11 and ask if they can join you, yeah sure

- End of the night the bill comes, you pay for opening the whisky, you pay the extra mixers, you pay your own bottle + mixers as well and the bill is 2600 Thai baht.

1) When I buy 2 bottles in the club + the mixers and all that the final bill is approx 2400-2500 baht.

2) Why nag about 100-200 baht? Well the bottle that they brought is only half empty and they let the cashier put their name on it.

So you end up paying sighly more for just 1.5 bottle instead of 2, and it was far from closing time but they had to go.

I got them back as one of these guys owns a bar that I never visit anymore while I used to spend there at least 10k baht/mo. That'll teach them!

I'm a generous guy but I don't let people cheat me with such little dirty tricks, even if it's less than a 1000 baht.

Another similar thing:

When you frequent clubs where they have a lot of friends, don't be surprised when half a bottle of Whisky gets swapped for a near empty one while going to the toilet. That's your reward for taking a hooker with their friends to a club, happened more than once! Yeah you could mark a bottle but I don't know if they really swap the bottle of just fill a few glasses pure and pass it on.

If you own a bar yourself:

If you're so silly to start a bar with your boy/girlfriend that you only know for say 6 months like me, don't be surprised when a bottle of whisky is sold that it gets replaced with a bottle from the 7/11, and obvious nothing written down. Anyway probably don't need to tell anyone that.

Advice related to the above post: Be selective of your "Thai friends" at Thai clubs and buying a bar for a "hooker" as he said he did.

[dennis123]

Here is a funny one. Normally in McDonalds, Burger King etc. if you ask for a glass of cock-no-eye (coke no ice), you'll get it no problem. But some eateries want to charge you more, sometimes twice for a "no-eye" drink (mostly juice). Once upon a time I had a sore throat and asked for a tall glass of orange juice without ice in one of numerous Robinson coffee counters. "No-eye 90 Baht" came the reply (normal price in the menu was 45 Baht). So I asked the salesgirl to show in the menu a 90 Baht price for orange juice. Of course there wasn't one. She became very irritated and tried to argue - to no avail. I paid 45 Baht an left. Next day I went there for a rerun - same scenario - 90 baht for "no ice", but had to call for a manager (the salesgirl was unyielding that time), who promptly apologized and charged me 45 baht as in the menu. Next day - you guessed it - I was there again just to see a sign plate which read "Orange Juice with Ice 45 Baht, Orange Juice without Ice 90 Baht." They did it just for me!!! And for orange juice only!!! I took pity on the salesgirl and didn't ask for another juice without ice (there were 10 more in the menu). Then I asked her why the hell she couldn't give me a smaller glass of orange juice without ice (there were no indication of the glass size in the menu) in the first place? A puzzled look, then a smile of understanding... Now we are friends and I teach her some more of weird farang logic.

You said you asked for a tall glass and days later you tell her she could've given you a smaller glass...

[dennis123]

Advice related to the above post: Be selective of your "Thai friends" at Thai clubs and buying a bar for a "hooker" as he said he did.

Indeed, however I didn't buy the bar specifically for him, personally I liked the idea of having a bar as I was spending a lot in other peoples bars, and I also found it time for him to work and he didn't want to find a job so it had a double purpose.

Once I found out I got ripped off the relationship was over and I closed the bar immidiately. I only had a one year contract and already cancelled my expensive house in Pratumnak to go live above the bar, also made a deal with the owner of the building that I could take it over by paying 10k/baht a month extra on top of the rent so that I didn't have to pay the asking price of 200k baht. The owner was in quite a deperate situation so she took the offer.

Almost forgot to mention, once I had the bar I was visited by quite a few Thai people that borrowed money to her, to one guy she owed 60k baht, to another 80k baht, and a few others for smaller amounts, as we also made a deal that allowed me to use her company name and licenses, instead of setting up a company myself, those people felt I had to pay them cause I was running a business on her name, eg part of her business. That became quite annoying at some point where they started to threaten me with police action and all, so that's also a thing to watch out for.

End result? I didn't let them intimidate me and didn't pay a single dime to any of them, police never came, just loose threats in the hope they would finally get their money back.

The story even gets worst though, after 3-4 months of being open I felt ripped off and closed the bar as I said, the bar remained closed for two more months and then I was approached by another set of Thai people, one lady who owns a restaurant in Jomtien and a friend of hers, they just wanted to rent downstairs (3 story building where I rented rooms to Thais) and I was fine with it as I was about to sign a contract for a house in Bang Saray, they signed some contract that I lost and I doubt the legitmacy of the contract anyway but well. So they rented it from me and 3 months later, the friend of the lady got involved in a heavy accident and broke his leg at 3 places, all kind of pins in his leg, however he kept the bar open, and slept in the bar as he couldn't climb the stairs of his room, fine and well, later on his mum died, and he had to go back to Isaan, when he was about to come back his brother also got involved in a very serious motorbike accident and killed someone. His brother, the manager of the bar had to go there then to fix things and let another friend of him run the bar. Quite an extreme story but not my personal problem of course.

HOWEVER, his friend started to sell Yaba in that bar at some point, I have no idea when that happened but only two days after my 6 months contract with him expired, there was a police raid and the guy is now in jail.

Imagine what could've happened if the bar was still on my name? Cause they rented it for exactly 6 months and their contract expired at the same day as my contract with the lady from Bangkok and the police raid only happened few days later.

Moral of the story

Don't take things for granted and be real careful who you're doing business with as before you know you can get involved in things you have nothing to do with and pay dearly for it either in cash or jail time. As you can see stories can take some real strange directions so better get a lawyer to deal with this what initially appears as 'low level' stuff.