Members of Phoenix Golf & Country Club present petition to Prime Minister's Representative

On Thursday, a group representing shareholder / members of Phoenix Golf & Country Club, Pattaya presented a petition to the Prime Minister's Representative at their new offices in the Association of Government Scholarship Students opposite the number 1 gate of Government House.

Around August 2013 the club and lands were sold to a new owner who declared that from November 1st 2013 new rules and regulations would be enforced. The membership of Phoenix Golf & Country Club consists of players from all parts of the globe - Thailand, Japan,Korea, Germany, Norway, Canada, USA, Australia and many more. These members having checked with lawyers found the new rules and regulations illegal and in violation of their original membership rights and privileges.

An action group was formed and after several attempts to reach an amicable solution with the new owner, the group's request remained unanswered, so in December 2013 a complaint was filed with the Consumer Protection Board ( CPB ) in Pattaya against Phoenix and its new owner, but CPB Pattaya did nothing to resolve the problem. So around 160 shareholding members in May 2014 lodged a well-founded and documented complaint with the Consumer Protection Board ( CPB ) this time in Bangkok, requesting them to investigate this matter and to mediate or to go to Court on behalf of all the complainants.

The lawyers of CPB found the new owner breached the Consumer Protection Law and CPB should act on the consumer’s behalf to file the lawsuit against the new owner. The case was presented to the subcommittee of CPB Bangkok already, but the case appears to have stalled at this juncture. It is now 2 years since the case was presented to the CPB in Pattaya.

It is hoped that the Prime Minister will petition the CPB in Bangkok and the members will regain their legal rights as quickly as possible.

Eva Johnson

RELATED: Long running topic related to Phoenix Golf & Country club

The story is that they changed the rules for members. They took away their right to sell their membership by introducing a 200,000 Baht transfer fee leaving the value of the membership virtually worthless. They then imposed a 20,000 baht per annum service fee and on top of this introduced a green fee and compulsory carts. This was later reduced and the cart situation resolved but is still in place. I think they may have a chance because of one reason. The course was bought by members of Thaksin's inner circle. It does however bring home the influence this circle still has within legislative bureaucrats in all areas of Thailand. This kind of power is funded and it will not go away easily.

Is this the same steel woman responsible for the Redcar steelworks works closing recently ? I think it's the same company but not sure.

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I wonder why Pattaya Sport Club will organize the Monthly Tournament in Phoenix golf course and same time their members have problems with the owner of the golf course.

A very similar affair at another local golf course, Burapha occurred a few years ago (I guess 6 or 7 years ago).

I (still) have a lifetime family membership there, which I purchased from a colleague in 2006 for xxxxxx Baht plus a 10k transfer fee.

I then had someone interested in purchasing the said membership from me, I was happy to sell, and would have made a few baht at the same time. We went to the office, and were told the transfer cost was now 100k!!!!! For the 100k you get to change the name on a credit card sized piece of plastic, oh plus the administration costs!!!!!!

Pure greed!!!

Business must be slow, so they raised prices.

I considered buying a house there once, as it's a very nice area.

Some clown wanted 19 million for a house on a plot of land the size of a postage stamp.

Give it 10 years & it'll be like living in any one of the thousands of concentration camp housing estates in Pattaya.

Front page advertisement of current Pattaya Mail:

Phoenix annual membership for only 100 members at Bht 60,000

Pre sales until Nov 15th Bht 55,000

What is that old saying about " Rubbing the salt....."

Some people never learn ......