This incident was shared on Facebook by a Thai girl named Mintty Kunpat. Mint who had previously worked in the Korean music industry helped her Korean friend expose a Thai taxi driver trying to overcharge her friend more of what the normal taxi meter fee was.
The taxi driver in the story overcharged the Korean tourist similar to many other cases where he asked for a fixed cost instead of charging what the taximeter measured out the fee to be. Mint stated in her post that she had previously contacted the taxi emergency line at 1584 but nothing was done about the situation.
The incident took place on the 23 February of this year when “DoeHe” her Korean friend took a taxi from Siam Square in Bangkok to Zeer Rangsit, a mall in Rangsit on the outskirts of Bangkok. The taxi driver told her when they arrived that the taxi fare would be 950 THB. The normal fee from Siam Square to Zeer Rangsit is about 350 to 450 THB.
When DoeHe asked the driver to lower the price to 500 as it was unreasonable to charge 950 THB compared to the distance traveled, the driver kept insisting that he wanted 950. After a period of negotiation, they finally agreed to a price of 700 THB. Complaints have been made to the taxi emergency line at 1584 but weeks have passed with no further update on whether the taxi driver has been punished or not.
Mint further revealed that her Korean friends often came to Thailand. Almost every time a similar incident takes place with them where a taxi will demand them to pay more than what was on the meter. This makes her feel ashamed that Thailand is well known to have taxis that will overcharge you.
FB Caption: Sadly, tourists have a higher chance to meet a taxi that will overcharge them than a good taxi who sticks to what the meter says.
Source: Sanook
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