On top of asking for a flat rate, taking unnecessary detours, or simply not giving you change, Bangkok’s cabbies may have found a new way to overcharge you for your ride: fortune-telling.
In a bizarre tactic that’s being shared all over social media, Pantila Sawadiphap explained on Facebook that she hailed a taxi in Nonthaburi area on Sunday and encountered a sign hung from the rear of the front passenger seat reading: “Fortune telling service offered here.”
Pantila ignored the sign until the driver began asking her questions such as, “Are you trying to gather up some savings?”
Pantila responded with a yes, prompting him to ask for her birthdate. The driver then told her that if she wanted to know his prediction, she’d had to pay for the “teacher’s fee” — the mandatory fee one pays to a psychic or medium to perform a superstitious practice.
In Thai culture, the so-called teacher’s fee is unavoidable, but the amount is flexible and could be as little as THB1.
Believing she could pay as little as she wanted, Pantila let the driver tell her her fortune. But when the car came to a stop, the driver asked for a THB299 ($US9.5) teacher’s fee on top of her THB71 (US$2.5) taxi fare.
“I just told him I only have THB100 ($US3). Damn! He even told me to go to the ATM, but I told him I was out of money until I got my next month’s salary. And he said ‘So what are you gonna do? How could you not pay for the teacher’s price?”
In the end, Pantila said she handed the driver a THB100 bill and didn’t get her change back, but not before managing to snap a few pictures of the driver to share on social media.
READ: Thai woman says she got kicked out of Bangkok taxi for having bad breath
Apparently, this guy’s fortune-telling racket has been going on for awhile now. Just yesterday, another woman, identified only as “Kaem,” backed up Pantila’s tale, sending a story of her own encounter with the guy to popular Facebook page Queen of Black Spades to share.
Kaem said the same driver threateningly insisted she pay for his fortune-telling service in December 2016 when she caught his taxi near the Mo Chit BTS Station.
Just as with Pantila’s account, Kaem said that she spotted the fortune-telling sign in the car and initially attempted to ignore the driver, before he started predicting her fortune without her permission.
“You’re a great problem solver,” he told her. Kaem responded that she was interested. When the woman refused to tell her birthdate, the driver claimed to have changed his method to Chinese physiognomy or face reading, then asked her to pay THB299 (about US$9.4).
Annoyed by the cabbie, Kaem ended up throwing a THB500 bill at him and stormed out of the car.
On the social media page, many commenters took the chance to vent about the behavior of Thai taxi drivers in general.
One woman said a taxi driver recently asked her for an extra THB50 just because it was raining.
Others insisted that officials need to come up with measures to blacklist bad taxi drivers and lend official credence to firms like Grab, which has not yet been legalized in Thailand.
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