Had an interesting little altercation with the taxi mafia at Mega Bang Na today.
After buying a piece of furniture at IKEA you cannot leave the IKEA store area with the large carts used for loading up numerous large or heavy items.
But you can use the big elevators that take you to the basement parking lot area and then walk a little off to the left and around the corner and there is a taxi pick up area.
Well, this is the second time I went there and experienced the taxi dickheads and an asshole Thai girl who calls the taxi cabs while working together to overcharge people.
1st time there were 3 taxis there and none of them would go for the meter service so myself and the wife went up to the main taxi drop off / taxi pick up area and had no problem.
That 1 st time, before I left, I was giving the girl a hard time telling her she is supposed to be working for the customer, not the cabs, while I was shouting at the cab drivers and telling them in Thai: "Then get out of here….. leave now so taxis that will go by meter can come here and pick up customers."
"You’re blocking the space so get out of here if you’re not willing to go by the meter." 2 of them left and 1 backed up his taxi and parked it out of the way.
Today I end up in the same place and this time there are 5 cabs, and 2 cabs are like the minivan style cabs and just what I needed for loading up an assemble yourself piece of furniture in the box, being about 7 feet long.
I politely explained where I was going while also explaining the usual cost was 60 to 80 baht depending on traffic but I offered the one guy with the taxi van 150 baht.
Well, then the bullshit starts with the facial expressions and making like the trip will be a big ordeal saying it was so far away and nope, 150 baht, no way.
All the other taxi assholes then get in on "The Act" as it is part of their taxi mafia routine making like none of them want to go also and pointing at the long box trying to bullshit a person and making like that object alone makes their service suddenly worth a whole lot more.
So I told the guys it is only 1 box and and no different than having say 2 more passengers.
More bullshit talk on their part while I am realising they do this as a group where none of them will go unless you agree to their price.
Meantime, 5 taxis are blocking the way and no other cabs can pull up in front while the asshole girl that has the radio does not call another taxi, rather she just walks away and lets the cab drives take over the area.
So I ask the 1st guy that said he drives the minivan style cab how much and he says 300 baht so I just looked him in the eyes and said, "Fuck You" and gave him the finger.
I do not care what anyone thinks.
When the Thais try to pull this shit on me, often enough I am not shy at all about telling them to fuck off.
Occasionally I enjoy confronting Thai assholes like that who ruin an otherwise enjoyable day. As I was not going anyhow, why not have my fun telling them to fuck off.
One of them says to me: You speak no good. This is Thailand and that kind of talk is not polite. So I let him know, after 25 years here in Thailand I do not take kindly to taxi drivers trying to cheat me for 4 to 5 times the normal price…as that is what is not polite.
While he is repeating himself I am saying to him, "And what are you going to do about it?"
"If you do not like the foul language then get lost and let other taxis come here that will go for the meter price."
Naturally they just turned their back on me while my wife suggested we go up to the taxi drop off / pick up area we had used before.
So we did while I had to leave the heavy object cart where the steel posts block anyone from taking IKEA carts any further and go get a regular shopping cart that was left outside by other people and bring that over and load my item into that shopping cart and then wheel my item over to one of the main taxi drop off / pick up areas.
There I had no problem while the radio call man called for a taxi van style cab and it showed up soon enough while the driver was polite and said no problem and helped me load up the box and off we went.
When we arrived at my apartment the meter was 61 Baht and I gladly gave the man a 100 Baht note and said keep it, to his surprise.
There seems to be all the more Thai pricks than ever before and worse yet a person is subjected to them all the more so.
Other than that it was an enjoyable afternoon at Mega Bang Na.
Stickman says:
I would contact IKEA about this and politely explain the situation with the taxis. I'm sure they would not be too happy if you mentioned that there are other places to shop and that you are considering switching to a competitor after this experience. Make a point of cc:ing the Swedish head office on the email.
While I will never tell anyone how to live their lives or how to conduct themselves, for someone who has been here so long you must know you are taking a risk being aggressively confrontational with lower class Thai males like that. Get the wrong guy at the wrong moment and you could end up like Troy Pilkington, the American who was stabbed to death by a taxi driver on Sukhumvit Road just a few months ago. I'm surprised your wife allowed you to do that, I really am. Your wife would be fully aware of this sort of thing can escalate from nothing to something extremely serious!