S T Coleridge's Blog

Don't bother.  They are worse scam artists than the regular taxis.  

Well. I have now mastered the Dangerous art of driving a motorbike around Pattaya.. I am holidaying at Soi 6 Pratumnak, where the small shops here do everything from food to laundry, to motorbike rental,cheaper,
and honest and friendly to deal with.
Much better out here in the Styx, than Grab All Taxi
and all the other rip offs in Central Pattaya.
Short term gain seems to be the "Holy Grail of
a lot of city centre activities.
Do I return there????. Never.

Grab would not accept my credit card, but it did accept my bank debit card. I rode it once and got hustled / scammed on a ride from Pattaya to the Airport. But that is the subject of another post (need to make my 50 for Advanced :P)

Grab Scam! BEWARE.

I needed a taxi from Pattaya to Sukhumvit and I failed to plan in advance. So when it came down to the wire, I checked out Grab. They quoted 1750. I was shocked because that is about the same of what you can get from any Taxi driver off the cuff (My hotel offered to coordinate for 1600, but needed to be in advance). Feeling desperate, I just booked it. Once the driver showed up, he gave me a sob story about how I needed to pay in cash because he didn't have gas money. Feeling in a bind and sorry for this scamm..I mean fellow, I relented and agreed. He then drove me to another location and introduced me to another driver who would take me for the same price. I was pissed. I yelled. But I needed the ride, so I agreed. The second driver turned out to be great and took me to the airport without incident.

This is what happens when the Grab price is too close to Taxi prices. This Hustler was able to rope me in and pawn me off the other other driver - likely took a 200-400 baht commission and the driver got the remaining.

My bad and never again.

 

Most are using BOLT now.

Much cheaper service.