Pattaya’s Money Laundry Business

[Pattaya One]

Dear Sir,

Recently I was walking down a road in Pattaya when I saw some washing machines outside a store.

They were for sale at stupid prices – 20 baht for a small one, 30 baht for a middle sized one, 40 baht for a big one, so, a little suspicious, I went in to ask did they actually work.

The owner said “yes, work good!”, so I immediately offered to buy the big one at 40 baht, cash, right there, no messing around.

I didn’t even ask for a discount, as I thought it was already a bargain for a man like me with many smelly clothes.

Suddenly the owner got all funny. He refused my money saying it wasn’t for sale.

“Oh, I see what your game is” I said, and tipped him a wink.

And, to make the deal more attractive, I offered to buy all three machines off him, for the asking price, which was the massive sum of 90 Baht, but I generously rounded  it up to 100 baht, slapping the note on the counter, telling him he could keep the extra 10 baht as a tip.

He looked at the 100 baht note, then at me, and began to get very angry, shouting: “not for sale, not for sale”.

“Then why are they outside your shop with a sale price on them” I shouted back.  “What are you up to?!”

He had no answer. He just stared at me, then began ranting again.  My Thai’s not great, so I couldn’t make it all out, but I think he thought I was stupid.

By now our commotion had attracted some nearby motorbike taxi drivers, one of whom pulled out a big samurai sword and began chasing me down the street screaming blood-curdling oaths and slashing the air behind me, but luckily I hopped on a baht bus and made good my escape.

I just want to know, what did I do wrong?

Yours,
Disgusted.

Name and address supplied

Disgusted, you made a few basic mistakes here.

First, the machines were NOT for sale, the owner was offering his washing machines for people to use, just like a laundry, as you can see in our photo.

Second, the prices on the front are the cost of using each machine for a wash, they are not the machine’s sale price.

Third, your persistence and insistence about buying it, and your insult to the owner that he was trying to somehow scam you, even though arising out of a misunderstanding, made the store owner lose face, which is when all bets are off about the likely outcome in Pattaya, as you learned for yourself, the hard way.

To make amends, hopefully later you took your underpants back to wash them in one of his machines.

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