Mr T--Very Unprofessional Service

[jacko 8,813]

Mr T (and all other TAXI personnel) are Thai (er not Americans)

 

They operate in Thailand

 

By Thai standards and custom

 

Spoonfeeding, 'Duty of Care', etc etc are alien Western concepts - just as falling over 'defective' sidewalks etc is seen here as the fault of an imbecile who is not aware of something as fundamental as where hes placing his feet, rather than the trigger to seek compensation westerners would see it as.

 

 

 

.

Like the lady who walked into a fountain while texting and walking at a USA Mall.

[sailingbill 1,025]

Thanks for the thread, reminded me i need to book Mr.T for next week. I guess he's still at the hotmail adress?

[Fondles 94]

Like the lady who walked into a fountain while texting and walking at a USA Mall.

 

And predictably, "Cruz Marrero, 49, who works in the mall, has hired an attorney".

[mike_asia 1]

Mr T (and all other TAXI personnel) are Thai (er not Americans)

 

They operate in Thailand

 

By Thai standards and custom

 

Spoonfeeding, 'Duty of Care', etc etc are alien Western concepts - just as falling over 'defective' sidewalks etc is seen here as the fault of an imbecile who is not aware of something as fundamental as where hes placing his feet, rather than the trigger to seek compensation westerners would see it as.

 

 

 

.

If you think he would have dropped Thai tourists off at walking street you are probably mistaken .

[Regyai 415]

If you think he would have dropped Thai tourists off at walking street you are probably mistaken .

 

 

If they were deaf dumb and stupid.......

 

 

Why not?

 

 

 

 

.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

For my twopenneth Mrs Cap and I used Mr T during last year's "troubles" and one particularly intrepid driver waited for hours and hours at Bangkok airport for our delayed flight from Phuket even though there was a curfew waiting in Pattaya - we were very glad to see him.

 

Andy,

 

The drivers generally don't wait for hours and hours (unless they are company employees). They are whoever happens to be at the airport at any given time. Of course, there's no harm in spinning the line if it results in a bigger tip.

Edited January 27, 2011 by CheshireTom

[nutosf 49]

....

The drivers generally don't wait for hours and hours (unless they are company employees). They are whoever happens to be at the airport at any given time. Of course, there's no harm in spinning the line if it results in a bigger tip.

 

I have used Mr T for over 6 years. If his driver has you plane info, they will wait if the plane is late. They have done this for me and others who I have booked with Mr T. He is still number 1 for me.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

I have used Mr T for over 6 years. If his driver has you plane info, they will wait if the plane is late. They have done this for me and others who I have booked with Mr T. He is still number 1 for me.

 

Unless he's an employee of Mr T, the job is simply passed along the line. Mr T, and the other agents, have no actual control over the individual drivers - that's down to the airport-based mobs.

[lovedog100 1,372]

At the hour he was dropped off, there was no vehicle access to Walking Street or anywhere near Walking Street, nor is there any place to park the taxi without going into a parking lot. Would you expect the driver to park the car and walk with them to this supposed location?

 

Sure, apparently Mr. T got it wrong as to the location when he was asked to find it himself.

 

Nothing like this would have happened if the OP had known the address or phone number of the guest house to get directions.

 

I just can't see any justification for saying this was bad service. They tried to find the place based on the minimal information given (ever heard a Thai say "Canterbury"?). On their best guess, it was on WS. The driver dropped them off as close to the location as possible.

 

No foul.

I don't see this as a problem with the taxi service. I see it as the OP being completely unprepared. He was staying at a small guest house, not the Hilton. Most Pattaya taxi's wouldn't know where it was. The driver could be Bangkok based. There are a many hotels and guest houses in Pattaya as there are bars.

 

When traveling to a foreign country, especially one where you don't speak the language, always have the name, address and phone number of your hotel with you. With that simple information, the driver could have called the hotel and got directions. The first thing you do when checking in, get the hotel business card and put it in your pocket. Most have a map on the back. I can't tell you how many drunks I have seen walking the streets looking for their hotel that they can't remember the name of, or even what street it's on. It's amazing how all streets look the same, when you can't read street signs, or the big land mark sign that is in Thai.

 

The hotel Business card is important thing to have. I can remember meeting someone looking for his hotel. Honey something he said. I know where the Honey inn is, the Honey hotel, and the Honey lodge, none are anywhere close to each other. If I know of three Honey something hotels, there may be 6-10 Honey somethings in Pattaya.

 

I will agree that it was probably unprofessional to drop the OP off at walking street. But what could he do, if the OP didn't know where he was going? At least on walking street there would be English speakers that could offer help. Or in this case an internet cafe.

 

I've never used Mr T, but this story wouldn't stop me from giving them a try.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

The hotel Business card is important thing to have.

 

A quick look at the hotel website shows both the address and map are both in English, but, as far as I could see, not Thai - pretty useless to the non-English speaking driver. Maybe a lesson for those guys that run some of the smaller hotels/guesthouses.

[dundermifflin 0]

Sorry OP but I'm with the bulk of replies here,you booked at canterbury tales via the website the same as I did before,there's a contact number on there,surely you had that written down so you could contact the guesthouse for directions and so they knew you were on your way ?

I've used Mr T many times and never had a problem.

[Mr.T 0]

It seems like most of the replies missed the point about being "unprofessional". Yes, it was my fault for not having the address, but how is it professional to drop someone off and indicate that their hotel was down Walking Street, when in fact, it was no where near there. That is not professional, and that was the point of my post.

 

The driver should have made sure that we got to our destination, which was Canterbury Tales Cafe. I wasn't paying him to get us to Pattaya.

 

When he dropped us off, I had no idea that Canterbury wasn't down Walking Street. In fact, I tipped him. If he and Mr T didn't know where it was, they should have told me, and I could have done what I did--go to an internet place to get the address for the driver, but they let me to believe that it was down Walking Street.

 

Please explain how dropping us off no where near where we needed to go and LYING about where Canterbury Tales Cafe was is professional?

 

Please give me your name please.

when was last trip?

 

let me find out what happen?

[MM 6,562]

Please give me your name please.

when was last trip?

 

let me find out what happen?

 

To the OP, if you choose to do this, send the information to Mr. T's email.

 

Mr. T's PM feature does not work.

[Parkwahn 61]

I have used Mr T 3 or 4 times, the fella has always done a good job :)

[john5001 54]

You have to take responsibility sometimes....

[exwannabe 1]

To be honest, I think the defenders of Mr T are doing him a disservice on this thread.

 

No doubt the OP screwed up. For me though, I prefer to have a driver familiar enough with Pattaya that I don't go circling around the wrong way as I try to explain in poor Thai where he should be going.

 

That is one of the reasons why an outfit like Mr T is good.

 

I am glad he showed up here with what is the correct attitude. I will book him my next trip because of HIS view of this thread, not those just calling the OP a twit.

 

Regardless of what the OP was doing, the Mr T service did slip. That happens, I understand it.

 

OT though.If you get dropped off on WS, do you have enough will-power to go to your hotel, or do you stop off for ... :-)

 

EDIT: Kind of OT again. but I thought Canterbury Tales was across Soy Bukhaw from LKMetro. Did it move or am I on drugs?

Edited February 3, 2011 by exwannabe

[Stinky 12]

At the hour he was dropped off, there was no vehicle access to Walking Street or anywhere near Walking Street, nor is there any place to park the taxi without going into a parking lot. Would you expect the driver to park the car and walk with them to this supposed location?

 

Sure, apparently Mr. T got it wrong as to the location when he was asked to find it himself.

 

Nothing like this would have happened if the OP had known the address or phone number of the guest house to get directions.

 

I just can't see any justification for saying this was bad service. They tried to find the place based on the minimal information given (ever heard a Thai say "Canterbury"?). On their best guess, it was on WS. The driver dropped them off as close to the location as possible.

 

No foul.

 

 

Completely agree 100% with this response. The OP is 100% to blame. Must be the muppets first time out of Canada?

[Mr.T 0]

i don't understand 1 thing.

why him not call or let me know the problem.

problem is around 02.00am (early morning).

i didn't work on that time because i'm 55 years old.(getting old now)

and if people come to my office they will see that i'm stroke.

i don't sure who's driver call on that time.

but if this is problem come from driver I'll return you all money.

but why him didn't tell me any thing and just post around everywhere.

this is not fare to me.

[jaxxon55 252]

Used Mr. T twice again this week and both times perfect service. Of course I knew where I was going. I usually do when traveling.

Jack

[moby69 6]

The first time I went to Pattaya a booked thro a Travel company door to door to a big hotel

 

The rest of the time I always had to tell the driver where to go a) by me giving directions or a Thai card printed off the website so he could ask someone that could read Thai

 

If I am traveling to a country for the first time print the address out

 

Be Nice

 

Moby69

[sinsinbad 0]

It was NOT fair to my wife and me to be let off far from our hotel and be LIED to about where it was. We were the ones walking up and down WS trying to find it at 2am in the morning with all of our luggage. How is that FAIR?

 

You SHOULD make sure that your drivers take people to where they are suppose to go--not dropped them off and lie to them.

 

 

 

 

 

i don't understand 1 thing.

why him not call or let me know the problem.

problem is around 02.00am (early morning).

i didn't work on that time because i'm 55 years old.(getting old now)

and if people come to my office they will see that i'm stroke.

i don't sure who's driver call on that time.

but if this is problem come from driver I'll return you all money.

but why him didn't tell me any thing and just post around everywhere.

this is not fare to me.

[Butch 3,456]

Hi

If I emailed a taxi co, and they assured me they were aware and knew my ultimate destination, I'd expect the driver to know where he was going. Giving the OP a hard time because he had no map, number or contact details is a bit unfair because I'll wager most of the people here have, at one time or another risked it when visiting somewhere or even on their regular trip to Patts not bothered to take the details. Kind of hypocritical if you're one of those.

 

also, bear in mind it's a first trip, so maybe despite covering all bases, this one slipped through. Somewhat ironic that MR T is iterally 5 mins walk away from CT, but as said, it might have been a job that was farmed out, and on balance, I've used MR T for years and will continue to do so because his drivers are polite, good, have clean vehicles and offer excellent value for money.

 

The fault I think lies with the driver, not MR T or the OP. The driver should have stopped and maybe asked perhaps the TP or BiB to explain he had no idea what his customer was on about, I mean Soi 9 is on the way to Walking Street, failing that any half decent Baht bus driver or MC Taxi would have done.

 

Lesson learned, shit happens and on the plus side, you got there safely in the end.

 

 

Cheers

Butch

[Paul BRS 64]

I run an online taxi co. in the UK.

 

As an owner and ultimately the one who "farms" out the work to the drivers I like to know personally where the job is going to i.e. via Google Maps etc. either by me knowing the exact address or via a post code that I can look up. If I am still not sure then I will either call or email the customer and ask for more details until I am satisfied.

 

However when I was working the ranks or the cobbles and I picked up a flagger and they asked me to take them to eg. Johns Cafe in the centre of Bath and I didnt know it I would ask them for the address, if they didn't have it I would get them as close to the main location as I could and then ask. Having said that a customer without an address is like you expecting your taxi to have some sort of heat seeking address missile!

 

In my opinion though, being a foreign country and with the language barrier the OP should of at least had a print out of his destination. The OP had 2 hopes, No Hope and Bob Hope! put it down to experience and enough of the grief 50/50 end of.

 

I have also used Mr T and my friends and never had any problems...

[sailingbill 1,025]

I took a taxi from the airport asking the driver "Do you know how to get to Pattaya? ' Question was incorrectly worded. Should have been," Do you know your way around Pattaya?' Of course that may get an affirmative answer anyway.

Point is if your new , the Motorcy guy may be your friend. They are everywhere and have pointed my driver in the right direction quickly on two occasions in Patts and Bangkok.

Should have tipped them but didn't think of it at the time.

Booked with Mr. T Monday night. See ya soon.

[nutosf 49]

It seems to me that many of the posters, except the OP and a few others, feel Mr T is one of the better taxi service in Pattaya. The lesson learned here is when traveling to a foreign country that does not speak your native language, you should print out a map or instructions in that country's language. I think it is time to stop blaming Mr T and his staff for something that could have been avoided with a little fore thought.