lyssa
7 Jan 2019
4 0
Hello, so I booked a tour including the Damean Saduak market with a taxi company that has good reviews on Tripadvisor. This was my third experience with them and the other two had been fine, no problems. They have listed a floating market tour on their website and they seemed to have good experience. I already had to pay the taxi company for the tour.
So, when we arrived at the market, it turns out we arrived at an off-site location, maybe known as the pier. To me, I thought we had arrived at the market. It had signage and other taxis/people there. I was immediately taken to a table and told the two-hour boat tour including a visit to the temple was 3,000 Baht. I was very taken aback by this, as it was around $90 and I had no idea there was that kind of fee to visit the market. Since I’d been in the car awhile and was paying the taxi company for the tour, I just paid for the boat. I didn’t see any other way to visit the market. I later found out there is an actual entrance to the market, I’m not sure what the fee is, if any, but I’m sure it’s minimal compared to what I paid.
Even though I’d done research on the market beforehand, I’d never heard of this practice of taking tourists to this offsite pier instead of the actual market. Since this was a taxi company with good reviews that I’d used before, of course I would assume they were taking me to the correct location.
Is this is a common scam with the Damean Saduak floating market? I would find this to be mainly the fault of the taxi company, since they took me to the wrong place.
As a side note, the boat then didn’t take me to the temple, as promised when I bought the boat ride. I had to argue with them at the dock and they had the boat take me back out. I don’t know how they think they can charge these huge fees for a tour and promise it includes a temple, then not go to the temple!
Overall, the experience left me feeling scammed and with a very bad taste in my mouth. Please let me know if this is a common scam or if you’ve heard of this before! Thanks!
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