vnman
July 13th, 2015, 17:08
Well after all these years, I'm still able to make rookie mistakes.
I wanted to top-up my Thai bank account a bit and decided to change 2000 Euros. At 37.53 the course was pretty decent so I went for it. I get to the exchange boot and a woman is sitting in-front of the window and a guy with 1 eye (not sure why that is important) is standing next to her, and he is busy with the computer.
Mistake number 1, i didn't count the money in front of her. I just put it in the tray. 20 bills of 50 and 2 of 500. She asked me how much, and I dodged the question on purpose because, in my mind, I'm going to watch her count it and make sure she comes up with the right number. Yeah, weird thinking. i said something like "never enough."
She starts putting the bills in order and I'm watching here. Then mistake I made mistake number 2, somehow my mind stated drifting and i didn't pay attention for a second. She started counting and said "it's 1900, ok?" What>? No way, i said. The woman and the man started talking a bit and she put the money back in the tray. I counted it and of course it was only 1900. I pushed the money back and said "no, it was 2000." They spoke again for a few seconds and pushed the money back to me and said "only 1900"
At that time I decided to mentally take a step back. I told her that it was my mistake, but added because I should have watched her more closely. She said "i change 1900? and I agreed.
While this happened, my friend was waiting a few meter away from me. When i got 1900 worth of baht. We both walked away from the booth and discussed how to handle this situation. I must say, that I'm very happy I took this time out. Normally, I would have gone crazy and things could have escalated. The last time I counted the money was in the room and the 50s where wrapped up in the 500s. So that made loosing them underway impossible, but they could still lay around the hotel room. I need to figure that out first before I would take the next step.
Of course, no money in the hotel and after eating breakfast, we decided to go back and confronted them again. This time another woman was sitting in the booth. I asked for the manager and she pointed inside the internet cafe next to the booth. There we met the guy with one eye again. I told him that somewhere someone had made a mistake (read you stole from me) and We would like to see the security footage to make sure the mistake wasn't theirs.
The guy was very friendly, offered us a seat and we got some water. He went into the booth looking for the footage. then he called me to come in. I asked my friend to go because this time I wouldn't be so calm if i found out he scammed me. So my friend went in and it took a long time for him to come out. When he did, he had 1 thumb up which obviously meant that I was right.
According to my friend the guy tried to deny even when the truth starred him in the eye. The woman just shoved 2 bills of 50 under the telephone in-front of her. My friend says that they guy is 99% sure just a guilty. He apologized a 1000 times and I just took my money and left. I guess the proof of his involvement will be clear when that stealing &*^&*%$%^ is working again tomorrow.
Yeah, I made some rookie mistakes but luckily didn't pay school money.
I wanted to top-up my Thai bank account a bit and decided to change 2000 Euros. At 37.53 the course was pretty decent so I went for it. I get to the exchange boot and a woman is sitting in-front of the window and a guy with 1 eye (not sure why that is important) is standing next to her, and he is busy with the computer.
Mistake number 1, i didn't count the money in front of her. I just put it in the tray. 20 bills of 50 and 2 of 500. She asked me how much, and I dodged the question on purpose because, in my mind, I'm going to watch her count it and make sure she comes up with the right number. Yeah, weird thinking. i said something like "never enough."
She starts putting the bills in order and I'm watching here. Then mistake I made mistake number 2, somehow my mind stated drifting and i didn't pay attention for a second. She started counting and said "it's 1900, ok?" What>? No way, i said. The woman and the man started talking a bit and she put the money back in the tray. I counted it and of course it was only 1900. I pushed the money back and said "no, it was 2000." They spoke again for a few seconds and pushed the money back to me and said "only 1900"
At that time I decided to mentally take a step back. I told her that it was my mistake, but added because I should have watched her more closely. She said "i change 1900? and I agreed.
While this happened, my friend was waiting a few meter away from me. When i got 1900 worth of baht. We both walked away from the booth and discussed how to handle this situation. I must say, that I'm very happy I took this time out. Normally, I would have gone crazy and things could have escalated. The last time I counted the money was in the room and the 50s where wrapped up in the 500s. So that made loosing them underway impossible, but they could still lay around the hotel room. I need to figure that out first before I would take the next step.
Of course, no money in the hotel and after eating breakfast, we decided to go back and confronted them again. This time another woman was sitting in the booth. I asked for the manager and she pointed inside the internet cafe next to the booth. There we met the guy with one eye again. I told him that somewhere someone had made a mistake (read you stole from me) and We would like to see the security footage to make sure the mistake wasn't theirs.
The guy was very friendly, offered us a seat and we got some water. He went into the booth looking for the footage. then he called me to come in. I asked my friend to go because this time I wouldn't be so calm if i found out he scammed me. So my friend went in and it took a long time for him to come out. When he did, he had 1 thumb up which obviously meant that I was right.
According to my friend the guy tried to deny even when the truth starred him in the eye. The woman just shoved 2 bills of 50 under the telephone in-front of her. My friend says that they guy is 99% sure just a guilty. He apologized a 1000 times and I just took my money and left. I guess the proof of his involvement will be clear when that stealing &*^&*%$%^ is working again tomorrow.
Yeah, I made some rookie mistakes but luckily didn't pay school money.