the blue sapphire III
April 23, 2009
KL to BKK
as scheduled, we when back to Bangkok on 2nd April ’09…i had a fever…cant hardly move..all my joints were hurt… i have no choice but to go and smack the culprit down~ we stayed at the same Happy Hotel in Khoasan Road..the service is good..the room is clean…nothing much u can ask more for a Bath450/nite twin bedroom…
KHAOSAN TO DIT
we took a taxi to DIT..and got knocked off by the taxi driver (i think)…it took us about 30 minutes from Khaosan Area to DIT and cost us Bath400..maybe he was right but the moment he turn off the meter and said if he used the meter it will cost us Bath 550!! i felt like pull the trigger at his head (i should keep ‘at least’ a 22 caliber with me all the time)…my fever was bad so we just dun bother about it…DIT is situated at an isolated area…it is the biggest modern building there…we got off and paid Bath400 (tak ikhlas)…
AT DIT
It was a huge white building…we walked straight to Center of Complaints, Internal Trade Building…we went to the receiptionist and showed the printed email from the Director, Mr Suchat Sinrat…they walked us to the office…we were welcome by Mr Suchat himself…(he s a big guy…with a big gold necklace)..he seems nice and helpful…he asked for all the documentation and the jewelry..then he started to make a phone call…we were asked to fill in a complaint form in details…while waiting, there s another foreign couple came in and asked for him too…i guess we might be in the same boat…
INTERVIEW WITH MR SUCHAT
After Mr Suchat go thru our complaint form he didi interview us…
MS: What is the shop name?
WE: Erawan Lapidary
MS: How much do you want to refund?
WE: If possible, of course we want to have back 100%…after reading the blogs and comments from other victim, it is possibe to get back 100% refund or at least 80% refund with your help…
MS: well, you can try…but, yesterday Erawan Lapidary give only 90% refund..you can negotiate to get back 100% but if they refuse, tell
them u want not less than 90% back…
WE: ……… (speechless…)…ok…
THE NEGOTIATION
After 3 hours waiting, a young girl walked in and greet Mr Suchat politely….Mr Suchat called us to a meeting room…there are 4 of us including Mr Suchat…so, we start the negotiation..Mr Suchat doesnt say anything..not even a word thru out the negotiation..not even when we stucked in the conversation…or starting to raise voice…he sits at and listen…
Girl: what do you want? (very rude.….)
We: We want a refund..
Girl: how much u want?
We: Of course 100%
Girl: No 100% refund!! do u think i want to be here? i am here to buy back the jewelry..not 100% refund (she started to raise her voice..and i feel like to slap her in the face)
We: but we want back 100% refund..because we are not getting what we expected…
Girl: u sign the agreement..we not lying..no 100% refund!! how much u want?
WE: Yes, we did signed..We jewelry were out of our expectation…and we didnt said you are lying..we know its all in the ‘right’ loop..but we want back 100% refund because we are not satisfied..or maybe 99..99%…
Girl: Where is your brain?? what is 0.1% mean to you in bussiness??? (where is my brain??hellllooooo….where is your brain???maybe your brain been eaten by maggots!!)
WE: we dont know anything about bussiness..we just want to refund… (we try to not raise our voice or use any word which show they are BAD people who do BAD things..all should be nice and calm)
Girl: No NO NOOO….my boss wouldnt be happy if i give you 100% refund…
WE: ok…how if 98%?
Girl: NO
WE: 95%?
Girl: NOOOO…i didnt bring that much money to give you…
the negotiation went on and on without any help from Mr Suchat…and the girl keep on shouting at us…and being protective altho we didnt accuse her doing anything bad…we just want back our money…but, the girl was very firmed..she wont give us full refund even after 45 minutes….after discussing, we both agree to try 90%…well, that what Mr.Suchat said…”tell them not less than 90%”…..
WE: ok..90%?? not less than this…
Girl: letme think first… (after 62 sec)….ok 90%
she pulled out her big calculator and start to calculate…we know she s pretending….we already know something fishy happening under our nose …but, all that we care…we should get back at least 80-90% of our money back…we know we gonna get the 90% from her action…dahhhh…all these acting stuff is killing me….she pulled out all the documentation which all filled-in and asked us to agree on the refund and their services…huahahhahahah!!!! well, since we get back the 90% refund…we agree to sign…
Girl: u want cash or credit cheque?
WE: Cash please… ( of course we dun want to be stupid again.. ;p )
yeah…remember to ask for CASH….you wouldnt know what will happen if they give u credit cheque…she pulled out a bundle of money from an envolope and started to count…“i dun bring that much money to give you”…dahhh…who said that??? heheh…anyway, we were happy enough to get that 90% refund..at least something than nothing…after she hand over the money, Mr Suchat asked us to write in the complaint form (which we filled-in earlier) that we had received 90% refund in cash from Erawan Lapidary…mmmm…all for the KPI? well, we just do what ever they want..and i dont want to know what behind all this…erawan lapidary..DIT…Police Tourist..
lesson learnt…and that is why mom always remind us….”DONT TALK TO STRANGER”..dun hate them for reminding u again and again…because they are totally right!! =”) so, anybody out there who need more info…just drop me a message..i willl try to help…owh..if you are still in BKK, u can call DIT hotline 1569…
p/s: thanks a lot to Mr Suchat and DIT members for your support =”) God bless you..
Hi, i just got into your blog because i was a victim of the gem cam just yesterday, i was in bangkok last day and all those perfectly synchronized events turn into reality to me.
I bought 4 pieces and today i arrived back from bangkok and wanted to check some info from the shop and found their name related to the scam.
I was terrified. I was reading about this Mr Suchat but when i check his name in the DIT web site he is not there.
i am double checking everything, is hard to trust anything right now.
please if you can give me some information about where to find Mr shuchat in the website, that would help. thanks !!
Ismael
Hi Ismael;
Since you are still in Bangkok, you can try DIT hotline 1569 and ask for Mr.Sunchat or his assistant Mr.Pom. At the same time, drop them an email and explain your situation. However, they will need the jewelry and all the documentation before they can help you to refund. There are 2 options:
1- If you plan to stay longer in Bangkok, you may ask somebody to post the jewelry to you and arrange for refunding with DIT. Or,
2- If you are going back to your country soon, you can send the Jewelry straight to DIT and they will do the refund on behalf of you
I will suggest you to discuss with Mr.Sunchat or Mr.Pom if you choose option 2. If it is hard to get them on the phone, I think it worth to go straight to DIT.
Center of Complaints room 20301
Internal Trade Building
Ministry of Commerce
44/100 Nonthaburi 1 Rd. Muang district, Nonthaburi 11000
Tel. 025475356
Hope this may help. Just drop me any questions, I ll try to help..Good Luck!!
Hi Citra Kemboja,
I’m the latest victim. How stupid I was.
I dun trust anyone in Bangkok right now….
My situation is:
I just returned to Malaysia today, the scam transaction done on 27th July 2009, and I swiped my card!!!!!!
I let them made photocopy of my passport, how stupid I am.
I’ve contacted to Mr. Pom, and he sounds unfriendly, I do not know why.
Any only one question I asked him :”Will I able to get refund in CASH instead of credit voucher?” His answer is CREDIT VOUCHER only…..CASH is impossible.
Can I trust DIT? seems like they are linked to each party…..
I was tricked by 08′Sep also by Erawan Lapidary.
the same scence as you, Talk2stranger>>stricked>>SuchatOffice>>ErawanMedusa>>90%refund.
but I did not keep calm and shout at Erawan Medusa, the result is the same 90%.
thanks for sharing ur story, I also post mine but in mother language(chinese),anyway letz study from this lesson, NEVER TALK WITH STRANGER in bkk.
GOOD NEWS! GOT 100% MONEY BACK
on april 2010 i got scammed by Erawan Lapidary
Erawan Lapidary (101-103 Prachathipatai Rd,
Bankhunprom. tel 0-2282-7424-6 Fax.0-2282-7056).
to be more exact by Mr. Tinakorn Samphan.
SAME story of a “self-imposed stupidity tax:-) :
“nice” tai policeman, government day, tuk-tuk 20baht, black\lucky buddha, top cllection suite, jewelry shop, etc
THUS, 80000 jewelry set, which was not worth it.
thanks to this web site i knew what to do and came back to tai to visit Mr Suchat ( the Department of Internal Trade), he asked if i could saty in bangkok for 2-3 days to get 100% mony back with the help of lowyer, i said yes and next day we met with one of the Erawan Lapidary gang (nervous, bad looking woman). she was told about lowyer, court, case, etc. we felt confident though no lower was there in flash, we just mentioned lowyer’ name, thats it. in fact, we never seen her, just talked to her on the phone.
to make long story short, that witch paid half in cash, half promissed to pay via bank transfer and gave clolored copy of a receit (due to the fact that we pait for gen same way), so, 100% was to be refunded. we agreed, yet, got doubts of that clolored copy (later on we found out that our bank had no clue what was it)-thats why we asked Mr Suchat to write a note (with his signature and date) that he and that lower would monitor that bank transfer. we left 5000 baht for lower to look into it till the rest of the money sent and received on credited on our account. that was done after dozens of reminding email to Mr Suchat and …… bingo! we finally got it (it took 6 !!!! month). yes, reallly slow, nevertheless, they did their job. we got 80000 baht back (-5000 for lower). we are quite satisfied. we learrnt our lesson and… never buy anyting suspiciouse …. but we definnatelly gonna use 20 baht tuk-tuk to see all sghtseeings for whole day (like personal taxi!) just to say “good buy and thanks for all day ride”
Dear Citra Kamboja,
I got the same accident, Bangkok Scammed Gem. My story was almost like yours (pusingla). I bought the jewelry about 104000 baht and the jewelry was already sent to my country, Indonesia, Makassar city (sesama Melayu). Please (tolong) give me advice how to get my money back.
Can I trust somebody in Bangkok if I wanna send back the jewelry or is it better if I go back to Bangkok to finish this problem?
Thanks before.
Regards,
Ronny
Dear Ronny;
While i was in the DIT ( the Department of Internal Trade), office, i read on their buletin board…there was a case where this victim asking Mr.Suchat to help him as he was staying very far from Thailand. He did sent the jewelry straight to Mr.Suchat; and he managed to get 100% money back for the victim. Maybe you can try and call at this number for more advice: DiT ( 6625475356 ) all the time and ask for Mr. POE (it´s hard to understand Suchat English ).
I have all the address and more details at link below:
http://citrakamboja.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/the-blue-sapphire-ii/
Good Luck !! Mesti cuba ya!