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Phuket Tourist Forced To Pay 180,000 Baht In Jet-Ski Repairs


LivinginKata

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Despite the analysis of everyone here in repairs and value et al, take a ooh at the real issue. Insurance is under insured. In the 'game' that means the claim would not be met - if damage is capped at Baht50,000 then the operator is NOT complying with the new law, the machine has to be fully insured and the user pays excess.

The next question is the faulty machine - agree with all the pundits - I raced grand prix motorcycles and have a lot of experience having also built yachts and powerboats. This machine is doubtless, faulty. Throttles can stick (scary for the inexperienced) but with additional override of the kill switch and a spring'd power plug, this machine had every chance to stop if in proper operating condition.

So back on track, the insurer now should be refusing payment as the insured failed to maintain the insured goods (apart from being under-insured) and refuse the claim.

Then that comes back to the involvement of Police, the operator spinning yards and the tourist (yet again) being ripped off.

Then of course the operator cries 'foul' - he complied with Govt mandate to insure but did not insure against total loss (of course). And the scam continues.

Get it right Thailand - you are really looking as pathetic as you deserve.

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Well...we regular readers and residents of Thailand all know that people should not rent the jet ski boats in the first place...but the majority of tourists do not know anything about the jet ski Mafia and the police goons who will gladly assist anyone who is a victim of the jet ski scam.

Yes hindsight says the people should have done this or that and handled it differently at the time...but when your surrounded and intimidated by all the beach goons and a police officer or police officers show up and everyone is saying: " you have to pay " ..."big problem" .....and start talking about JAIL if you dont pay..... then most people would rather pay than go to jail.

I would just like to see or hear about someone who stood up to them and said:

"OK..lets go to jail..lets get this over with ..I am not going to pay...you are not not getting a single Baht out of me." "You have insurance...deal with the insurance company.

And..." I am am going to sue you for endangering my life"

It could happen...but there would be lots of stress and grief and not a pleasant way to spend your holiday time...fighting with the local goons who quickly turn nasty and start to gang up on you all the more

There would be nothing fair about any of it.

However...I imagine a scene where someone acting as a spokesman for the victims campaigns on their behalf and somehow manages to get hundreds of ANGRY foriengners to march to the Mayors office and or the Police station... in force .....and demand that the Mayor of Phuket respond to the injustices being perpetrated against foriegn tourists.

What a lovely scene that would be.

What to do ..what to do

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I guess there is no disputing this scratch. Lucky it was not one of JJ's or the bill would have been millions and your 1st born for this scratch. Why don't operators have insurance covering the ski's as well as injuries. (public liability) Is the law in Australia. Anyway looks like the yank has to pay up on this one.

What about holiday insurance?? If they were sensible enough to get a decent and comprehensive policy (covering recreational activities) especially as it looks like they enjoy water sports then they should be OK surely!!! Pay what they have to pay upfront and then claim it back.

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Well...we regular readers and residents of Thailand all know that people should not rent the jet ski boats in the first place...but the majority of tourists do not know anything about the jet ski Mafia and the police goons who will gladly assist anyone who is a victim of the jet ski scam.

Yes hindsight says the people should have done this or that and handled it differently at the time...but when your surrounded and intimidated by all the beach goons and a police officer or police officers show up and everyone is saying: " you have to pay " ..."big problem" .....and start talking about JAIL if you dont pay..... then most people would rather pay than go to jail.

I would just like to see or hear about someone who stood up to them and said:

"OK..lets go to jail..lets get this over with ..I am not going to pay...you are not not getting a single Baht out of me." "You have insurance...deal with the insurance company.

And..." I am am going to sue you for endangering my life"

It could happen...but there would be lots of stress and grief and not a pleasant way to spend your holiday time...fighting with the local goons who quickly turn nasty and start to gang up on you all the more

There would be nothing fair about any of it.

However...I imagine a scene where someone acting as a spokesman for the victims campaigns on their behalf and somehow manages to get hundreds of ANGRY foriengners to march to the Mayors office and or the Police station... in force .....and demand that the Mayor of Phuket respond to the injustices being perpetrated against foriegn tourists.

What a lovely scene that would be.

What to do ..what to do

I'll be there!ph34r.gif

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The "kill switch" should be attached round the wrist of the rider. If you fall off, the machines engine will stop and the ski will make a turn under momentum. If the rider did not have the kill sw round the wrist the rider is wrong.

If the kill sw was inoperative the machine should have idled back to the fallen rider.

Hotels should warn their clients not to rent ski's but then the manager would be probably shot.

What with taxis and scams in general Phuket will be a ghost town in my life time. Nasty place.

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I think the shady bit in all of this is the compensation the operator expects. There's risk in everything and he should have insurance to cover incidents like this. The customer should not bear the burden of compensating him for loss of business and the cost of repairs. That's where it's going too far in my opinion.

No insurance company covers stupitity. Unless the tourist can prove the machine was at fault then he is most likely not covered.

If the customer was unable to pay at the time the insurance company may well pay the vendor, but make no mistake they would then go after the customer.

Either way the guy is going to pay cos lifes a B!tch :lol:

Insurance does cover stupidity. Otherwise your saying that it only covers things like birds dive bombing through the chassis or other natural occurrences?

What sensible action can be done by a tourist in this situation? With corrupt police is there a way to get justice?

Can you go to your embassy? Flee home without paying? Say "take me to court cause I aint paying"

What choices did this last have??

In Thailand this ain't a criminal case .it's private .. it can be settled.. upon agreement....... if you don't have the money , they can't do anything to u ............ unless the court orders you to pay and sell all your assets to pay off.....the amount ............. if you still don't have enough, they will ask you to do installments

Leaving the country while the case is not finished yet.... i don't think he can .............

but the guy won't sue him though. cos it will take such a long time,red tape to end it...... and lots of money involve + plus if he has too much free time.....

....... in the end ,,,,,,,, it's not worth.... ... taking legal action ..... nope................ it ain't a good choice...

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If any of You actually check out the Price of a New Jet Ski You might be Surprised!!! Starting Price for a decent one is around 700.000 Baht and they can be Much More! I am Not Condoning the Beach Wildlife in Patong as they are all Scammers in one way or another The Entire Beach is Infested, Starting from the Car & Bike Rentals occupying the Public Parking Spaces working right down to the Waterline!!! I would have thought it is Plain to See and Common Sense should Prevail. Obviously these Tourists were 5 short of a 6 Pack? Why Rent a vehicle You can't operate??? So considering they Played Dodgems with Someones Jet Ski they Deserve to Pay!!! Looking at the Photos it is pretty well Totaled and hardly worth repairing!!!

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If any of You actually check out the Price of a New Jet Ski You might be Surprised!!! Starting Price for a decent one is around 700.000 Baht and they can be Much More! I am Not Condoning the Beach Wildlife in Patong as they are all Scammers in one way or another The Entire Beach is Infested, Starting from the Car & Bike Rentals occupying the Public Parking Spaces working right down to the Waterline!!! I would have thought it is Plain to See and Common Sense should Prevail. Obviously these Tourists were 5 short of a 6 Pack? Why Rent a vehicle You can't operate??? So considering they Played Dodgems with Someones Jet Ski they Deserve to Pay!!! Looking at the Photos it is pretty well Totaled and hardly worth repairing!!!

Where do you shop? Farang special stores?

Price for a brand new jetski, the ones used for rent is 300K-350K

Furthermore, if it is totalled then why are they being charged the amount to repair? why not the amount, the jet ski would be worth same age with same mileage.?

When you smash your car, insurance does not pay the value of a brand new car but a value of the market price.

Edited by kuffki
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Me thinks this one is hard to call. Maybe 50/50 with the operator coming out on top. Which I would think in most Countries would be the case?

I think the only way to insure against this happening. Is to put the operators out of businesses. By not using their services. The tour companies could and should do much more in aiding with this, by issuing their customers with guidance and warning booklets on the different Countries they are selling in their brochures and know to scam tourists.

jb1

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Jetskies and corrupt police make it so fantastic !

Why shall Thai police negotiate anything ?

It is ilegal to sail a jetski in Thailand if you not have a captains license, so bust both parts instead !

When police negotiate, they participate in an ilegal business.

Same with Tuk tuks, they should be banned total, lets get taxis with meter, many other places in Thailand it works, Khon Khaen, Udon, Korat, Chiang Mai etc. all very cheap and nice !

So join "Ban tuk tuks on Phuket" on Facebook and show you not want them at all !

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I see a lot of people talking about faulty machine. But is there any evidence of that? The article clearly stated that two collided before hitting the rock. Seems to me like they were reckless in their use of machine. Sure the operator should have full insurance.

did the rider have the safety strap attached from machine to his waist or wrist?

Maybe the operator did try to claim the full insurance, but upon the agent hearing the story of them using the machine improperly, rejecting the claim!!!

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Well, yeah... at least this one doesn't sound like a scam... Right, they fell off but did they have the safety band tied around their wrist that was supposed to pull the key off and shut off the engine? I guess we will never know all the details as here in LOS I never heard of any sort of proper investigation to find all the truth. We will never know if the tourist failed to use the safety feature of if it was mulfunctioning.

One thing I am sure - the machine didn't keep going at a full speed after they fall off. That would indicate a stuck throttle and they would have discovered it as soon as they get on the machine. So EVEN IF the safety device mulfantioned, the speed of the machine would have dropped significantly after they "fell off". If it kept going at the full speed towards the rocks, it means they were flying towards the rocks like retards and they "fell off" in the last second...

Or threw themselves off before hitting the rocks. What most newbies dont understand about a jetski is it needs to have the throttle depressed to turn, this is hard to do when you are already going towards rocks at high speed as it goes against your principle instinct which is to slow down. So most people mistakenly throttle off to slow down and then try to turn the handlebars to turn, but of course nothing happens you just keep going straight!

If there was no insurance the repair price sounds correct. The issue here is, if there was an insurance form signed, why is not being adheared to. Obviously the 50,000 excess insurance form is only there to cover a minor incident which costs 5000 baht to fix but they charge you the full 50,000 as per the form which then gets waved in your face. In this case however, the damage was much higher and so now the insurance system is waived and forgotten about. I am willing to bet the craft was never insured in the first place and the 50,000 baht insurance form is itself a scam to look legitimate. I would ask the coppers to produce the insurance docs for the craft with corresponding engine and chassis numbers (I can hear you guys laughing). These guys never lose. Moral of the story...dont hire jetski's in Thailand. If nobody hires them, they will dissapear quickly from the beaches. Problemo solved! Geez and the violin solo "I need to feed my family" but I also own two boats, these guys are richer than most tourists who come to the Island.

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The way the situation is described it reminds of those stories from countries like Nepal where if you run over some guys goat you have to compensate him for lost income (milk). These yokel operators shouldn't be allowed near tourists. Accidents happen and need to be factored in to the longer term business plan. "you owe me money because me no income" BS.

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I tuned in to this thread thinking it might be one of the worst rip off scam stories regarding jet skis. It is not. Unlike many other threads on jet ski rentals, this one involved substantial damage to the rented jet skis.

The story is really about the settlement coming after substantial and near total destruction of a jet ski. It is not one of the stories about the jet ski scammers, rather one about a rental agency that in my opinion has taken a fair and "middle path" solution to a financial settlement.

The riders were very lucky their injuries were not more severe. Many posts here comment on "what might be if", it was in their country, in Cambodia, blah-blah, blah, but the fact is a contract is a contract and insurance is insurance. Both have limits and if you don't want to pay then don't play. Everyone who rents a motorbike, a car, a jet ski or whatever should understand that the insurance that comes with the rented item is not like the insurance on your personal vehicle and it has an efffectively huge deductible. Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware...

No evil forces at work here, although some here are intent to find it. I suggest that they look under their own fingernails first...

From my math the "settlement" leaves about 100k to the better of the renters. In the US / Europe / Australia it is a normal procedure for the "damaged" party to escalate their costs, adding loss of income, etc, etc in order to achieve a better negotiation position for themselves. Isn't this the same that is happening here?? I think this is normal human nature and to suggest it is a bad aspect of this particular Thai jet ski rental company is quite ignorant in my opinion.

How the settlement is achieved, whether the police assisted, who helped, was it a friendly Thai or the mechanic is not important. The tourists cannot speak the language and they did need assistance from someone.

I also think that the limited information here about the accident suggests that the drivers were substantially at fault, even if they didn't have the kill switch arm band on they must have been going too fast near objects they should have been paying more attention to.

Bottom line is, this thread is played out, it's not another headline grabbing scam story, and now we are just listening to the sound of voices speculating in all matters.

I suggest the ops close this thread.

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would have thought the MANDATORY insurance that all rental items in Thailand require would have covered this

Most rental items in Thailand do NOT have ANY Insurance. The mandatory Insurance on motorbikes covers medical, but close to nothing at max 100.000 baht, and does of course require sober rider with valid drivers lisence.

Renting in Thailand is the renters risk, expect to pay for bike or jet ski if it is damaged or stolen

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what if the jetski on it wild chase without driver, would have killed some mix of thai and farangs ? who would be liable ?

in thailand : allways the farang, jailtime, millions in fine

stay of the dam_n jetski scams... you would not be able to drive one in your own country without the propper marine licence, so why you think this would be different in this underdevelopped country ????

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I feel sorry for the tourist, but when you go to a poor nation and rent expensive equipment, you can't expect to write it off and not pay for it.

The cost of replacement means a chunk of her annual salary. For him, it's his livelihood.

I know a lot of those guys run scams, but look at it- she hit another jet-ski, then crashed it into rocks at high speed.

The insurance policy is obviously crap, but this is Thailand- not California. Paperwork is more a formality than a guarantee, and anyone going to a poor nation should know their "rights" don't mean a thing to people who live on about a tenth of the average US/UK salary (pulled that number out of my hole, probably way off :P ).

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I feel sorry for the tourist, but when you go to a poor nation and rent expensive equipment, you can't expect to write it off and not pay for it.

The cost of replacement means a chunk of her annual salary. For him, it's his livelihood.

I know a lot of those guys run scams, but look at it- she hit another jet-ski, then crashed it into rocks at high speed.

The insurance policy is obviously crap, but this is Thailand- not California. Paperwork is more a formality than a guarantee, and anyone going to a poor nation should know their "rights" don't mean a thing to people who live on about a tenth of the average US/UK salary (pulled that number out of my hole, probably way off :P ).

Poor nation????? have you not seen the amount of Ferrari's, Bentleys on the roads?i have not seen as many in "rich" nations.

Annual salary????, guy owns jetski's and boats, he is hardly at the bottom of the barrel.

Yes when you damage something, you are expected to pay for it, but the actual price its worth not an amount to make the business owner even more rich.

I could be wrong, but the business of renting is to make money from rental not from accidents.

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Should have replaced it with a 3 year old jet ski or paid the replacement value for a 3 year old jet ski, if he was truly at fault. I don't know the answer on the auto cut off unless the cord wasn't attached to the driver or there was a 'malfunction'. Malfunction surely would reduce his liability, most likely to the extent of the insurance (50K) Insurance (even self insured) wouldn't pay more than 'replacement'. Salvage the scrap and get some money back (motor, mid and rear parts). I know, TIT!!

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Sounds to me like another one who had never ridden a jet ski. Thailand is not the place to jump on one for the first time.

I've seen this with hired motorcycles in Bali and Thailand. If you're not a competent rider at home, why the hell would you hire and (attempt to) ride one where the only rule is "There are no rules"??? Beats me.

The IQ of the average punter is barely into double figures!

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I guess there is no disputing this scratch. Lucky it was not one of JJ's or the bill would have been millions and your 1st born for this scratch. Why don't operators have insurance covering the ski's as well as injuries. (public liability) Is the law in Australia. Anyway looks like the yank has to pay up on this one.

I have no sympathy for them. Why didn't they have travel insurance like most sensible tourists. All policies have public liability coverage. I would not think of traveling without proper travel insurance.

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This is just an another example of why the jet ski renting in thailand stinks the Phuket jet ski insurance scheme has failed and the tourists have to deal with beach thugs not a nice experience.

Authorities have not done enough to clamp down on the industry .

Edited by saintofsilence
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That wasn't a "normal" jet ski scam, however...

if I was running an honest rental service I'd simply purchase insurance and pass that cost off to the renter. Then put up a big sign that says: Don't Get Scammed!!! Rent An Insured Jet Ski Here! Then make sure you have purchased the insurance that covers major damage, like a collision -- you're passing the cost off to the renter, right?

If I was a tourist as saw a sign that says Don't Get Scammed!!! I'd ask why. Then I'd rent from the guy at a higher price because he's honest and I'm protecting my butt.

If any of these guys are truly above-board this would be a great marketing approach. More lucrative and less of a hassle than scamming! B)

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