We are in Koh Samui for one week, and overall having a great time and enjoying Thai culture. We had one horrible experience with a local tour company that I would like to share.

We booked our tour with this company through the guy at "Essential nightlife and Leisure Guide." I don't know how his advice would be on nightlife, but this trip is definitely not luxurious. The fee for the "Angthong Adventure Tour" leaving out of Petcherat Marina was 2200 bhat per person, plus an additional 200 bhat per person to get into the marine park. This was one of the most expensive tours on the island, so I expected it would be relatively nice.

The advertisement boasted breakfast, soft drinks and fruits, and a luxury speed boat. When we arrived the company informed us that they did not take credit cards. I had been told on the phone that they did take credit cards, and we had already reached our atm limit in the prior 24 hours. When we told them we didn't have access to cash, they told us there was a 3% fee for using a credit card. Ultimately, we were able to contact our bank and take out cash for the trip.

After paying we were told to enjoy breakfast and relax. Breakfast consisted of white bread, jelly and bad coffee. I wasn't expecting much, but being a tropical island I thought they would at least have fruit. Then, the last straw was when I saw 30-40 people piling into a small speedboat. It was half the size of the boat in the advertisement, and considering the rough water and full load of people, it looked sure to be uncomfortable.

I went to the front desk and told them that we were not comfortable getting onto the boat, and would like our money back. We offered to pay them for the "breakfast" and hotel pickup, generously valued at perhaps 500 or 600 bhat. The tour guides seemed friendly enough, but the woman who appeared in charge was not. She insisted on charging us 1200 bhat for our cancellation.

We tried contacting the guy we booked through at Essential Nightlife and Leisure Guide. He seemed to find our qualms with the company amusing and said he couldn't do anything about the 1200 bhat cancellation fee, that that was the company's policy. This policy had been no where written and not mentioned to us. I even went to the extent of threatening to call the police. Eventually, I was exhausted from fighting with them and decided to leave and salvage the rest of the day. They refused to refund our money. The whole ordeal cost us 1200 bhat, plus a 500 bhat cab ride back to our hotel, almost three hours out of our day and substantial aggravation.

In short, if you're uncomfortable with this company's misleading advertising and policy of having too many people pile into a small boat, it is going to cost you 600 bhat per person. I was very disappointed in their overall attitude. Customer service is a concept not yet fully developed in Thailand. I would encourage anyone to research the companies they travel with very thoroughly, and to definitely not travel with this company.

Thanks for the tip.
I have watched these speed boats in Samui and in krabi fill up to over flowing and always thought that I am glad that I am not on that. They look so unsafe.
Almost everywhere you use a CC in thailand they now bump on a charge for using it we have noticed this more over the last couple of years.
Hope that it did not spoil your stay.

__________________
Kiss
God laughs at people who make plans.

With my most Experience about Speedboat Services in Pattaya City, If you over load with passengers, the alighment of the boat will be unsafe while touching the surface of Wave. You can get sea sick easily. I mostly use speed boat at Pattaya beach when going to Koh LAn. Just tke cre