Viet Nam Department of Tourism officials crack down on scammers !

Over the years on this & other forums the reports of scamming in Viet
Nam have been many & varied.

The most common have been for tours & related services but in more
recent times the airport mini bus & taxi people seem to have been
making up for lost time.

On the way from the airport into Ha Noi town the helpful staff inform
the various guests that the hotel they wish to book into is full,
closed, being renovated, no good, fell down etc etc.

They'll then take you to the real bottom end mobs like the "short
time" Nam Phuong, 16 Bao Khanh St (around the corner from the ANZ
bank) which usually caters to old western men & young post card boys
on an hourly basis. Otherwise it's the various mobs on Hang Ga St.

Most people turn their noses up at these dumps but are then taken to
the "sister" hotel where it's basically the same & more often than not
the tourists are simply worn out by all the bull **** & cave in for at
least the 1st night.




Leaving your passport with the hotel receptionist.


This is a very risky thing to do & the number of times that the wrong
passport has been handed over or the guests have simply been asked to
play "lucky dip" with all the other guests passports is incredible.

To avoid the hotel confiscating your passport (which is illegal under
Vietnamese law) simply delay payment until the "crunch time" & then
say that you won't be able to stay there if that's the case.

They'll then agree immediately & take your passport & visa number
(which is all that's required & all they're legally entitled to do) &
hand your passport back to you.

After 9/11 & the ongoing, world wide, tightening up of security, the
issuing of replacement passports has become much more difficult &
sometimes a lengthy & expensive process.

Public servants (no matter where from) don't enjoy a reputation for
being especially hard working (either fairly or unfairly ?) & for
every day you have to stay in Viet Nam waiting for your replacement
it's you who pays.

Recent delay periods have been up to 10 working days for UK & Aussie
citizens.



Hotel tours & other services.

The most common complaint is the initial hassling by the staff for you
to buy their tours, ticketing or whatever.

The next most common problem is that all the people on the tour have
paid very different prices depending on their bargaining skills.

After the tour turns out to be very different from what was described,
the hotel ducks for cover & blames the operator.

The operator usually has never met the hotel receptionist who sold you
the tour & quite genuinely has no idea what was promised or what price
the tour was sold for in the 1st place.

The operator is guilty however of allowing this whole scam to go on &
knows full well of the many opportunities for disaster.

The various operators are certainly guilty of conveniently turning a
blind eye to the scams they know are going on.



Department of Tourism

In Viet Nam, the opening of a Department of Tourism that is in fact a
consumer watch dog, has done wonders to remedy these various problems.

Our experiences are in Ha Noi but there are offices right throughout
the country.

Hotels , unless they're a fully licensed international tour operator
are not allowed to sell tours under any circumstances.

There's only about 6 fully licensed international tour operators in Ha
Noi & none of them are hotels.

The most the hotels are allowed to do is refer you to a tour company &
then hope the operator will send them some money after you purchase
whatever it is you want.

If they've taken any money at all from you then they're already in
breach of the act & liable to a hefty fine.

The contact details for the Ha Noi Department of Tourism are these:

Ask for Miss Minh or Miss Binh

Ha Noi Department of Tourism
2nd floor, No 3 Le Lai Street,
Ha Noi, SR Viet Nam
(844) 824 7652

A couple of recent examples are these

1. A guy was on his way to a hotel that he'd booked over the phone &
the mini bus stopped (very quickly) out front of a different hotel & a
young guy jumps in a says that he's from the hotel that the guy had
booked with & he's sorry but they're full.

No worries, he'll take him to the "sister" hotel which is great. The
guy now has no idea where he is & he's basically held hostage. He
agrees to stay at the new hotel simply because he's fed up with the
whole very transparent rort. Unfortunately he handed over his
passport to the hotel.

On his way out of the hotel he's pestered by the staff & to avoid any
more drama he takes a glance at a few tour brochures.

When he gets back to the hotel & attempts to check out he's handed a
bill for several hundred dollars & told that the hotel had already
booked these tours for him plus various nights in between back at the
hotel.

After being threatened with violence if he didn't pay & reminded that
the hotel had his passport, he went to see Miss Binh at the Ha Noi
Department of Tourism.

After a very short chat with Miss Binh the hotel staff turned into
very cheery types who were most apologetic for what had been a
terrible misunderstanding.

The tourist was shown to the door, bid farewell & furthermore wished a
great stay in Viet Nam.

2. Two young girls were given the old "your hotel is full but I can
take you to our sister hotel" & ended up being bullied into a couple
of very bad tours. Too many people, not enough staff & the facilities
being very different from what was offered.

The Ha Noi Department of Tourism people demanded that the hotel issue
a full refund to the 2 girls. The hotel had no right selling anything
to them in the 1st place & had in fact promised that the services were
to be provided by a particular company & when contacted, the company
hadn't even been approached by them.

Please be especially careful in Ha Noi with;

The Nam Phuong Hotel
16 Bao Khanh St

* Just a few too many old western men helping young Vietnamese boys
to study English ????

The "Fake" Kangaroo Café
83 Ma May St (opp Handspan Travel)

* Only one reason why they're stealing another companies name &
aren't using their real name ! Just another scam !

The "Fansipan" hotel (AKA Ton Duy, etc etc)
Hang Che St

* A regular "dumping" point. To be avoided at all costs. Staff can
be very threatening.

Finally, any recommendation by the Airport taxi or mini bus people
should be treated very carefully. If the hotel staff are really very
pushy & insistent then please be very suspicious. If the services are
any good then the hotel wouldn't be acting in any kind of desperate
manner.

"Just another punter !" wrote in message
Leaving your passport with the hotel receptionist.


This is a very risky thing to do & the number of times that the wrong
passport has been handed over or the guests have simply been asked to
play "lucky dip" with all the other guests passports is incredible.

To avoid the hotel confiscating your passport (which is illegal under
Vietnamese law) simply delay payment until the "crunch time" & then
say that you won't be able to stay there if that's the case.

They'll then agree immediately & take your passport & visa number
(which is all that's required & all they're legally entitled to do) &
hand your passport back to you.



illegal? the people on Thorn Tree will tell you otherwise. i'm not
comfortable with the situation but i will try telling them i need it to
withdraw money and/or visa application. some people forget to get theirs
back when they're already on the way to the next town. some people find out
later their passports are someone else's. i don't want to part with my
passport....

On Tue, 5 Oct 2004 12:17:05 +0200, "FujiGirl"
wrote:

"Just another punter !" wrote in message
Leaving your passport with the hotel receptionist.


This is a very risky thing to do & the number of times that the wrong
passport has been handed over or the guests have simply been asked to
play "lucky dip" with all the other guests passports is incredible.

To avoid the hotel confiscating your passport (which is illegal under
Vietnamese law) simply delay payment until the "crunch time" & then
say that you won't be able to stay there if that's the case.

They'll then agree immediately & take your passport & visa number
(which is all that's required & all they're legally entitled to do) &
hand your passport back to you.



illegal? the people on Thorn Tree will tell you otherwise. i'm not
comfortable with the situation but i will try telling them i need it to
withdraw money and/or visa application. some people forget to get theirs
back when they're already on the way to the next town. some people find out
later their passports are someone else's. i don't want to part with my
passport....


Most people on the Thorn Tree are 1st time travelers. Some on the
basis of 1 only trip to Khao San rd in Thailand will offer advice on
most subjects.

It used to be OK but these days it's so full of stuff about Thai lady
boys, girlfriends with sick buffalos, gem scams & trolling by tour
company operators, that it's getting very boring. You can see how
many posts they've made by clicking on their profile.

Regarding the passport bit, if you use the old, "well I'll have to
stay/pay elsewhere if you need to confiscate my passport", you'll see
a very quick turn around by the receptionist. It will work !

It's got to be worth a try & as I mentioned since the whole tightening
up of security worldwide, it can be a real & very expensive hassle if
you have to apply for a new passport.