Thailand - Bangkok (Voglee Saga)

We'd just got to the hotel and dropped off our bags and decided that we'd spend the rest of the afternoon in Chinatown (where we were staying) looking at the Golden Buddha and nearby sites. We didn't have a very good map, and while we were trying to figure out where we were a man came up and asked us if we needed any help. He was obviously trying to get us into one of the tuk-tuks nearby, but we figured he'd be useful to point us on our way. He pointed out where we were and where we needed to go, but said that there were a few other nice places to go, and also suggested "a very good, cheap tailor" that was just out of Chinatown which he called "International Export Tailors". We gave him our map, and he plotted a couple of spots, including a nearby temple that was "nicer than any others around here". He convinced us to hop in a tuk-tuk by saying that we could have the tuk-tuk for 30 baht/hr (about $1), and we figured that was pretty cheap, and since we kept getting lost and didn't have much time it was a pretty good idea to have a tuk-tuk guide!

First we went to the Golden Buddha, which was really kind of tacky. It was an impressive hunk of solid gold (5 tons), but they haven't housed it in a temple yet so it was just sitting in a really inappropriate building. Anyway, that's not the point. After that we thought we may as well go just around the corner and see this other temple the nice tuk-tuk organiser guy suggested. Didn't think much of it, since the temple was already marked on our tourist map so we figured it was just another cool Thai temple. When we got there, it was a reasonably nice temple - nothing spectacular, but then neither was the Golden Buddha so we thought these Thais just over-estimated the coolness of their Buddhist monuments... While we were there (and we were the only ones there) a really nice man came in and prayed and then showed us how to pray properly. Then he asked us a bit about what we were doing in town and where we were from (stock standard questions that we've answered 8 thousand times since leaving home). He also said we should visit a bunch of places and marked them on our map. When he saw that someone had marked the "International Export Tailors" he said "who told you to go there", and we replied that it was our tuk-tuk driver (a slight untruth to save a full explanation). He told us he was very impressed with how honest our tuk-tuk driver was because most tailors give tuk-tuk drivers big commissions for taking tourists to their stores, but these guys didn't have any commissions and were the best tailors nearby. He said their trading name was "Voglee Tailors". They made some of the suits sold by Armani and Hugo Boss and others, and that if we wanted suits they were the best value place to go.

Awesome (we thought), two nice people had independently said this was a good tailor. My family had suggested that Thailand would be the best place to get a suit, I needed a suit for graduation and beyond, and since we were only in town for 3 days we should probably go somewhere that day to make sure we had time for a couple of re-fittings.

We asked our tuk-tuk driver to take us there. When we got there it was a normal, large tailor, with the name "Voglee Export Tailors". We were ushered into a private room and were shown a few brochures outlining some of the "suit styles" available. There was an Armani catalogue there and the man spontaneously explained that they were not able to put any other brand name on the suit other than their own (due to licensing restrictions, was the unstated reason), but reaffirmed that they did in fact supply a number of European companies including the ones the guy at the temple mentioned. We started talking price, in US dollars initially, but then he started jumping back and forth from baht to dollar and using the calculator to figure it all out. I was unsure of the exchange rate (and asked to confirm that it was 40 baht to the dollar), but he was confident that was right and judging by the other customers in the store he clearly dealt with white people all the time. He said they only dealt with wool/cashmere blends and all their suits were lined with Thai silk. The rolls of material did all say "cashmere + wool" on them and it felt pretty soft (I still don't know if it really is cashmere/wool, I don't know enough about cashmere!).

In the end, we decided to get 2 suits (one a mid-grey, one nearly black with pinstripes), both with a 2nd pair of pants (since I'd been complaining all year about only having 2 pairs of pants I could wear to uni), 3 fitted shirts, and 2 blouses (for Kelly, not me). The total: $US765. At 86USc to the $AU1, that would be about $870. In a pinch, I could afford that, and it was pretty good for 2 Armani-quality suits with all the trimmings. I paid upfront, like a good little tourist, 30,800 baht on my card. I thought I'd decide about home delivery later (an option they were pushing), after I'd got the suits.

When I got back to the hotel, I thought I'd look up Voglee's on the internet and see what people thought of their suits. Up came 20 stories of the Voglee scam: the nice guy on the side of the road suggesting some good tourist places (including a temple), the guy in the temple doing the same. Elsewhere, I found out that Voglee does in fact offer a large commission to tuk-tuk or taxi drivers who takes a tourist to their store (and that our tip to our nice, cheap tuk-tuk driver must have been accepted with an inner giggle on his part). Most people said they'd paid for suits for home delivery and never saw them. Others said they got suits that didn't fit at all right. Some couldn't believe how much they'd paid compared with other places.

I decided to check my bank account after that, and found that $1076 was pending removal by Visa and panicked that they may have done more than simply over-charge me (like steal my identity or something); I also thought it might not go through if I cancelled it straight away and told BankSA I'd lost the card.

In the end, we spend a large part of our time in Bangkok sitting in Voglee's, and most of the rest stressing out about never getting any products out of them. I tried to negotiate a refund of the amount they overcharged me, but they said it was my fault for not knowing the exchange rate, since they dealt exclusively in baht and could not be expected to know the exchange rate (an infuriating lie). After working hard to keep my cool (and not cause anyone to lose face, which I hear is the best way to get what you want around here) for an hour, I was offered free delivery to Adelaide... "No thankyou, I thought I'd use the pants and shirts during my travels" was my rather curt reply. After another hour, they'd offered me a partial refund (of about $50), which they said would take at least 2 weeks to get to me. Finally, they offered me a 3rd suit, which I really didn't need. It was this final offer that I accepted, because I was definitely going to make sure they gave me something, and the other options required too much of a waiting period before I saw results (and to be honest I didn't trust them at all!)...

I needed three fittings, and I'm still not entirely happy, particularly with my shirts (they just could not get my neck size right!). The suits don't look half-bad, and if they really are wool/cashmere with Thai silk, I definitely still paid less than I would have in Australia. Unfortunately, I had to cart them all the way to Mae Sot, and now I'll have to decide what to do with them here.