I'm not sure if this is the kind of thing that you're website really covers (as most of the material seems to involve street scams), but I'd like to submit this to you guys anyways. 

I recently arrived in Bangkok about a week ago. I knew I was eventually going to further traveling all throughout Thailand. After a day or two of looking, I  wondered into a travel agency by the name of World Federal Travel just off of Phisanulok Road, not far from Khao San. I took a look at this tourist package that they had for me (which included a trip to Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Phi Phi). The T.A.T had said that prices on trips to Chiang Mai were typically around 27,000 baht. The whole package this World Federal Travel tried to sell me came about to just over that. It sounded a bit expensive, but considering everything that was laid out, I thought I might as well shell out the cash and try to enjoy myself. 

As it turns out, my bank card wasn't working at the time. I was then told I could make a "deposit" to hold my spot. I made a 400 USD deposit which I knew I shouldn't have done, but at this point I had every intention of going on this little packaged trip and figured it really couldn't hurt. 

Well, as it turns out, I had less money back home than I had realized due to some outstanding bills I hadn't accounted for and just decided that paying for the whole planned trip was too much and it'd be better to just find what I want on my own. Well, as you can probably already guess, the money I had given them upfront wasn't treated as a deposit despite the fact that it says "deposit" and I was told any kind of refund was impossible when a I went to speak with them a couple days later. Now, this is bad enough but it's something I should expect for being reckless with my money in a foreign country. What happened next is I guess the main reason I'm writing you. 

The manager whom I spoke to on two separate occasions was very peevish and condescending toward me about the whole thing. Even going as far as to call me names and accuse me of doing things that I wasn't doing (such as yelling). I may be dumb with my money, but I'm sensible enough to know that yelling in my situation won't help. Attempted reasoning was really something the man had distain for and outwardly showed to me in ways that left me dumbfounded such as yelling and name-calling. He was determined to call the shots with my own money.  Now, I have given this man 400 USD and he says I *must* book something. I have no choice and there is nothing I can do. So, after going back and forth, he says if I don't book something right now at the very moment I'm talking to him that he will give me nothing for my money and just simply throw me out of his office. So I end up telling him something out of fear of losing my entire deposit. I tell him I just want to go to Phuket.

He only gives me three days in Phuket but insists the hotel I'm staying at is a "good hotel". Yeah, whatever. I asked to see further information or perhaps other hotel options to which he flat out refuses. So, I get this three day thing to Phuket and of course return to my hotel in Khao San to research the hotel further only to find that the price of the hotel only costs about 1,000 baht a night. It doesn't appear to be that close to the beach, either. It's a big joke. 

So, for approximately 13,600 baht (I think my math's right), I get a maybe a 3,600 baht value. I understand he has to hike up the prices a bit for his "services," but for them to just make off that much of my money as a licensed business really has put a sour taste in my mouth. 

I tried going to both the T.A.T and the Office of Tourism Development (who didn't seem to have a decent English speaker in the office so conveying the exact nature of the situation proved impossible).  Neither proved effective and I really didn't expect that there was much they could do or else this guy at World Federal Travel wouldn't act the way he did in the first place.

I'm writing at the very least to warn people to even be weary of licensed tour businesses in Thailand. From what I've seen, that license is a pure joke. I really am embarassed I even allowed myself to be put in this situation. As I said, I thought they were closely affiliated with the T.A.T and thus thought my money was safe. I was dead wrong.

P.S. 

Does anyone at your website know of any other resource through which I can report this business to and at the very least give some bad marks about World Federal Travel to some Thai tourist officials. I still haven't taken the planned trip to Phuket that they "set me up" with. Any information on how I can damage this guy's reputation while I'm still on holiday in Thailand would be much appreicated. Thank you for your time. 

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