HOW much is the fare from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Kuala Lumpur?
If you are unlucky, you might end up paying RM700, as experienced by two couples from Ireland and Scotland.
Maurreen Timmins, 51, from Ireland, arrived in KLIA from London with his wife and his friends, a couple from Scotland, yesterday at 7.30am for transit.
They were to leave for Australia at 9.35pm.
On arrival, they waited for their tourist agent from Fleet Holidays Sdn Bhd as the agency was supposed to arrange for transport and a hotel.
However, they were approached by a well-dressed man claiming to be from the agency. He introduced himself as ‘Babuji’.
“Babuji claimed that the tour agency had a problem and couldn’t pick us up. He was wearing a suit and fluent in English.
“He made a few calls from his cell phone and told us that everything had been settled.
“He then asked us to pay RM700 for transport from KLIA to the hotel and back and told us that we could claim our money from the tour agent.
“After paying him RM700 in cash, he took us to a van. We were taken directly to the hotel.”
At the hotel, Timmins said he contacted the agency to claim for the fare but was told that their agent was still waiting for them at the airport.
That was when the foreigners realised that they had been cheated by touts. They then lodged a police report.
Fleet Holidays Sdn Bhd operation manager Mohd Zaid Yahya said it was not the first such incident.
“The touts approach tourists at the arrival gate and will convince them that their bus had broken down or the travel agency had to cancel their transport and hotel booking.
“The tout will then promise to arrange everything for a higher fee that the tourists are supposed to claim from their travel agents.
“They will even issue a fake receipt and take their victims to taxi drivers who are working with them.
“The fake receipt does not have any contact number or address making it impossible for the authorities to detect them,” said Zaid.
He said that touts and illegal taxi operators are still operating at the airport despite the matter being highlighted in the media many times.
“I hope that the authorities will take stern action,” said Zaid, who had helped the tourists lodge a police report at KLIA.
Deputy Tourism Minister Datuk Donald Lim said that touts and illegal taxi operators at the airport can badly affect tourism in Malaysia.
“This issue has been there for a while and Tourism Malaysia is very concerned,” he said.
“We hope tourists who were cheated will co-operate by lodging a complaint with us or police. We urge cheated tourists to provide the registration numbers of the taxis so that action can be taken.”
He urged the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Department and the Road Transport Department to take action.
Source: The Malay Mail
If you are unlucky, you might end up paying RM700, as experienced by two couples from Ireland and Scotland.Maurreen Timmins, 51, from Ireland, arrived in KLIA from London with his wife and his friends, a couple from Scotland, yesterday at 7.30am for transit.
They were to leave for Australia at 9.35pm.
On arrival, they waited for their tourist agent from Fleet Holidays Sdn Bhd as the agency was supposed to arrange for transport and a hotel.
However, they were approached by a well-dressed man claiming to be from the agency. He introduced himself as ‘Babuji’.
“Babuji claimed that the tour agency had a problem and couldn’t pick us up. He was wearing a suit and fluent in English.
“He made a few calls from his cell phone and told us that everything had been settled.
“He then asked us to pay RM700 for transport from KLIA to the hotel and back and told us that we could claim our money from the tour agent.
“After paying him RM700 in cash, he took us to a van. We were taken directly to the hotel.”
At the hotel, Timmins said he contacted the agency to claim for the fare but was told that their agent was still waiting for them at the airport.
That was when the foreigners realised that they had been cheated by touts. They then lodged a police report.
Fleet Holidays Sdn Bhd operation manager Mohd Zaid Yahya said it was not the first such incident.
“The touts approach tourists at the arrival gate and will convince them that their bus had broken down or the travel agency had to cancel their transport and hotel booking.
“The tout will then promise to arrange everything for a higher fee that the tourists are supposed to claim from their travel agents.
“They will even issue a fake receipt and take their victims to taxi drivers who are working with them.
“The fake receipt does not have any contact number or address making it impossible for the authorities to detect them,” said Zaid.
He said that touts and illegal taxi operators are still operating at the airport despite the matter being highlighted in the media many times.
“I hope that the authorities will take stern action,” said Zaid, who had helped the tourists lodge a police report at KLIA.
Deputy Tourism Minister Datuk Donald Lim said that touts and illegal taxi operators at the airport can badly affect tourism in Malaysia.
“This issue has been there for a while and Tourism Malaysia is very concerned,” he said.
“We hope tourists who were cheated will co-operate by lodging a complaint with us or police. We urge cheated tourists to provide the registration numbers of the taxis so that action can be taken.”
He urged the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Department and the Road Transport Department to take action.
Source: The Malay Mail
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