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Who to avoid in Bali & Lombok
Unfortunately, no matter where you go or
what you do in this world, there are seemingly always those
who make life less then it should be, even in paradise. Although,
thankfully, rarer so in Bali & Lombok perhaps than elsewhere.
This section should not be considered a reason
to avoid Bali & Lombok, but to avoid what is truly bad there,
in order to get the very best out of your visit.
Perhaps part of the "problem" here is
there appears to be substance in the famous adages "Buyer
beware" and "Business is business". Whereas many
Asians are the nicest people in a person to person sense, they
can be absolute terrors when it comes to doing business with
them. A humorous observation being that when someone trying
to sell you something says "Yes, yes", that means
"I have no idea" or "No". But this list
is not so much about humour, but about the people and businesses
you really should think twice about dealing with.
Here then, is that list! 
Bali web site owners, have you checked out our Featured
Sites Page?
"Balifiles" - Don't be shy to suggest extra text, links
or other information.
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Balidiscovery.com (Bali Discovery Tours) / Mr. John M. Daniels (AKA
Jack Daniels)
Is he / are they the nastiest travel agents in Bali? Mr. Daniels decided
to try make an anonymous, spurious complaint against a director, Mark
Austin, of this forum with the Balinese Police regarding a private business
email Mark sent someone in good faith, that Daniels managed to get a copy
of. So that Mark was questioned by the police over several days and had
his passport taken (at which point the British Embassy got involved -
draw your own conclusions). Mark was released with no charges being made,
which means the allegations made by Jack Daniels were unfounded.
Why would Jack Daniels have done this? Is it because he bore a grudge
from when his company disputably offering unauthorized hotel rates on
the Internet? Although, subsequently, the hotel was most gracious towards
JD and his company by playing the incident down, and some 15 months after
the fact retracting their earlier statements. Bali Discovery Tours, none
the less, had to remove the contentious rates from their web site. So
what does that tell you? You can read the whole story here, it is Mark's
site dedicated to telling the truth about - Bali
Discovery Tours.
John M. Daniels / Bali Discovery Tours have denied they made the original
police complaint, but Mark Austin has affidavits from both a top civil
lawyer (the one that attended him at the police station) and a lawyer
with the Department of Justice confirming the police told / showed them
it was Daniels / Bali Discovery Tours that made the original complaint
(the police are not obliged / not allowed to disclose the complainant
in writing themselves).
Since that time, Bali Discovery Tours have retaliated by publishing false
statements on their web site claiming they have filed police charges against
Mark Austin for "criminal defamation". Apart from the facts
defamation is not a criminal act and individuals / companies such as Daniels
/ Bali Discovery Tours can not file criminal charges (only the police
and Department of Justice can). Mark has an affidavit from the Department
of Justice lawyer stating they questioned the police about whether police
charges existed against Mark Austin and that the police said this was
false. No charges have been made, nor will be over this matter. Despite
Bali Discovery Tours first publishing these falsehoods in June 2003, being
formally advised to cease and desist due to proof their statements are
false, they continue to publish these falsehoods and are now the defendants
in a defamation case being brought against them by Mark in the USA.
Bert Vierstra - Bali Expat Forum
Bert Viestra makes himself out to be a decent even amiable and
upstanding member of the Bali community. He runs the Bali Expat Forum
and several commercial web sites. He is not what he seems. I have an email
from him admitting he assisted a particularly nasty member of the expat
community in Bali with information on how to bypass this forum's security
scripts, so that this other person would hack / Spam this forum. Bert
has also admitted posting his own hate messages on this forum using false
names. If you know Bert Vierstra of the Bali Expat Forum, I suggest you
think again. I actually supported him when he set up his forum and have
sent valuable potential customers his way for his real estate business,
and this is how he repays me, by aiding and abetting hack attempts against
this site.
The Bali Travel Forum
To be fair, not most of the people that contribute to the "other"
Bali Forum, but the management and certain users of that forum. The management
for deleting messages off their message board, solely because it is contrary
to their commercial (villa / hotel sales) aspirations. For breaking their
agreement with this forum. For the small number of posters on that forum
that post under different names and who deliberately create "flame
wars" for their own selfish, puerile"gain". These are tolerated
by the other forum management, because they do the same thing! Only with
them, they post as regular tourists recommending the services of the villa
/ hotel reservations site affiliated with that forum. You see, that is
why they do not show the poster's IP address (Their retort is that it
identifies a particular PC / user, which is absolute rubbish. It only
identifies the ISP via which they posted). Because so many apparently
different people are really just a few naughty little monkeys. That is
why you really can not trust the sincerity / accuracy of postings on their
sales board forum.
The Abian Biu Residence (Hotel), near Batubelig / Canggu
This hotel asked to come onto our sister reservations site and provided
them details which specifically said they had a swimming pool and a restaurant,
when in fact they did not. Their defence was they were going to build
them one day. Actually, they named the date for the swimming pool work
and we were horrified to learn that they were not advising guests of the
major construction work which would innevitably ruin their stay further.
Although afterwards we have been told the pool has been built, the restaurant
has not depsite the fact they were still claiming they have one.
Hotel Puri Damai, Jl Arjuna, Seminyak (off Jl Double 6)
We had reports of a nasty bike rental scam run by this hotel / its
staff. We were advised of this by 2 regular posters on this forum. What
has happened, is that bike rentals have been made to guests. Sometimes,
while the guest is out and unknown to them, the staff keep another key
and use the bike. The bikes are always locked in full view of the security
staff box. What is worse, one day the bike will disappear, and the staff
will demand US$150 compensation (even though they charged for insurance,
which they will try not to note on the bike rental form which states "no
insurance"). Even if the police agree that the guest is not liable,
the staff will continue to and aggressively harass the guest for money.
Money Changers, Sanur & Kuta
These people are located on Jalan Mertasari in the southernmost part
of Sanur Town (south of the small roundabout / traffic circle), and just
north of Aromas Cafe on Jalan Legian in Kuta. Despite the fact I challenged
them each time, these people tried no less than six different scams ("faulty"
calculator, putting the calculator in my line of vision of the money,
trying to recount piles of notes I had verified, counting small denominations
as larger ones, demanding a commission after advertising there was none,
and dropping money on the floor) on me when I walked in to use them as
money changers. When their last scam failed and they were faced with the
prospect of actually having to honour their advertised rate / terms, they
grabbed their money, threw back my dollars and got very irate. In Sanur,
if you want to know the worst money changer. Simply ask any of the shop
owners in that road which is the "Nusa Shop", they will all
know! Avoid them and Jl. Legian money changers like the plague.
WakaShorea / The Disgrace of Bali?!
A manager of this resort made email death threats after trying to
advertise the resort and consequently being questionned over allegations
it was on stolen National Park land. Read about these people here: WakaShorea
Resort Bali.
Bali2000 / Indonesia2001
This company pretends to be a travel resource organization called
the Indonesian Council of Tourism Partners. They also claim to be official
representatives of the Indonesian Department of Culture and Tourism, even
though they are not listed on that government agency's site (the government
site does, of course, list representatives it recognizes, and they are
not on it). They are in fact a commercial reservations site, and a very
poor one. They get business by sending out Spam e-mails. If you are unfortunate
enough to be on their Spam list and demand to be removed, they respond
with particularly nasty e-mails. If you, like us / our sister reservations
site, are also in the industry and do this. The owner then sends out libelous,
false and particularly nasty (profane) e-mails to anyone and everyone
in industry. These sites are run by a German, living in Hawaii, who has
never even visited Bali! The owner, Thomas Steinmetz, has since sent me
the following message "Allah is the greatest, Muhammad is his messenger,
and you are a dead man!!!". If it weren't clear this man (with a
Jewish name making Muslim threats) is deranged, we would have filed charges.
ABL Tours & Travel DBA baliwww.com - Thieves, cheats & liars.
Our sister reservations site was notified that these people had copied
their copyrighted hotel pictures without permission. Our sister site e-mailed
them, pointed out that the terms of their site provided for a US$2000
penalty per photograph, and demanded that they remove these photographs
within 48 hours or pay the penalties. Baliwww.com ignored these demands,
so we filed further complaints with baliwww.com's hoster, and also their
owner, I Gede Sanat Kumara. This brought a result, in that the copyrighted
photographs were removed by baliwww.com. But then their owner replied
"We NEVER use your images - who is stealing ??? can you prove it
??". To which we replied "Yes we can prove it, the copyright
breach was documented by an Independent 3rd party. Are you making a statement
that your company has not used our copyrighted pictures?" His reply?
"Sorry I have no comment"!
But what is worse, especially for people that use baliwww.com.
While observing baliwww.com's page, it became clear that they were offering
rooms at a certain hotel for less than they should. We contacted that
hotel and they advised us of two things. 1) That baliwww.com were not
authorized to sell rooms for them, and 2) That the rates baliwww.com were
quoting were too low. The hotel also stated that they could not, and would
not honour those rates. It is clear therefore, that baliwww.com are committing
fraud. What is a source of concern is that they obviously take customers
credit card details first, then let the customer down. Either by trying
to switch them to the real rate, or another hotel, or worse. When you
look at baliwww.com's web site, it seems like they deal with every hotel.
Be careful, they do not.
The proof is even there on their own site; they have a guest comments
page (very silly, as it seems not everyone is happy with them!). One of
the several bad reports reads "Some 2 months after making the order,
I found that my Credit card had been compromised (for the first time ever).
Since I had released details over the net to this firm it is just possible
the security of the site is in question.." Our message to visitors
to Bali? "Do not use their crooked reservations site!"
www.bali-travelnet.com AKA www.bali-travelcentre.com AKA www.hotels-bali.com
Another Internet site that steals other people's pictures and ignores
demands to remove them. We had to force their hoster in the USA to remove
these pictures or face legal action. But what is worse!!!? What is worse
is these people are not registered travel agents, yet function
as though they are! That means they have no license, but are acting as
travel consultants. That would be OK if they put people directly in touch
with the hotels (where the guest pays the hotel, and the hotel pays them
a commission), but they don't. They shop around with whoever seemingly
offers the best rate for that hotel and then charges the guest directly.
They even basically admit to this on their site. They say their company
"was established on March, 2001 as an Internet Marketing for Tourism
Related Industries." A marketing company, not an authorized travel
agent. This could spell big danger for anyone booking through them. Not
only are they unlicensed, but who knows how reliable the agent they buy
from is either? Or even if they end up getting a customer the hotel room!
This is probably the most risky way to book accommodations in Bali. As
they have already demonstrated that they have poor ethics over their copyright
theft. Do you think they would have any qualm about letting you down on
your all important holiday? Just to add the final straw, they oversell
/ lie about the hotels on their site (describing 3 star hotels as
4 star, etc. when they are not). Be careful of them.
Hotels that cheat their staff!
Given that Balinese hotel staff receive such small salaries (many are
on just 250,000 Rp per month), you might think their lot is made much
better by the 11% service charge we all pay the hotels. After the government's
deduction, the staff are left with 10%, to which they are legally entitled.
Still good yes? Not in the case of an estimated 85% of the hotels in the
main tourist areas of Bali. While some hotels do not pay their staff any
of this, others include the directors and management you never meet, and
make the division proportionate to the wage earned! So the well, even
over paid directors, get the lion's share.
After only hearing about this disgraceful situation in June 2002. The
owner of this forum is going to start a campaign against these hotels
in the near future. This will include identifying, then naming and shaming
the hotels. Plus subsidized or even free legal help for the employees
to pursue their rights in court. What follows is the interim list (which
will be very small) of hotels, where we have absolute proof they have
not paid their staff what they are due. Please do not use these hotels
until they make good to their staff and (genuinely) discipline the management
responsible.
And when you make your reservation with ANY hotel in Bali & Lombok,
where they charge you 11% service charge. Please ask them for an assurance
that the full (10% after deduction) service fee is equally divided up
amongst the hotel staff, and that none of this money is held by the hotel
or paid to the directors. If they can not give you that guarantee, please
either book elsewhere, or demand they deduct the 11% service fee from
your bill, so that you can pay the staff directly.
Damai Villas Lovina - They owe one former member of staff 10 months
money!
Copyright © Travel Forums
Org "Real travel warnings about people to avoid in Bali &
Lombok."
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