Coffee house has right to charge overstaying fee

The Office of the Consumer Protection Board has ruled that coffee house could charge its customers for overstaying its spaces to do other business activities rather than drinking coffee.

The ruling came after the OCPB summoned the owner of the coffee house, Bon Café, to clarify why it overcharged customer drinking coffee in the shop.

Drinking coffee became an issue that was widely shared and debated on the Internet when a customer posted a receipt showing he and friends were charged 2,000 baht for just ordering four cups of coffee at Bon Café.

The receipt showed the charge for coffee was 260 baht, but for “open-food” charge, it was 2,000 baht.

But he didn’t pay the open-food charge but just the coffee, and later posted the receipt on the social network criticizing the coffee house for overcharging customers.

The issue drew the attention of the OCPB which later summoned Bon Café, a coffee shop on Bangkok’s Ratchadaphisek Road for clarification yesterday.

After the explanation, the OCPB said Bon Cafe has the right to charge customers who use their space for business activities.

According to a OCPB official, Bon Café clarified the 2,000 baht open-food charge on top of coffee collected from four customers who ordered six drinks, but spent two hours at the table to discuss business on Wednesday and later were presented with a bill for 2,260 baht.

Bon Café explained that earlier the coffee shop only asked the customers not to occupy the table for hours and disturb other customers otherwise they will be charged 1,000 baht per hour, citing of the small warning signs placed on every table.

It also said even though the customers were charged 2,260 baht, but customer managed to pay the café 260 baht, took a photo of the bill and posted it on Facebook, which later triggered social media uproar.

After hearing reasons from Bon Cafe, the OCPB gave instruction that coffee house has the right to charge for using space for long hours for other functions but they need to place a bigger notice on the table to inform customers.

Thai PBS

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