Went into Roxy gogo last night, I walked in by myself, but a tout from the front entrance whom I hadn't even talked with, or made eye contact, followed me upstairs and gave the waitress his special price list. 500 or 800 baht for beer, I forget exactly, and more for spirits.
I explained to the waitress the tout had not brought me in, and she said I give discount 300 baht. I said no I've had friend here before and not that expensive, I want to see the normal price list. Took a bit of arguing, but she finally went to get it. Beer 250 baht (as is normal at that place for during shows from what I understand). I have no idea why it was so busy, with prices at this level. Then the waitress had the cheek to ask for a bigger tip than the 10 baht I left as a tip - only gave her to tip for actually bringing me the proper menu without *too* much fuss. If I was thinking straight I would have said ok you not want, and snatched the 10 baht back and given her nothing, I'm planning to get into the habit of this with the ungrateful waitresses.
While sitting there, out of three or four customers that came in, only saw one that truly came in by himself - others all had Thai dudes follow them in. One saw prices and was clearly annoyed, and despite her and the Thai man trying to talk them in to a 'discount', he left. The other pair you could see were not happy with the prices, and took 5 minutes of talking with waitress before she finally went to get them a drink. I could see her giving tout, who had been waiting on the sidelines, some kind of commission slip.
Anyway at Roxy the tout ripoff goes beyond normal, touts mill around at the door and seem to follow most people in - can't imagine how bad for business this is, surprised they had so many people in there under the circumstances. I certainly don't want to spend the night at a place observing people coming in and being upset about the prices and leaving again, nor do I go to a gogo to see Thai men standing around waiting to see if they get a commission or not with each customer that arrives. Upon leaving waitress asked why I go after one drink, explained at 250 baht what did she expect.
Same tout scam operating at gogo a few doors down from Roxy, I forget the name, but while it's a gogo, it's advertised as a pub or something (beer 800 baht, spirits 1000 baht). Unbelievable how after their scam fails, the tout all the while smiling says 'I give you discount', oblivious to how annoyed you are at him for just trying to scam you. The only reedeeming quality of Roxy is when you're give the drink menu, it has prices next to the drinks so easy to spot the scam. At the other gogo, the drink list they show you has no prices, only when you ask what the prices are do they flip the card over where has prices listed.