Three attendants of the motorbike parking lot at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City have been suspended, after their scam of shortchanging customers was exposed last week in a video filmed by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

The three attendants are also required to write a self-assessment report with their final disciplinary action to be announced within the next ten days, the Ho Chi Minh City-based airport’s management said on Sunday.

According to the Tuoi Tre footage published on Saturday, the three employees had charged a number of people who parked their motorbikes at the airport more than the quoted price.

It costs a motorbike owner VND3,000 to park their vehicle at the airport during the day, and VND4,000 at night, according to the quoted prices. The respective prices for scooters are VND4,000 and VND5,000.

The price list is hung over the exit of the parking lot, in a corner not many people would notice, enabling the attendants to cheat customers.

As seen in the video, when asked how much the parking fee was, the sanctioned employees would say VND5,000 for both motorbikes and scooters even during the daytime, shortchanging customers of VND2,000 and VND1,000 each time.

Those who did not know the official prices were therefore duped into believing that VND5,000 was the correct price, and in most cases eventually paid without asking.

In other cases, the attendants did not give the price and waited for the customers to give out their money first. People would normally give VND5,000 and the attendants accepted without saying anything.

If a scooter driver gave VND10,000, the attendants would return VND5,000 instead of VND6,000.

However, there were some people who pointed to the price table and demanded the correct change. In these circumstances, the attendants would reluctantly pay back the correct change.

Very few customers noticed the correct price table and asked for the correct change, according to the Tuoi Tre reporters who filmed the video.

Although the attendants only shortchanged VND1,000-2,000 from each customer, the total sum is enormous, given the dozens of thousands of motorbikes parked there on a daily basis.

The management of Tan Son Nhat said on Sunday that besides suspending the three attendants involved in the issue, they have also relocated the price table to the front of the parking lot exit to make it more clearly visible.

A 24/7 hotline number, 08.38485634, has also been established to receive reports and complaints from customers over any continuing shortchanging and overcharging at the parking lot, according to the airport.