My Hangzhou Guide: 'You REALLY Shouldn't Have Come!' – Tourist Traps & Scams EXPOSED!
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Yeah, I've scrolled through so many posts and almost never see any 'no-shopping' tours.
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Hey sisters who scrolled to this! Cheers!
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I'll drink to that!
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Here's our itinerary for your reference. If yours looks like this, think twice before booking:
Day 1: A 'free' visit to the outer area of Xixi Wetland Park (you have to pay to go inside – they didn't mention it was just the outskirts at first), then Wuzhen in the afternoon.
Day 2: Nanxun, Fuyan Temple, then Xitang (which included a complimentary boat ticket).
Day 3 (highly recommend ditching the tour here for free-and-easy): Three shopping stops, followed by a West Lake boat ride after 6 PM. -
Same for us. We were pushed to buy jade, silk quilts, tea polyphenols, and at Qiandao Lake, DeMuxi brand cookware. They even claimed the jade was from a state-backed joint venture between Zhejiang and Myanmar, supposedly cheaper than in Yunnan...
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Sis, I had the exact same awful experience, and I even paid more than double what others did for the tour fee! How do I get customer service to issue a refund?
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The tour I booked wasn't expensive; I was just really unhappy with the guide's attitude, so I didn't push for a refund or anything. I've seen in other posts that you might need to call the 12345 hotline and the tourism bureau to complain. I haven't researched the details myself. You should browse more posts and look in the comment sections for people who successfully got refunds – maybe send them a private message to ask for tips.
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It seems like every damn tour group in the country is all about sales nowadays.
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You go, sis! Don't let these scammers walk all over you. Haven't you seen all those apologists on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) saying things like, 'The first two days' expenses are subsidized by the last day's shopping stops,' or 'If you opt for a cheap tour, you have to put up with the shopping,' or 'Freeloading on transport and accommodation for two days and then bailing on the last day shows a lack of contract spirit,' blah blah blah. Screw that! They're the ones who lured people in with low prices in the first place. Now they're just getting a taste of their own medicine.
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Exactly! Before we left, there was zero mention of any shopping. Our plane tickets were 2,000 RMB each, and only after we landed did they tell us about the shopping – I even put up with that. But then the guide started berating me! So, out of anger, I decided to post and teach everyone how to turn the tables and get some value back from the travel agency. (Honestly, if the guide hadn't kept nagging me, I would've just let it slide). So, to all the sisters who see this post, listen up: on that last day, just make your escape ASAP! A West Lake boat ride is about 50 RMB, and transport is around 50 RMB per person. For an extra 100 RMB, you can have a whole day of independent travel. If you haven't gone yet, haggle like crazy on the price beforehand, and you might even save that 100 RMB. You've clearly read this thoroughly – this is the real practical guide!
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The initial customer service agent was pretty good, so I won't name and shame the travel agency. But the tour guide? Terrible. He's all talk – he threatened to kick me off the bus but didn't have the guts to actually do it. Just plain annoying. That guide is a real piece of work. Even when his partners told him to smooth things over with customers, he wouldn't lift a finger. All the grunt work and difficult tasks fall on the sales team, while he just waits to collect his cut. Honestly, these tourist traps all run the same playbook, but it's rare to see someone who won't even handle their own customer service issues. With an attitude like that, who's going to want to work with him in the future? He's totally shooting himself in the foot.