I am writing this post in the hope of preventing other Oz-travellers from losing their hard-earned money the way I did. In the beginning of February 2011 my mate and I spent a couple of days in beautiful Byron Bay. As we were walking along some street, we came across a travel agency with the promising name Wicked Travel. Since they offered free Internet, we decided to live up to the stingy backpacker stereotype and save a couple of dollars. Little did we know about the price we were going to pay for pressing a couple of “Like” buttons on “The Social Network”.
I booked a trip at Wicked Travel and i had a great time and I paid less for my trip than other people did who booked in other places!
i can't believe i just wasted 4 minutes of my life reading this!!!
[ 06-Jun-2011, at 22:15 by joe888 ]
I hope you learnt your lesson, it's a valuable one. Good thing to share anyways, maybe you'll save someone else a bad experience.
Working in Tourism development and having seen and been prey in similar activities over the years, I like to find these and look further into them. It is pretty evident that joe888 is in some way involed with Wicked if not the same english bloke himself. This braeks the golden rule of social media, so wicked deserves to be written of by the masses on that alone.
The rule is everthing is at least (yes, at least) 30% cheaper than being spruiked by backpacker sales folk. Sadly, all this behaviour does is mess with pricing and in the end everyone gets ripped off, including operators who work hard and spend good money to develop a great reputation.
As a rule go to the product operator themselves, not the middle men, your helping building a more sustainble industry and opertor that way.
As example, in Bali for every $60 tour product, the opertor most likely scrapes in about $30 (if lucky) and wears all the operating costs, while the agenats threaten to stop selling the product on an almost daily basis to keep there $30+ cut. That's $30 for just booking it. This has led to a lowering of quality and the entry of cheap dangerous operators, and not surprisingly, some deaths that come with it.
Apologies tor the typos, working from cheap PC key board.
Sometimes it's better to compare prices from one TA to another so that we can get the best deal for us at a cheaper rate. Or better yet, to book the travel ourselves. Sometimes it's way cheaper booking our travels ourselves than going to a travel agency.
This "scam" is NOTHING compared to what you'll face in many places all over the world.
Bottom line: Buyer beware and don't be a naive sucker for the first professional salesman who approaches you in a foreign country.
Live and learn...
Cheers,
Terry
Yes, I agree. The englishmen they seem to hire...I presume for cheap wages....are unbelievable!
I am a local and "WICKED TRAVEL" employs these guys who do not hold respect for the area or other local business at all.
They just want sales to keep their job, money to get drunk and pick up woman. There is no heart and sole in these young men who spend most of their time at cheeky monkeys ...they don't care if they rip YOU off...they will probably never see you again!
Byron Bay recently held a meeting saying there is too many drunk people starting fights and treating our town with disrespect.
Why don't WICKED TRAVEL employ Byron locals?
This "scam" is NOTHING compared to what you'll face in many places all over the world.
Bottom line: Buyer beware and don't be a naive sucker for the first professional salesman who approaches you in a foreign country.
Live and learn...
Cheers,
Terry
Agree. I must admit, I was reading this story wondering when I was going to come across the punchline.
Getting ripped-off in my mind is something a bit more than this story of being a sucker to a great (but immoral) salesman.
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