
WHY DO THEY DO IT?
More precisely: why do
they allow it to be done to them?
Sunday last. 1.55 pm
outside exit 2 of St. Paul’s Tube, waiting for my Shakespeare’s & Dickens’
Old City walkers to form up. Woman comes up to me, hands me a computer print
out, says, “I’m here for the walk, I’ve pre-paid, here’s the voucher.”
Tourist. Foreigner.
I said, “Sorry, that’s
not us. There’s no booking with London Walks, we don't do pre-payment. And this
is a completely different walk from the one you’ve booked and paid for – I’m
afraid I don’t know who they are. Or where they are.”
Look passing over her
face like a cloud shadow over a wheat field. Dawning – or more like it,
sundowning – look of recognition. One of those crest falling, downcasting, “oh
no” looks.
The right look for the
occasion because sure enough, whoever the “guide” was she’d “booked and paid
for”, he never showed up. She’d thrown her money away. And her time.
Bears repeating: why
do they – tourists – do it?
There’s no need to do it.
I mean giving your
credit card details to someone you don’t know from Erratum – and you’ve got
less comeback with them than you get on Ebay – leaving you with a lose-lose:
either write if off to experience (the least bad of two crummy alternatives) or
double down, spend some of your precious time in London trying to track them
down – there’s no person on the end of the line, no address, just an email
address and a www – and claw back what you blithely handed over.
Sucks.
It’s folly. And that
stuff like this goes on – that’s an upper case SUCKS. But that shouldn’t be
your lookout – not your fight – unless you’re foolish enough to take the bait.
And why would anybody
do that when there’s no need whatsoever to do so?
You don’t need to
pre-pay. You don’t need to book. Just turn up on the day at the appointed hour
outside the listed Tube Stop. It couldn’t be simpler. Couldn’t be a surer thing
– a safer, not least financially, course of action. Do it that way what you’re
going to get is what you’re after, what you bargained for: a very good walking
tour. What you won’t be getting is disappointment, a shystering (being out of
pocket), a dose of that supremely horrible feeling – feeling like a fool. The
cloud shadow look won’t be passing over your face.
Most important – from
where we’re, London Walks, coming from – you’re not going to have a bone to
pick with our wonderful town; not going to feel hard done by, have a bad taste
left in your mouth from what happened to you in London.
Don’t do it, don’t
fall for it.
A London Walk costs £9 – £7 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.










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