How can I not take advantage of you

Author: Wu Jingmin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: How many "shady dealings" are there in the tour guide industry? How much of the tourists' spending is being "ripped off"? The book "How Can I Not Rip You Off" caused huge controversy before its publication and was officially launched this month by Huashan Literature and Art Press. The author received many death threats and was even forced to leave the tourism industry he loved. Is the tourism industry a part of the underworld? This book will uncover all the mysteries for you! Low-cost tours, zero-fee tours—Are they pies or traps? Low income, poor treatment—Ripping off customers becomes the only choice for tour guides. What kind of risks are involved in the travel process? How can tourists achieve rational consumption? "Face to Face" interview with tour guide Wu Jingmin from Shenzhen by Wang Zhi, boldly disclosing "How Can I Not Rip You Off." Many acts of ripping off customers have already crossed the line of the law, constituting extortion. Moreover, it's not just about material loss; tourists are also ripped off mentally because the true purpose of the trip is never achieved. Once a tourist signs up for a tour group, a brutal slaughter begins. When tour guides lead tourists to shopping stores according to the itinerary, it's like a little shepherd leading Japanese invaders and traitors into the ambush circle of the guerrillas. The guerrillas' weapons were simple—millet and rifles, while the shopping stores' weapons were even simpler—various sizes and colors of stones. As the saying goes, "Gold has a price, but jade is priceless," which has become a motto for those who excel at ripping off customers. A fake jade piece is priced at an astronomical amount. Once, a tourist bought a jade bracelet from a safe for 110,000 Hong Kong dollars, but another bracelet taken from the same safe was priced at 100,000 Hong Kong dollars. A seemingly very shopping-savvy tourist casually made a joke, and as a result, he was persistently pursued. After from the team leader, department head, and manager, and with the CEO's intervention, the final price was settled at 1,000 Hong Kong dollars. How many discounts were that? One discount is 10 times, which is essentially 0.1 times. Is there such a business practice in any other context? Unbeknownst to them, the travel agency and the tour guide took away 400 to 500 Hong Kong dollars, and the remaining amount still had to be given to the tour guide as a commission. The high profits of the boss—how much is the actual value of that jade piece? As for the jade pieces that cost two yuan to buy and sell for 10,000 yuan, even after giving a 0.01 discount, there's still a profit. The xxx Hotel in Guangzhou is a five-star hotel, and things in a five-star hotel are naturally not cheap. It is said that the price of items in a one-star hotel should be doubled, so a five-star hotel would be ten times more expensive. It's even more than that. A bottle of ordinary mineral water can sell for 30 to 40 yuan in a five-star hotel, with a wholesale price of just one yuan. You can see how high the profit is. In the art gallery of the xxx Hotel, a jade carving screen priced at around 3,000 yuan has already made a significant profit. But in a shopping store, the same item is priced at 30,000 to 50,000 yuan. If shopping stores were to display star ratings, there would be as many stars as in the sky. Where did the conscience of the shopping store owners and salespeople go, but their fighting spirit is even stronger than that of the guerrillas. The guerrillas would at least shout "Surrender or Die," but shopping stores implement a three-pronged policy: "Spend all the money, swipe all the cards, and buy all the goods." At this point, the kind-hearted common people are walking into the ambush circle, while the ones laying the ambush are the Japanese invaders and traitors. And the shopping stores are like the gas chambers in the Auschwitz concentration camp—only the living go in, and nothing alive comes out. Why is that? If you don't buy anything, won't there be no problem? But you need to know that you spend money for sightseeing and tourism, but your time is wasted in shopping stores. Do you think you are sacrificing little? Lu Xun once said, "Wasting someone else's time is equivalent to killing them for profit." Time is one thing, but if you don't buy anything, you have to endure the tour guide's disdain, listen to their curses, and suffer their insults—all of which are bought with your money. The basic rebate from shopping stores is no less than 30%, and sometimes it can go up to 50% to 60%. Shopping stores also have to pay headcount fees, parking fees, worker wages, rent, taxes, and probably have to pay off the relevant administrative departments—how else could they survive in a society that advocates the rule of law? Besides, the boss has to make a profit, and it's not a small one. Calculate for yourself how deep they are ripping you off. Engaging in such inhumane business—shouldn't they be executed? There's a Chinese saying, "There are people who do the death penalty business, but no one dares to take a loss." Any business that carries the risk of the death penalty, like selling drugs, must have extremely high profits. Of course, they rip you off deeply. Ripping off customers isn't just limited to shopping—it happens throughout the entire travel process, whether inside or outside the stores, on or off the vehicles, in front or behind—domestically or internationally, it's a slaughterhouse for ripping off customers. It's like the war of resistance against Japan—fought on all fronts, experiencing countless battles of all sizes, before finally defeating the Japanese invaders. If shopping is the main battlefield, then optional paid activities are the second main battlefield for ripping off customers. I once led a tour to St. Petersburg, Russia, and ballet was a must-see—after all, it's a national treasure. But a performance for 600 rubles, the tour guide would charge you 2,000 rubles. If 2,000 rubles were equivalent to dozens of yuan, it wouldn't matter, but that's almost 700 yuan in RMB. One performance alone makes you lose 500 yuan in RMB—nothing else is worth the trouble anymore. As mentioned earlier, in the "China Tour Group Optional Activity Price List," what are the actual prices of things like performances supposedly costing 800 baht (around 170 yuan)? They are actually priced between 150 to 200 baht, with a cost of only one-fifth. P2-4