I just want to start here by being totally honest about how this decietful, dishonest slur and slander of myself and my tour currently makes me feel because I need to , I can't hold It in
I also know that often people reading this don't realise the power and negative effects these kind of dishonest reviews can have , practically mentally and emotionally for someone working alone tryng to provide the best service they can and who has great personal investment in the service or product they provide unlike large impersonal tour companies
Especially someone like myself who specialiase In providing small group or Private tours of a much higher standard
I want you to know so you understand why I have had to write such a long reply , I have to get this off my chest because It makes me feel like quitting , like I cant put up with people being deliberately dishonest and saying such OUTRAGEOUS things that are totally untrue
Apart from furious and angry it also makes me feel incredibly upset and depressed that people can be like this . that certain humans can warp the truth so much and be so malicious in their rationalisation to excuse their own behaviour by blaming others
It makes me feel quite sick , I mean that . physically this review has made me feel nauseas and extremely stressed so much I just haven't been able to get it off my mind the last 2 days at all
Running tours began as my passion, from my love of history, teaching and helping people understand the past so we can better understand the future
And just meeting all the wonderful people I have over the years
Because of this I take them very seriously , I consistently go out of my way to make them the best they can be and go the extra mile for my guests happily Read all the other reviews , the reasonable, honest ones
I strive and CARE deeply that people have the best experience of learning possible and if you read this I'm assuming you will also have read some of the dozens of other honest reviews I have received which reflect this, which I have worked so hard to get which praise me so highly and my tours excellence in complete CONTRADICTION to this dishonest post and present me and my tour in a light so totally different as to make what these people have written seem like a sick joke or someone deliberately being vindictive for the sake of it
However this doesn't make it any less hurtful when someone like these people come along and do this , Its actually like a dagger in my chest when I read It to call my tours of which I have worked so hard on and gone out of my way to make the best they can be for people called "NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE" by these arrogant , deceitful , well I cant say what I really want to call them because Its innapropraite on here
You won't find big tour companies write with such honesty , but thats becasue they don't care like I do , my tours are like an extension of myself, a part of my passion that makes me who I am and reflects in the kind words so many people have written about them in the past
However, I have felt myself increasingly stressed over the last 6 months because of the high standard that I set that I know there are always some people , a small minority, but stll some , who see it as their job to knock me down a few notches , to be deliberatley negative even to the point of blatantly lying about me and my tours
I've had a handful , I can count them on one hand of dishonest or just plain weird reviews over the last coupe of years One person for example once gave me a one star review after THEY left ME waiting in the rain ( under shelter let me add) for them to arrive for a tour and they never turned up calling me a few minutes before to say THEY didn't want to do it anymore ! They even called me 50 minutes before Just as I was about to get on the train Into Paris to meet them as I live outside to say they were just leaving and ON THEIR WAY
Instead of leaving a ONE star review , because they were after a refund they were certainly NOT getting after what theybdid , they should have APOLOGISED to me maybe ?? But No, not a word , they treated me and my time with utter contempt and then I WAS made to suffer for their rudeness by having my 5 star rating reduced becuse of their ONE untruthful , malicious review they were never even entitled to leave Trio advisor refused to take it down ,tanks for the support TA !
How utterly depressing
I've had a few others , dishonest , deliberatley malicious and with an obvious agenda to be "The ones " to put me down a few pegs as some people want to do negative for negatives sake
I don't want people to think I don't have any valid critiques either, I do , you just don't see them as I write personally to people If i ever feel like I could have done a better job for some reason and have received some great input which I have taken on board
But people coming on here and just plain lying I cannot tolerate , it deeply upsets me as I always try to go to such great lengths to help people and be kind and generous
I just can't understand WHY poeple do this ?
I have actually felt like quitting because of this review
Thats how stressed and upset It makes me feel
This Is because of the demand for my tours and success yjeu have become my only source of income over the last 2 years so to say this just shows how much it upsets me
Something I loved doing so much and sharing so much with people instead becomes a source of intense stress that makes me feel Is it worth it , and can I go out every time I run a tour with the fear of having someone like these people on my tour ?
So I hope you understand why I need to write the follwing in repsonse and please excuse me If you want to read through for its length and even If I repeat myself as a result to see the truth of just how rude these people were to me and dishonest in this horrible reveiw
You can alternatively I assume already see that this reveiw is utter nonsense just by reading the dozens of reviews underneath tha totally contradict It and make it look obviously suspicious, dishonest and totally out of place
So here is my detailed repsonse below
Wow, thanks for you pack of lies , but I think the problem here is YOU confused the TOUR you were on and my role and tried to give ME a history lecture In the most arrogant, rude manner I have ever encountered , In fact only EVER encountered wIth YOU in 7 years of running apparently outstanding tours with many people far more qualified and experienced than YOU seemed to think you are as my reviews clearly show????
The truth is YOU had no interest in doing the "TOUR AS ADVERTISED " which is a GENERAL GROUP TOUR covering multiple aspects of the occupation ,don't lie, and which you made abundantly clear when you rudely cut me off at the very beggining and told me YOU WEREN'T INTERESTED when I was explaining the background to Frances occupation, which is PART of every tour I run "AS ADVERTISED" "becasue YOU had a HISTORY DEGREE" , wow, and "knew all this, which Is debatable and just wanted to visit certain SPECICFIC sites that interested YOU !!
So the actual truth is unsurprisngly the OPPOSITE of your cognitively dissonant review
YOU had no interest in doing the "TOUR AS ADVERTISED " and repeatedly cut me off when I began talking about subjects which are included " ON THE TOUR AS ADVERTISED" because you didn't need to know apparently ( because I guess you have a HISTORY degree right?)and just wanted to see certain sites that interested your sepcific Interests?
Even though this was NOT a PRIVATE tour about a SPECICFIC subject but a GENERAL GROUP TOUR !??
Which I then actually took you too , ALL of them actually and ended up binning "The TOUR AS ADVERTISED" to attempt to accomadate you despite your rudeness towards me?
And during which you continued to extremely rudely cut me off when I attempted to include subjects very clearly in "THE TOUR AS ADVERTISED " and DECLINED to visit several sites incuded in the "TOUR AS ADVERTISED" because they didn't interest you or you knew It all already I'm guessing right?
And then to top off your bunch of lies YOU left to go back to your hotel with an hour remaining because you claimed you were now tired and didn't want to see anything else despite us being next to several important sites "ON THE TOUR AS ADVERTISED " !!!
And then you have the utter gall to write this review OUTRAGEOUSLY AND SLANDEROUSLY claiming my tour is NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE and ouright lying that tour was NOT as advertised when on MULTIPLE occassions when I was attempting to conduct the tour AS ADVERTISED YOU cut me off and said what I was talking about didn't interest you !!!
What a couple of ............ I am THAT furious I have actually been back to this 3X now o rewrite It after the way you so rudely treated me and talked to me like I was below you
Seriously I have NEVER in 7 years been subject to such arrogant, rude, condescending people as you Go chew on that and feel lucky I cant say or call you what I really feel on here !
You really expect people to read what you just wrote about my tour after the previous 50 odd reviews all saying the complete opposite and not think there's something not right here??
Suddenly the tours I am giving are long ramblimg lectures RARELY related to the sites and NOT as advertised and my tour is NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE ?
I'm really sorry to anyone reading this, as I know people will, but these people have REALLY gone too far here and I will not take this slander
As anyone reading all my other reviews can see this really is OUTRAGEOUS and I am an easy going, accomodating,generous person who will go out of their way to help people on the tour so I hope you understand by how much I have written and my response just how totally abused I feel here and physically upset
I think Its fait to say that if my tour was not "fit for purpose" ( I mean what an absolutely arrogant condescending remark) this may have been picked up on by the 50 odd other people before now who have all left such fantastic reviews saying complete;y the OPPOSITE to you and if this REALLY the case and I'd be out of business years ago , don't you think?
What outrageous slander and utter nonsense !
I will never accept passively people lying and slandering me so strap In and lets here what REALLY was going on here fromn the moment we met shall we?
First lets just just read between the lines here and look at what you say yourselves to see the real problem and contradictions you make In trying to move the goalposts and narrative away from the truth
You actually admit the guide "knew the history " (thank your royal history highnesses for throwing this lowly "guide" this scrap of acknwoledgement from your table) but thats not what YOU wanted
So you DIDN'T want to hear" the history" ?
But hold on then say you WANTED to know the place of the buildings "IN HISTORY " ???
Uh???
Make your minds up maybe??
Your totally contradicting yourselves which is what people always do when they attempt to spin a mistruth and it gets out of control of course as they have to cover their tracks woth more lies
You say you KNEW the history but wanted to know the sites place in HISTORY??
So you didn't know "The HISTORY "???
But then when I tried to GIVE you the history of the sites, which to do so you need to know the CONTEXT you accused me of giving "long rambling lectures rarely related to the sites ?
Thus just a downright lie
If you DONT KNOW the history of the places how do you know that what I am telling you is apparently UNRELATED to the sites PLACE IN HISTORY?
Utter nonsense
Its a GENERAL GROUP HISTORY tour , thats WHAT YOU BOOKED NOT A PRIVATE TOUR OF CERTAIN BULDINGS related to a SPECICFIC subject ON A LIST YOU MADE !
If you want that then pay the extra and BOOK that with me and notify me IN ADVANCE of your requirements ?
So do NOT turn up on a GENERAL GROUP tour and act like its your own PRIVATE tour set to your OWN specific requirements and then complain and slander ME when you get exactly what you paid for and have the ludicrous gall to claim it was not as "advertised " or "fit for purpose" when that was the exact problem , it WAS as advertised but as "advertised" was not what YOU wanted !
A GEENRAL HISTOERY TOUR REQUIRES ME TO TALK ABOUT THE GENERAL HISTORY !!
If you are such experts then why book the GENERAL group tour ?
What would you do if you were "lumped " with 4 other people who DON'T know the history then?
Book a PRIAVTE one instead where I can cater to your every royal history highnesses whim in SPECIFIC detail ?
So to say the tour was not as advertise is again a complrte and utter LIE
The whole problem was that it was EXACTLY AS ADVERTISED BUT THATS NOT WHAT YOU WANTED and instead acted up like it was YOUR OWN PRIVATE TOUR
Tell the truth now shall we?
Even worse despite your claims , I STILL took you to EVERY site that was ADVERTISED and told you the HISTORY of each place !
The Meurice, The Inter Continental, The Place Vendome with the Ritz and the Site of the First Spyy network and radio transmitter to London and then Rue Rouget D'Lisle where the French resistance began
Thats every site AS ADVERTISED uo to this point
This pojnt being 2 hours into the 3 hour tour AS ADVERTISED at which point YOU decided you wanted to go back to your hotel as you were tired and refused to visit the the remaing sites AS ADVERTISED !!
So you are lying
Trust me If I'd been giving rambling history lectures "rarely related " to the places theres no way we would be at the Jeu de Paume, with an hour left and only 3 sites left to see???
WhIch YOU declined to visit because you had already seen all the sites that had any interest to you !!
You got EXACTLY what was "advertised" and what all the reveiws tell you you will get but the real issue is thats not the tour YOU wanted, you considered yourselves too good for it , and contunally treated me extremely rudely and condascendingly, continually cutting me off a few sentences into my narration because "YOU KNEW THE HISTORY"
But you didn't actaully, you THOUGHT you did and I repeatedly had to tell you that ,as ADVERTISED , I had to recount the context and history to explain the "Sites places in history"
Its is quite clear that this is what I will do !as advertised " and fron the glowing reviews all PRAISING my apparently "long rambling unrelated lectures"??
So in return here is MY review of YOU
YOU are NOT fit for purpose with your outrageous rude and self important attitude as guests on any tour and I would strongly warn any guide I knew to reject any booking you made after the experience I had with you which quite frankly was the WORSE I have had in 7 years of running tours !
You were that rude and arrogant and entitled towards me I considered just stopping the tour after an hour because I do not come to run tours to be spoken to in the way you spoke to me
This is unheard of and as anyone reading my dozens of fantastic reviews that TOTALLY contradict EVERYTHING you have claimed not just about the tour but about myself must have meant something was VERY out of the ordinary and wrong here !
You cut me off 4 times I believe mid sentence telling me "this wasn't what YOU wanted to hear" or " We don't need to be told this" !
I was shocked ,never have I been spoken to like this even once on a tour let alone repeatedly or by anybody in life
In 7 years of running tours to the highest standard I can therefore confidently say you get the gold medal by a country mile for the rudest, most arrogant and self entitled people I have ever encountered
It is quite obvious , considering what every one of my other reviews state that the problem here is YOU and YOU alone
I pity any guide who has the misfortune of having to endure the same experience I did with you , I truly do
Ironically I ran the tour for you as a good will gesture even though It was under numbers and I should have cancelled
How I only wish I had cancelled the tour now instead of enduring the nightmare I had with you which has actually continued to effect and stress me in the 48 hours after to the point that I felt physically unwilling to work further this weekend because I was upset that anyone could be so rude
I lost my confidence and just felt like I can't face running a tour at the moment
Yes I am sensitive and empathetic, and this helps me to be passionate in my story telling and go out of my way to be kind and helpful to my guests So It effects me deeply when someone speaks to me the way you did and also says thing that are just NOT true
The tour was EXACTLY as advertised or IT WOULD have been if you'd allowed me to run it or talk without constantly cutting me off
A GENERAL history designed for a GROUP of people who may have differing levels of knowledge and want a GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE MAIN SUBJECTS AND ISSUES surrounding the occupation
So explain just exactly how it WAS not as advertised ?
It was or It would have been if you had let me have been exactly as advertised
But the problem was that was NOT what you wanted
It became apparent that YOU wanted and expected a tour for some reason tailored to your exact interests with NO divergence onto other subjects that took in a list of certain specicfic sites that you wanted to see linked SOLEY to ONE subject!
THE complete OPPOSITE of a GENERAL tour !
So stop being untruthuI to cover up your horrible attitude to me
I ATTEMPTED to run the tour AS ADVERTISED but you would not let me
You demanded instead that every time I began to talk about any subject to explain the background that was NOT on your specific list , that by the way being excactly what you do on a GENERAL tour , that YOU were not interested in hearing what I had to say
This was NOT because it was NOT advertised but because apparenty YOU already knew this so you cut me off mid sentence
For example you even did this at one site when I had barely spoken 2 sentences
Oh YOU apparently already knew this all already WITHOUT even letting me finish and just wanted to know if there were any other sites on yout list that YOU were specifically interested we could see!
Let me remind you
YOU booked a GENERAL GROUP TOUR
Let me REPEAT a GENERAL tour that is usually and should have conducted in a GROUP and has to cover various subjects in a short space of time
You did not book or pay for a PRIVATE tour just for yourselves with a pesonalised itinerary that you hasd REQUESTED in advance and made clear you only wanted to visit certain buildings
Yet you seemed to treat It as such
Let me break it to you as you don't seem to understand this
You do NOT get a personalised itinerary that focuses on a SPECIFIC SUBJECT OR just the ones YOU want on a GENERAL GROUP tour !
You were very lucky no one else was on the tour
Or well let me put it another way, anyone ELSE was very lucky they were not on the tour with you
Lord knows how that would have worked as you wanted to treat the tour as your OWN PRIVATE party
I mean what would have happened if THEY , rightly expecting a GENERAL tour, AS ADVERTISED we had stopped at somewhere you didn't consider as being part of your SPECIFIC interests yet was ON the tour AS ADVERTISED and had been told by you "Well WE have a history degree and WE know about this already so I'm afraid we are going to cut the guide off and tell him we don't want to hear this "???
God forbid what the tour would have been like for any other people on It I guess it would have been a shock for you though to realise the world didn't just revolve around you on the tour and In fact It was NOT a privatised tour but a group one and you were having to hang with people who maybe DIDN'T have your apparent super knowledge of everything ?
So please do not be dishonest
''The tour, if you had permitted me to run it would have EXACTLY as avertised
Nowhere does it say it is just a " quick guided tour of sites and certainly NOT just sites to do with ONE subject that ONE couple decide THEY want to see
It ,makes it quite clear that I will talk about the CONTEXT And the reasons WHY things happened
So please do not lie about long rambling dissertations this is NOT true
The truth Is you were EXTREMELY rude to me and arrogant ,cutting me off after I was 2 lines into describing the experience of one resistance leader who visited DeGaulle in 1941, Yes 2 LINES with the comment , "we dont need a 4 hr lecture on this because we already know"
Hardly a "long rambling dissertation?
Just YOU being extremely RUDE !!!
If you dont want to hear these stories and explanations and think you are so far above everyine with your "suoerior " knowledge then DON'T book the the GENERAL tour and then complain when i try to run it AS ADVERTISED then FALSELY claim it was NOT as advertised
It was NOT a private tour
There was NOT even any advance request made about the posiibility of visiting certain sites or focusing on one particular subject in which case I woukd have suggested you book a PRIVATE tour
So STOP being dishonest
The tour I was attempting to run was what YOU booked
In Reality though the Tour YOU actually wanted was NOT what you booked so now you blame and bad mouth me
You are like someone who goes to a restauraunt and orders a Pizza because Its cheaper than the Steak
Then when your Pizza arrives you complain that thats not what you ordered and why don't you have the steak!!???
And then go and abuse the staff and leave a withering review compalining that you didnt get what you ordered !
I have had Pentagon Generals on my tour
I have had serving members of the military , from the Marines, 101st and 82nd Airborne
I have had members of the security and Intelligence services
I have had people whose father served next to Patton
Or whose mother was an SOE agent
I have had numerous veterans
I have had Drs, PHDs, Historians teachers
I have had people with all kinds of experiences and amazing stories
People I could learn from and was eager to talk to
People who I encouraged to share any stories or knowledge thay had with the grouop that I didn't know so that the tour would be as interesting as possible
Non of these people were disrespectful or arrogant or self important
Non of them , despite having special knowledge themselves, amazing stories cut me off when I spoke , disrespected me , were full of self importance
Real life stories and knowledge that went far beyond in value anything the 2 of you had to offer or knew . trust me
Yet they were eager to learn new things , they wanted to listen and contribute in humility
Non of them though they were better than me because of this or anyone else
We had wonderful times
And these people all said the same thing about my tour even though If anyone could have judged me they could have had the right I'm sure
Then along came you .......
The even sadder thing Is , despite how rude you had been to me I even contacted you the day after and offered FREE of charge to take you on a very specicfic tour next time, you may be here basically a FREE private tour because I wanted to share with you my time and to help you see some places I thought you would really be interested In simply out of my own desire for people to learn as much as they can and kindess
I think this says It all really comparing this to your attitude and totally warped and untruthfull comments you obviously rushed out to post on here the moment you had time
I feel quite sick and degraded actually reading such lies after all the effort and passion I put into my tours as my dozens of previous reviews ALL confirm and totally contradict EVERY malicious claim you make
I am just thankful for all the wonderful people I have had the pleasure of spending time with over the years and knowing that in life we can't account for those few who have such an awful attitude that I encountered with you
You are certainly not fit for purpose on any tour with the attitude you showerd towards me
Its about time that WE could leave reviews on people and give YOU no star ratings to warn other tour guides !