Scammed in Agra
It was pouring of rain when I left Agra Fort, I just wanted to get back to the hotel and sit under the shelter of the roof restaurant and read my book, so I ran over to a crowd of rickshaw drivers to try and negotiate a reasonable price for the ride back. Most wanted 40 or 50 rupees, but then one offered 20 and I was sold. If it hadn’t been raining and if I had more cash on me, I would have questioned it, but I jumped in the auto rickshaw and didn’t think about why it was so cheap until he stopped five minutes later. The deal was now 20 rupees and a trip to some shops where I had to feign interest so that he would get commission, great. There weren’t any other rickshaws around, horse drawn, cycle or auto, so I went along with it. The shops sold everything; ‘marble’ elephants, silk shirts, tshirts, jewelery and rugs. I spent about five minutes wandering around asking some questions about how things were made before deciding I’d had enough and left. The driver wasn’t happy, apparently I had to spend at least twenty minutes in there for him to get his commission. Tough, I wanted to leave. He pulled up to a second shop, but this time I told him I wasn’t going in and wanted to go straight back to the hotel. The offer was now that if I went in and he got a commission then the rickshaw ride was free. I stood my ground and eventually he gave in and took me back to the hotel where he tried to charge me 50 rupees. I handed him 20 and made my way inside. The scam is apparently very common, so lesson learned, I will be a lot more careful with my choice of rickshaws in the future.
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Glad you made it out OK Dan – gosh I hate scams – just be honest is the best policy! Even in the Phil I normally pay more as a gesture, but it's really upsetting when that happens
Hope the rest of the journey goes well x
Grr. I hate scammers. Sounds like you handled it well, though. Stand your ground and state the facts. 20 rupees! 20 rupees! 20 rupees! 20 rupees! 20 rupees! Eventually they get bored of arguing and give in. You'll probably feel pretty annoyed, but at least you got a cheap ride and wasted their time for a bit!
I had something like this happen to me in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I rented a driver and van for the day to see a prominent temple outside of town and a waterfall. He took us to the temple, but then said the waterfall was boring and then started driving us around to all these shops that I did not want to see. It can be very frustrating.
Same thing happened to me my first time to India. There are no shortage of scams though the majority seem to revolve around taxis/rickshaws.
Mate, well done for standing your ground. I might have been tempted/intimidated to buy something cheap like a postcard just to avoid the confrontation.