Anonymous wrote:The rental was underwhelming and expensive -- this is the standard for vacation rentals these days. It's too bad! No doubt you paid a premium because of the concert. That's not a scam. It's market-based pricing and it's everywhere. The ticket thing was a stubhub screw up (and you went to the concert! it would be different if you'd been denied entry).

This the standard for vacation rentals - the bed bug infested dirty old apartment with broken furniture?

This is not standard in my experience. We stayed a week in Berlin and our apartment there was just fantastic.

No, it wasn’t Stubhub issue. It was some Polish bureaucracy. I hear people could change names on tickets for 50 euros at the clearing kiosk - another scam.

Our tickets had our names on them. We were denied entry and got in on a second try. On day 2 though they stopped worrying about the names.

I feel bad for the person who sold me the tickets because Stubhub will charge them

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What made you choose Poland in the first place? Even cheaper TS tickets?

Exactly. Am I the only one enjoying this aspect? OP decided to spend thousands to save a thousand on TS tickets.

Enjoy!

We go to Europe every summer and this summer we decided to see TS and visit WWII sites. We also spent a week in Berlin. Overall, we had a great vacation.

How much of your vacation did you spend online complaining about how much Poland sucks and did you enjoy that aspect of your vacation.

Anonymous wrote:At the end of the day, I expected Poland to be a developed country, being part of EU and all, and it wasn’t.

This level of scamming I expect from the third world.

I get the sense you haven't even visited enough of the US to be able to make an accurate assessment of how "developed" another country is.

Also no one scammed you. Why would a cab driver intentionally drive you to the wrong location -- he would have been paid either way so there's no reason not to take you to the correct place. The much more likely explanation is that there was a miscommunication or he was not great at his job which can happen anywhere (I've had plenty of terrible cabbies in the US). The rental was underwhelming and expensive -- this is the standard for vacation rentals these days. It's too bad! No doubt you paid a premium because of the concert. That's not a scam. It's market-based pricing and it's everywhere. The ticket thing was a stubhub screw up (and you went to the concert! it would be different if you'd been denied entry).

If you are this upset about these experiences how do you survive trips to "third world" places like New York City or San Francisco -- you could have a completely identical experience both places except the rental would cost you 2-3x as much and the tickets would have cost 20x as much. Is the US a 3rd world country.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What made you choose Poland in the first place? Even cheaper TS tickets?

Exactly. Am I the only one enjoying this aspect? OP decided to spend thousands to save a thousand on TS tickets.

Enjoy!

We go to Europe every summer and this summer we decided to see TS and visit WWII sites. We also spent a week in Berlin. Overall, we had a great vacation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound like an inexperienced gullible bumpkin that doesn't travel much.

+1. I lived in Poland for 3 years. Great country, nice people. Very friendly to Americans. You are a chump.

I back this up. Poland is amazing and They love Americans. I lived there three years as well and always felt welcome. Never once fell victim to a scam. And as a member of the EU-
, clearly they are advanced as at least Greece, Spain, etc they have investment from major Fortune 500 countries and a very educated populace. This OP sounds like a troll that needs someone to blame for their own ignorance.

OP is wrong about Poland. Poland is fantastic. Just got back from vacation there. Two pals also had summer vacations in Poland. All of us had a wonderful time, in different cities and at different times. Welcoming people, modern and efficient transportation, world class food and lodging, highly educated population.

Anonymous wrote:you take away the opportunity for locals to experience the show. What a trashy tourist.

Wth are you taking about?

It’s the locals that sold me these tickets, for 3 times the original price.

At the end of the day, I expected Poland to be a developed country, being part of EU and all, and it wasn’t.

This level of scamming I expect from the third world.

Anonymous wrote:No one is focusing on the right thing here…
OP, the show was amazing!!! At least the grainy live stream we watched surprise songs on was.
Mirrorball AND New Year’s Day???
I hope you were able to enjoy that!
We went last year but if I could afford it I would have taken us this year to see the new Tortured Poets set. Female Rage:The Musical🤍

OP here. We loved it! And the tickets were one third of what I would pay in the states.

I has other reasons to travel too, but the concert was spectacular.

Anonymous wrote:

That sounds like a stubhub problem. The should go under because the ticketmaster business model makes theirs unsustainable. The whole premise of stubhub is a reliable secondary market, but ticketmaster won't let them act as a middle man, so the reliable part isn't there

There were hundreds of foreigners who bought tickets on Stubhub and were denied entry even though they had their name on the tickets. On day 2 they realised the magnitude of ticket holders with this issue and relaxed the rules.

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Anonymous wrote:Where are you now OP and what are you doing?

We left Poland and are back in the states. Never coming back

Good. Please don't leave the country ever again with your attitude. Stick to Disney, Pigeon Forge, and Great Wolf Lodge, OK?

Anonymous wrote:What made you choose Poland in the first place? Even cheaper TS tickets?

I don’t know if you are aware, but Poland has a lot of historical WWII sites and in general a lot of history. Krakow has 14th century buildings.

Anonymous wrote:Where are you now OP and what are you doing?

We left Poland and are back in the states. Never coming back

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why everyone is so harsh to OP. I travel a decent amount, a few countries a year, and use booking.com all the time, so I wouldn't consider than an amatuer mistake. (I admit I usually use it for hotels but once for an apt but that apt was very nice).

And the cab thing happens all over, but again, you usually CAN just trust a driver to take you where you need to go on an agreed-upon or metered price.

I had never used Booking.com before but for our summer trip Italy we booked 2 apartments and 2 guest houses and all the accommodations were exactly as they appeared in the site and reviews were very accurate. Maybe it varies per country, but I’d definitely use it again for future travel.

I’ve used Booking.com for US and UK and have never had an issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound like an inexperienced gullible bumpkin that doesn't travel much.

+1. I lived in Poland for 3 years. Great country, nice people. Very friendly to Americans. You are a chump.

I back this up. Poland is amazing and They love Americans. I lived there three years as well and always felt welcome. Never once fell victim to a scam. And as a member of the EU-
, clearly they are advanced as at least Greece, Spain, etc they have investment from major Fortune 500 countries and a very educated populace. This OP sounds like a troll that needs someone to blame for their own ignorance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I’m well traveled, and while I agree that one can’t dismiss a whole country based on one week’s experience, OPs complaints about 3500 for a bug infested apartment and dishonest cab drivers is valid. No, you shouldn’t have to be constantly vigilant and suspicious when traveling.

Op isn’t a reliable narrator. At all. They believe every aspect of their trip was a “scam” and seem inept at basic facets of traveling. I don’t believe their apartment had bedbugs, I think they claimed that because they knew “it was dirty and looked like an Eastern European apartment” wasn’t going to cut it for a refund, which they’re still not going to get.

100% this. I think it’s also more likely that they miscommunicated or were confused about a destination rather than that a cab driver set out to “scam them” by dropping them off at the wrong place.