Morocco rip off

Not surprised. It’s a poor vs rich (they see every tourist as rich) scenario. We were advised when going to Egypt to only have small bills. $ were accepted but don’t have anything over a $5. We carried about $400 in singles with nary a one left over. It happened to us there a few times. Oh, and they don’t like coins so of course they rounded up, not down.

My attitude when these things happen is to tell myself that they need the money more than I do (having just traveled to Morocco, and a few times before to Egypt). It makes very little difference to my overall budget so I move on.
I don't care for dishonesty or being ripped off but its not worth the stress to quibble over a few pennies. Not when buying a coffee at Starbucks back home can run to $3.00 or more.

I agree that the one dollar difference is negligible but I more wanted the Rick Steve guys to be aware of it.

Its your money and regardless of the amount, no one likes to be ripped off.

Here's a link to the guidebook feedback form. RSE staff do not read everything on the forum, so this is the best way to inform the guidebook editors of the problem you ran into:

https://www.ricksteves.com/forms/guidebook-feedback-form

Perhaps they do not employ the common US custom of endless refills? Did you have more than one cupful?

Hopefully spending a $1.00 for coffee instead of the expected 50 cents, did not ruin your day.

Yes, no tourist likes to be ripped off, but does this extra charge of $1 for your lovely coffee really warrants the use of terms like “Morocco rip off” and “blatant thievery” and “despicable”?

I realize it must not have been pleasant to have been ripped off the equivalent of a dollar, but I would advise some calm reflection on a matter like this. I was a little amused by your statement, "The point of this info is not regarding one dollar but Rick S should be aware of this behavior at a place he advocates." I'm afraid that if Mr. Steves were to advocate only establishments that had never faulted a customer ever, in any way, he would soon go out of business, as there would be very few places for him to advocate.

I know it's tempting to consider one's own little incident with a restaurant or a hotel to be that establishment's defining moment, but usually it isn't. We still don't know whether you were a victim of "blatant thievery," or just victim of an ordinary, frustrated, maybe slightly inept waiter who had dealt with too many tourists that week, and just couldn't handle one more. I am reminded of the wise words of an American tourist I read many years ago -- so many that I forget most of the details -- who had completed a tour of a middle-eastern country (I forget which one.) She admitted that her tour company had ripped her and her husband off in some ways, but, she acknowledged, "they did so nicely." That's the attitude of a real traveller!

That's the attitude of a real traveller!

I say bollocks to that.

I don't care how large or small the rip-off is, a rip-off is a rip-off. Of course the standard back drop is always the custom of the country or that it got lost in translation. Pffft.

The Real Travellers I was referring to are experienced enough to discriminate between approval of rip-offs, which is not acceptable, and acceptance of them -- inconsequential ones anyway -- long after nothing can be done about them except whine.

Real, peal, spiel...who cares. To me the point is that if a person feels a place shouldn't be in a guidebook, there is a place to submit the opinion. I did it recently when a restaurant in Italy had "tip not included" in English across the bottom of the bill and several other "missteps" targeting the tourists but not the two tables of Italians who entered the same restaurant. I didn't bother posting it because it's not going to make much difference to anyone reading and I wasn't outraged.

The real issue is what effect inclusion in the blue and yellow book has on certain businesses. How RS or employees of RS are treated has only a loose connection with how the ordinary-tourist customer is treated. True restaurant and hotel reviewers for major publications dine and sleep incognito. That's not the case here where everyone is "my good friend."

Finally, it's impossible to speak to something happening in a country with a vastly different culture and standard of living. People need to be prepared that a day trip to Tangiers is not the same as a day trip to Gibralter. Is enough emphasis made in the guidebook to prepare readers?

When in the Peace Corps in Maroc, Tangier was reviled by my Moroccan co-workers. Now a UNESCO site, I doubt that local "culture" has changed.

As a PC volunteer I had little money and a heightened sensitivity to being ripped off. I learned how to bargain, how to confront rip-offs, and, most importantly, how to let go when I couldn't win. Granted, speaking the local dialect (derizha) helped. In the end, if it was a matter of a few dirhams, I let it go: they need the money far more than I do.

Rick is not to blame.

As Bets said: The real issue is what effect inclusion in the blue and yellow book has on certain businesses. How RS or employees of RS are treated has only a loose connection with how the ordinary-tourist customer is treated. True restaurant and hotel reviewers for major publications dine and sleep incognito. That's not the case here where everyone is "my good friend."

I learned this in Sorrento on my first trip to Europe with my husband in 2009. He'd never been to Europe before and was naive about how wait staff could nicely and easily manipulate customers. We went to a restaurant that RS had recommended and was filmed in having a great time and eating great food. We were seated outside and it was lovely.

Then it got complicated with overselling on wine in the form of convincing my husband that he needed a better wine than came with his meal, charging full price for the better one, but not bringing the other one and charging extra for mineral water for me instead of subbing it for the wine I turned down because I don’t drink, which the waiter said he'd do.

At the end of the meal, I paid in cash and waited for the change which was about €10 at a time when €1 = about $1.45. And waited. And asked. And waited. I was planning to round up and leave that little tip on the tray, but what finally came back was about half what was supposed to according to the bill. At that point I gave up and left the tray bare.

It was a good lesson learned about what to watch out for. And I immediately thought that ordinary travelers like us shouldn't expect to be treated the way RS is at the same places, even if we mention his recommendation. It was disappointing, especially since I'd traveled in Europe 4 months (1977-78) and lived in Germany 3 years (1982-85) and had never experienced anything similar anywhere, including Italy, during that time.

I'm sure that experience made me less enamored of RS recommended restaurants and more inclined toward using other review sources, asking hotel staff, walking around, reading menus, checking the clientele -- and looking for dogs.

I agree Lo.

Living in France, we're clued in on how we should be treated at a restaurant in Italy...the same as we are treated here. When it seemed to be going off the rails at that one restaurant, I asked an adjoining table if the restaurant was in the guidebook, and found out it was. BTW, the customers at the adjoining table thought the place was wonderful, didn't pick up on the missteps. And, as I said earlier, I reported it to RSE but don't see the point of doing it here because people filter their experiences differently, and everyone else seemed happy with their rushed, upsold meal, with tip begging at the end.

I'll repeat that I think one of the problems is the same places and neighborhoods have been recommended for decades without incognito inspections.