Oxfordwalkingtoursofoxford Recenzje 53

This is *not* a free tour. I've done many free walking tours in the past, and always tip something at the end.

This is advertised as a free walking tour, but the tour guide demanded I "tip" mid way through the tour, otherwise I couldn't continue. He had a bullying nature and said "everyone else has paid other than you".

When I questioned why it is advertised as a free tour if they demand payment, he referenced all other tour companies charging for a tour.

The tour itself was ok, but I left (after tipping) part way through because I felt bullied by the tour guide and didn't want to be part of that anymore.

There are other options for free walking tours of Oxford, try those first!

Absolute scam!!! We left the tour after 20 minutes. It was suspicious. I searched for reviews afterwards and unfortunately many many tourists are affected. Next day we saw again another group with more than 40 people. I do not understand this scam at this scale is even possible in a historical city such as Oxford. The city has also responsibility to protect tourists who pay to see the city.

AVOID AVOID AVOID!

Avoid at all costs! Matthew is not a bad tour guide…. He is a scammer.

The temptation was to laugh at him for being bad at his job. But we soon realised it was us who were being foolish, not him. Matthew is a sinister character who knows exactly what he’s doing. By constantly using classic tactics of delay, confusion and repetition, he stumbles through a 90min tour of nothingness whilst fleecing people out of A LOT of money.

He requests payment for his ‘free’ walking tour close to the beginning. If you refuse to pay anything, he kicks up a fuss. Whilst some sensibly pay the minimum amount of £7, others pay £30, clinging onto the idea that amazing times lie ahead…

But before and after paying, all Matthew does is take you pointlessly up and down streets. He jokes and waffles his way through useless information whilst making false promises and announcing unnecessary ‘comfort breaks’. His promises revolve around ‘inside’ access to buildings which does not exist. But he strings along an enormous group of people by continuing to confuse and delay.

My personal favourite moment came when he told us to look around the public gift shop in the Bodleian Old School Quad (anyone can do this, it’s completely free)… afterwards, he then said the gift shop visit was in fact the lecture theatre visit he promised at the start… Claiming the gift shop was ‘inside a lecture theatre building’. When I challenged him on this, he got angry.

Beneath the shamelessness and ridiculous nature of it all, the reality is that Matthew is a successful con artist, making lots of money by praying on people’s vulnerabilities. Because we’re English and paid just £10 each, we were able to stomach it and laugh it off. We can always go back another time. But for other foreign tourists visiting for the first and last time, it’s much more upsetting. Some likely went up to the £30 payment, meaning he stole massive sums of money for nothing.

Ultimately, people come to our famous towns and cities for a great experience. They don’t expect to be conned on a ridiculous scale and made a fool of. The likes of Matthew are giving our tourist hotspots a bad name and that’s really upsetting. He’s an awful person and you should never book with him.

This is a scam. We will be calling the police. We wasted over two hours with literally no useful information. The website advertises walks into many of the university buildings. We were only allowed into a chapel and… a gift shop.
What the website advertises is NOTHING like what we experienced. At some point he asked us not enter the chapel all together as otherwise they’d think we were a tourist group, which is exactly what we were. That’s when we realised he was not a legitimate tour guide. It was too late as we paid him already.
We will report this scammer immediately.

It's a scam
The guide will request money for about nothings
If you don't at least 8£ you don't walk

If I could give this conman 0 stars, I would. Avoid this tour at all costs. He goes by "Matthew", and he's not a student or former student of Oxford. Unfortunately, I only had a short time in Oxford and the walking tour I had booked with him was a scam, and it was too late to sign up for another tour. If you want to book a legitimate free walking tour, contact the Oxford Tourist Information. Fortunately, I left within 5 min of the tour because he wasn't providing any historical information - only sprinkled a fact here and there, and then masked his lack of knowledge with jokes and Harry Potter references. I'm appalled at Oxford for not kicking this man out of their community. He forces people to pay their gratuity around 15 min in.

This guy Matthew is an absolute, dispicable scam artist. He took £34 off us today, a family of four, one of which is under 5 years old! He can't speak English properly, he did not give us many facts. Made the tour longer by going round in circles. Pressurised us immensely, in front of the rest of the group, that we should pay him more than £20. No scruples. After 15 minutes of the tour, he started asking for money. This guys should not be allowed to be there. AVOID HIM. We didn't get to go in ANY buildings with him and he has rubbish jokes. Scam artist. My kids wanted to see thr Harry Potter locations that's why we booked him, he did not show us any or direct us there. When we asked him a question, he was talking back in a rude way as if we were bothering him. SAVE YOUR MONEY!! I've also let the university know. Report him to Oxfordshire Trading Standards and Oxford Tourism Board.

Unfortunately it’s really a scam and the so called tour guide/operator, Matthew, a scary figure. We were warned at the meeting point by a lady that this tour is a scam and when we decided to still try it, Matthew quickly told us that he needed to be paid because this tour could never be for free or pay as you like. He became rude when we said that then the lady was right and this tour is in fact a scam.
We went our own way and found out that the Divinity college was closed for the day. Avoid and don’t pay.

Recently, I embarked on a magical journey through the enchanting world of Harry Potter in Oxford, and what unfolded over the course of tour in Oxford.

25th May
We were led by Matthew who I found to be very menacing and threatening. A free tour one normally expects to pay at end - but Matthew demanded we pay part way through the tour. When I said I would pay at the end of the tour - he said we could not continue unless we paid immediately. There was at least 60 people on our tour so too many people. He never counted people in the group. Other people on tour also found him aggressive. I discussed my experiences with one of the ticket agents at Weston library when buying tickets for a tour today - she asked me if the tour guide was Matthew - when I said yes - she said they had been complaining about Matthew for years and had tried to get council to remove him. So beware of tours led by Matthew

The tour was a scam. Matthew, the guide, demanded payment halfway through the tour, and presented as slightly threatening and aggressive while doing so. We didn't go inside a single building. A member of the tour was asked by M to use his own phone to call one of the colleges to find out when it was open. We decided that the college wouldn't respond to his number. A guide should know all these things at the start. We were informed that entry to any of the Harry Potter sites or the colleges was not included in the tour and was at our own expense. Misleading advertising at the very least. I was personally very upset because I had booked the tour and felt I had let my friends down. As to his knowledge, a couple of people mentioned they felt they couldn't trust it given his general attitude and behaviour. I would advise anyone to pay a bit more and use a proper tour company.

It's a scam. Don't waste your time and money. If you looking for a good tour just find a different one.This one will scam you and will take your money. This tour is not worth a penny. They force you to pay. The Tour guide name is Matthew but in reality he hardly speak in English. First of all he took 1 hour, half the time of the tour, just to talk about nonsense and jokes. It's not free and if it was it is not worth wasting your time. I am travel four hours to Oxford and theses scamers waisted my family's time for nothing.

What an absolute scam!!! Don’t pay anything for this tour. And yes! If you want to stay on the tour, you WILL have to pay! We were a group of three people and it’s not even that we refused to pay, we just didn’t want to pay his minimum (£7 per person) and he kicked us off the tour! So much for pay as you like!

Here’s the deal: you start the tour on a side street and get handed a leaflet, which is nicely produced but poorly written and contradicts itself multiple times. There isn’t anything meaningful in the leaflet, it’s just a marketing tactic to make you think that the tour is affiliated with the university (it’s not), that you’ll see lots of sights that you can’t see just by walking around on your own (you won’t), and that the guide is an Oxford graduate (maybe he’s graduated from a university somewhere, but I’d bet it’s not Oxford!)

At the start of the tour, Matthew, the guide, will speak for at least five minutes while giving you no actual information. He will then proceed to walk the group to the bridge of sighs, which is literally five minutes around the corner but he’ll somehow take half an hour to do this. He’ll point to buildings and tell you what they are, but it’s nothing you can’t find out from basic research on google. He also tells you lots of things are coming “in some time”. This is to make you think the tour is worth sticking with. He needs to convince you of this because he’s about to make you PAY for your FREE tour!

After getting to the bridge of sighs and pointing to a tree that was in Harry Potter, which you can only see the top of and, seriously, is just a tree, he will give you a “six minute break” so you can visit the Turf Tavern (he doesn’t come with you, probably because they know he’s a scammer and won’t let him on their property!) He then makes his way around the group with his little card machine. Bear in mind this is only half way through the tour and he hasn’t really told you anything or shown you anything, just made lots of empty promises about what’s coming up! This was the point where we parted ways with his tour.

Honestly, we’re so glad we didn’t end up paying him because I don’t believe it would have been worth it. I’m not convinced he is able to take his tours anywhere that you can’t visit on your own and his knowledge is debatable. He has a nice patter and some amusing jokes, but there’s no real substance.

After we separated from the tour we wandered around ourselves. There’s plenty of information online about the history of the city and there are buildings you can go inside without a tour. I feel really sorry for the people that paid him. I don’t think they got a fair deal, even if all they paid was his minimum.

We had a supposedly FREE TOUR! but nothing is really free it's a scam do not believe the advert, FREE!! because this Tour guide Matthew was very forceful when it's comes to paying or so called donation and we wished we never booked this walk tour! Please be warned it's a scam!!!

Sandra Bingham gave us an excellent 2 hour walking tour of Oxford. She was very knowledgeable regarding architecture, colleges, dates and history. She made the tour all the more interesting by adding things which one would not find in guide books etc but which brought Oxford's past to life. We hope to go on another of her tours an thoroughly recommend her for her friendliness and professionalism.

An absolute scam. We reached the Bridge of Sighs and, after a short break, Mathew insisted on us paying. We left the tour having pointed out (pointlessly) that this was advertised as a free tour.
Avoid at all costs.

Mathew is running an absolute scam. He refuses to let people continue the tour if they do not pay half way through, even though it is advertised as a free walking tours. He will then accuse you of harrassing him if you follow the group. He is not a nice person and must have several names for the company he is running as his phone number comes up for several tours. When we told him we'd be tipping cash at the end of the tour he told us that we had to pay right now or leave the tour.

Please be cautious—this experience turned out to be very disappointing and felt like a scam. We had hoped for an enjoyable tour but ended up frustrated, feeling it was a complete waste of time and money.

The tour guide's accent was very difficult to understand, making it hard to follow the commentary.

Despite being advertised as "free," about 15 minutes into the tour—after repeatedly going up and down the same road—the guide will then show us the price charge and asked for money.

We wouldn’t recommend this to others based on our experience.

The tour is a scam. They advertise it as a free tour but then demand a minimum of £7 to start. "Mathew" was extremely rude when asked why the tour was labeled as free, yet he required a fee. He is not an Oxford student. Avoid at all costs!

Not free and you're walking around waiting for something to happen. He doesn't guide you inside any buildings, leaves you to go inside in small groups. Even making members of our group ask if certain sites were open. Probably because he isn't legitimate. You could read an online blog or guide and learn more. He makes you pay before you've even experienced anything on the tour. It dragged on forever. No real passion and not a lot of knowledge of the city. Don't recommend. False advertising, it is not free. You can't stay longer than 15 minutes until you pay the minimum of £8.