Worst Rated Exchange Office And How They Trick Tourists

Hello and welcome to Florence Italy , a city where Renaissance was born where millions of people travel to eat the best food .

Enjoy the best wine , admire all of the beautiful art .

Try the local gelato and to see the statue of David .

By the way , we were told this one Spain , but the two of us are not your usual travel guide .

So we didn't come here to show you this .

We came here to show you that you didn't tell me before that there is a 16 .

Why would you run away , Mr Sign ?

I just have a question but why Florence you ask ?

Well for that , we have to go back to Prague Czech Republic .

You see we made a video about this exchange office and they wanted to sue us .

Why ?

Because we said they have the worst exchange rate from Euros to Czech crowns in Prague .

This place would give you around 18 crowns for a euro , which is very bad rate .

They send us a letter saying that they will sue us and it says two important things .

Number one , I shouldn't tell you what's in the letter and number two , we should avoid filming about their company here in Prague .

So that's why we went to Florence Italy because that's where this company has its headquarters and not only their headquarters , this company that is called Best and Fast Change actually runs eight different offices , exchange offices in the city of Florence .

And even though they have the best in their name , they're actually the worst rated that we've ever seen .

I mean , all the branches have only one star review .

So why are these offices so badly rated ?

You ask ?

Well , they have really bad rates .

Well , no , actually let me correct that they have good rates but high fees and commissions .

Let me give you an example .

As of today , $100 is worth just around €85 .

So we asked a few people , how many euros they got here for their dollars ?

I got like €54 for 100 American dollars .

Can I ask you , did you exchange dollars to euros at the exchange office ?

And can I ask you what the rate was ?

$140 and you got €81 ?

Yeah .

Ok .

Were you exchanging at this exchange office ?

And can I ask you what the rate was ?

What did you exchange to ?

What ?

No , I , I did not .

Ok .

Ridiculous .

$60 .

You only give like €28 for $60.28 euros worth it .

Thanks .

Changing .

And how much did you get ?

50 U dollars and 27 .

Ok , thank you very much .

Seems to me these deals were not really the best .

Well , we saw a family from the United States and they exchanged $1000 .

May I ask you what was the exchange rate you got at this office ?

You were changing dollars to Euros ?

$1000 and you got €652.95 .

Thank you very much .

It's very bad .

€652 for $1000 .

Now , I'm sure some of you may argue and I'm sure this business will argue that it's legit , that it's ok .

It is .

It's legit .

It doesn't violate any law .

There's just very high fees and taxes and that is an argument that they used when we asked them , there's no exchange office without commission .

Ok .

Well , that's not really true .

We looked around and we did find a better exchange office .

We are here 200 m from the main train station on Villa .

And if we would have taken our $100 here , we would have got €81 no fees , no commission .

And not only we found a better exchange office , we actually found out that in Florence , you can exchange money at a post office .

Just a quick question .

Where can I exchange money in Florence ?

This post office of post office ?

Because Florence , there are many , but I think some are very expensive and at the post office for $1000 you will get €820 .

Can I exchange dollars to Euros ?

And how much Euro for $1000 ?

That means that if the American family would actually change their money at the post office rather than here , they would have saved €168 .

And the post office is about 300 m away .

That's a euro for every two steps , man .

That's €1.02 euros , €3.04 euros , €5.10 euros .

I just made enough money for a pizza man .

But of course to be absolutely sure about everything I sent Honza to one of the best and fast exchange offices himself .

Can I change dollars ?

€2 ?

Perfect .

Uh Just $100 with this .

You have the so the rate is 1.4 60 €54.45 .

Then I really clean .

That's fine .

Wait , so this is 50 54 40 .

It's not too much .

I thought that uh I will get like , uh-huh , that's no ok .

Sorry .

No , every time that you have a fee , but I lost €30 you didn't tell me , you didn't tell me before that there's a fixed fee .

Well , the lady was right .

Everything is clearly stated on the board .

You see behind me , can you see it zoom in a little more even closer ?

Let me do some digital zoom here .

19.9% commission and €9.9 fixed fee .

So you can imagine Honza wasn't really happy with that deal .

So he asked if he can get his money back and just to be fair , the commission and the fee is also written on a piece of paper inside the exchange booth .

That's not , that's , that's , I , I want my money back .

How is the transaction done ?

I didn't sign it here .

You said I have to sign it .

So that's only for my safety , but I don't feel safe because you took 30 of my euros .

It's a standard here .

Losing almost a third of my money is a standard here .

Is there a good exchange office somewhere here ?

That would be a black market Italian post office ?

Surprisingly , a black market .

I'm so sorry .

I lost €30 just like that once , once you send me somewhere and I do this .

I'm sorry , man .

So to sum it all up after all this struggle , Honza lost €27 .

I'm sorry , he paid €27 for a service .

So I wouldn't really call it the best .

And also he was inside the office for 13 minutes .

So I wouldn't really call it fast either and just to clarify things and to be sure , I took my 100 American dollars and went to the other exchange office to see how much I will get .

Can I exchange $100 ?

$100 ?

€81 .

After spending a couple days in Florence , we actually managed to get a hold of one of the cashiers who works for this company and he agreed to have a short chat with us .

I'm Janik .

We were writing on Facebook earlier .

Do you remember ?

Do you think it's fair that the fine print where it says that you're paying 19.9% commission and €9.9 .

It's super small , super small .

What do you mean ?

It's smaller than the flag ?

Like the flags of the currencies are double the size than the rules .

Yes .

Sure .

So here I'm not blind .

No , no .

So what I mean is that there's just this one piece of paper here .

You put the money here , you don't pay attention to what it's just in front of your eyes .

So it's my mistake .

And I don't understand what fixed cost euros mean .

You can ask her .

That's why we have people instead of machines .

So if I would change $10 I would get .

No , you don't have to pay for this amount of money .

If you change the $10 you have to give her money because $10 are not working .

So this is , these are not rules , these are , these are the proposal and you can negotiate your own rule .

So in the exchange office here you can negotiate .

Of course you can , oh , I didn't know that the car dealership .

Is there any better place in Florence where to change money than this ?

No , because we actually found a place that gives for $100.81 euros .

We have a , we have a receipt .

I don't have it with me .

We have it on the hotel .

Oh , really ?

So you think they will not give us a receipt ?

$100 ?

€81 ?

And I did get a receipt ?

Do you , do you feel like because I cannot imagine working for a company where people would call me a thief .

How do you feel about that personally ?

How many bad reviews have you found about the about this ?

Thousands ?

Thousands ?

Yes .

Can you show me they're everywhere .

I monitor them personally .

You monitor them personally because I found them funny .

You found them funny .

Liar's worst experience in Italy .

That's funny .

This place is simply a robbery , highway worst and fast robbery .

That it's actually funny .

I saw how they scammed an older lady yet .

That's not funny .

That's , that's you , isn't it ?

This man is a thief .

This person calls you a thief .

Funny .

Can you forward me that email ?

You can find it .

That's a review of your place .

It's a review of your best and fast change .

We're talking about a company that in 20 years of activity has never faced a trial because everything is legal .

It is expensive .

Yeah .

So what , all right , it was nice to meet you .

You too .

Bye bye bye .

But of course we didn't want to talk just to a cashier that works for the company .

We wanted to talk to the managers or to the people who own it .

So that's why we went to their headquarters to see if they will talk to us and you will never believe what happened .

Uh Do you speak English ?

Uh Do you speak English ?

Is there somebody from best and fast change I can talk to .

Excuse me , sir .

Excuse me , sir .

Excuse me , sir .

Excuse me ?

Are you Mr Fabrizio ?

You don't work for ?

Really ?

It's , it looks like you .

You're not ok ?

Very similar .

It's not you Mr Fabri .

Excuse me , Mr Sli , this is you .

I it's , it's you right .

No , this is , this is you .

Can you talk to us for one second ?

Why , why would you run away ?

Mr Sli ?

I just have a question , please .

It was Mr Ciarelli .

He was lying .

He was lying .

Oh , it was Mr Signorelli .

Do you work for Best and Fast Change here ?

Would you mind talking to us ?

My name is Jana Rub .

I'm a journalist from Prague and the company was filing a lawsuit against me .

That's why I came to Florence .

So if you work for best and fast change , I would love to talk to you .

We don't , we don't talk , we don't know what you should talk about that .

You're the worst rated company for exchange offices in the world .

That's your opinion .

It's not , it's hundreds of peoples of opinion , but you really , you don't want any statement in the video we wanted to give you space so you can say anything .

So you're fine with being called thieves and robbers and you're absolutely fine with that .

Don't say this , but people say that about you , sir .

I was just going to give you space .

Look at them filing lawsuits against us and then when we show up with the camera at their headquarters , they run away .

Wow .

I have to mention this once again , these people , this company does not violate any law , any regulation .

It's just that their conditions are not really in the favor of the customer .

But as one cashier said , nobody is holding a gun to the customer's head .

They can simply choose .

But I believe and this is my opinion that the company is taking advantage of people that simply are unaware of the situation on the field of exchanging currency .

And that being said , we are guides .

We're here to help travelers .

So here's our tip .

You do not need to change cash .

You can simply use your card .

We've spent here more than five days and every meal , every wine , every gelato , every tiramisu .

Thats ahead .

We simply paid with our card .

No need to transfer from one currency to another .

If you think the solution is simply withdrawing money out of an ATM and I can already hear all the people writing that in the comments section .

You're partially right .

But you got to watch out for the commission of the ATM .

Some ATMs .

And we made a video about that do charge you more than 12% in commission .

So watch out for it .

And if you do get in that situation , it's easiest to decline on the ATM when it asks you that question and look , you can help to simply by sharing this video , send it to someone who may be traveling to Florence and I'm sure they will appreciate the tips .

Since I've mentioned , we actually spent more than just a couple days in Florence .

We filmed more stuff and we were focusing on scams .

So if you want to see more of this , we were not filming .

You Chill .

You were really nice a second ago .

Chill .

Do you have friends in Prague ?

There's a camera there , it's everywhere then definitely subscribe to the honest guide channel because it will be one of the future episodes .

Thank you so much for watching .

We had a great time here in Florence .

It's a beautiful city .

I wish to come here again and to actually enjoy it more as a tourist .

This was and we are the honest guides based in Czech Republic .

See you next week to the names you see here are Patreons and this would never be possible without them .

Thank you a million guys for supporting us .

We are independent journalists and once again , this would not be possible without your support .

So Grazia , thank you .

I have absolutely no idea if I pronounced it correctly .

But I believe Grazia means thank you in Italian .

In Czech .

It's .