Golden Tour Scams Tourists! They operate under www.goldentours.com and www.goldentours.co.uk . The tour guide for the trip from London to Paris is a scam artist. His name is Peter and offers to exchange money for the unknowing tourists and then does not give them their full amount. He pockets a few Euros for himself. He did that to my mother-in-law and once she was given the money, we calculated it. It just did not add up per the exchange rate of that day. So we watched him carefully as he did the same with another couple. Sure enough, he did it again! We then asked the official at the money exchange booth how much we should have received and it was nine Euros less. We asked the exchange representative to count our money just to confirm this.
We asked Peter with Golden Tours about the missing money after discussing it with the other couple he did this to He told us "Yes, this is a service fee for my services". We contacted the Golden Tour headquarters during our trip and they said there was no such fee or service. We then told Peter this information. Peter simply stated, "Golden Tours does not exchange money for customers so I am doing this on my own time. Since I am doing this on my own time and not on Golden Tour's time, I have a 'personal' service fee I charge.
Funny he did not mention this ahead of time. It was also odd that his service fee for the other couple's money exchange was six Euros (not the nine he charged us). I suppose he has different rates for his personalized "services". Truth of the matter is that he pockets the coins and only hands over the paper money. He is a scam artist. If you are booking with Golden Tours, make sure Peter is not involved in anyway on your tour!