Welt der Gifte (Salzburg) Welt der Gifte Salzburg - News and Discussion

You would think (or at least hope) that someone with sufficient specialist interest to make a booking in the first place would have some modicum of decorum and respect :( but alas, no. I imagine it might have some cross-over with the fact that it is currently skiing season, and hence a lot more casual tourists will be visiting Salzburg and hearing about WdG.

As someone aiming to revisit within the next couple of months, I'd be sorry if nationality restrictions do have to be put in place - but I definitely don't blame you for looking into the possibility that such measures will be required!
 
Batto said:
This might not win me any favours, but: what is it with English people and skipping appointments? Today was the fifth time in a row that English tourists booked a guided tour at WdG, then neither show up (or way too late) nor cancel in good time, can not be reached and do not apologize. While Irish, Scottish or Welsh...pretty much no other foreign visitors are causing these problems to that extent.
I'm seriously considering not to confirm any future booking requests by English visitors. Or only with prepayment. Tough luck. Discriminatory and unfair? Sure. But it's my time and money they are wasting. And to quote the late Nikki Lauda: Ich hab' ja nichts zu verschenken.
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Very rude but it happens. With us it is mostly another nationality, won't mention which. Our policy is payment with booking, and we have a 24 hour cancellation policy. (full refund if cancelled with 24+ hours notice, none for less or no-shows). Applying the policy to one nationality only may be in breach of anti-discrimination laws.
 
We had a prepayment booking option before, but that was not cost-effective and made things more complicated.
MRJ said:
Applying the policy to one nationality only may be in breach of anti-discrimination laws.
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Ubi non accusator, ibi non iudex.
 
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TeaLovingDave said:
I imagine it might have some cross-over with the fact that it is currently skiing season, and hence a lot more casual tourists will be visiting Salzburg and hearing about WdG.
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It has happened before without any relation to skiing season. And even during skiing season, visitors from other nations don't show this lack of good manners, at least not in this frequency.
Arabian, Turkish and visitors from some African / Middle Eastern nations have a similar tendency to not show up or run late, but not to that English extent. Wheras Italians, French, Spanish etc., who usually have a certain reputation to be usually not on time, have always been punctual so far.
English people also seem to be the only ones openly bewildered that Austrians, Germans and the Swiss consider it rude and disrespectful to show up late without any prior apology.
What really pisses me off is that they deliberately enter incorrect telephone numbers or email addresses in their booking request so that I can’t even reach them for final confirmation. And when they show up late (and they pretty much always do), they expect to stay for an extended time afterwards, even if the next group of visitors is visibly waiting. Is that a cultural thing? Like Germans showing up way too early or insisting on their change down to the very last cent?
I might just simply ignore future booking requests coming from English visitors; if they are serious, they might show up anyway. Or I will only accept their requests after paying beforehand via a special prepayment link.
I'll make an exception for you @TeaLovingDave and other English ZooChatters if you contact me personally beforehand. But I'm just surprised how a nation can function, and even build up a global empire, with such unreliable citizens...
 
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Batto said:
What really pisses me off is that they deliberately enter incorrect telephone numbers or email addresses in their booking request so that I can’t even reach them for final confirmation.
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Yeah, that's very much beyond the pale - and rather suggests an intention to not fulfill the booking all along :(

Batto said:
But I'm just surprised how a nation can function, and even build up a global empire, with such unreliable citizens...
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I suppose it would have been hard for the places subjugated by the British Empire to ward it off if they couldn't reliably predict when to expect their forces!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
I suppose it would have been hard for the places subjugated by the British Empire to ward it off if they couldn't reliably predict when to expect their forces!
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They would have just had to attack during teatime and the weekend; worked wonders for Julius Caesar. ;)
 
Batto said:
We had a prepayment booking option before, but that was not cost-effective and made things more complicated.
Ubi non accusator, ibi non iudex.
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Of course, until they do.
 
Batto said:
English people also seem to be the only ones openly bewildered that Austrians, Germans and the Swiss consider it rude and disrespectful to show up late without any prior apology.
What really pisses me off is that they deliberately enter incorrect telephone numbers or email addresses in their booking request so that I can’t even reach them for final confirmation.
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Clearly, if someone gives you the wrong contact details, then yes of course they are not serious and you should ignore them.

Batto said:
And when they show up late (and they pretty much always do), they expect to stay for an extended time afterwards, even if the next group of visitors is visibly waiting. Is that a cultural thing? Like Germans showing up way too early or insisting on their change down to the very last cent?
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English people know to turn up on time for the theatre or the football, they know that if they arrive late they miss out, and they know when it is over they have to go. There is something else going on here.

I went onto your website, and a Google pop-up appeared offering an English translation, which of course I clicked as I don't speak German. The translated site, which looks equally professional to the German original, was very frustrating. It was not at all clear to me what you were offering, whether you were selling only tours or whether i was just buying admission. I went to the FAQ, questions were in English, answers were in German. I can imagine that some might be so frustrated by the site, they may deliberately send false information as an "up yours".

My advise would be to get rid of that pop-up, if you can. Either way, I would include an English language page, linked from a button at the top of the home page, clearly outlining what your offer is.
 
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MRJ said:
Of course, until they do.
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For that, the theoretical accuser would require a deeper insight into our internal booking system - which is rather implausible.

Thanks for the check and the hint. The Google pop-up is not visible for us regionally. I'll have a word with my IT guy to see what can be done.
But it still doesn't explain why mainly the English tourists are so unreliable. The "up yours" theory does not make sense in regard to the comments they send us when booking, like explicitly referring to the Salzburg Card discount. I think that at least some of them are just trying to cover all the attractions offered by said card during their stay in Salzburg and if they don't make it, they just nonchalantly assume "Nah, it will be fine not to show up".
It is not always possible to check the correctness of the contact details entered in the booking form.
My future plan would be to send a link with a pre-payment option to foreign tourists enquiring a booking . The booking will only be confirmed once the amount has been paid. Let's see if this solves the problem.
 
Batto said:
My future plan would be to send a link with a pre-payment option to foreign tourists enquiring a booking . The booking will only be confirmed once the amount has been paid. Let's see if this solves the problem.
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That sounds entirely fair to me, as someone with British nationality hoping to one day visit your collection. If I cannot be bothered to let you know 24 hours before I can't come, I don't deserve a refund. (I would get in touch with you beforehand regardless, as a Zoochatter :).)
 
Batto said:
To keep our ever-curious Chinese banded King cobra mentally stimulated, we're trying to offer a variety of snake-appropriate enrichment elements.

Behavioral Enrichment Chinese King cobra

Behavioral Enrichment Chinese King cobra

  • Media owner Batto
  • Date added
To keep our King cobra mentally busy, we're trying to offer various snake-appropriate behavioral...
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I'm always looking for more enrichment for my very silly western hognose snake, who seems to identify as a gecko or some other arboreal animal, so I give him things to climb as his main enrichment. Seems like he would enjoy that thing. Is that something custom made/ homemade/ able to order?
 
Mo Hassan said:
I'm always looking for more enrichment for my very silly western hognose snake, who seems to identify as a gecko or some other arboreal animal, so I give him things to climb as his main enrichment. Seems like he would enjoy that thing. Is that something custom made/ homemade/ able to order?
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No, it's a behavioural enrichment element for dogs made by a Danish company.
 
Species list (April 2024)

Snakes
Agkistrodon contortix
Ahaetulla prasina
Aspidelaps lubricus lubricus
Atheris broadleyi
Bitis gabonica
Bothriechis nigroadspersus/schlegeli
Bothrops erythromelas
Bungarus candidus
Cerastes cerastes
Crotalus basilicus
Crotalus ornatus
Crotalus pyrrhus
Crotalus vegrandis
Dendroaspis angusticeps
Echis coloratus
Heterodon nasicus
Lampropeltis knoblochi
Lampropeltis mexicana x ruthveni
Naja annulifera
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Naja nivea
Naja siamensis
Naja sumatrana
Ophiophagus hannah
Oxyuranus microlepidotus
Pantherophis "lindheimeri"
Rhabdophis tigrinus
Trimerusurus insularis
Trimerusurus venustus
Vipera ammodytes ammodytes
Vipera aspis
Vipera seoanei
Xenodon pulcher

Lizards
Heloderma exasperatum
Heloderma suspectum

Amphibians
Dendrobates tinctorius azureus
Dyscophus guineti
Incilius alvarius
Phyllobates terribilis
Pleurodeles nebulosus
Rhinella marina
Taricha granulosa
Xenopus sp.

Fish
Corydoras sterbai
Corydoras metallus
Platydoras armatulus
Tetraodon schouteni

Spiders
Ceratogyrus darlingi
Latrodectus elegans
Latrodecus mactans
Latrodectus menavodi
Latrodectus obscurior
Latrodectus tredecimguttatus
Lasiodora parahybana
Loxosceles laeta
Monocentropus balfouri
Phoneutria fera
Pterinochilus murinus
Sicarius terrosus
Theraposa apophysis
Tliltocatl albopilosus
Trichonephila inaurata madagascariensis

Scorpions
Alpiscorpius germanus
Androctonus australis
Hadogenes troglodytes
Heterometrus selenus
Hottentotta jayakari
Hottentotta judaicus
Leiurus quinquestriatus
Parabuthus villosus
Scorpio maurus

Insects & Myriapoda
Archimandrita tesselata
Archispirotreptus gigas
Neoponera apicalis
Platymeris biguttatus
 
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