| rev:text
| - Think of me what you will, but I'm a lady who knows her way around a strip club. I know the drinks are insanely expensive, so to come pre-loaded, and that everything inside is designed to relieve you of your money. I always leave feeling a little stupid for letting the amount of cash that I did slip through my fingers. But I've never felt ripped off as hard as I did on my visit to Zanzibar.
I went with a group of friends after we sang and drank at Bar + Karaoke across the street. We decided to pop into Zanzibar afterwards for some adult entertainment. It was payday, so I felt I could drop some cash on essentially nothing, so I went. I budgeted $150 for it, and took $100 out of their ATM upon arrival.
Eventually some of the dancers came over, chatted us up, and I agreed to some dances. She took me into the VIP area, which had a $20 cover, which I had expected as it's pretty standard. The lounge bouncer and the dancer both told me it was $20/song. Which is also the standard rate for Toronto.
So I get my dances, and after 5 songs I tap out. That was my $100 that I'd intended to spend. She says to me, "we've done about 30 minutes, do you just want to take it to 45"? I think that's a little strange, because in other clubs if there was a premium service above and beyond the regular VIP lap dances, they do price things by time blocks, as opposed to per song. And that's something you specifically arrange with the dancer. I had been told by both the bouncer and the dancer that I was paying by the song here. Now she's talking in time block?
I say "how much is 30 minutes"? I had 5 songs - this should cost me $100. Even if I'd misjudged and I'd done say, 7 songs, it should still be $140. She answers "30 minutes is $240".
!?!?!?!!!!!!!?!!??!?!!?!?!!
So, needless to say I stand the f up. I was flabbergasted. I've never had anything like that happen in a club before. I pay the lady, of course. Having to take another $100 out the ATM machine...which was its own rip-off.
I expected a high fee on the ATM transaction, but the screen popped up saying $2 service fee. I was pleasantly surprised, as that's fairly low for the downtown core. When I checked my bank account this morning to figure out how many weeks I'm going to be living on ramen noodles after paying $240 for $100 worth of dances, I see a $10 service fee on each ATM withdrawal. So the service fee wasn't just $2. It was $2 PER BILL DISPENSED. What?!!!
Needless to say, of all the Toronto strop clubs I've been to, Zanzibar took the cake for biggest rip-off. I'm still fuming and shaking my head at how 5-6 songs at $20 each somehow jumped up to $240.
I recommend the Brass Rail a few blocks north. I've always been treated well there, and have never had a bunch of hidden bait-and-switch prices foisted on me.
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