BAD Bike Rental Experience!

[summervacationers]

My name is Bridget LaMontagne. I have spent time almost every summer of my life on Beaver Island. My father was born and raised on Beaver Island and it has always been a very important part of my life. As an adult, my husband and children and I still vacation on Beaver Island every summer and my husband and children adore it as much as I do.

There are certain things we like to do when we come to the Island. We like to take long drives, visit the beaches, go to the toy store, go to Daddy Franks for ice cream, shop at Whimsy, etc. Up until this year, our favorite thing to do was rent bikes from Lakesports. We have rented bikes every year for the past three years and ride the bike trail up to the campground and take our annual picture on the bluff that overlooks the gorgeous lake.

This year we brought friends with us on our vacation. We rented bikes from Lakesports one afternoon and got 6 adult bikes, 2 children's bikes, one bike that attaches to an adult bike and 2 kiddie carriers. We had the last appointment of the day (3:00 pm) and the young man ( I would include his name, but I do not know it) told us to bring the bikes back after our hour was up although he would not be there.

We got everyone on their bikes which was a bit chaotic because of all the children. My husband did notice that the tread on the tire of one of the child's bikes was almost bare. He felt the tire and it felt full of air so he didn't say anything. We started off and it took about 10 minutes or so to get to the bluff for our picture. When we got off our bikes I could hear the air swooshing out of the tire on the child's bike. We knew then that we would have to cut our trip short and head back in hopes that we could catch an employee to switch out the bikes. There was no one at the shop when we returned, so we returned the bikes to the empty shop and went back home.

My husband returned the next morning to speak to an employee in hopes of getting half of our money back since we only used 20 minutes of the hour we paid for. The employee went to check out the equipment and he told my husband that one of the kids must have been skidding on the tire to wear the tread down so much. My husband told him that the little girl that was using the bike did not skid, nor could she have caused the tread to wear down completely in the 20 minutes that we had the bike in our possession. My husband told the employee that he had noticed the worn down tread before we took off but the tire felt full of air so he didn't mention it. The employee then accused my husband and our party of tearing a hole in the vinyl of the window of one of the kiddie carriers. My husband then told him that the two one year old's that were in the kiddie carrier did not have the ability to do something like that and if they did we would have noticed and probably would not have come back to ask for our money back!

The employee called the owner (again, names unknown to us) and told my husband that the owner would give us half of our money back if we paid for a new tire and tube which would end up costing more than half the rentals. My husband asked to speak to the owner and was told they wouldn't be in for a few hours. My husband returned home and was quite frustrated with the accusations and rudeness he received from the store. He returned to speak to the owners and after going through the order of events once again he was told that they would not be refunding any money. My husband told the woman that he was talking to that he was very upset, he has been a customer every year and he will never rent from their establishment again. The other owner then barged out of a closed office door and screamed at my husband to get out of their store and how dare he come and bother them for a $20 issue.

This had stopped being about the money as soon as they accused a 10 year old girl of causing months worth of damage to a bike tire in 20 minutes flat and accusing our 1 year old of ripping a hole in a vinyl window which she was physically incapable of doing. I have been in customer service on and off throughout my adult life and I have never seen any proprietor of any establishment behave so brazenly rude and offensive. As a seasonal business how dare you treat loyal customers like lying nuisances!

My husband and I have never had an experience like that before and I certainly hope we never do again. My husband has never had a dispute like that in his life nor has he ever been accused of something like that with absolutely no regard for his point of view on the situation. It was a disgusting incident and one that I feel cannot go without mentioning in a public forum. If anything, a future customer can be fore-warned from our negative experience.

[sbsp]

I am sorry for the experience you describe. That is not the Island way of hospitality or doing business with our guests. I come in contact with hundreds of visitors each summer and have heard similar complaints regarding that business. A summary of what I generally hear is that Lakesports simply do not have a caring business or hospitality orientation when dealing with customers. People note their encounter is very different and pleasant in other establishments on the Island. I have not mentioned this to many people because hearing it makes it second hand information. Hearing this first hand from you is absolutely to be commended for your caring enough to speak up and maybe preventing some other visitor having a simular experience. Your complaint is a service for all the businesses on the Island that are warm and friendly with visitors and customers.

I know that the Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce reads the Forum postings. Hopefully he will not only respond to you but also address the issue with those who caused your inappropriate treatment.

Your account is not the impression we want our guests and visitors to experience or tell to thier friends about when describing their Beaver Island vacation.

Kirk D. McBride

[Chamber of Commerce]

Copy mailed to Lakesports owners today (Sat 7-25). Very sorry to learn there was a problem. Best wishes from Beaver Island.

Steve West
Beaver Island Chamber of Commerce
P O Box 5
Beaver Island, Mi. 49782
(231) 448-2505 M-F 9-3
Chamber@BeaverIsland.org
www.BeaverIsland.org

[summervacationers]

We appreciate the comments posted in response to our experience. This was a very isolated incident as we have always had great experiences with the other Island businesses. But we very much appreciate the concern that has been expressed. Mr. West, I believe you took the pictures at our wedding which was held at the Deerwood in September of 2004. The pictures came out beautifully and we will always treasure them. Thank you!

[Chamber of Commerce]

"This was a very isolated incident as we have always had great experiences with the other Island businesses."

Please call or drop me an email.

Steve

Chamber@BeaverIsland.org
(231) 448-2505 M-F 9-3

[JodyAckermann]

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[megsing3]

wow - hope it didn't ruin your "fun" vacation...

[Sidney Kendyl Murphy]

I am new to the Beaver Island Forum so I am not familiar with all the inside humor and the various people posting. I assume that the original post was a sincere expression of a complaint about a bad experience with a local business in hopes of maybe helping the business change its approach toward customers or alert future customers to the potential of a rude or inappropriate behavior. However, I detect a note of sarcasm in this last reply. If I am correct in my observation, is there a valid reason for such a response or is it your form of humor? Are you possibly the business that rented the bikes? Can you please expland on your response with further support on what prompted it and your postition?

Sid

[summervacationers]

Thanks Sid, I detected a note of sarcasm as well in that post and I can only assume that her stance is that we overreacting to a trivial issue. Although I must say it would take a lot to ruin our "fun" vacation on Beaver Island, we deemed the incident far too insulting to let it go without mention. We are proud of the Island. We take friends with us on vacation every year and we believe that what occured was far beneath the high standards that are set by the other Island businesses. We tried handling it one on one with the business and I already explained how that turned out! This forum was basically our only form of recourse.

[Chamber of Commerce]

"This was a very isolated incident as we have always had great experiences with the other Island businesses."

Please call or drop me an email.

Steve

Chamber@BeaverIsland.org
(231) 448-2505 M-F 9-3

"This forum was basically our only form of recourse."

Please give me a call - email.
Best wishes from Beaver Island.

Steve West

[megsing3]

Exactly â?? just my type of humor. My last comment was posted without proper forethought. I am not an owner or a worker, but a longtime shopper and a renter. I have never had a sub-par experience â?? and I am quite the most difficult person to deal with. Nonetheless, I found myself feeling quite defensive at such a public attack, wondering if the ears of the Better Business Bureau could have been an alternative.
I apologize.

Seriously, Megan Tuohy

[summervacationers]

This is not meant to be a public attack, this is meant to be a voicing of displeasure on a "forum".

Contacting the Better Business Bureau would not have been as effective as the 1600 hits this message has received on this forum. This was not your typical bad customer service you could receive just about anywhere. This was blatant rudeness. And blatant bad business practice. It couldn't have gotten worse.

FYI......We're not hard to please, in fact quite the opposite.

[Sidney Kendyl Murphy]

Is there a Better Business Bureau on Beaver Island or does the Chamber of Commerce deal with complaint resolution for residents or visitors?

Sid

[Marie LaFreniere]

Meg.... I love ya but I'm with Bridget on this one.

[Sidney Kendyl Murphy]

I hear many people coming forward with honest feed back on the conduct of the business in question but have not, to my knowledge, heard anything from the business owners who were cited for their conduct. Is this typical when disputes with businesses are sincerely published for public knowledge and judgement. I would be interested if the "vacationers" have received any communication from anyone associated with Lakeside Sports. Not to prejudge but it could be concluded that silence implies guilt, if no one has heard a counter response.

Sid