"How to Lose a Customer in 10 Day", or "From 5 Stars to 1: The Ski Valet Park City Story"
Used the service for a large group over a long weekend. Our Airbnb host had negotiated a deal that guests of their properties get a 15% discount, which took some of the sting out of how expensive the rentals are. We were told it would be applied automatically, but I made sure to confirm in the booking email as well.
Equipment drop-off was timely, efficient, and courteous. Was feeling optimistic this would end in a 5-star review.
Only part of our group was skiing the final day, so we had two separate pick-ups scheduled - one Saturday, one Sunday. Two group members originally planning to ski Sunday changed their mind (one injury, one changed flight), so we asked if we could return their equipment a day early and were told no problem. Still at 5 stars.
Got the bill after our trip and saw they charged us the full price (without the 15% discount) and they charged Sunday to the two people who returned equipment early. Billing mistakes happen, so still giving them the benefit of the doubt at this stage, but it's annoying so review was down to 4 stars at this point.
Called the company and the phone agent agreed to honor the 15% discount but refused to remove the two extra Sunday charges. He pointed to their 48-hour cancellation policy, which he said applies to reservation changes. I'll defer to you, dear reader, but when I call a restaurant to change my party size from 8 to 6 I don't generally think of that as a "cancellation". We clearly made a mistake by not explicitly asking whether they would still be charged for Sunday when asking to return the equipment Saturday, but Ski Valet clearly didn't care to clarify at the time.
We're now down to 3 stars for this review, but I stayed upbeat because this was just an entry-level employee, and surely a manager at a service-oriented business such as this would give the customer the benefit of the doubt, even if he/she thought I should have known the "cancellation" policy applied here.
I call Ski Valet a few days later and am greeted by a friendly employee who explains that the manager isn't in, but she'll discuss with him the next day and get back to me. At this point, I'm thinking the review is likely heading back up to 4-star territory.
Instead, I get 4 days of radio silence. I follow up via email and am politely told to go shove it - the manager is digging in his heels on the "cancellation" policy. Instead of up to 4 stars, the review goes down to 2.
After a few days of phone tag, I eventually get an opportunity to speak to this manager, still optimistic the situation can be resolved. After all, the amount in question is only ~$100, a small fraction of our total order, and at that point nobody in our group besides me was yet aware of the billing issues, so he has the opportunity to secure a large group of satisfied customers.
Instead, he chose a remarkably combative approach, deriding me for having misunderstood their cancellation policy and at one point calling us "a group that wants to reserve our equipment so we can't rent it out to other customers, and then not honor their obligations", as though we were conspiring with their competitors to sabotage them! Review drops to 1 star, which is our final destination, though I'd remove another for the manager if 0-star reviews were allowed.
In any case, since the manager tacitly accused of working on behalf of their competitors, here you go: if you google "Park City Ski Rental Delivery" you'll see plenty of options with much strong customer reviews on social media. If you want to go the value (non-delivery) route, Christy offers great equipment at great prices.
Tl;dr:
Overcharged our entire order by 15% (which they ultimately removed after I called them out) and conveniently allowed a "miscommunication" to result in $100 of unrelated additional charges (which they refused to remove). Customer service when trying to resolve it took the experience from mixed to terrible. read more
