KaKtus Cycle Antibes — Attraction in Grasse

I doubted if I would leave a review because I don't like leaving negative reviews because of the impact it could have on small entrepreneurs but I feel that I have warn future customers because of the way we were treated. We booked two bikes at Kaktus Cycle Antibes for a week as we are from Amsterdam and love cycling. Starttime on the website 09.30 but we had to wait until 10am which was no big deal of course. The first bike I had made an awful noise when using the brake but the guy was very nice and gave me another one. This one had a twist in the back wheel which was annoying when walking but didn't bother me when cycling. We had registered on the site of Kaktus to hand in the bikes at 8pm Monday 1st of September, only to find out just before 7pm that the shop would close at 7pm on this Monday. We hurried to our appartment and called the shop to say that we were coming. We delivered the bikes but remembered that we had forgotten to bring the bike lights which we mentioned to the employee. Because we had te catch a plane to Amsterdam we couldn't bring them at 10am next morning. The employee was very nice (we thought) to agree with us to be in the shop at 9am sharp so we could bring the lights. Next morning we had to walk an extra 20 minutes to hand in the bikes with all our luggage but again didn't mind because we thought it was very kind of the lady to be there one hour before their usual opening time to receive the lights. However when we arrived the shop was closed and shs wasn't there. We called the phone number but no one a answered. We were not amused. There was no mailbox where we could put them and we didn't want to leave them outside out of fear that they would be stolen. We had to catch a plane so we had to go. I sent the shop an email explaining what happened. After the owner of the shop called and messaged me that I had to return the lights. No apologies for the wrong return time of 8pm on his website or for the employee being absent. Because I was travelling I could not answer right away. Then he threatened us to report us to the police of Antibes and that we would not be allowed to cross the border and accused me of lying and stealing and being a poor soul. For your information: this concerned lights that cost no more than 10 euros. I was not happy hearing and reading his intimidating messages and mentioned that I would be happy to talk to the police and swear under oath if necessary ( think they have better things to do than chasing two tourist for bike lamps but who knows). His employee lied about the time we agreed and mentioned 09.30-10am. I mentioned that I was willing to send the lights under rembours (so shipment costs would be for him) and only then he said that we could keep the lights no problem! A VERY bad experience and I would never ever rent bikes from them again. Awful service and employees...

Awful experience renting bicycles from start to finish. Manager and staff were unprofessional and confrontational. Avoid.

For example, when you book online there’s a nice message which says it comes with complimentary helmets, but I was rudely told this wasn’t the case and to ‘show where it said that on the website’. I was almost refused a helmet.

When we came back to return the bikes we were asked to pay the remainder of the bill, despite doing this on pickup. Further to this the store had kept no record of our payment, after they specifically asked us to pay in cash that morning. They then tried to take a further €30 in cash for a missing lock key, when we had already paid a €100...

Bikes appear to be of decent quality and prices seem fair. On 19 August the shop closed at 20h. A partial extension of the previously applied evening opening hours (until 23h) in August would be appreciated, notably during Corona times, which makes biking one of the safest means of climate friendly transportation. This would allow notably customers staying in buzzy Antibes old town, who usually don’t have a safe place to store the bikes overnight, the opportunity to enjoy the pleasure of a Covid-19-free-sunset bike ride along the coast of...