Adventure Sport Rentals — Attraction in Coeur d'Alene

UPDATE 8/29/2024: Ended up getting our money back.

Original Message: Cancelled a week ahead of time and got charged $437 (50% of reservation) despite not being told on the phone when making the plans that this was their cancellation policy.

After speaking to the person at Adventure Sports Rentals in Coeur d'Alene, ID over a 1 star review that was left for their business after a refund issue I got a call back from this person who was very concerned about getting a 1 star review, to the point of coming off as being rude and talking over me and trying to interject. I did my best to hold it together but being under high stress and working 2 jobs and having to cancel our vacation due to unforeseen and upsetting circumstances I was not happy the way I was being talked to and I did end up speaking in a way I wasn't proud of at the end of the conversation. However, getting charged $437 (50%) when cancelling, especially when there actually was no mention of it on the phone when it was initially made is incredibly steep and we feel like we were bait and switched. Had we been informed of that on the phone we would have not made the reservation in the first place.

Due to the way this place handles things and talks to customers I would not ever attempt to use their service. I understand how things are but there was definitely no mention on the phone when trying to initially make the reservation of a 50% cancellation policy, had there been we wouldn't have made a reservation. I would definitely steer clear of this place and not use this business. Be that as it may I did end up calling the person back to apologize for losing my cool before I found out he had responded to the google review because high stress or not I should not have spoke to him that way despite how he was on the phone with me.

Response to business owners response: I was sitting right next to her and there was no mention of that cancellation policy otherwise I would have told her "No, we're not making a reservation.". Yes, I lost my cool because you were being quite assertive and aggressive then when I did speak you'd interrupt me and interject trying to give me the whole small business talk about how hard things are....dude, I work 2 jobs for 15 hours a day and only 5 on fridays and was trying to make a trip for my family and due to some very unfortunate personal circumstances I had to cancel but you didn't want to listen or hear anything so after keeping my cool for so long yes, I blew my lid due to stress I was under but apparently you were more concerned about talking over me than trying to listen. I also called and left a message apologizing to you afterwards and that was before I found out you responded to Marissa's review. We will also be contacting the BBB regarding this as well. We didn't cancel at the last minute, we cancelled a week prior and then were charged $437! Are you out of your mind? That is retardedly insane! OF COURSE we never would have agreed to make reservations had we known that was your policy knowing there's always a chance we'd have to cancel. Thanks for screwing us out of $437. Going to be telling all our friends that go to ID about our experience and they will not be using you...

I have given mostly 5 star reviews and the 1 star reviews were warranted. Please see photo for 5 star reviews given on other adventure type small businesses. Again, as someone in the small business space I understand the importance of reviews and policies but again I will reiterate that there are things that come up that are far out of anyone’s control. We had just gotten word of a situation and were having to make multiple phone calls and cancel our trip everyone else we spoke with has been lovely and kind and understanding. As a matter of fact I will go review all those places as they do deserve lovely reviews. Please do not slander my name when you have beef with another party.

First, Marissa was not verbally told about said cancellation policy. She also admitted to not reading the policy in the email on her first posting. Second, when did I curse at you? Third, when were you reasonable when I spoke with you. All you did was talk over me and I ended up hanging up and that was it.

I am sure under normal circumstances this might be a wonderful place. When I initially called I had asked about my son being able to ride who wouldn’t be 16 yet and we discussed this on a couple of calls. Well our son isn’t able to make it now because of very personal reasons and so we had to cancel. The person on the phone when we cancelled told my husband that he would get a full refund and then we noticed a refund so we called and the guy explained he didn’t refund us but fully charged us and then refunded half. He then stated he had notes saying he informed me of the cancellation policy but he hadn’t. He then stated it was on the booking, yes that was my fault for not noticing the cancellation policy but we had to cancel other places as well and they were fully understanding. This place not at all. Would not recommend and very disappointing because as small business owner I am much more understanding of the fact that personal issues do arise and unforeseen circumstances happen.

The funny thing is we would have made an effort to use them on our next trip but the lack of empathy and understanding wasn’t appreciated.

I hope they revise their cancellation policy to accommodate very unforeseen circumstances versus...

Let me start by acknowledging that most of the positive reviews here are probably accurate, and my experience was good at first too. If you are lucky and nothing goes wrong, you will probably be very happy. However, sometimes things do go wrong, especially when off trail in deep snow. I rented a couple of their older , somewhat worn mountain sleds, and had a pretty good day, except we needed the spare spark plugs on one of them and they were gone. They even refunded my whole damage deposit after we brought them back. The real issue started a couple days later, when he called me all fired up because he found some minor damage (after renting it out at least two other days), and then traced it back to my day. I was off trail some, and got stuck in a couple drift holes, so I must have found something in one of them. I didn't notice anything, and it rode fine the whole day, but there was a little plastic body damage. The other one had entire pieces of body panel missing when we picked them up. He then re-ran my card for the deposit, and then again for all the new parts (to replace ones that were not new), before even trying to negotiate something reasonable, to the tune of almost 25% of the entire sled value. Please take my advice, and do not pay the damage deposit with your credit card. Get a pre-paid card for that amount, and if you have no issues, then just use it for expenses elsewhere. If something goes awry for you, especially on a new or newer machine, you will probably end up agreeing with his invoice anyway, but at least then you have some say in the process, and are not just at his mercy to keep charging your card at will. He will also tell you that you cannot dispute those charges, because he always wins. For the damage deposit, that may be true, but for ones above and beyond that, it is not. I did, and I won. I didn't really win, though. The biggest disappointment in all of this is that I thought I had found a good alternative to buying a sled just for visits to family in this area, and planned on renting again in the future. That is no longer an option. In the end, we ended up only a couple hundred bucks above what I would have agreed to anyway, and the loss of that option wasn't...