Darkside Snowboards, Killington, Vermont — Attraction in Killington

Disappointing experience. Been a homeowner on the mountain for over 20 years and been shopping with these guys for a long time. My family and I make it a priority to patronize local shops. We understand the markup that comes with shopping local due to the overhead and the knowledge you get from their experience. Came in with a teenage guest of ours who is new to snowboarding. Fourteen year old kid was approached by a staff member who opened with the question “are you serious about buying or not?” Our young guest errantly answered that he was “looking online” to which staff member immediately walked away saying he wasn’t wasting his time. Come to find out from the other three members of the patronizing staff working this evening they are told to respond this way to customers. I am very sensitive to the fact that many people window shop and waste salespersons time only to turn around and comparison shop online and buy from the cheapest vendor. This, however, was an instance where the nature of our visit wasn’t even fully explored. The 14 year old didn’t have any money and had, in fact, only shopped online, but I have money and so did the other two adults in our group. Had the salesperson spent 5 minutes with us he might have learned that. Had he spent a few sentences trying to gain our business (or in this case keep our ongoing loyal business) by a pitching us a demo board he might have made a sale. Had he actually shown a little salesmanship and explained the benefit of buying from them rather than an online retailer he might have gained an additional loyal shopper. Unfortunately that wasn’t how this unfolded. Like I said we understand the nature of the beast (pun intended) and have never tried to waste anyone’s time. Sadly we will no longer be patrons of Darkside not because their product is bad, or their prices too high, but simply because we were treated with such unequivocal dismissive disrespect from the gate. Black Dog Sports will be our sole provider on the mountain and Ski Barn will be our hometown shop. Period. Sad day when your money is summarily turned away without any more than “are you serious or not?” FYI to the salesperson who refused to give me his name due to his fear I would write a “bad yelp review:” I wanted your name to ask about you with my other local contacts and friends from over the years. Perhaps this was just a bad night for you. Writing a negative yelp review has never been my style... till you made it an issue so here’s what you wanted. (full disclosure:...

Got there desperate for globes. Asked for help to find good globes for the powder. Got sold into buying an $80 dollar pair of rome globes that were on sale for $64.15 . Got to the mountain, geared up ,and the gloves snaps break off as i open them, i put the wrist strap, Its also snaped off. Well the lifts just opened, so i figure i would have to go back to the store at the end of the day. After my first run, both gloves are socked and cold. The two specific things i told the sales man i wanted to avoid. So i make it through the day with cold hands..... I get to the store and i was greeted by a really nice girl in the front. Who tried to help and even went to get another pai of gloves to help me. How ever she says she has to speak to her co worker before handing me the replacement glove. In turn a kid with an attitude comes out of the back, furious. And the first thing that comes out of his mouth is. "Why you want it fixed if you dont use that piece" i reply " I do" ,he then proceeded to say i cant do anything for you. And i ask him if he could atleast try and help me fix mine. Which he replied " can you?". Very rude, very unfortunate, i feel like i was sold defective useless set of gloves. I regret my visit to this place, i usually visit a shop a bit passed the killington rd, and never had an issue. Always nice staff very knowledgeable and wil not sell you, useless products. Too bad darkside, i really wanted to leave as happy , perhaps if the guy atleast try to help or give me a sort of indication on what i could do to repair the gloves, instead he basically threw me out the door.........

I could not recommend this location enough - After a very frustrating day of trying to find proper fitting snowboarding boots, Darkside exceeded my expectations. Jimbo initially pointed me in the direction of needing a boot with wider toe space & a double boa to help alleviate my toes from going numb & from my foot coming out of the boot while riding. After then searching around to several other shops in the area, we circled back to this location and found what I hoped was going to be the best fit for me, however I still was continuing to experience my toes going numb while wearing the boot, despite a proper fit - It was really Tucker who went above & beyond. He had the patience to listen to me and really understand my concerns and was better able to pinpoint the problem, that I had high arches which was causing a lot of the issues that I was experiencing. Not only did he help me to trouble shoot the issue in the store, he was not trying to push products on me that were not going to be a good fit. After finding the best solution for me, he then went on to adjust my bindings to make sure they were the correct fit for my new boots. I got to take the boots out riding today with the adjusted bindings and it was a complete and total game changer. I wasn't thinking about how uncomfortable I was all day. His expertise not only positively impacted our trip to Killington, but it has changed my entire snowboarding experience and the way that I ride. Thank you, Tucker (and thanks for sharing your half a donut...