Mountain to Sound Outfitters — Attraction in Seattle

DO NOT SHOP HERE: PLS READ THIS WHOLE POST

This may be “unprofessional” to post, but I feel like it needs to be done.

I’m always about shopping local, but not willing to give away my morals for it. Here’s why I say that:

The owner has been dealing in some gray areas regarding his sales and I would like to share one of my experiences from working here for almost a year. I sold a boat for 1200 (it was a consignment boat, with the price made by the customer) to a gentleman and when the owner learned that he got upset. The person who just bought the boat left to get straps and was gonna come back to pick the boat up. Greg had a person on facebook marketplace who was possibly willing to pay 2000 for it. Greg asked me to call this random person and offer them the boat (THAT I JUST SOLD) to the Facebook person for 2000 and then just tell the person who already bought the boat “sorry” and just ‘refund him’. He wanted to do all this before the buyer came back to pick up his rightful boat. I told Greg “no” because it was immoral and illegal and Greg said he was “cutting me out then”. I worked at M2S for almost a year now. I loved working here, but the owner Greg has been making the environment very toxic. In my almost year here, he was screamed at staff in front of customers and berated both customers and staff. When I left M2S last week, I asked about some PTO I put in that wasn’t payed to me from a trip a few weeks prior and Greg told me to contact him on 05/31. I have added pictures of his response linked to this review. This was his response to me just checking in about being paid like he asked me too on Tuesday, 05/27. Completely uncalled for and blatantly rude.

To anyone reading this-take this how you will. The staff team are awesome and care about the community. Unfortunately management...

Good website, easy to navigate. On a Tuesday I emailed a request for a spray skirt for a kayak built in West Seattle years ago that was not listed in the kayak fit list. Two days later Shannon replied it would have to be a special order and offered to get the ball rolling. Before noon that same day I asked about options - design, materials and cost. I also mentioned that a cockpit cover they carried fit well and asked if the same size spray skirt would fit. If so, my wife would be nearby on Saturday and buy it. No response to my email on Thursday or Friday.

On Saturday I called two times during store hours and got voice mail. I left messages wanting to verify they were open so my wife could buy two item listed on their website as in-stock. My calls were not returned. After 2 pm my wife arrived. There were no customers in the store, just two employees having a lively personal conversation.

My wife interrupted them and mentioned that I'd left two messages; Shannon replied "they were really inundated and it's best to use the email system to reach staff." My wife let them know I had already emailed them and had not received a response for two days. Her response was that they were so busy....

My wife asked for the cockpit cover and spray skirt that were listed online as available at that moment. She was told the spray skirt was actually not in stock and a similar one was available. So we ended buying two very useful products that I'm glad to have. However it's disappointing that the staff seem have time to spend socializing and then describe being inundated with a backlog of messages as their excuse for not dealing promptly...

I lost the skeg/fin for my Aquaglide brand inflatable kayak. A Google search revealed a handful of vendors offering "replacement parts"; but nobody had what I needed in stock. (I hear the company changed ownership recently and has stopped making replacement parts for some of the older models) Then I stumbled upon Mountain To Sound Outfitters. But I'm in California, soooo....

Desperate for help I explained my situation to Noah over the phone. Initially I was only hoping MSO could refer me to an online supplier that Google hadn't revealed. His search was no more productive than mine. But then he had an idea...

It seems he rummaged around in their in-house spare parts bins, and sure enough he found what appeared to be the fin I needed. He sent me photos to confirm, and it was!

Given how desperate I was, any business could have chosen to seriously gouge me on the price. But instead Noah offered a very fair/low price, that included a modest shipping fee and promised it would arrive only a few days later. Sure enough, I received it today - in time for my upcoming "full moon flotilla" gathering in just a couple days.

Noah and his boss/colleagues went out of their way, well beyond their normal scope of business, to help me out!! He was friendly, sympathetic to my plight, and genuinely interested in solving my problem. Thanks to Noah and everybody who had a hand in helping me out!!

Next time I'm visiting Seattle I'll definitely stop by to say thanks in person, and sign up for a guided kayak tour...