Rocky Mountain Riders Snowmobile Tours & Rentals — Local services in Area A (Kicking Horse/Kinbasket Lake)

I rented a sled (snowmobile) from rocky mountain riders for the first weekend in February of 2016 with friends who are experienced riders. When I picked up the sled the night before it was late but we went over the sled and the employee started it so we could load the sled onto the trailer. He also gave me instructions in the morning before riding to let the sled warm up to 4 bars on the gauge cluster to ensure the sled was ready to ride. The next morning of our ride all the experienced friends gave us an overview of how to use our avalanche gear in case anything happened on the mountain. Then we went outside and they started our sleds as well as theirs to warm up before took off for the day. I waited to move the sled until I saw 4 heat bars on the gauges as instructed by the rental employee. As we started riding I noticed the heat climb on my sled and I stopped on the trail so my friends behind me stopped. They asked me what was up and I said the heat bars were 3 from the top of the gauge. They said to put down my "scratchers" which I've learned are picks you put down that flick snow up and cool the sled while you ride on trails. They all put theirs down and because I didn't have any they instructed me to just ride along the edges and drive through any pillowy snow so it hits the sled to cool it. Right away I did this and the heat bars returned to normal, 4 bars, as it was at the start. About 10-12km in on the trail the sled all of a sudden died out of nowhere, I was monitoring the heat gauge but all of a sudden the sled just died. My friends pulled up and asked what happened, the sled just stopped working. No loud noises not crash no anything it just stopped. Everyone else being sled guys came over, pulled the fairings off and started inspecting, visually nothing was wrong and the sled still turned over using the pull start but did not fire. We spent about half an hour going over it and nothing. As they all commented we were doing nothing that should have caused any damage to the sled.

The company then told me I clearly didn’t let the sled warm up properly and claim I overheated the sled an therefor sent me a bill for nearly $3000. All of my friends are experienced riders and we have gone to forums and there is no way in 10km anything should have happened to this sled if it was properly maintained.

I have contacted Rocky Mountain Riders repeatedly to ask for documents regarding the sled and its maintenance and a copy of my rental agreement which they have repeatedly ignored. An employee told me the sled has been through multiple engines already which tells me there is an issue with the sled they rented me.

I’ve tried to use the BBB as well but Rocky Mountain Riders has refused to speak to them all or provide any documents.

Consider this business with caution, one of the worst experiences I've had anywhere in the world with rentals.

Visited...

Beautiful scenery, decent machine, friendly guide, a complete rip-off. Let me explain, my trip was fine except for the fact that I had an incident which resulted in damage to the sled I was riding. I do not deny that I owe for the damage and never argued that with Luke, the owner. It was explained to me by the guide that the machine would be evaluated at a "shop", I u derstood this to mean a liscensed snowmobile repair shop however, this seems to have meant that Luke would evaluate the machine and order every part he could think of and wanted. When the list of parts and labor was sent to me the total bill was more than $7,700 CAD!!! This seemed extraordinary so I reviewed the list and found several parts that were absolutely not damaged by me. I tried to deal with Luke however he immediately denied my claims and threatened to file claims. I was charged for the windshield, hood decals, right ski among other parts that were not damaged (see pictures) and in the case of the hood decals not even on the machine when I took it. I will take snowmobile trips in the future however I would never deal with this company again. Please do your research and find mine and other stories like mine about this business. I found other rental companies in the area with not a single bad review on the internet while this company has several stories where Luke has taken advantage of the overeaching rental agreement to seemingly overcharge for damage or in some cases charge for damage that never happened. In the end he has my money because I have to travel to Canada for work and I do not want to risk having issues however, I do not like feeling cheated and I do not want others cheated like me. Find another rental company and save yourself the potential headache. I would be happy to provide further details if you reach out to me via message.

Update: After posting this review the owner called me and proceeded to curse and insult me. After paying over $7000 CAD ($5200+ US) and settling the issue he tells me if I do not remove the bad review he will file a claim for an alleged $2000 dollars more that he figures I owe him. This outfit is a poorly managed joke, the original quote I was given over the phone was half the cost I was charged when I got there. This was blamed on new computer system. The Deposit I was required to leave was never mentioned prior to my arrival, had I refused the deposit I would have had to pay a cancellation fee. Said it once, I will say it again, take your...

Rented a sled with a group a few weeks back from these guys and what an experience!

They failed to mention that the trails hadn't been groomed in weeks and were 100% whoops (super bumps); the guide said it had been two weeks, the owner said it had been four weeks.

When filling out the paperwork we were told to leave the rate blank, like they charge what they feel like when they feel like it depending on who you are and what you look like (charged us $245 CAD and another guy in the group from Europe said they charged him $300 CAD). We took the "insurance" for $25, which had no paperwork, the guide said it covered everything but the lady at the desk said it covered the first $300 of damages.

The sleds we got were beat to heck; half of them were missing pieces and had apparent damage. Half the heated grips didn't work on mine and the guy said he cut off the roost flap on the back the day prior because it was dragging. The sled I had was a 550 with an 800 fairing on it, which is hilarious since the guide and owner said they have a third party shop replace damage with OEM parts but the guide said the owner spends a lot of time fixing sleds, both clearly not. Reverse also didn't work and the engine had duct tape on it! (see picture)

Two of the sleds in our group died during the tour, one shredded a belt which was apparently the wrong belt for the sled the guide told us; the other had computer issues which made it stall, the guide told us that's been happening lately.

The lunch was frozen burgers and dogs; they burned the plastic at the lunch spot, super environmentally friendly. The guide also smoked at every chance he got and littered his cigarette butts; he also made a bunch of racy comments about foreign visitors. Not cool.

They charged two of my friends for damage that was existing and wasn't (and couldn't) be cause by them; totally ridiculous. They also quoted a total amount but then said they forgot to tell us about other taxes and fees that should have been included in the total.

The whole operation is run pretty poorly, by people who clearly don't understand customer service and how to run a company, and are only in business because of the...