Snell Sports — Local services in Bonneville

Probably best inventory selection in Chamonix, but we had a really bad experience with the customer service of the store. Saturday afternoon (our last day in the town) we got into the store at 18:50 to buy two pairs of running shoes. We were trying them on and we decided to buy them. When we went to the cashier with the shoes in our hands (no later than 19:00 hours), and told the lady in charge that we wanted to pay for them, she got mad and told us that she was leaving (without prior warning of the closure of the store). We insisted on paying for the shoes and she got angrier as if it was a burden to accept our payment, but she agreed to wait.

The next five minutes were super awkward and uncomfortable because the lady was treating us in a really unkind and rude way, and she was speaking in French about the situation with others right in front of us, which made us feel discriminated.

We left the store at 19:06 with our shoes, so if the closing time was at 19:00, I don’t think we were that out of time.

I don’t think that’s a proper customer service, especially because we were decided to get the shoes.

My recommendation: don’t go near the...

I stayed 3 days in Chamonix before hiking Le Tour du Mont Blanc. I bought some mountain equipment in several shops. I spent 900 euros in Snell Sports (Gore Tex pants and jacket) The day after, I realized the jacket fited too tight, so I went back to to change it for a bigger size, but it wasn't available The saleswoman denied to refund the cost of the jacket (550€). She wasn't empathetic at all with me with this issue, so I had to spend more money to get a more expensive jacket that fitted me properly. In my stay in Chamonix, I met people who bought items North Face, Decathlon and InterSport and they had to change them for similar reasons and they were offered both a refund or an item change (that's what I expected from Snell Sports), so I would never recommend to buy at Snell Sports. When I mentioned this issue to other people who hiked Le Tour du Mont Blanc on my group, they also told me some bad experiences they had in the same shop, most of them related to lack of empathy...

The range of equipment is unmatched, lots of choice from many brands. However I purchased approx £200 of climbing kit. I asked for assistance from an older man with glasses and was blasé and disinterested. Despite this I purchased the kit and stated I would be back with my partner to procure the same set.

Once back, we had gone to try equipment and it was packaged up. The man raised his voice at my partner stating “you buy this as you have marked it!” When in fact it was made clear we were allowed to try on the harness as it was a display piece. Already having purchased £200 worth of equipment I did not expect this reaction.

We decided to leave the £200 worth of new equipment as my partner did not deserve to be spoken to like this. As we walked out, he berated the new English shop assistant whose fault it was not. Good shop....