Village Ski Shop — Local services in Angel Fire

ABOUT THE COMPANY: We have rented from Village Ski multiple times in the past. Never a great experience, but it's a convenient location.

Customer service is terrible now. I am a fun, tolerant, and patient person. However, if you INTENTIONALLY do something to be mean, I will correct you (I am a high school science teacher).

I came to Angel Fire with my husband, our three daughters, four brothers, nephew, and my parents.

Jeff was working as the door man to make sure there were not too many people in the room.

When my husband, my youngest daughter, and I got up to the door, Jeff told us that we had to wait because there were too many people. We (tried) to explained that the rest of my family was in there and our reservations are together. He dismissed us and said that "it's the law".

Okay, understandable.

Anyway, I was cold so I told my husband that I was going to wait in the truck. Jeff butted into our conversation and told me to wait (disrespectfully). I looked at my husband in the face and said "I'm cold. I will wait in the truck."

I head back to the truck and a couple of min later, my husband yells for me that we can go in. So, I jog back over there.

I WATCHED Jeff let my husband and daughter in, then TWO MORE random people, but then shut the door on me. He put his hand up with the "stop" signal and said "you'll have to wait here, now because there are too many people".

TO JEFF: Your behavior was 100% intentional, Jeff. I see through you. You saw and heard my husband yell for me, saw me jog over, and proceeded to shut the door on me.

Due to the fact that I didn't listen to the all powerful Jeff by waiting in the cold, you felt pleasure in thinking that you were "punishing" me. Does that make you feel good? Do you feel like a big man by separating us on purpose?

Jeff, being rude is one thing. We all have bad days, weeks, months, etc... and I know being rude is nothing personal. For example, I probably came off as "rude" when I dismissed your advice to wait in the cold.

But, did you know that I haven't slept in three day? Did you know that I just finalized adopting one of my prior students? Did you know that I teach high school physics in class and online, both concurrently and separately? Did you know that my work hours are contracted from 8:30-4:30, but I really I'm working 6am - midnight EVERY SINGLE DAY? Did you know that part of the reason I went back to the truck was to finish answering a question for one of my special Ed kids? Did you know that I lost 30 pounds since the beginning of the school year because I DON'T have time to eat? Did you know that I have multiple break downs everyday from work/home stress? Did you know that I did all the planning, packing, shopping, and behavior management of kids for this trip WHILE juggling all of the other things?

Of course not. Why on earth would you? That's why I didn't take it personally when you were initially rude to me. I don't know what was going on your life to make you that way, but I chalked it up to dealing with people all day. I understand that.

But, you were something else today. You were vindictive. That's personal. You YELLED at me because I asked questions. That's personal.

Here is some advice, Jeff: If you see a mom/wife who looks like she's in a bad mood and wants to "get away" (like going to the truck), but yet the husband and kids are happy and excited, it's probably because she did all of the traveling work and she's tired.

TO OWNERS/MANAGERS: Village Ski is deteriorating. Employees can make or break you. Support your employees (pay them more, give them flexibility, train them, respect them as individuals with their own families, etc...) and you can turn Village Ski around. When you take care of your employees, you will get the top employees. People will be clambering for a job. Happy employees make happy customers. Happy customers spend more money.

If this is something you can't do: it's time to sell your company. Maybe I can scrape my teacher salary savings together to buy/remodel/invest. How much do you...

I hate to be a downer on a small local business but my last experience here was a tremendous disappointment that will leave me renting my gear from any of the other shops in Angel Fire.

My family and I were in town for Christmas and I had picked up a set of demo skis for a day on the slopes. Bear in mind that the demo skis are supposed to be premium gear for which you also pay a premium price. I didn't notice it until I was already down in Taos, but the skis were in horrible shape. The metal tip on one of the skiis was barely hanging on (missing 2 of the 3 rivets) and as a result it sounded like I was skiing on a set of maracas. Then, after two runs on the hill I stopped for a quick break and the brake assembly in the binding of the other ski completely popped out on me when I stepped out of the skis (see the picture I posted if you're curious). Needless to say, paying top dollar for this setup was not at all what I had in mind especially after I was turned away from the lift a couple runs later when the operator noticed I didn't have the required brake mechanism on the ski.

I had high hopes that the Village Ski Shop would do something to remedy the situation when I came by the next morning to drop my gear off. Unfortunately, that did happen. The owner (Mickey I believe) seemed initially sympathetic and was very quick to get the broken equipment out of the view of the other customers after I had explained what had happened. With everything gone out of sight, he said I was all checked in, implying that the transaction was over. I asked him if he could do anything to make things right since my gear did not perform as expected. His response: "Absolutely Not!" and with that he walked away.

I'm not one to take to the internet with the slightest grievance but what I got from this company was deplorable. With so many other options to rent gear that are within walking distance of this place, I know I will never bring my business here again and would steer anybody I know away from this...

Beware of this business. My family had the most surreal and unsettling experience with them. We stored my husband’s skis in their overnight storage shed. The following day when we went to pick them up, my husband took his skis which were the last ones in the shed and went to the base of the mountain only to discover that his boots didn’t fit in the bindings. He figured that someone else had taken his skis by mistake and went back to the shop to resolve the issue. Upon speaking to a worker (max with the Mohawk) he was immediately chastised and told to put the skis back because they weren’t his. My husband did so and went back in to explain the situation after which the worker told him that he would be financially responsible for his skis if he was unable to locate them. My husband then walked back to the mountain to try to try to find his skis so he wouldn’t be liable for the $1000 skis. Miraculously, my husband ran into the man with his skis who told him and presented a receipt showing that he had rented the skis that day. Upon calling the shop to ask them about this situation, the employees were insulting and rude on the phone and refused to take ownership for their mistake. If my husband hadn’t found the skis, he would have been charged $1000 for their replacement even though the shop had rented them out to someone else. They admitted that they “don’t have a system to check that people turn in the right skis after their rental period is over and that 99% of the time it all works out.” There are plenty of other rental companies to use on the mountain with better storage systems and more organized processes in place. Do not risk renting from...