Boyne Country Sports — Local services in Bloomfield Township

TLDR: No integrity with members points, prejudice against providing services on items bought else where, manager unprofessional to own employees/customers, spend your time/money at your destination for better service, and be skeptical of local guide reviews.

I've been to the Novi and Bloomfield Hills locations and to be honest avoid both these places. The Bloomfield Hills location and I suspect pretty much all Boyne Country Sports will not honor their rewards program. That is IF you spend a considerable amount of money they will not honor the converted points correctly because honestly they would lose sales revenue if they did. Also I suspect these places are just betting on people not tracking their purchases and points. Bottom line, if you spend a lot don't risk thinking I should get the rewards program so I can come back for X item at a discount later because they have no integrity with their in house members program. Also contacting corporate for Boyne Country Sports will not solve anything as they will just follow this endless scripted loop that gets you no where to resolve anything. The Novi location store manager (male with glasses, condescending, & chad-like laugh) is something else. He will try to up-sell you with everything. A job in retail can be some type of way and I even humored him the first time as he showed products and talked about how his store is on the same level as the best innovations in the 20th century for winter sports. OK, jokes aside, what I observed is he does not treat his employees with respect as he will rudely cut them off in the middle of their sentence. The same store manager does not listen to the customers. I came in for a service only to: a) not get what I drove 40 minutes there for, I called prior to check to make sure everything was in order and they said it was, b) passive aggressively get denied service because they didn't sell me the items I brought in for said service, c) see a manager/grown man be disrespectful to his employee, d) me as the customers have my intelligence and time disrespected with multiple nagging attempts at up-selling for the same products.

Update: 2022/2023 Don't not get your boot fittings done here. They are barely capable of doing a simple heat mould and can't do any advanced fitting that will yield you significant gains anyways. They do carry the main brands associated with winter sports, but the models of said brands are mostly low tier and barely middle tier; again be skeptical of inflated reviews by "local guides". Don't be fooled by the placement and allure of the few to slim high end $$$ merchandise near the entrance or throughout the store. On a final note they will deflect and redirect the customer elsewhere to get off the hook for defective products; thats just poor service. Go somewhere else...preferably get what you need/done where ever you're traveling for your...

Disappointing Experience

For the past four years, I've been taking my grandkids to smaller ski shops in the area for their junior ski programs. This season, I decided to try Boyne. While the store is very nice and the staff is very friendly, the experience didn’t go well.

First, the store felt extremely cramped, especially in the kid's ski section. Too much inventory was on the floor, making it difficult to navigate. During our fitting, four kids were present plus parents, but the space could barely accommodate one or two kids comfortably.

Second, Boyne's Kids Program is more expensive than other shops in the area. In addition to slightly higher equipment prices, there's a $40 membership fee and another $40 fee to get bindings mounted. Most other local shops don’t charge for mounting in the first year and none require a membership fee.

However, my biggest disappointment wasn’t the pricing, as I knew it beforehand. It was the lack of experience and knowledge of the very young staff member who fitted my two grandkids. The fitting felt rushed, and they didn’t know how to communicate with small children to ensure the right fit effectively. As a result, one of my grandkids ended up with boots that were too large, so I had to go back again a few days later for a refit and to exchange them. My return visit was no better than the first.

For the premium price, I expected a much higher level of experience and expertise with proper fitting of equipment for juniors. Unfortunately, the overall experience did not align with the higher price.

If you decide to shop for kids' ski equipment at Boyne, you will certainly enjoy the friendly service and large selection of accessories. However, do your homework before your visit as you will need to play a crucial role to ensure proper...

I still can't believe the way we were treated this afternoon at the Bllomfield Hills location. We came to the store with the intention of purchasing a ski package for our son. We fist spoke with a 16ish kid about the trade in program, but from what he explained, my son was too big to fit their skis and bindings. Fine, what else can we get then? I asked. He says honestly we don't have anything for you. We started for the stairs a little dumbfounded and then I thought maybe I should ask a different employee. I went to the front counter and saw an older employee, maybe 25-30. I explained that we wanted to buy skis for our son, but the other employee told me you don't have anything for us. I asked, Is that true? You don't have any skis to sell us? He replies, first of all, don't come at me like that. Second of all...I didn't let him finish and gathered my kids and left the store. This guy was literally squaring off with me like we were going to have a fight, when I just wanted to buy skis. I wasn't raising my voice, swearing or otherwise being rude. I was trying to confirm that they didn't have any skis to sell us and that was the response I got. I've heard of bad customer service, but this takes the cake. Actually confronting your customer in an aggressive and potentially violent manner. Am I required to pander and thank you for the opportunity to spend $600 on a pair of skis? So in conclusion, if you want to go to a ski shop and deal with rude and entitled employees who may or may not want to fight you by the end of the interaction, then by all means go waste your hard earned money...