Synaptic Cycles Electric eBike Sales Service Rentals — Local services in Dana Point

Wow! Where to start? 1st, this review would have been 5-stars, but b/c of the awful experience at the rental's end it took a turn for the worse. To begin, I booked a weekly road bike rental for a family vacation in SoCal, starting Sat morning. I booked everything online and the process was very easy and convenient. I signed the rental agreement and paid for the whole thing up front, so there was minimal interaction with the staff when I picked up the bike. That was probably for the best however, since at pickup only the owner was in the shop and it was busy with a steady stream of customers. Unfortunately I had forgotten to send them my bike fit numbers, so I ended up leaving the bike and coming back a couple of hrs later, actually picking it up closer to 12. I was eager to get riding at this point so I took the owner’s suggestion for a route to San Clemente. The rest of the week went beautifully with the owner suggesting more routes, tweaking my saddle and even lending me a floor pump for the week. I was having a great time and even told him how awesome his recommendations were.

On Friday evening, however, things turned sour. I had made the mistake of assuming that a 7-day rental that started on Sat morning (close to 12) would not end until the next Sat morning. I did not fully read the rental agreement and did not realize that the bike was due back Fri before close @ 6 pm (15 hours short of a week!). That detail was also never mentioned during the bike pickup.

The shop began calling and leaving frantic voicemails, texts and emails shortly after 6 pm on Fri. The first time I talked to the owner was at 6:13 pm. I answered the call in a car full of family, and the owner immediately began to berate me about how inconsiderate and disrespectful I was. He told me he had to get the bike to the next renter in San Diego at 6 am the next morning. He threatened to cancel that renter’s agreement if I didn't return the bike immediately because otherwise I would not leave him enough time to prep the bike, and would charge me for the lost revenue. I calmly admitted to not having read that detail in the agreement and apologized repeatedly. I offered to pay a late fee, but did not think it was fair to charge me for his decision to cancel the next rental. I drove back from LA as quickly as I could and met the owner at the shop around 9 pm. He did not soften his tone at that point and continued to rudely berate me about the slip. I admitted to my mistake, apologized and offered to pay a late fee but he begrudgingly said he would make my situation work and not charge me anything. He then told me that I was no longer welcome in his store. Dumbfounded at this point I left realizing he was not to be reasoned with.

This business owner's irrational behavior, in threatening to cancel another renter’s agreement and charging me for his lost revenue (making 2 customers unhappy), as well as his rude and disrespectful treatment of a paying customer, forced me to write this review. I will never do business with them again. I hope anyone who reads this realizes the caliber of person you’re dealing with in this owner. If you do business with him, please read the fine print.

Edit in response to owner:

I did take ownership of my "mistake", calling it that and repeatedly offering to pay a late fee, while you insisted that it was not, and that I was being inconsiderate and disrespectful. Now you're calling it a mistake.

I did get back from LA as quickly as I could. Traffic from Hollywood to Dana Point caused the trip to be ~2 hrs.

Google shows that I was waiting @ the shop before 9. I texted you to say I would be there by 9 and you replied @ 8:46 pm saying you were headed there.

I've never been treated so poorly by a business owner! That's why you got a 1-star rating!

The correct response from the owner should have been, "Sorry for your disappointing experience. We will try to do better and hope to win your business in the future." This owner, instead doubled down on accusations of blame and never acknowledged how poorly he...

Amazing! I walked in with an e-bike I bought online that had a flat. The repair guy was helping another customer so I looked at the huge selection of high quality e-bikes in and outside the shop. I was surprised by how great the prices were for high quality brands. When it was my turn I let the repair guy know I was eventually interested in a new cargo bike but that I wanted the new tube and let him know some other issues I had noticed. He began to write up a repair quote as it was an hour away from closing and I mentioned that I needed the essential repairs immediately as I had to get to school in the morning. He immediately got straight to repair mode and went above and beyond to accommodate my request. He did the repair and let me know what was not urgent and also what was not needed at all. He told me that if I was using this as a hold over until I can buy the new bike he would just help me maintain it and keep it safe to ride without sinking a bunch of money into it.

I asked if I could ride one of the cargo bikes, and even though it was closing time he let me take a go around the parking lot.

This store has friendly and knowledgeable people who care about building long time relationship based business and aren’t concerned with making a quick buck.

In addition, he noticed that the person who sold the bike to me and fastened the front wheel to the frame using zip ties. I hadn’t even thought to look for that because it had not occurred to me that someone would sell a bike in that dangerous condition. He searched through his hardware, found the right fit and put it on with no additional charge.

Synaptic Cycles delivered platinum service, has great prices and is right there in the middle of Dana Point. This is my new place for everything bike...

We are a group of roughly 8 adults and 8 kids who came to Orange County for Thanksgiving weekend.

We really wanted to do some fun activities in the area and renting electric bikes to ride along the beaches and coastal areas sounded like a great idea.

We did some research and hit a few snags because at least two in our group were physically smaller than the bikes available from many shops. In addition, the size of our group was also too large for several shops.

Finally, we found Shaun from Synaptic Cycles in Dana Point.  He made these issues go away!  He was able to find e-bikes that fit our smaller riders.  He was able to arrange to have extra e-bikes brought to his location from another area.  He did a lot of work to make this happen.

When our group arrived, he met all of us and swiftly got us arranged on our bikes, fitted to the bikes, instructed us in how to use the bikes, set us up with helmets and locks etc.  He had terrific recommendations on where to ride.  He was great working with the kids in our group.  He is extremely knowledgeable, accessible, and an overall cool person.  Also, the bikes were of excellent quality!

We had a fantastic day!  The places Shaun recommended were very accessible but also stunningly gorgeous.  The kids had an amazing time and wanted to keep going for extra hours of fun!  (We had dinner plans, unfortunately.).

One thing became clear.  Shaun and Synaptic were not your average "bike shop" that does rentals.

Instead, they were used to dealing with larger corporate activities and groups who are more demanding and challenging to service than the casual family going out on an excursion.

They are at a much higher level of service and sophistication.  We would eagerly recommend them.  And all of us look forward to...