sarcastic remarks can get you banned from Neptune Mountaineering
I never thought I would have to write something like this. I actually got banned from Neptune Mountaineering today. Here's how it all went down. And no, this isn't a joke.
After receiving a call that my Axons were in, I rushed down to Neptune to pick them up that night. Finally I could ditch those miserable Day Wrekkers. I was beyond excited.
I walked directly back to the boot department and told the salesman I had Axons waiting on the hold shelf. He promptly snapped back that they didn't carry such a product. I was surprised by his response since I've had such good service in the past. Maybe he misunderstood me. I asked him again but this time he said Garmont didn't even make a boot called the Axon. I didn't have the time or patience for these antics. I pointed to the Axon on the wall and asked him if these appeared out of the ether then. My pair was delivered today and will be waiting on the hold shelf. While he stood there with a blank stare on his face, another salesman came over and asked if he could help me. I told him this guy was incompetent and obviously incapable of performing the simple task of retrieving a pair of boots from the back.
Once I finally had the boots on they felt decent but I wanted to try the next shell size down. I asked if I could try on a 25.5. They said my boots came from a special order and the store didn't carry Axons. Not this garbage again. I had talked to the hard goods manager about 1.5 months ago and I thought I remembered him saying they would have a pair of 25s. After repeatedly asking them to please check the back, they came up empty handed. It turns out that 26.5 was the smallest shell they had. Oh well. I probably needed a 26.5 anyway but it shouldn't be this hard to get service. I left the boots on for a few minutes and had to listen to the same salesman's inane questions. Are those water skis? Why do you want such a stiff boot? Etc.
I left my skis for the tech to mount and told him I would give him a few extra bucks for an extra careful mount. I didn't want any prereleases on these things.
Two days later I receive a call from the general manager. He heard bits and pieces of the story and didn't appreciate how I treated the salesman. I explained my side of the story but his response was the store won't mount the skis and you are no longer welcome here. Unbelievable. I never once raised my voice or cursed and I remained calm throughout the whole incident. Sure I was a smartass but even Mother Theresa would have strangled the guy. To make it worse, I now had to find someone to mount my skis on very short notice. Luckily Edge Works was more accommodating. They even gave me a student discount.
I thought I would share this story since lots of Front Rangers probably shop at Neptune. I had been a loyal customer before this incident, even driving down from Colorado Springs for my last pair of boots. Salesman like this are one of the main reasons I'd rather buy online. They can turn what should be a pleasant experience into a nightmare.
I'm ultimately grateful that I scored a rare pair of boots from them but I don't understand the know-it-all salesman mentality. It’s better to be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt. All the salesman had to do was say he didn’t know and he would check. Seems simple enough to me.