Alpine Shop, VT Reviews?

marjoribanks

marjoribanks

Member
Hey NS, I picked up a pair of bindings from Alpine Shop in Burlington, VT. When I went the employee(s) I dealt with seemed well informed about the sport and it seemed to be a reputable shop and too me, the experience was positive. Ended up buying a pair of bindings there for my new J's; I was told they would mount for free as well. Anyways, my GF goes in there a couple weeks later to also pick up a pair of bindings and she had a completely different experience, the sales guys and techs hassled her over pricing/what bindings would fit her skis, telling her that only a 100mm binding would fit a 90mm waist, and then ended up telling her that mounting would not be free (we are both mounting to a new pair of J's fyi).

So this got me wondering if anyone has any input or experiences with the shop. do trust the techs to mount their bindings, do they deserve the business, etc. I have NO problem going to another shop and paying to have my bindings mounted either. Any and all input would be great! Would hate to spend all this $$ on skis and bindings and have it wasted to a botched job or go to a bad shop.

(Wasn't sure what thread this belonged to, SG or Gear, decided both couldn't hurt)
 
I've had good experiences there with sales, but that was ~4 years ago now and I knew a bunch of the employees.

Personally, I go to Outdoor Gear Exchange for any bindings to get mounted but that's mostly because I trust them to mount tech bindings versus Skirack or The Alpine Shop.

I've never heard of any issues at The Alpine Shop or Skirack either, fwiw.
 
13846200:SofaKingSick said:
kinda need to be less vague about what happened between her and the shop people, right?
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Basically she asked for a 90mm pair of spx 12's for her 90mm whipits. They didn't really say much about it at the time and they "got the bindings" and rang her up. Their online listed price for the bindings were $199 but in store they tried to charge her $230 and then changed their discount policy for J skis (I was told and received 15% off just one week prior) and the guy she was dealing with claimed that they 'just' changed it and gave her 10% after she had to go back and forth with them (I have not looked into if they actually changed it or not, but to have to go back and forth for a store policy seems ridiculous) and she would still have to pay for mounting (I was told I would get free mounting). On top of that they gave her 100mm bindings, so she went back to ask for them to exchange them for the 90mm like she first requested and that's when the guy who rang her up claimed that the bindings don't come in a 90mm and that 100mm would be fine. Based on her description of the situation it sounded like they switched the binding brakes out for 90mm ones. But during that experience she said they were claiming that she had no idea what she was talking about/she was wrong/talking about her in the back thinking that she couldn't hear them.
 
13846226:marjoribanks said:
Basically she asked for a 90mm pair of spx 12's for her 90mm whipits. They didn't really say much about it at the time and they "got the bindings" and rang her up. Their online listed price for the bindings were $199 but in store they tried to charge her $230 and then changed their discount policy for J skis (I was told and received 15% off just one week prior) and the guy she was dealing with claimed that they 'just' changed it and gave her 10% after she had to go back and forth with them (I have not looked into if they actually changed it or not, but to have to go back and forth for a store policy seems ridiculous) and she would still have to pay for mounting (I was told I would get free mounting). On top of that they gave her 100mm bindings, so she went back to ask for them to exchange them for the 90mm like she first requested and that's when the guy who rang her up claimed that the bindings don't come in a 90mm and that 100mm would be fine. Based on her description of the situation it sounded like they switched the binding brakes out for 90mm ones. But during that experience she said they were claiming that she had no idea what she was talking about/she was wrong/talking about her in the back thinking that she couldn't hear them.
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oh fuck that, take your business elsewhere. that's all bush league shit that you only deal with if you have no other shops around. i say youre right in thinking you should go somewhere else
 
13846229:SofaKingSick said:
oh fuck that, take your business elsewhere. that's all bush league shit that you only deal with if you have no other shops around. i say youre right in thinking you should go somewhere else
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In you're from the area, do you have any recommendations?
 
sorry man i dont spend much time in burlington, but plenty on here do. hopefully you get a good recommendation from someone else
 
skirack works for me. They accidentally sold a pair of bindings I bought (they were brought back up to the shop floor) and they called and asked me to pick from any other bindings in the same price range, which is what any shop should do. Mounted 5-7 skis at skirack without problems except for the mandatory DIN check fee for every mount.
 
13846293:Park. said:
skirack works for me. They accidentally sold a pair of bindings I bought (they were brought back up to the shop floor) and they called and asked me to pick from any other bindings in the same price range, which is what any shop should do. Mounted 5-7 skis at skirack without problems except for the mandatory DIN check fee for every mount.
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I was chattin with the boot fitter there for almost 30 minutes when I walked in just browsing the new gear a month or so ago, definitely left there as a future customer. Going to get my boots tweaked in a couple weeks when I head back up to Burly so I might as well kill 2 birds. Thanks for your input!
 
just to follow up with this thread for anyone interested - ended up going to SkiRack, charged me $40 for a mount (not bad at all imo), staff was fantastic, even got my boots tweaked by one of the fitters while i was there. I dropped my skis off on Friday and i told them i was only in town for the weekend so i told them i would have a friend of mine pick them up for me when they were finished. They actually got them back to me by early Sunday afternoon just before i was heading out of town... 10/10 going there for all of my future shop needs. Thanks for everyone who helped me out on the thread as well, you guys rock.
 
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