What to do when the shop mounts your skis wrong - A short novel **with pictures**

[C.R.E.A.M]

Hey Gang,

I was wronged today.

I have been shopping around for the 2020/21 K2 Poachers in size 177 for about a month and a half. I didn't get a chance to pick up these skis last season, and I was finally able to find a vendor who had 177's for sale in the Netherlands. I placed my order with Outdoor XL and paid the $70 to ship these puppies over here to the states, it was their last pair and I have been SO stoked.

I live in Irvine, CA and there isn't a shop here I've bonded with yet. Most people snowboard around here and I wanted to get them mounted before we went to Mammoth so I could ride them asap. All that said I went to my Local REI.

When I dropped them off I filled out the form. You know the deal, height, weight, boot type, skier type and requested mounting point. I am mounting up Pivot 14's, which don't have (much) adjustability and I'm also looking at new boots so I already know that I will *probably* have to re-drill these skis when I get new boots. With that in mind I wanted to be EXTREMELY careful as to communicate the correct mounting point.

The skis only have one mark on them for mounting and thats the recommended line. I wanted the skis to be mounted 3.25 cm in front of the recommended line. I even asked the guy working the back (the one supposedly mounting them) to tell me how he wanted the form completed. We decided 3.25 cm in front of recommended line was clear enough. I also opted to do the phantom treatment just as a bonus because hey why not I plan on keeping these baddies.

Fast forward to about an hour ago, when I went to pick them up. I walk in there and see the skis in the rack, I'm excited, I see the same guy who did the intake and I'm like "what up dude!" you know I stayed and BSd with him for 20 minutes last time and he recognized me, awesome just adding to the hype.

He brings them over and I knew IMMEDIATLEY something was wrong. The line in the middle of the ski had a binding over it. He's rummaging through his paperwork and quickly split the skis and flip one over to compare tip to tail. My calculations should have put me 2cm back from mathematical center (whatever the technical term is, length of the ski divided by 2). The TOE PEICE OF THE SKI IS ALMOST PAST THE DILDO PART OF THE REAR BINDING, THE TAIL OF THE SKI IS EASILY A HAND LENGTH LONGER THEN THE TIP!

****At this point I was in shock. I have been in a car accident, I have seen people get in accidents. I might as well have been hit by a car, I was in shock****

I quietly let him know we were going to need the manager.

Note: I am not one to "explode" on people, I have worked customer service, my approach to life is objective and I am a natural optimist. BUT, I cannot.... CANNOT understand how the tech mounted these skis 9 CM FORWARD FROM DEAD CENTER!!!!

As a manager, this would be instant drug test. If you fail the drug test, that's even worse because how in the fuck did you look at this ski and say "yep, looks right". You would have had to been high as a kite to not notice these things were fucked.

My phone number is on the form. If someone asks for a ski 9 CM in front of center you bet your ass imma call them. I would have LOVED to get a call from REI, that is one of the FEW people I would have been excited to get a call from.

Anyways, manager comes over. She's nice she's apologizing, she's telling me we can remount them. I'm explaining that I didn't bring them in to have holes put in them and that they aren't going to be able to find these planks. Shes going to call K2 tomorrow but again, I doubt shes gonna find em cause I had to order them from the freaking Netherlands.

I'm going to ask her to reimburse me for the price of the ski, the phantom wax, and to remount them for free.... And to never let the guy who mounted them mount skis again. On the one hand I feel like that's asking a lot, on the other hand this whole situation points to some pretty massive gaping holes in their process and REI is a big company, I feel like they need to feel the hurt that I'm feeling.

Anyone have experience with this situation? Anyone else dealt with REI or similar? Am I being crazy or is this out of control? Does anyone know where to get 2020/21 Poachers in 177? Lets hear your stories, and their resolutions.

Thanks for letting me blow off some steam

(photos show mount, back of yellow line on the ski is where I wanted mounted, front of yellow line on ski is almost center, red line on boot is boot midsole)

 

[BigPurpleSkiSuit]

 

[SendyMcSendyface]

View attachment 1018248

Was just about to post this, sounds like the tech forgot about units. Must either be new, or stoned as fuck, cause anyone who works on skis knows that everything is done in CM.

 

[MaimHelp]

Not this again…..

 

[C.R.E.A.M]

View attachment 1018248

 

[Skiblade420]

ask for whatever the hell you want, they messed up big time and have wasted your time. It’ll teach these places they need to get someone that legitimately knows what they’re doing. Not to mention it’s REI they make tons of money.

If I was you I’d be happy if they reimburse ski price alone even if I had to pay for the mount / waxing.

heck I’ll take a couple extra holes in my skis any day if it means they’re free.

 

[Notaskibum]

It's REI they have major stacks. Complain to corporate if you need to.

One time I had someone mess up a mount and then I realized that I told them the wrong spot.

 

[C.R.E.A.M]

It's REI they have major stacks. Complain to corporate if you need to.

One time I had someone mess up a mount and then I realized that I told them the wrong spot.

I would be the first to take the blame if my instructions were poor. Even the manager looked at the sheet and concluded that their tech fucccd up. I will say, she was quick to apologize and take the heat, and I was nice about the situation (relatively) but I didn't order these things from heckin' the Netherlands to Swiss cheese them.

 

[dolanslebensraum]

If they fill the holes with epoxy and redrill the right holes and mount them correctly, its not gonna hurt the performance of the ski to have a few small holes. They have to seriously use a good glue or epoxy tho. But as long as they use a strong epoxy and fill the holes completely then water will not get in.

i would be pissed too op. Dont worry. Everybody here would flip a fucking whorehouse if the rei fucked up that bad.

Best thing to do if rei cant find replacement skis is to just let them remount them correctly and do the dps “da pussy shit” fake wax and have reitards comp all of it and maybe give you a 200$ gift card or something.

poachers have nice bases btw

 

[tominiemenmaa]

Is it just the gargantuous volume of ski mounting and therefore the erroneous tech work having also ridiculous numbers, or are like half of the ski shops employing garden elves as ski techs? Feels like there's a fucked up mounting in the states for every ski mounted in Finland.

 

[SendyMcSendyface]

Is it just the gargantuous volume of ski mounting and therefore the erroneous tech work having also ridiculous numbers, or are like half of the ski shops employing garden elves as ski techs? Feels like there's a fucked up mounting in the states for every ski mounted in Finland.

I definitely think it's a volume thing here, 5.5 million people vs 350 million, even though Finland probably has a higher percentage of skiers.

 

[GayWolf420]

Is it just the gargantuous volume of ski mounting and therefore the erroneous tech work having also ridiculous numbers, or are like half of the ski shops employing garden elves as ski techs? Feels like there's a fucked up mounting in the states for every ski mounted in Finland.

Could be both honestly. But larger volume seems more realistic. Not to mention REI is a huge chain store company and they have locations all over the place in the western US. With how labor shortages are every where in the country, wouldn't be surprising if their techs are getting smoked with work orders, can't keep up, and mistakes get made. Shit like this happens in local small shops all the time too, all it takes is one baked-as-hell tech or just human error, but would probably happen as well in a local shop getting hammered with customers, especially right now before the lifts are turning here.

 

[GayWolf420]

also someone post the pics from that one infamous ski tech error thread, like the one where they mounted the magnus backwards lol

 

[Casey]

I’ve had a shop mismount and it’s like the problem is down the line when you want to repurpose the skis and you had a wasted mount so if you ever decide to remount that is 3 and the skis are toast.

 

[GrandThings]

Or ride em and do some heavy heavy tail butters. Might've started the new new wave - front mounted skis??

 

[sambuswell]

OP can we get a picture of the whole skis mounted? I need to see what +9 from center looks like

 

[C.R.E.A.M]

OP can we get a picture of the whole skis mounted? I need to see what +9 from center looks like

Unfortunately in my state of rage/shock I only snapped the picture that I posted. I felt like I kept it in the cage pretty well, considering, but I must not have because the tech whisked them into the back to remount them pretty fast.

TBH I'm still pretty steamy about it today, looking at that picture at the top of the thread makes my blood boil still.

 

[C.R.E.A.M]

Or ride em and do some heavy heavy tail butters. Might've started the new new wave - front mounted skis??

I've never been much of a trendsetter and my butters have always been so-so, maybe this was a message from god that I need to invest more in tail butters

 

[Skier_man05]

You could always just get them to reimburse you and get this years poacher. They look a lot less clean but it would be the same performance-wise.

 

[SofaKingSick]

i'm a little surprised you could only find those poachers from finland. i see them online (for too much $ though imo) and i saw a few pairs for sale at a ski expo recently

have you agreed on a deal with the shop yet?

 

[Chrischi69]

I am so goddamn happy my shop didnt fuck it up

 

[WoFIowz]

Dumb question cuz I'm sure you did but are you certain that the mount point on the ski is accurate? Sometimes those printed lines can be off. 9cm sounds fucked tho but did you not mark the exact line where you want your boot center line? That's mistake #1. Mistake #2 was going to REI lol.

Also for ski techs fucking up, yeah it shouldn't happen but it does. Google how many people die from medical errors and then try to talk about ski tech error rates. Humans make mistakes unfortunately. Shops should probably initiate a double check method where someone measures and marks the ski and then a different person drilling checks again before doing it. Could cut down on the errors. Just a thought.

 

[JLej]

I think it would be fun skiing something as fucking disgusting as +9cm tho

 

[SofaKingSick]

but did you not mark the exact line where you want your boot center line? That's mistake #1. Mistake #2 was going to REI lol.

yeah you should absolutely mark the line you want yourself. i always mark the line super clearly, put a sticky note on it clearly stating that THAT line is where i want my midsole, and also tell them in person too/put it on the note

this doesn't help OP much but for anyone reading, do this next time, you gotta do what you can to minimize the chances of a fuckup

 

[hoodratz47]

I had a shop fuck up some Armadas back in the day. I was a dumb kid and just let them redrill them and didn't ask for anything.

I wish I had

 

[C.R.E.A.M]

You could always just get them to reimburse you and get this years poacher. They look a lot less clean but it would be the same performance-wise.

I was thinking they give me my money back from the mount & phantom treatment and pay me for the cost of the planks, remount them and in exchange I won't burn the place down. I can ride them with the holes but I'm about to get a new pair of boots so you know they're going to be on their 3rd mount by end of the season.

The first set of drill holes will be right in front of the toe piece so I'll get to stare at them every time I'm on the lift, lol.

 

[CT_CREW]

sucks, guys an idiot....But just take 10-15min to measure and mark your own mount line, then double check it. takes out some of the room for error from the shop guy

 

[BradFiAusNzCoCa]

Jesse at my local hill in Finland was just fucking CRANKING out the twin tip mounts. He def seemed like he could make an error here and there but the kids wouldn’t realize. Plus, he didn’t tech anything so those kids were on their own with DIN, etc.

Ive seen sloppy work all around the world. Unfortunately, techs are prone to error wherever you go. A good rule of thumb is to mark your ski mount point with tape before you bring them in. Shoutout to [tag=249118]@FaunaSkis[/tag] for drilling my P12 holes for me before shipping so I can just use my pozidriv #3 & Roo glue to plug and play ?

Is it just the gargantuous volume of ski mounting and therefore the erroneous tech work having also ridiculous numbers, or are like half of the ski shops employing garden elves as ski techs? Feels like there's a fucked up mounting in the states for every ski mounted in Finland.

 

[C.R.E.A.M]

i'm a little surprised you could only find those poachers from finland. i see them online (for too much $ though imo) and i saw a few pairs for sale at a ski expo recently

have you agreed on a deal with the shop yet?

I got them from Outdoor XL (In the Netherlands) for around $400 and shipped them here for $70, so out of pocket was still slightly under this season's price. I have never been one to buy skis for the sheets but I am finally at a point in life where I can pay to have what I want, this was the first time I opted to do this and I feel like I got slapped in the face.

If you see them for sale somewhere in the 177 cm length, please send it my way! Sounds like REI would be willing to buy it on my behalf to make it right.

I'd ride this year's ski or get the Reckoner 102's but I can't stand this year or last years top sheets (personal opinion, don't grill me) I like the subtle understated topsheet of 20/21.

 

[C.R.E.A.M]

Dumb question cuz I'm sure you did but are you certain that the mount point on the ski is accurate? Sometimes those printed lines can be off. 9cm sounds fucked tho but did you not mark the exact line where you want your boot center line? That's mistake #1. Mistake #2 was going to REI lol.

Also for ski techs fucking up, yeah it shouldn't happen but it does. Google how many people die from medical errors and then try to talk about ski tech error rates. Humans make mistakes unfortunately. Shops should probably initiate a double check method where someone measures and marks the ski and then a different person drilling checks again before doing it. Could cut down on the errors. Just a thought.

I def hear you and I am aware that "center" "suggested" and deviations from these lines can be hard to interpret. I had this in mind when I took them in, with the tech and the intake guy, we measured the skis, measured the camber, measured both skis individually, I even suggested using sharpie on the ski. The tech was the one that said "just put 3.25 from reccomended on the sheet" as there is a very clear mark on the ski for the recommended point.

The intake guy was there and even told the manager that we had a clear consensus on where these should have been mounted, which is part of the reason I was in such disbelief when they were still wrong. For Christ sake the recommended mark is UNDER the rear pivot!

 

[BradFiAusNzCoCa]

After spending last season in Europe and this coming season in USA - Europe 110% has a better market for ski gear right now. My favorite European retailer doesn’t ship to USA, otherwise I’d probably still use them (sport Bittl)

i'm a little surprised you could only find those poachers from finland. i see them online (for too much $ though imo) and i saw a few pairs for sale at a ski expo recently

have you agreed on a deal with the shop yet?

I got them from Outdoor XL (In the Netherlands) for around $400 and shipped them here for $70, so out of pocket was still slightly under this season's price. I have never been one to buy skis for the sheets but I am finally at a point in life where I can pay to have what I want, this was the first time I opted to do this and I feel like I got slapped in the face.

If you see them for sale somewhere in the 177 cm length, please send it my way! Sounds like REI would be willing to buy it on my behalf to make it right.

I'd ride this year's ski or get the Reckoner 102's but I can't stand this year or last years top sheets (personal opinion, don't grill me) I like the subtle understated topsheet of 20/21.

 

[maaattt]

I wanna see the full length pics with bindings on

Also, in highschool the local rei mounted a homies SFB backwards

**This post was edited on Nov 17th 2021 at 10:58:35am

 

[Non_State_Actor]

This is ridiculous!

If you must use a shop to mount please measure measure measure your skis. Then place a piece of masking/painters tape across the area and mark the spot you want boot center with a nice sharp perpendicular line on the tape all the way across the topsheet. Make a nice short legible note something like "boot center here" with a little arrow pointing toward the line. Needs to be done on both skis. Take photos, whole ski shot, and close up.

 

[SofaKingSick]

I got them from Outdoor XL (In the Netherlands) for around $400 and shipped them here for $70, so out of pocket was still slightly under this season's price. I have never been one to buy skis for the sheets but I am finally at a point in life where I can pay to have what I want, this was the first time I opted to do this and I feel like I got slapped in the face.

If you see them for sale somewhere in the 177 cm length, please send it my way! Sounds like REI would be willing to buy it on my behalf to make it right.

I'd ride this year's ski or get the Reckoner 102's but I can't stand this year or last years top sheets (personal opinion, don't grill me) I like the subtle understated topsheet of 20/21.

okay yeah you're right, i don't see any in 177 right now. do keep googling though (depending on how much time you have, of course), i've found the older model year ski i was looking for on like page 5 of google results before and bought em

i'm going to direct message you info about the ski expo i saw them at recently. kind of a long shot but it might be worth calling them and seeing if they have any 177s left

 

[armchair_skier]

mount another set of bindings behind those and you have tandem ski

 

[Casey]

I was thinking they give me my money back from the mount & phantom treatment and pay me for the cost of the planks, remount them and in exchange I won't burn the place down. I can ride them with the holes but I'm about to get a new pair of boots so you know they're going to be on their 3rd mount by end of the season.

The first set of drill holes will be right in front of the toe piece so I'll get to stare at them every time I'm on the lift, lol.

That’s probably fair if they can’t find the skis. Then at least you aren’t eating the cost of their mistake. Remember REIs slogan is 100 percent customer satisfaction guaranteed. I used to work there that is what they preached all the time. I would just say objectively this is the financial toll of your mistake, your negligence caused damage that you cannot replace.

 

[RAcecARman]

Ive seen at least 10 rei horror stories come into the shop i work at over the last three years to get looked/fixed. The most recent was a pair of custom p's that they mounted with the wrong boot, then instead of telling the customer they just backed the pivot heel all the way up to the point were most of the thread was showing. The boot was still too big making forward pressure all jacked up. I'd avoid shopping at rei.

 

[C.R.E.A.M]

Alright gang, well to call this saga to a relative close I have the following update:

REI was unable to locate a pair of replacement planks in my size from K2 w/ 2021 graphics. I was given the option to get a refund for what I paid for the skis (~$460 bucks) or a pair of 2022.

Additionally they refunded the mount, and the phantom treatment I opted for.

Net, I got about $600, my skis mounted (2nd mount) and the phantom treatment. I would say that this is fair for the heartache and trouble.

I will have the little plugs in front of my toe pieces as a wonderful reminder and a fun story to share on the lift.

I'll post pics of them tomorrow when I get them back, fingers crossed they mounted them right this time!

Thanks for the comedic relief and support.

As a side note, I was pleased with the survey responses, you guys chose "fried eggs" in a heavy majority, which was clearly the right answer. Good job.

Love,

C.R.E.A.M

 

[sexyjulian]

Alright gang, well to call this saga to a relative close I have the following update:

REI was unable to locate a pair of replacement planks in my size from K2 w/ 2021 graphics. I was given the option to get a refund for what I paid for the skis (~$460 bucks) or a pair of 2022.

Additionally they refunded the mount, and the phantom treatment I opted for.

Net, I got about $600, my skis mounted (2nd mount) and the phantom treatment. I would say that this is fair for the heartache and trouble.

I will have the little plugs in front of my toe pieces as a wonderful reminder and a fun story to share on the lift.

I'll post pics of them tomorrow when I get them back, fingers crossed they mounted them right this time!

Thanks for the comedic relief and support.

As a side note, I was pleased with the survey responses, you guys chose "fried eggs" in a heavy majority, which was clearly the right answer. Good job.

Love,

C.R.E.A.M

Gawd damn, u secured that bag c.r.e.a.m.

 

[Casey]

Alright gang, well to call this saga to a relative close I have the following update:

REI was unable to locate a pair of replacement planks in my size from K2 w/ 2021 graphics. I was given the option to get a refund for what I paid for the skis (~$460 bucks) or a pair of 2022.

Additionally they refunded the mount, and the phantom treatment I opted for.

Net, I got about $600, my skis mounted (2nd mount) and the phantom treatment. I would say that this is fair for the heartache and trouble.

I will have the little plugs in front of my toe pieces as a wonderful reminder and a fun story to share on the lift.

I'll post pics of them tomorrow when I get them back, fingers crossed they mounted them right this time!

Thanks for the comedic relief and support.

As a side note, I was pleased with the survey responses, you guys chose "fried eggs" in a heavy majority, which was clearly the right answer. Good job.

Love,

C.R.E.A.M

Probably 3/10 shops would do this instead of just telling you to fuck off.

 

[jompcock]

Probably 3/10 shops would do this instead of just telling you to fuck off.

A shop mounted the wrong bindings on my BDogs (was a second mount) so they let me pick whatever skis I wanted as a replacement. I still have the BDogs.

 

[dolanslebensraum]

Alright gang, well to call this saga to a relative close I have the following update:

REI was unable to locate a pair of replacement planks in my size from K2 w/ 2021 graphics. I was given the option to get a refund for what I paid for the skis (~$460 bucks) or a pair of 2022.

Additionally they refunded the mount, and the phantom treatment I opted for.

Net, I got about $600, my skis mounted (2nd mount) and the phantom treatment. I would say that this is fair for the heartache and trouble.

I will have the little plugs in front of my toe pieces as a wonderful reminder and a fun story to share on the lift.

I'll post pics of them tomorrow when I get them back, fingers crossed they mounted them right this time!

Thanks for the comedic relief and support.

As a side note, I was pleased with the survey responses, you guys chose "fried eggs" in a heavy majority, which was clearly the right answer. Good job.

Love,

C.R.E.A.M

Nice.

 

[PacificRimJob]

Glad to hear this got all sussed out at the end...

Honestly, I feel for you as well as the shop. I have been both the mistake-maker and the manager having to handle the refunding of a bad mount on multiple occasions and it just plain sucks for everyone.

Fuck, it happened to me once on a pair of one-off New-Zealand made Kingswood skis where I literally fucking mounted one 3 whole cm different than the other one because I lined up the wrong line on the jig like... Total fuckup for me and it cost the company like 1400 australian$ and a ton of time getting a new pair of skis sent over from New Zealand. I wasn't high, drunk, nor even hungover... just totally fucked it while pumping out mounts one day.

Also, to be fair REI is usually better than this. I have worked in shops close to REI for years and I have only seen a handful of screwups on their end. I will say that they do not pay their shop employees well enough like most sports industry jobs, but generally speaking, theyre no worse than a lot of places.

Sounds to me like they handled it the way they should have handled it. It's really a drop in the bucket for them at the end of the day to do such a thing so rock on. The other good news is youll never have to really worry about your skis having been mounted wrong because honestly, they wont ski much different than they would have anyway. I have some skis with 4 or 5 mounts through them that I daily drive.. it's really not a big deal at the end of the day so long as you dont have a bunch of holes going laterally across the ski.

 

[NotEnoughSkiing]

In the future check out Phil's in Costa Mesa or P3 in Mammoth. Glad you had a satisfying resolution and a way to vent and give us all a bit of a chuckle. So was it 3.25in vs 3.25cm on the first mount?

Not to throw blame but did you actually write cm or just a number?

A number of years ago someone I know from JPL told me about how they crashed the rover into Mars - it effectively came down to a bunch of work involving unsigned numbers. So he went on a personal crusade after that to NEVER write a number without signing it. Is it dollars, units, cm, mi, in whatever just write it and don't ever assume it's just implied from context even if it seems silly. I kinda like that and try to do that whenever I can too.

 

[BigPurpleSkiSuit]

Alright gang, well to call this saga to a relative close I have the following update:

REI was unable to locate a pair of replacement planks in my size from K2 w/ 2021 graphics. I was given the option to get a refund for what I paid for the skis (~$460 bucks) or a pair of 2022.

Additionally they refunded the mount, and the phantom treatment I opted for.

Net, I got about $600, my skis mounted (2nd mount) and the phantom treatment. I would say that this is fair for the heartache and trouble.

I will have the little plugs in front of my toe pieces as a wonderful reminder and a fun story to share on the lift.

I'll post pics of them tomorrow when I get them back, fingers crossed they mounted them right this time!

Thanks for the comedic relief and support.

As a side note, I was pleased with the survey responses, you guys chose "fried eggs" in a heavy majority, which was clearly the right answer. Good job.

Love,

C.R.E.A.M

CASH RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME CREAM GET THE MONEY DOLLA DOLLA BILLS Y'ALL

**This post was edited on Nov 19th 2021 at 12:06:03pm

 

[C.R.E.A.M]

In the future check out Phil's in Costa Mesa or P3 in Mammoth. Glad you had a satisfying resolution and a way to vent and give us all a bit of a chuckle. So was it 3.25in vs 3.25cm on the first mount?

Not to throw blame but did you actually write cm or just a number?

A number of years ago someone I know from JPL told me about how they crashed the rover into Mars - it effectively came down to a bunch of work involving unsigned numbers. So he went on a personal crusade after that to NEVER write a number without signing it. Is it dollars, units, cm, mi, in whatever just write it and don't ever assume it's just implied from context even if it seems silly. I kinda like that and try to do that whenever I can too.

I went back in to pick up the remounted skis last night. I had a chance to talk with the lead tech and I guess the tech was just in a hurry. They weren't exactly sure how he did it, but it sounds like he put the heelpeice on the mark where the midsole should have been. The forward holes for the heelpeice are right on the midsole line.

While this whole situation was shitty, I am glad it was REI because A. they were able to make it right (financially) and B. I don't feel bad sticking it too them since it was their mistake. If it was P3, I would have gone easy on em for sure.

I have been to Phil's in Costa Mesa, sometimes I forget they are an option, such a small shop. I'll give them a shot next time I need work done locally. I've also been to the Ski & Snowboard Outlet in Santa Ana and am not stoked about that place, the vibe was off.

P3 in Mammoth is def my spot, my fiancé had her boots fitted there and they repaired my first chair 10's on the spot bang up job for cheap. I forget the gentleman's name but he's always there, always excellent. I'm holding off on buying new boots hoping I can sneak in a fitting with them next weekend.

Still have to snap pics, been so busy with work. Its pretty funny having plugs out in front of the toe pieces when they are already pretty much center mounted