Another small local closes shop
- Thread starter 46er
- Start date
If it was the same man managing it before it closed, then he lost his mind. But I don't think he was the same man.
I went in there in early March last year to buy a kayak. What the heck I says to myself, I'll support this local guy. The store was in a complete uproar. Nobody knew what was going on and customers were all standing around waiting for help. Finally they gave me a guy to show me kayaks. The yard was in complete dissaray; kayaks were jumbled everywhere, even the ones on the racks were put away sloppily. Some had the shipping covers ripped halfway off. He had a brand I liked, but only one, and it was a previous model that looked like a ton of people tried it out (dirty, etc.). So, I went into the store and ordered it in the color I liked. This is a $950 Kayak.
I heard nothing from them for 3 weeks, so gave a call. They acted like they had no record at all, said the guy who orders is out for the day; they'll return my call Monday. Monday comes; Nothing. No call, nothing.
Gave them 2 more weeks and called again. And again they treated me as a stranger to their business. I reminded them of the sales man that sold it to me, and he called me back and said....gee, it should be out there. Let me go out to the yard, I'll call you back. He never did.
So, I got lucky 2 weeks later (or so I thought). I got ahold of the manager and explained the situation. He apologized, said he'd take care of this. So 10 days later he called; "your kayak is in".
I went there, and they led me to the same damn previous model I originally saw! It even had water plant material in the hull from the exposition at Lakewood! It was nowhere near the color I ordered. I asked them how in the hell could they even pull a stunt like this; I want my money back right now. The manager apologized and walked me back to the store and gave me the credit. On the way I asked him point blank; "what the devil is going on with your business?" He said something like..."I don't understand how I even got into this".
I went in there in early March last year to buy a kayak. What the heck I says to myself, I'll support this local guy. The store was in a complete uproar. Nobody knew what was going on and customers were all standing around waiting for help. Finally they gave me a guy to show me kayaks. The yard was in complete dissaray; kayaks were jumbled everywhere, even the ones on the racks were put away sloppily. Some had the shipping covers ripped halfway off. He had a brand I liked, but only one, and it was a previous model that looked like a ton of people tried it out (dirty, etc.). So, I went into the store and ordered it in the color I liked. This is a $950 Kayak.
I heard nothing from them for 3 weeks, so gave a call. They acted like they had no record at all, said the guy who orders is out for the day; they'll return my call Monday. Monday comes; Nothing. No call, nothing.
Gave them 2 more weeks and called again. And again they treated me as a stranger to their business. I reminded them of the sales man that sold it to me, and he called me back and said....gee, it should be out there. Let me go out to the yard, I'll call you back. He never did.
So, I got lucky 2 weeks later (or so I thought). I got ahold of the manager and explained the situation. He apologized, said he'd take care of this. So 10 days later he called; "your kayak is in".
I went there, and they led me to the same damn previous model I originally saw! It even had water plant material in the hull from the exposition at Lakewood! It was nowhere near the color I ordered. I asked them how in the hell could they even pull a stunt like this; I want my money back right now. The manager apologized and walked me back to the store and gave me the credit. On the way I asked him point blank; "what the devil is going on with your business?" He said something like..."I don't understand how I even got into this".
That's a bummer Bob. I've bought 2 canoes from there and some roof rack accessories, always dealt with Walt the owner or his son, nothing but good things to say, but this was quite a few years back, were the largest paddle sport dealer on the east coast. Maybe they got out of their in the store presence. I knew something was up when they cancelled their big spring show, PaddleSport, last spring. They lightened up on canoes significantly, focusing more on kayaks, so I bought my last canoe from the builder, great experience but you can't test paddle the boats like you could at JP. I wouldn't doubt someone else picking up the business, they used to do close to $20 million a year.
Wish I had heard about it earlier, they had some very good closing sales. With Bob Kislin's recent closing there is no longer any good local shop.
http://www.jerseypaddler.com/p/2512...-specials_kayaks-sups-and-canoes-on-sale.aspx
http://www.jerseypaddler.com/p/2512...-specials_kayaks-sups-and-canoes-on-sale.aspx