 Poster: A snowHead
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So we are currently in Pila and my husband went to return his skis today after a weeks rental only to find out that the shop claims that they gave him Salomon skis and he returned Head...he has not noticed the difference until that moment ( both skis had similar colours and looked like they have seen better days). Now the shop is asking us to pay them for the skis but as they are so old, not sure what is reasonable... the whole thing seems odd, as for him to accidentally swap skis with someone, for instance during lunch or coffee stop the other person would need to have the same foot size and also be of a similar weight, right?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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The skis usually have an electronic bar code and the shop's logo, also your receipt should show the same information. If the shop is correct then unfortunately you have (in effect) lost their skis and would have to pay in accordance with whatever terms and conditions you signed. The one silver lining is that your Holiday Insurance probably has cover for loss/theft of skis so you might be able to reclaim some of it. I doubt that the skis were more than a couple of seasons old even in Pila.
Do check to see if you have any photos of Hubby's skis from day one, that might help argue the value. Top Tip for the future: Take photos of all your gear and keep all receipts until after you leave.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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It does happen - Ive seen it happen many times with our guests not memorising their rental ski details. Technically - its theft, albeit in error, so you could see if its been reported to the Police. Did you take shop insurance - do you have insurance? The skis you now have need to get to the correct hire shop/Police station. As to value - if they are really 5/6 years old, thats very old for rental skis so the value is very very low! hth a bit! Ange.
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His rental receipt with often have the barcode/rental serial number on it so check that.
Do the Heads belong to another rental shop? If yes, then go to that and see if the Salomons have been returned there.
If you have to cough up then don't give them anymore than €50!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Are they from the same hire shop? Have they had the others returned? Sounds like a prize cockup and I bet the other person was fuming, having spent a considerable length of time in the restaurant trying to find their skis. Sounds reasonable from the shop.
You're not having the best of luck on your trip this time by the sounds of it with missed flights and now this.
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I’ve had this done to me - someone unobservant took my lovely new skis and left a knackered pair of rentals of similar colour scheme. I lost a morning’s skiing waiting around at the bottom of the slope for them to come back, at which point they adamantly denied they’d swapped skis (until I asked where they’d hired the skis, and pointed to the sticker on the orphan pair in the nearby ski rack). It’s also happened to a mate at a restaurant, but fortunately the “thief” realised and returned within a few minutes. In contrast I’ve never heard of a hire shop trying to scam someone for a new pair of skis.
Spyderjon’s suggestion of locating where the other skis came from and tracking your skis down from there seems reasonable. However I’m not sure the “only pay £50” is going to work either contractually or practically. This could be an easy fix for the ski shop, or they could (unlikely I realise) have rented out their whole stock next week and now they need to source another pair at short notice and full price. Good luck arguing an Italian contract particularly as a foreigner!
Is it possible that your husband is the guilty party, has taken someone else’s skis by mistake, and has also saddled them with a big bill? Unless you’re absolutely confident this isn’t the case, it would be difficult to argue any form of theft for insurance.
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Update: the very irascible shop owner said they were 5-6 years old.
They also have requested €100 euros and were not refusing to negotiate.
We’ll have to go back for the forth time tomorrow to finalise (even though they don’t have our credit card details as we booked through our tour operator we would like to amicably settle for good karma).
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€100 sounds halfway reasonable to me, seems like an easily made mistake on either hubby or the other persons part, the rental shop would’ve made more than that from the “missing” skis over the next few weeks so understand their point of view........
That said, I used to work in a ski shop and would normally try to find where the swapped skis had got to and sort it that way
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@KenX, apparently there are only two ski rental shops in Pila, so I have asked the rental shop to call the other shop to see if their skis turned up there but they refused. Will try calling the other shop tomorrow ourselves
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I am curious... have you kept the Head skis?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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€100 doesn't sound unreasonable for the time and trouble of the shop getting a replacement set
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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IMO. Practically speaking, 5-6 year old rental skis are only worth a few Euros....in fact your fee to hire them, is greater than what they are worth - but you are somewhat at the mercy of the hire shop and any terms and conditions you may have signed up to.
If your own insurance covers a lot of the cost, it's probably not worth having a row over.
Personally, I don't like to see hire skis more than a couple of years old.
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Do you still have the Heads? Do they have any rental shop stickers or other identification on them? It seems unlikely that anyone would deliberately switch a pair of old skis with another, so chances are that there is another equally confused person in the village.
Definitely visit the other hire shop and the police station, though it seems odd that the hire shop won’t call the other one. This isn’t so unusual that they won’t end up with each other’s skis from time to time.
Have a look on Facebook etc. to see if there’s a buy/sell or lost and found group for Pila and post a picture of the Heads and one of the lost skis if possible. They may have been left at one of the hotels, but should find their way back to the hire shop eventually if they haven’t been taken home.
A cheap cable lock is worth putting in your pocket.
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You know it makes sense.
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@snowdave, yes it is very much a possibility that my absent minded husband is the guilty party but of course it is equally possible that the other person is the one at fault. @Old Fartbag, the ski hire was through small local TO , part of the package deal, it is the first time we had such old skis and although they performed well for our needs, I don’t believe that they are actually worth 100 euros
@ulmerhutte, @Scarlet, we stupidly left the Heads in the rental shop. But I remember there were some stickers and numbers on them so will go back tomorrow and check . Will definitely try the other shop and police tomorrow but don’t want to waste all morning as we are leaving at 12 pm
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@Klamm Franzer, believe it or not but we actually had absolutely fantastic time this trip (notwithstanding the missed flight, the rental drama, my older son nearly falling off the lift, and my youngest getting a vomiting bug on the last day;) Let’s see what the journey back home tomorrow brings...
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Bella2015, Interski?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@skimastaaah, also very possible... will try to contact them too
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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AFAIK most rental outfits dump their skis (on Ebay, or via an agent who collects their entire stock; one shop I spoke to a few weeks back told me they dump 1300 pairs a year) after a year or two.
If they want 100 euros, that's not too much, for 1-2 year old skis. After 5-6 years they would be falling apart and would be worthless even on Ebay.
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@Peter Stevens, I've seen TOs/chalet companies renting out kit as part of the package that is much older than that in most rental shops. We stayed in a chalet last year that offered ski and boot rental at a bargain price - the skis were at least 8 years old and had obviously been bought off a rental shop at some point. We had our own skis but to be fair they actually looked fine, just old. Whilst they wouldn't be worth 100€ on the open market, from the TO point of view they are losing the rest of the season income from them.
@Bella2015, did you manage to locate them?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Bella2015 , i cant stand the suspense its like a whodunit novel, did you manage to solve the mystery of the missing skis 
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@Bella2015, my daughter's friend was involved in a similar mishap in VT last year. They tried to return the incorrect skis (unknowingly) and an exorbitant charge was demanded. My swift thinking daughter told the rental shop owner that as they were not his skis he had no right to keep them so grabbed them back from him. She had spotted another ski rental firms sticker and bar code on the skis so they raced across town, asked the other shop to scan the barcode and identify the correct owner. As it was a student ski trip a brief search on social media tracked down the other party and skis were exchanged. She describes with great delight how pissed off the shop owner was when they reappeared an hour later with the correct skis and his little scam had fallen flat. Clearly this type of incident is pretty common and rental shop owners see it as an opportunity to make a fast buck. They can easily repatriate skis with a little effort, or at the very least suggest how you might rectify an innocent swop.
Clearly theft or damage to rental skis is a separate issue.
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@Rareperk, this is exactly the impression I got. In fact when my husband went to the shop the next day and offered to discuss what he should pay but also asked for the skis he had returned to be given back to him , the owner was very rude and just refused to engage. So my understanding is that they preferred to keep the skis as they actually looked better/newer than the one they originally provided, so probably have higher value too
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Easily done. Me & missus Sacko stopped for lunch at the restaurant, just above Val Claret as you are sking down one of the blue runs after heading over from Val'D'Isere. After lunch we skied down to the funiculaire to head up to the grand motte, but the missus fell over twice on the way, which is really strange for her as she; a) does drink so is never under the influence and b) she is a great skier. She just said that the skis didn't seem to be attaching to her boot, but she still managed to ski down anyway.
We got onto the train and as we were heading up I burst out laughing as I found out the reason for her falling over, they were not her skis! She had picked up someone else's skis at the restaurant and the boot size was too big for her. We called the ski hire company that the skis were tagged with and let them know that there had been a mix up and that we were heading back down with them immediately so if the original owner calls to say their skis had been nicked, that we were on our way back with them.
We got them back and put them back next to my wife's skis, and called the shop back so see if anyone had called about them. They hadn't, so we left and number with them and, after checking that my wife had picked up the right set of skis this time, we skied off to make our way back up to the grand motte again.
We called the shop back at the end of the day to check if the person who had hired the skis had missed them, and they said that they had not had any word from them, so I assume that they were none the wiser about the mix up.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Bella2015, tourists inadvertently swapping skis happens all the time and for the shop owner it's a right pita!
They're within their rights to demand the skier returns the skis they rented from them and if the skier is unable then seek recompense/fine them.
The reality of it all is that at some point they'll give the skis they have back to the ski shop to whom they belong and hopefully the other ski shop will return the favour.
Until they do they are unable to rent the skis out, they may even have to get a replacement set in to meet existing/future orders which will cost them.
I'm not surprised they have held on to the "wrong" skis they know who they belong to and will give them back to them, all the shop keepers know each other and will see it as doing a friend a favour.
They're charged you €100 for losing the skis that you hired if you don't want to pay the €100 give them back the skis you rented from them.
How much you perceive the skis were worth is irrelevant.
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btw I also understand why the ski shop held on to them; they know you're leaving resort in the next few hours and with things going as they sound they may think/feel that the skis may leave resort with you or just be left in your accommodation for someone else to sort out if you don't find the right skis.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@marcellus, I get your point, but all this does not explain why they were so unbelievably rude and refused to enter any conversation with us. We did not deliberately swap the skis so did not appreciate being treated like criminals
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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To avoid my picking up the 'wrong' skis, I try to do something odd. Some trips I have carried a hair tie to put over one ski, otherwise I will put just one pole looped over one ski or my ski poles upside down, how to make them stand out depends on the ski racks. If I`m skiing with someone else and we stop I will often pair the skis oddly. I have to make mine stand out or I become clueless amongst the myriad of skis often in the racks!
Hope you manage to get it sorted.
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You know it makes sense.
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Best way to avoid this is to split your skis. You can either pair them with a mate (make sure they look totally different) or better still just put one in the rack and the other leaning against the restaurant wall 20m away. No-one nicks (or mistakenly picks up) a single ski
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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We had a similar problem last year in Pila. In this case it was a friend who swapped the skis and we noticed that night. I dropped them into the list office opposite the Yeti and they got the police involved directly.
The police were really helpful, called the shop who sorted replacement ski's for my friend, and they organised the swap with the owner of the skis which had been picked up.
The shop was the one at the North end of the car park, away from the gondola station.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@AndAnotherThing.., interesting. Was it the shop next to the pizzeria?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@AndAnotherThing.., interesting. Was it the shop next to the pizzeria?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@Bella2015, Sorry, it was the shop in Aosta in the bottom car park.
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