Intersport Ski Hire - Insurance Hard Sell

A snowHead

Just wondered if any other Snowheads have experienced an uncomfortably hard sell on ski insurance when renting from Taber Sa Intersport in Morzine - thats the one by the supermarket in Centre Commercial du Bourg - or any other Intersport locations??

One of my guests needed hire skis and we booked them using Alpinresorts and the Snowheads discount code for a best price rental and included the Alpinresorts damage / theft / loss insurance. Turning up at the Taber Sa Intersport outlet in Morzine my guest was told that the Alpinresorts insurance was rubbish, that in case of loss or damage she would have to pay the shop full value of the skis immediately and it would take months if ever to get her money back from Alpinresorts. Guest caved in and coughed up another 9 euros for the Intersport insurance.

That evening I emailed Alpinresorts and got a very positive response, that there was no issue with their insurance product, they would deal directly with the shop in case of a claim and they would take the issue up with the Taber Sa Intersport outlet and arrange a refund.

Returning the skis we were confronted by a very angry shop manager who was upset that a complaint had been raised with Alpinresorts, denied that his staff would have said what they did, blamed us for booking through a 3rd party and wanted to know why we were making an issue over 9 euros. I explained that my guest was a lowly paid student nurse and while 9 euros mattered a lot to her, his staff shouldn't be selling insurance that way to anyone. Priceless reply from manager was that people should not go skiing if they can't afford to. We left the shop with the manager hoping we had a 'very safe journey' no doubt from the tone what he really meant.

Thanks to Alpinresorts who immediately refunded the Intersport insurance when they heard what had happened - very impressed by them through booking and then how they dealt with problem.
No credit to Intersport France head office who after 3 weeks haven't responded.

A snowHead

Not quite the same situation but, when friends hired skis at Intersport Günther here in Fieberbrunn in January, they were asked to take out insurance for the first time. There wasn't any insistance, for my friends were happy enough to pay - they were brand new skis and we were getting a reduced rate. When I read in another thread about stolen skis in Saalbach, I did wonder if there was some local problem showing its head. But now another idea might be that Intersport has a new policy which pushes insurance more than in the past.

It was certainly annoying your having to pay for two insurances!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Hi espri - thats pretty much my take on what was happening, low prices due to internet competition so boost rental 15% by pushing insurance.
Anyone know how much commission the staff are on for flogging insurance?? Fair game maybe - but surely not on a rental that already includes insurance.
Hoping to get enough feedback from other snowheads to see if its an isolated thing or not.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

The alpinresorts insurance isn't that great, actually.

They charge you 15% of the rental cost of the skis. BUT it is restricted to €450 of value. So once you reach this level despite paying more for the insurance if the skis cost more to rent, they don't give you additional cover to cover the additional value of the skis. An annoying rip off, therefore I never pay it.

But then the Intersport insurance will charge you an excess (typically €60 for Blue; €100 for Red; €200 for Black).

Horses for courses, really.

Help!!

Intersport Ski Hire - Insurance Hard Sell

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