If I could give negative stars, I would award them to Purks. Purks Place has been in Bala for…read moreeons, but surprisingly, they don't seem to care about their reputation. Dishonest customer service. We visit Bala every summer and used to go to Purks on occasion. We always found the service brusque and surly. Not the way you want to be greeted when you walk into a shop. But the real reason we will never set foot in Purks again, didn't come until two summers ago. Our boat sank in a storm, and we found ourselves suddenly in need of a new one. Rather than purchase one hastily, we decided to rent a boat for the season while we shopped around for a replacement. Since Purks is right up the lake from us, we called for a speed boat rental. When we told our lake neighbors and fellow lifelong cottagers our plan, they advised us we were making a huge mistake: "Purkis is dishonest," they said. "We rented from them a couple summers ago, and they charged us for 'damages' to the boat that never occurred. Steer clear!" they said. We didn't listen. We paid C$1,000 for a week's boat rental. Fairly standard. We received a very well-used, run-of-the-mill, scratched and worn, smallish speed boat. We walked around the boat like a rental car with one of the employees looking for damages that were all noted before we drove away, including some loose stripping. When we returned the boat, Purkis' teenage grandson came out with us to go over the exterior of the boat. Sure enough, just as our neighbors warned, he informed us that there was some stripping on the side that had come loose and that we would be responsible for paying for it. Husband told the guy that the stripping had been loose when we rented the boat, that they had noted the damage, and that we had been particularly careful with this boat the whole time we had it. The grandson said he would have to talk to Purkis when he returned to the store the following morning, but for the time being, we would not receive our deposit back and would be charged for the stripping. I've never seen husband more livid than he was that evening over the false accusation of damaging the boat. We received a call from Bill Purkis himself the following morning. He informed us not only would we be charged C$1,000 for the week's rental, we would not receive our deposit back, and we would indeed be charged to replace the stripping. We told him we refused to pay for the stripping, as the damage had been incurred before our rental, but Purkis told us that he had our credit card and was going charge us anyway. He was rude and condescending. We called our credit card company and issued a charge-back on the grounds of a fraudulent charges from Purks, so Purkis did not receive one dime of our money. We have not set foot in the place since that summer, nor will we ever again. Lifelong cottagers know what they are talking about, and good businesses cater to this loyal crowd.

I rarely take the time out of my busy life to slag a disfunctional business but Purks Place is…read moreworthy of my time. I have refused to go there for 6 years now (and I live in Bala) but over the last few years I have had friends visiting up here that have gone to Purks for various reasons and incredulously all have returned with a variety of stories of being treated rudely by the owner. Amazing how in this day of information sharing that one can be so incredibly stupid as to think this is acceptable. I drive to Glen Orchard or Gravenhurst and give my money to people far more deserving. I implore you to not give this idiot a single nickel.

Seems to be a common theme here. I rented a jet ski and, without telling me, they processed a…read more$2,000 "deposit" against my credit card. I returned the jet ski and they said they would credit the deposit. Then, when I followed up, they claimed there was damage to the jet ski, which I know is not true. They then said they would provide an estimate for repairs and that I could see the alleged damage before any repairs. This was 3 weeks ago and, so far, no estimate, no information and the owner, Paul Neddow, is not getting back to me. I drove to their rental shop to see the jet ski but it wasn't available for inspection and the manager said he doesn't know where it is. Still not word.

They will try to scam you for repair damages - do not rent from them! I rented from them during the…read moreCanada day weekend and while they seemed friendly at the time, little did I know the extent to which they would try to rip us off later. First, I found it strange that they collected a security deposit of $2500 for the rental which seemed quite high to me. Admittedly, during our rental, we had a minor collision with the dock when offloading the jet ski which resulted in some minor damage to the jet ski (minor scratches to the hull and outer protective rubber coat). The jet ski was in great working order however, other than the minor (not even visible) cosmetic damage. They reassured us, including the manager/owner on duty, that the damages did not look that severe and they took photographs to document the damage. Boy was I surprised when they charged the entire $2500 security deposit to my credit card. I subsequently looked at their google reviews and found it full of reviews like this, where countless people were scammed using the security deposit as a tool to rob people of extra money. It seems to me that the security deposit is a major source of revenue for these crooks. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT rent from these people. It will save you a lot of money.