NEVER. EVER. AGAIN.
DO NOT RENT HERE..BEWARE!!
So you would think that in the internet day-in-age, a business might want to at least try to give decent customer service, but I guess these snobs are stuck in the past where Harley's were actually once considered a good bike.
I have been riding for several years with most of my experience coming from Japanese bikes. I decided to go up to Lake Tahoe for a 4-day weekend and I thought it would be awesome to rent a Harley Electra Glide Classic since I wanted to try out a touring bike as well as a Harley.
So first off, they have the wrong address on their site under "Directions" as well as on Yelp, so we got lost and a little delayed. When I finally got the right address and got to the shop to pick up the bike, it was there ready and looking good! The woman working there allowed me to pick out a helmet, but they had pretty awful selections and she wouldn't even help me with them. She just said "this is what we got..grab what you need".
I was then introduced to the person for whom this review is primarily based on..John (I believe he is the owner). He started out very grumpy and seemed almost annoyed that I was renting his "favorite bike" for an entire 4 days (the lady told me this was John's favorite bike and to take good care of it)! When I told him it was 4 days, he said "well..no one told me that". Umm...I booked the reservation over 1 month in advance! John proceeded to show me all the intricacies of the bike in a very unpleasant manner.
On the way to Tahoe, the bike started leaking coolant..hmm, not a good sign. Anyways, that finally stopped (not sure why), but the bike was definitely smoking for a while.
The Tahoe trip was awesome and the bike got a lot of good looks. On the way back, we were stuck in Labor Day traffic, which was bumper to bumper for several hours. Well, half way home on the middle of the interstate in 90+ degree heat, the bike decides it doesn't want to hold 1st gear anymore and dies every time the bike comes to a stop. Wow..a $20k+ bike that is rented out by "Harley mechanics" can't even withstand interstate traffic. Never had that problem with a Japanese bike or even a Victory (which blows the lid off a Harley by the way).
They wouldn't allow me to return the bike on Labor Day, so I had to drive the bike 45 minutes north of my house to return it at 8am in the morning on a workday. The commute going back to work was 2 hours! Definitely not convenient! They even threatened to charge me for the "extra day" rental, but I talked them out of it! So a few exits before I arrived at their shop, I stopped off to fill the tank. When I pulled up to the shop (tank still on full), John said that it wasn't "topped off". He said "I gave it to you topped off, so you should give it back that way". No other rental place I have seen is this anal. He says he is going to have to charge me $25 dollars to "top off" an already full tank, which cost $16 to fill up!! Then, he looks at the bike and notices that there is some sticky residue over the entire bike. I must have driven through something, because it was also on my gear as well. He looked at me with the most annoyed look ever and started hounding me about how the bike got that way. I told him the bike was a $165 per day rental (including insurance) and I was going to get my "rides" worth, so I rode it pretty hard every day. They never mentioned I had to clean it for them too!! The way he spoke to me was like he was insinuating that I poured soda all over it!! Anyway, the whole time he could see I was fuming and he said "no need to get so angry"..???? Really?? All this place needs to do to get a decent review is to make the rental process easy and to give decent customer service.
So at the end of the day, I was criticized for the bike being dirty, the full tank not being full (and being charged to fill the entire thing plus more!), borderline heat stroke from being stuck on the interstate (and almost missing my lil bro's birthday dinner), and a pounding headache from their rental helmet which was the crappiest helmet ever. He also made some smart comment about him having to come in early to collect the bike from me. Wow! I think I was probably more inconvenienced than him!!
I don't know who this guy thinks he is, but if he "loves" this bike so much...then don't rent it out!! Don't guilt trip me the entire time! I would give this place a negative rating if I could. I am telling all my friends and the Yelp universe to NEVER rent from this place! read more