This describes only the rental portion of the company. We were disgusted with both how we were treated, the policies they have in place, and the overall sloppy service we got. For starters, the general employees we worked with were polite and helpful, but not overly knowledgeable. The manager, Nate, however, was patronizing, belittling of our guide and us specifically, brusk to the point of rudeness both with us and other customers I saw him interact with, and downright wrong in a few ways. Firstly, his communication was atrocious regarding a credit we were hoping to take advantage of, and the amount of the credit we were supposed to be able to use was over $500, but somehow Nate decided it was only half that. He clearly didn't read my emails completely, making strange statements and missing information that I had said. He also tried to double bill me for all of our gear when my girlfriend had already paid for her half, without so much as an apology when I pointed out the mistake. The gear quality is adequate, but their gear selection has wild variations. My sleeping bag was rated to -30, my girlfriend's to +15. They gave us incorrect sizes from what we ordered (simple things such as asking for large gloves and getting mediums) and completely forgot to add in items we ordered, being boots and crampons. The gopro I was given had a clearly broken mount. Nate took it back, and showed me that it can be attached backwards to improve hood clearance over my helmet. I said that was neat, as it also served to keep the gopro from falling out should the mounting tabs break again. He gruffly replied "it's not going to break" with a patronizing tone. Excuse me, you just took one that DID break and wouldn't stay seated into the helmet mount out of my hands, and that's ignoring the fact that I was given this broken one in the first place. They do not supply so much as a charger for the gopro, and it does not use an overly common type of USB charger. If I hadn't brought a charger, I would have ran out of battery long before I'd exhausted the SD cards I brought. No instructions come with it either, neither verbal nor written, if we had picked up our gear on the way to the mountain, I'd have been lost on how it worked. We were belittled for only renting one ice axe apiece, and implied that our experienced guide did not know what he was doing when he told us one axe was enough, asking if our guide was up to date on the route, when he had just gotten an update from other guides and called me to inform me that our route was going to be slightly altered not two hours prior to our arrival at Whittaker. Their prices are about what you can expect, though the actual billing procedures and explanation of what things actually cost is poorly explained, they do not gives you a paper copy of anything you sign, and their website has no mention of their cancellation policies, which has made filing a claim with travel insurance a headache. Unfortunately, a few hours prior to our initial climb, my girlfriend fell violently ill, and we were forced to cancel. I took a team member down to the mountain and returned all the whittaker gear the instant their doors opened for business that morning. I was told that Nate would look at our circumstances regarding a possible refund or credit, but their policy is 0% refund within 7 days of the climb. This strikes me as odd, and Nate's email was both rude, patronizing, and full of illogical nonsense comparing our situation to someone who had to turn back, over us, who returned the gear, completely clean and unworn, before our trip even began. They can keep 100% of our money for a 5 day climb when they now have all that gear, clean and ready to rent again immediately to the next person who walks in for all 5 days that we had paid them for usage of? I call nonsense, regardless of the validity of the cancellation policy that I signed, so while I may be fine with not getting a credit, all it served to do, for Whittaker, was piss me off just that little bit more, when it could have become a small credit as a show of good faith that would have kept me as a customer next year, in the long run, making them more money. All I can say for sure is that while there were forgivable quirks with our experience and the basic staff in the rentals department, Nate specifically burned all bridges with us and future clients of our guide. I would urge anyone who wants to rent mountaineering gear, to just pass these abject jerks up and rent from REI and/or feathered friends in downtown Seattle. I expect to be treated and spoken to like an adult when I am polite and respectful to you as well, and I should point out that I was exceedingly polite and understanding of all their mistakes and Nate's disgusting behavior, I was professional and helpful in any ways I could, and was still treated so badly. I'm amazed someone as unprofessional as Nate managed to become management of this otherwise very highly regarded business. read more
