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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

dodgy retailers 9-Sep-2009 At 1:35:18 PM adrian

Message

On 9/09/2009 egosan wrote:
>On 9/09/2009 ambyeok wrote:
>
>>Mountain tools shipped BD to oz with nay of a whimper nor protest
>
>My mom will be very disappointed to hear this.
>
>Personally, I have been stopped by backcountry.com and rei.com from shipping
>BD gear
>directly to Oz.
>
Which is one of the reasons I like Mountain Tools.

It's easy to give the local stores a hard rap, but I find that building a relationship with particular staff at a good store has been beneficial. For example, I was trying to buy a pair of La Sportiva Spantiks, but no-one in Aus stocked them to even try on size. A certain staff member at Bogong, who I do all my in-country gear shopping with, pointed out that another La Sportiva boot used the same inner boot and spent over an hour fitting me with that boot to get my sizing. After that, they recommended a few overseas stores to try and sent me on my way.

Because I always buy my gear from that one person, they always give me good deals and service. They're the only reason I still buy anything from stores rather than on the net.

At the end of the day buying from the US is generally cheaper, but getting to know your local gear store staff can be beneficial - and people like Mike are pretty good guys when they're not ranting on the internet ;)