Helm Of Sun Valley

Went in there and experienced little to no service, high prices, and a bad layout. Wish there were more options for ski shops in San Jose.

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE! My partner and I scheduled an appointment to get our boots molded/adjusted after reading some good reviews. The person who helped me (seemed to be the owner) was extremely rude. He was annoyed that we didn't buy our boots from his store and got mad at us for going to a place that did not fit us properly. He then had the audacity to charge us for the few minutes we were in after not doing anything to help us. Telling someone their boots don't fit, the exact reason we went to them in the first place, is not providing a service.

The icing on the cake though was when he gave a speech about how we should have bought our boots from him because he could have fitted them for free, but they didn't have a single boot in neither mine nor my partner's size. Making it a moot point. I would NOT recommend this place to anyone. Go elsewhere.

Long overdue review, I wanted to give them a chance but they just keep letting me down. As a lifelong skier with over 35 years of skiing experience I am sorely disappointed by their boot-fitters. I have always skied a 26.5 or a 26 at smallest and I had a boot fitter pressure me into a pair of 25.5. I told them they felt too small from the get go and he swore they would feel better after about 10 days of skiing and mentioned they had a boot fit guarantee so I could always bring them back.

Well after 10 days of the most excruciating days on the mountain brought the boots back explaining I wanted to exchange for a larger size. They refused and said that they could modify my boots to fit right but I needed to make an appointment with the boot fitters. So after driving 35 minutes to get there I was turned away. So I made an appointment for the following week and showed up 5 minutes early for my appointment.

I proceeded to wait over 30 minutes to be seen by the fitter for my appt. I always use super feet in my boots and never had an issue. I was told I had to spend $200 on custom insets before the boot fitter would modify my boots. After some deliberation I finally caved as he swore it would make all the difference. Unfortunately, even with the custom insoles the boots were still too small, duh!.

So they finally adjusted the shells for me but they still felt too small. When I mentioned this, they insisted that I needed to break in the boots more to make sure. So after 5 more excruciating days on the mountain the boots still are too small. Why can't they just listen to customers instead of pretending like they know best. Now, do I waste more of my time trying to convince them or just move on?

Lift tickets are expensive and I have wasted so much time trying to give these guys the benefit of the doubt. Don't waste your time or money here, go somewhere else where they will actually listen!

I bought a ski jacket from this place thinking the price was okay. I found a jacket for half the price at another retailer and went to return. I asked the clerk lady working if I could return and she said yes. I came in the other day only to find out that clearance items are non-returnable. Just don't go here

Be very careful when you use their boot fitting services when you buy boots from them. You have to sign paper saying that size is correct and if you try to return boots later they take 20% from refund price. Nobody mentioned that to me when I was buying boots and also guy from the fitting services tried to convince me that size is correct even though I explained that I couldn't feel my feet after 30 mins of skiing. I don't recommend buying new boots here unless you know exact size and model you need.

See the Yelp Reviews for full review; I will no longer be taking my business to Helm of Sun Valley given the customer service, discouraging and blatant ignorance against customer feedback and input. Especially with customers coming from good ski experience, every customer should not feel like they are complete newbies to the sport in the way they're spoken down-to here.

The staff genuinely look disinterested, de-motivated, and the equipment selection leaves a lot to be desired. I will be recommending Sports Basement in Campbell or Sunnyvale to my network of ski professionals and Bay Area folks; that look for a customer-focused shop.

Overpriced and horrible customer service by Peter. When I confronted him about a problem all he had to say was "ok". Not the slightest bit of care. I asked to speak to the manager and he said "he's busy". Is no one at this store training common decency? Not to mention this place is horribly overpriced. DO NOT BUY FROM HERE.

Got recommended to come here from REI to get my snowboard boots BoA tongue dial fixed. Turns out there's a certain locking mechanism on the tongue dial and they just locked it in and nothing was broken. Asked tons of resorts and REIs, and Helm of Sun Valley was the first shop to actually fix it. Super chill staff. Would highly recommend. Also bought a cable lock from the store. Finally, turns out the place is owned by my neighbors.

Bought some volkl skis here only to realize I'd been scammed very disappointed. Unheard of

Great ski shop and gear but such poor customer service from some of the staff especially around trying to get ski boots for kids. Massive rude attitude because they are disorganized.

Above and beyond service. Needed skis to head up Friday, and they bent over backwards to get them done and to me on time. When service is so good you're almost embarrassed to be on the receiving end of it, it's worthy of a five star review. Awesome company. I'll be back.

Great honest service. Get the helm local deal for 5 years of board maintenance, totally worth it! Staff was not only knowledgeable but friendly. They walked me through all the different types of boards, helmet and bindings. They didn't have it in stock but it didn't stop them from explaining. One of the best customer service experiences I've had. Thank you!

Terrible service! Employees are rude and not helpful. I'm finding a new rental place!

Sooooo I fell in love with this place. I've been here before to get some snowboarding gear and they have pretty much all you need! I'm not too sure why I waited so long to write a review. BUTTTTTTTTT here ya go: Of course good quality snow gear isn't cheap but it's worth is especially if you're an active snow lover like myself. I'm leaving for my birthday trip to Colorado and as the procrastinator that I am, I needed some smaller sizes cause my old gear is a bit bigger than my current size.

So I went to visit this gem which is fairly close to where I live. I was able to find everything I needed in a matter of 20 minutes. The staff is super friendly/knowledgeable! I love how easily accessible everything is and how organized it is. I definitely recommend this shop for your snow/winter gear;

I'm so glad that I went with Helm for ski maintenance! A friendly staff member helped me pick out new bindings and didn't try to take advantage of my lack of skiing experience by selling me equipment or services that I didn't need. Special shout out to Jake for being transparent and honest by letting me know what repair services he would recommend for skis in my condition as well as getting my skis back to me fast. Fair price and superior service!

WOST PLACE EVER. Bought brand new skis, took them here to get bindings mounted. They drilled the wrong holes and now my brand new skis are ruined. Awful customer service too. After explaining what happened to the manager, Paul F., he did not care and did not offer to make things right! Save your time and money.

WOW! Amazing service today. I went in looking for a board, bindings, and shoes. I also got gloves as well. They spent a good amount of time to make sure I got what fits and feels best so I can have the best experience possible! Can't wait to hit the snow up north this weekend! Thank you so much for the amazing service!

Very rude sales person and not even try to help. I explained what I am looking for and even not answering my question and said you need an appointment. He didn't even answer my question for the item I was looking and he was just walking around. First and last visit.

Had an amazing time buying skis! Came in looking for a new set (I'm an intermediate+) and decided it was about time I owned my own skis. I was looking for something to hit up Tahoe with (so a little bit more for harder snow). My experience talking to the staff at Helm was amazing. I got a full walk through of the inventory, difference between brands, a little on how to pick the size.

It was super informative and I'm glad I had the chance to talk with them. So, I settled on a set of Bonafide 97's, happy pick. I'll be back in a few days to get some boot fittings and walk out ready for the mountain! Glad I came and I will keep coming back for my general maintenance :)

Great store with amazing and helpful staff! Everyone in the store is very knowledgeable about the hobby they support and the gear they provide. All my questions were quickly answered and they did a wonderful job of making sure I understood. My rental equipment was fitted properly, and the value was great! They have top notch gear and I will definitely be back to make my future gear purchases! Thanks for the great service and value!

Pretty terrible selection of sizes for ski/snowboard clothes unless you wear size XXL or something. I visited because they advised on local radio that they were hosting a "winter clearance" sale and things are up to 50% off. What a joke this is. I literally could not find any clothing or gear for men that was even discounted past 20%. What clearance?

I understand it's marketing but at least have something even a decent deal before you decide to stretch the truth to lure people in. Don't waste your time or gas, competitors like Sport Basement offer 30% off the bat along with additional off from being a member.

The store won't let you try boots on before buying them and the staff is confrontational. Terrible service, just go online or to rei

This establishment is a disgrace to snow enthusiasts worldwide. To start, half of their ski selection is older than my Ray-Charles-playing gramophone and aptly labeled "not for skiing". Why does a ski shop reserve so much of their store for unusable skis? Next to these are their two pairs of overpriced consignment skis which looked so bad that you'd be better of skiing with just your boots on the snow.

Now to the real reason of why these guys just outright suck. I dropped off a pair of lightly used boots last season for consignment sale through helm. I returned today (a year later) to check on my boots because I never got an update from them since, only to find that the helpless staff had lost all records of me giving them my boots. After 20 minutes of watching a clueless staff member slowly shuffle through hundreds of papers, she took me to the manager who proceeded to ramble about how he didn't know where it could have gone.

At the end of his runaround he basically told me I was shit-out-of-luck and that they probably sold them but could not pay me. Thus, this "ski shop" (that sells unusable skis) has displayed some of the worst customer service I have ever had the joy of experiencing. For a small, local ski shop that is nowhere close to a ski resort, this place needs expertise, good value, and friendly service to survive. Unfortunately, this place has none of those. I sincerely hope you never have to enter this place and deal with the condescending, unintelligible staff that run this dump.

BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE! Yelp says they close at 9 pm. We got here around 8:03 PM (04/19/19) and this particular guy who is working tonight says "We are closed" and so we tell him that yelp and google says the store is open until 9 PM to which he responds "We don't own google" and closes the door on our faces. No apologies or anything about the misinformation.

FIRST OFF: Let me start off by saying, most of the bad reviews about this store are ridiculous. One lady said something along the lines of "the guy didn't pick the right size skis for my kid" well lady, if your kids not there, the people don't know him sooooo. Another bad review is about how something wasn't in stock and they had to drive 20-30min. O.K.

Get over yourself, if you can't drive that short distance without complaining stay the hell home. DO NOT LISTEN TO MOST OF THESE NEGATIVE REVIEWS. *rant over* MY REVIEW: I've called this store multiple times before actually going in. The first time I called I was looking for a particular snow pant. Roxy Rising High in black to be exact. The girl who answered the phone was super helpful and made sure they had them and had my size, I asked if she could hold them, and she even held them in a different color for me just in case.

I had my mom pick them up since she was in the area and I was stuck at work. She said the shop was busy but everyone who greeted her was very nice. *a busy business is a good business* Second time I called to see if they had a specific google in stock. They did not, but the girl on the phone was still super helpful and asked if I'd like any recommendations for similar googles.

Last thing: shoutout to Marc (with a C and not a K) for being super helpful as I came in to the store for the first time. My friend and I came purely to window shop as we've just about bought all new snow gear, except we both didn't have a board. I fell in love with the design of the Burton Women's Day Trader in 2017 for the 17/18 season.

It sold out fairly quickly and has only been on one website for the original price of $500. Which is ridiculous since it's last seasons board. Anyways, I walked in and I saw it! My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, Marc was extremely helpful, and he told me it was on sale! Are you serious Marc! You've just made my day. Obviously I bought it so window shopping didn't work out very well. But I am a very happy camper. This store is awesome and I definitely recommend checking it out if you're not a nitpick. :)

I had the BEST experience here, thanks to an employee named Gunner. I was looking for new ski boots, and in a nutshell, Gunner is an excellent boot fitter and an extremely kind person on top of it. I didn't realize it until I had left the store, but he spent two hours with me, making lots and lots of adjustments to the pair I was considering.

In the end, I still wasn't certain about the fit, and since it was the end of the season and they only had one boot that Gunner would recommend for my foot, he actually encouraged me to shop around and try some different options. I really appreciated his time, knowledge, and expertise, as well as the fact that I felt no pressure to make a purchase.

He sincerely wanted me to find the right boot, and I don't think you can find that kind of genuine customer service many places these days. I should add that he and other employees gave equally good service to other customers while I was there. While I didn't buy boots that day, I did end up buying a bunch of other things because I want to support the store, and decided to wait until next season when the selection widens to look for new boots--will definitely come back to Helm of Sun Valley when I do.

I visited their capitola location several weeks ago and was not impressed. The inventory and service was mediocre at best. After twenty minutes of browsing and waiting no one had even bothered to say hello. After I asked for help and was given a gruff "be a few" I decided to leave. So I checked out their competitor and ordered new boots and a back up set of skis.

The boots weren't quite right and I needed the bindings installed so I decided to give this location a shot. I started with service downstairs. The kid behind the desk was a bit abrasive. I felt like like I was bothering him and he didn't even ask about mount point.in fact after I told him about mount location they still called several days later as the young man didn't write it down.

So why five stars? Simply put Tom killed it with the boot fit. After dropping off the skis I checked in up at the boot dept to see if they could tweak my new boots. My boots were big but far too tight on my Achilles. Tom took a couple measurements and knew right away that REI hadnt fit me properly. Tom found the right pair, spent almost two hours getting them properly fitted at the end of the day and made sure that they were adjusted for my bindings. Top notch service from Tom.

Amazing Customer Service! I came in to go through the long process of getting fitted for ski boots. It has been almost 20 years since my last boot purchase so I wanted to get a good fit and the only place is the South Bay is Helm. I was assisted by Chris. Man what a pro. Extremely knowledgeable and super patient. Really tried to get a good fit for me but unfortunately the products in my size did not do the trick. Will go back many more times for all my ski gear as their customer service and overall knowledge is unrivaled in the South Bay.