Käthy
Äussere Dorfstrasse 31, 3718 Kandersteg, Switzerland, Kandersteg
+41 33 675 16 09
If I could give this place less than 1 star, I would. I got pushed into buying a jacket I didn't want (that I have now found out was extremely overpriced), and when I wanted to return or exchange it, the owners became angry at me and told me that was not possible. Worst experience of my life, do not go here!
Arrived mid morning to enquire about ski hire. Greeted by Yoda who said it was extremely busy downstairs, where if we were prepared for a very long wait may or may not be seen to. Anyway, downstairs only 2 other customers and no queue(?) not sure why we were encouraged to leave on arrival. A younger lady ended up charging us for ‘premium’ boots and skis - back upstairs Yoda said we were hiring the cheap, low grade equipment. My skis were indeed rusty with 1990’s style bindings, but didn’t want to argue. Yoda couldn’t understand the job receipt and sent us back downstairs to confirm the price as she couldn’t be bothered to check herself and appeared visibly irritated. Later on, having checked the prices at Intersport 2 minutes down the road, we realised we’d paid almost double. I was expecting slightly higher prices than France but nothing so extortionate.
We liked her! She was honest and really hilarious. Very abrupt. Told us exactly what we needed and the right color. Would not let us buy anything else and we thought it was so funny. We only went in here because of the negative reviews and we were curious. Later, someone in town asked us if they were rude.
The most bizarre experience. As soon as we entered the shop we were confronted by 2 women asking what we wanted. When we told them we just wanted to browse, the old lady told us everything was in the window. We felt very unwelcome and left. We have now read the other reviews of this place and feel relieved that it was not just us!
Completely bizarre experience, so negative it would have ruined my whole day if I didn’t take comfort in seeing the rest of the reviews echoing my experience after. My husband and I walked in and immediately were asked what we wanted by the younger lady. When my husband said just looking around and asked what the lady’s favorite hiking spots were, she angrily said we should go ask the tourist desk. This is when the infamous older woman appeared and asked us what we wanted repeatedly following us around the store. I said a jacket and proceeded to move in the direction of the jacket before she yelled at us to not go into that part of the store and led me to a rack of clothes. When I went to touch one of the jackets she told me not that one and to pick another cheaper one. We were so overwhelmed we left to go to the tourism kiosk across the way before coming back to try again. At that point we walked up to the older lady to ask about an item we wanted and she just completely ignored us and refused to acknowledge our existence. At that point we gave up and found our car was also locked in the lot but once we got yelled at by the old lady, the younger one let us out without forcing us to pay which we now understand was lucky. Truly cannot believe these people make a single sale a day at this rate.
I had to google the reviews to see what kind of weird experience i just had. Walked into the shop looking for a beanie hat. I was followed around the shop while I held on to one hat before trying it on and the 2 desk ladies were repeatedly trying to take it out of my hands but i said i would like to try it on first. Of course i did not feel like buying them after such unfriendly and suspicious behaviour. Surprised this shop makes any sales like this.