Surf Control Surf Shop in Hikkaduwa

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  Shanelle Stokes

  :: 07 February 2018 17:00:14

  To the "beech boy" and owner of Surf Shop: My boyfriend and I went to the surf shops to rent a surf board for both him and his best friend. After about 10 minutes of surfing of one of their boards hit a wave and a small part of it cracked. Both my boyfriend and his best friend went over to inform the owner about the board and was then welcomed by the "infamous illiterate" beach boy. He then proceeded to explain that it would cost them 10000 rupees to repair the board. Me being a fellow Sri Lankan knowing the culture of how these people try to extort tourists, I decided to go over to explain that this is an unacceptable price. I could buy them a new board and have it shipped to Sri Lanka for much cheaper. This "beech boy" became extremely aggressive and tried to reach for a machete, my boyfriend jumped in to advice him to not raise his voice to me. Finally I explained to them that I am a local and I don't expect to be treated in such an appalling manner, they reduced the price to 7000 which is still too much money to repair a board however I did pay as I wanted to continue to enjoy my holiday. As a business woman and a Sri Lankan I always talk of how lovely my country is and I take immense pride of where I come from. My advice to all business owners in Hikkaduwa is to advice your staff to treat people with respect. If you want to run a respectful establishment then you need to raise the standard of how your staff treat both tourists and locals. Simply because you own a business and live in Hikkaduwa doesn't give you the right to mistreat people. We come to your establishments with our hard earned money and we don't owe you any favours hence to prosper as a business you need to conduct yourself with integrity. If in the real world your staff behaved like this, I would have taken you to the courts and let the justice system teach him a lesson. My advice to all locals and tourists visiting this shops: check your boards before you rent it and if you happen to fall in to the same situation dont pay them the amount they ask, a repair would cost half the price. Sadly this is how they work, they prefer to resolve such situations with violence or extortion rather than a rational pragmatic way. Good luck Surf Shop, you have lost my endorsement. I sincerely hope that you turn things around as it is possible to run a successful business without such behaviour.