Julie’s Sweet Shop

Customer service is NOT their forté, all they want is your money and for you to go away. If you have an issue with a rental bike or kayak, you’d have better luck jumping off the pier than getting any help.
Being that I’m younger, the older staff here was very condescending, presumably because I’m younger and they think I’m stupid. I was told my kayak oar wouldn’t twist (to break the wind) because it was «15 years old» and that «everything rusts at the beach.» A: why don’t you buy a new oar?
B: tell me something I don’t already know.
My kayak seat broke less than halfway through the week. A younger employee did his best to jerry-​rig it, and I was told they’d have another one the next day. I went back to find a kayak so worse for wear it probably couldn’t float in a fountain, let alone the ocean. This replacement didn’t even have a seat back to it! After asking for a refund for the rest of my week, I was told I’d get $ 58 back out of $ 160. Mind you, I kept it 3 days and should’ve only paid around $ 68. Needless to say, I’m going to do my best to see it that they do not get the full amount they charged me.
When consumers are the ones who determine what businesses thrive and which go under, I’m not looking so dumb anymore. I don’t want a broken kayak, and I don’t need a rust bucket of a bike. Buyer beware, if you spend money here, you’re asking for trouble.
I’ve heard Island Hoppers is your best bet, we’ll be trying them next year. (I’ve heard they get new bikes fairly often!)

Unfortunately I didn’t read the Unilocal reviews before reserving a bike for 2 weeks, starting June 6, at a cost of $ 80. I called them and made my reservation on May 26^th. That evening I located and purchased a used beach bike on Craigslist for less than it cost me to rent. So THE NEXT MORNING I called Julia’s and cancelled my reservation, and was informed about their 15% «restocking fee». I was not informed about this fee when I made my reservation mere hours before. Plus the written brochure they provide says NOTHING about a «restocking fee.» I think this is a very disrespectful way to treat customers. Not to mention one that guarantees that the former customer will never return. I have reserved a bike at Julia’s every summer for 10 years! My advice: buy a used bike on Craigslist and bring it with you. Due to their sneaky «restocking fee» I cannot recommend renting anything from this store.
Update: They eventually refunded $ 59.50 of my $ 80. Which is over $ 20 they kept as a «restocking fee». Their «restocking fee» is apparently 25%, not 15%.

I agree with another reviewer that I would give this place zero stars if I could.
I will do my best to be short an sweet about the experience I had a week ago with «the boss» at Julie’s, but it will be difficult since it was so unbelievable.
We rented 5 bikes for a period of 2 weeks for our children and their friends which cost us over $ 300. The bikes themselves are in pretty horrible shape, but Julie’s is unfortunately the only game in town on the island, so you get what you get. When I rode another bike that belonged to our rental house down the second week to renew our rentals, I asked them if I could use their pump to pump up the bike tires. The young staff acted kind of nervous about it and said that no, I couldn’t and that they couldn’t do it for me since I didn’t rent that particular bike from them. I reminded her that I just spent over $ 300 dollars with them and could they please help me out with the bike tires, and she told me I had to «talk to the boss». When I found the older man who was «the boss» he told me that he wouldn’t pump up the tires for me because they were very busy. I was the only person in his store. When I asked him if I could do it myself he again said no. When I reminded him that I had just paid his store $ 300 to rent 5 bikes he said «that’s right we’re in the business of renting bikes, not pumping up their tires.» He then suggested I come back in a few days and «maybe» he could do it then. In utter disbelief and trying not to lose my cool, I just got up and looked at him and said «Wow. This is amazing.» To which he very aggressively looked at me and said «Yeah, it is amazing isn’t it!». At that point I left the store completely confounded by this guys behavior and attitude.
When I told my wife what had happened she thought I was joking. When she finally realized I wasn’t kidding, she went in to speak to the man herself. My wife is very lovely, kind and quite persuasive. She tells me she asked for his help with the bike and he said «no». Then she calmly explained to him that we had been coming to Sunset beach for 6 years now and had rented at least 4 bikes from him every summer, which has amounted to us spending over $ 1,500 with his store, and he said «well, I guess I’ll just have to look that up.» She said okay and gave him our name to look it up with and of course he didn’t move to do so. He then said it didn’t matter how much money we spent with him in the past because we basically stole $ 37 from him this time by already having one bike that we didn’t have to rent from him. At this point she gave up and came back completely dumbfounded.
As a business owner myself, I find it astonishing how this man would treat his customers. As a human being I find it unfathomable that a person would choose to treat other people this way. I just don’t get it. I would have returned all of the bikes then, if I thought he would have given me a refund, which judging by his other reviews he wouldn’t have. Also, I didn’t want to rob my kids and their friends of the fun of riding the bikes, albeit terribly up kept bikes, for the rest of the trip.
The unfortunate thing is that this place has a complete monopoly on bike rentals for the island, so this Unilocal review may not do much good. I will says that in all the years to come that we spend on Sunset Beach I will rent a truck and go get bikes from somewhere else. I will not spend another dime in that man’s store. Not for bikes or ice-​cream, and I would encourage everyone else to not give him another dime of their’s either.

I paid ahead of time to rent a bike trailer for a week. I cancelled it four weeks before going. They charged me a «restocking fee». Not sure what they were restocking. The trailers sit in the back until needed. Very disappointed. Not the hometown feel I would have expected in this wonderful beach town.

I update this review with a heavy heart. I have been a fan of Julie’s for several years, and my family has always used them for bike and chair rentals. This year the experience was not only lacking, but bad enough that I will be looking at other businesses to supply our bicycles and chairs during our next stay at Sunset Beach. I previously rated them at 4 stars… as you can see, they are now 1 star.
First, we always come to Sunset during the same time of the year and we’ve always gotten nice, well maintained bikes. This year, for some reason, they did not allow their «nice» bikes to be rented because it was «off-​season» and we were relegated to a couple older, rusty bikes that were absolutely horrible. The thing is, they rented us two very nice bicycles first… but as we were walking away with them, they called us back and said we could not use those because they were for «in-​season». Now, this is the SAME week of the year we always visit, and all of a sudden, it is «off-​season» and we get crappy, rusted bikes?
Later in the week my wife and her sister rented two «fun cycles» (the low riding ones for riding on the beach). They rent them by the hour, and they seemed pretty laid-​back about the time period of getting them back. They rented them for the hour (my sister-​in-​law even set the timer on her blackberry), and when the hour was finished they brought them back. They may have been something like 3 minutes past an hour, but the staff at Julie’s acted like my wife and her sister owed them for two full hours and gave them a tremendous amount of grief. Eventually, they only charged them for an hour, but the damage had been done.
Lastly, it appears the wonderful customer service and helpful staff have been replaced by a «bizarro» Julie’s Sweet Shop and the wonderful business that was once there not longer exists.
For the last five years, we have used Julie’s for just about everything that you can rent at the beach… next year, we will be using another company. It is truly a disappointment.

Very nice little ice cream shop. I can’t speak for their bike rentals but my family and I went in for a after dinner treat and we were very happy with the service and favors.