Austin Canoe & Kayak

I’ve been a huge fan of ACK since I started kayak fishing two years ago. The guys there have always been extremely helpful and patient with every question, request and install.
If I wasn’t already a fan for life, the past few weeks have cemented my fandom. I’ve been working with Warren and Ryan on a warranty replacement after my Native Watercraft kayak developed 2 cracks due a design flaw. The process couldn’t have gone smoother.
Warren and Ryan contacted the manufacturer on my behalf and arranged everything. They kept me in the loop every step of the way. And once I brought in my kayak, Warren and the guys carefully removed all of my previous installs and did their best to match my the rigging on the new boat.
I cannot wait to get back on the water. And I know if I have any other kayak fishing needs, Warren, Ryan and ACK will have my back.

Fairing I bought came missing parts. Sent an email to customer service. They replied quickly, and sent replacement parts the next day. Customer service means alot to me and ACK prove to hold up to that as well. Thanks guys. You ll definitely get me business again.

Great selection of canoes, kayaks and accessories. The online site is very good and the brick and mortar stores tend to be good. But beware, there’s not a showroom at this Austin location. Also, make sure you get charged the correct tax, especially if you order online (see my older review and the response from ACK below)

I used to use
as my go-​to place for kayak fishing equipment, even purchasing from them when the same item was just a bit less expensive on Amazon or other sites due to Ack’s reputation for customer service. Unfortunately, the more money I spent at Ack the less they seemed to care about customer service. I purchased a very expensive Hobie Pro Angler from Ack a few months ago. The kayak showed up with a bent H rail and missing a paddle. I contacted Ack, and they responded immediately apologizing and letting me know that they’d sent a paddle overnight. It was Friday, so I knew I’d have to cancel my Saturday fishing plans — but ohh well. A few days go by and I don’t see a shipment from Ack. I got back in touch with the same customer service rep, who tells me that they actually won’t have a paddle to send me for a few WEEKS. Had I not called, I never would have heard from Ack, and it was only after I forwarded his previous e-​mail promising overnight shipping that he acknowledged the mistake and apologized. I complained, noting that a paddle was a rather important element to forget to include — and to not be able to get me another one in days and not weeks was just unacceptable. The customer service rep then called back and said he basically would just pull a paddle from another Pro Angler and send it to me. Hmmm — I wonder if those types of practices are why I didn’t get a paddle in the first place. So, a few angry e-​mails and phone calls and a missed fishing weekend to get an item I had already paid for.
Flash forward a few weeks, and I decided that despite the bad experience on my PA14 I’d buy a micro power pole anchor and a few related accessories from Ack. Everything but the battery was in stock, and they called and asked if I’d like everything but the battery shipped — I said yes. Everything but the battery arrived. A month later, I was surprised to find two huge boxes with ALL of the items that had previously been delivered plus the backordered battery. I checked my credit card statement and they had billed me for everything twice in addition to shipping it twice. I called Ack, was promised an immediate refund and return shipping labels (meaning I still had to find time to cart an 8ft pole to fedex, but oh well). Only one of the promised shipping labels arrived, I called back the same night and got the same customer service rep — he apologized and said he’d send over the second one immediately. It never arrived. I had to call back a third time the next day, and in addition to asking for the fedex label again I inquired about the immediate refund that I had been promised the night before. I was told that I would not be getting an immediate refund as previously promised, but «given this situation» they would do me a «favor» by crediting me for the purchase I never made as soon as the tracking number on the return label was activated. Fair position to take initially I guess, but not after promising something else. So, 3 phone calls and a trip to fedex before I can get ~$ 900 that I never spent off my credit card bill. Had Amazon made that mistake I could have had a return label within 30 seconds and they probably would have immediately removed the charge if I felt like calling and asking.
Customer service is more than being nice to customers. It’s not screwing things up in the first place the large majority of the time, and fixing it immediately and painlessly for your customer in the rare case a mistake is made. Ack messed up two high dollar value orders in a row for a customer that has spent a significant amount of money with them in the past year, and then made resolving those screwups painful. I can’t speak to the brick and mortar store, and everyone I’ve talked to at Ack has been nice, but that doesn’t mean anything if you can’t execute. So, the «customer service premium» I thought I was paying has turned out to just be a premium, and I won’t be paying it anymore.

Kayak arrived damaged. Was given a free welding kit to fix myself. After registering kayak (powered) motor constantly shorts. ACK troubleshooting suggested filling interior with water to check for leaks. Contacted kayak manufacturer who stated under no circumstances should the interior be filled with water, due to internal electrical wiring. Sent this information to ACK, who stood by their original troubleshooting (fill interior with water) solution, or return kayak minus shipping and wear charge, which is established at their discretion. Essentially flushing $ 700 down the drain, or stick with defective (unpowered) kayak are my choices. I prominently display it in my shop as a conversation piece and testimonial of ‘buyer beware’.
Terrible customer service. I will never do business with them again and advise everyone in my kayaking community to do the same. I have since purchased a powered Old Town from a local dealer, but will keep the ACK mistake on display as a reminder.
Update: Adam offered to assess the kayak and provide a valuation amount that could be used for purchasing a new kayak from ACK. I wish I had been given the opportunity to assess it’s value prior to purchase. Again, terrible customer service. Do not trust ACK to ship you a kayak. They may be fine if they are your local shop, but if they can unload a lemon they will.

Great service and knowledgable staff. It is easy to tell that all of the staff has spent their share of time on he water and is glad to use that knowledge for the customers benefit.

I guess business is good … Went in to look at sit on top kayaks. Kid at the counter did not acknowledge my existence for 10 minutes. Walked out. Go to dicks and buy a cheap a– kayak …

So we purchased an $ 800 kayak and a paddle from here in April and everything went very smoothly. So, I decided to purchase the same kayak in another color. Online it said that the item was in stock and if I ordered before 4 pm then my order would ship that day. After a few days of not hearing anything except a confirmation email I decided to email them and see if everything was okay with my order. Come to find out, they weren’t in stock (though the website says they are). The purchase was already pending on my card so I asked them when they were going to be in stock and they told me June 8^th. They gave me a quick apology and told me to let them know if I didn’t want to continue with my order. That was it. So a week later I write again to make sure they were still going to be in stock on the 8^th. Low and behold the shipment date was changed to the 15^th of June. They never even contacted me in the first place to tell me that they weren’t in stock. I spoke with Ryan yesterday and he apologized and the staff was decently nice to me but the lack of communication made me question if I will ever be making another purchase here again. That is a lot of money to have this poor of service and communication from a company. With how well our first purchase went I was really disappointed with the second purchase. Just my luck I guess,

I recently bought an item online which they first agreed to price match. After the order went through, I got an email saying they couldn’t price match it. After some back and forth emails I got a call from their customer service person. After discussing the situation they were able to work with me on the price, save the order and win a new customer!

Purchased a kayak online. The online store said that they were in stock and would ship the next day. Immediately after they charged my card, I got an email saying it would be 1 – 2 months before my kayak arrived. So I called to figure out what was going on. They didn’t have any feel free lure 11.5’s in stock. Update you website and don’t mislead your customers. After receiving my refund I went to my local kayak store and bought one they had in stock. Don’t worry ACK you won’t ever have to deal with me again.

Ordered the 10′ Pescdor package and it arrived in 3 days. Excellent customer service and attention to detail. Both on line and customer service reps were very willing to share their knowledge and help me make the right choice for my first kayak. I will be ordering accessories in the near future from ACK.

I’m replacing my 1 star review of ACK with a 3 star. Chris from ACK contacted us and was sympathetic to our customer service complaints and offered to refund the money spent on the rudder. He assured us they are working on the customer service issues we experienced. My husband really wants to love this local store so we are hopeful his next visit will be a positive one!

I was pretty much ready to buy a canoe in the $ 1000 range, and went to ACK before any other stores thinking that it would be the best place in Austin, and to my shock there wasn’t a single canoe in the store. I would think with the word CANOE in the name of the store, there might be, I don’t know, actual canoes to look at.
None of the three guys working there were interested in helping us, and the one who did try didn’t know anything about canoes. He showed us canoes on their website, which I had done at home already. He couldn’t even explain the difference between the $ 600 canoe and the $ 1500 canoe, except that it was «nicer.» I was severely unimpressed.
While it’s not really relevant, it is not an conditioned store and it was over 100 degrees in there. I think if they had offered us a bottle of water before we started, the entire experience would have been completely different and I might have felt like they cared about helping us find what we wanted.
Canoe people, go elsewhere. This is not the store for you.

Lightning fast response to the original review from their supervisor who seemed genuinely eager to make things right. Since I had already re-​ordered from a different reseller, he couldn’t rebate the shipping but sent along a gift certificate of equivalent value. Amazingly, the website wouldn’t accept the certificate, but I got quick help placing my order. On this basis, bumping the review up a couple of notches !
And to be crystal clear, this issue only pertains to the on-​line shopping experience not to the store. Judging by the reviews, it seems there’s a big gap between the quality of the two experiences. They’ve done a good job of recovery on this mess up. And the Trailex universal dolly seems like a great product.

They advertise same day shipping, the fact that it took 3 business days to ship would determine that advertisement a lie.
They told me 5 business days shipping, the fact that today is the 10^th business day and I still don’t have the $ 1000 kayak would determine thats a lie.
They advertise that their shipping speed would amaze you. The fact that its been in since Monday and i’ve been asking to pick it up for the last 5 days, only to be ignored, hung up on, jerked around, and still without the kayak, determines i’m amazed they are still in business. In fact they did the opposite I requested and shipped it to another terminal after the first 3 days of requesting pick up.
Ive order many kayaks from West Marine and Cabelas, the only reason I chose austin kayak the time was because of their shipping promises and they failed me big time. As a kayak fishing guide, this ended up costing me more money than it was worth.
If you like be lied to you, jerked around, hung up on, awaiting a call back that will never come, and still wondering if you will ever get your order, use austinkayak. If you just want a kayak, order from somewhere else.

Did my research of where I can rent a paddle board for the day and found myself at ACK. Jordan was awesome and got me in and out quickly! For $ 40 I got a paddle board, life jacket, and paddle. The provided us with straps and assistance with loading in the board. $ 40 FOR THE DAY!!! Can’t beat that, not even with a paddle. lol Thanks guys! See ya again!

Bought a 14′ surf tech SUP bag. Product shipped the same day and excellent customer service on my phone call. Knowledgeable staff person and arrived in just a few days. Good price on a quality product.

We purchased the Advanced Elements Lagoon 2 Inflatable Kayak package over the Internet and couldn’t be happier with the service. The package (which included kayak, paddles, pump, and PFDs) was convenient and well-​priced, and I really liked the fact that we could choose the colors and sizes of our PFDs. It shipped right away and arrived by the end of the week. It was missing one bungee cord (a minor oversight), so I called customer service. They were extremely friendly, put it right in the mail for me, and tossed in a t-​shirt for the trouble. We’ve taken the kayak out twice so far, and it performs very well. Thanks, ACK!

I’m a big fan of this place. I spent months researching, reading their blogs, and emailing them to find the perfect kayak for my needs. Their warehouse is right down the street from their store, so I got the exact kayak I wanted in the perfect color. They also installed my Hullavator (LOVE IT!) and helped me pick out the right paddle for my needs. I’ve never felt «upsold» here and the staff is very educated about kayaking and kayak equipment. I’d highly recommend ACK to anyone looking to get into the hobby.

These guys are awesome. They have always been knowledgeable, friendly, and SO helpful. They put my rack on for me (no charge) installed the new handles on my kayak (no charge) and will recommend things you ask for without trying to sell you the farm. I have always been super impressed with my experiences here and I like supporting the local businesses!