REI

I am an REI member, and have bought quite a few items from them. The store staff are usually friendly and helpful. They do have good quality gear, but it is very expensive, even with the member rebates and all.

The biggest complaint I have about REI is their online ordering. I ordered some bike parts. Shipping was already really slow, and then they delayed it several more days. It was almost two weeks before the shipment arrived at my house. I might but a few more things in their store, but won't be placing any online orders in the future.

#1
Came in for a brake adjustment talked me into paying $30 for a co-op membership because tire repairs would be free. I was at the top of the hill heading down when I realized my brakes were not working at all I had to slam myself into a cement wall several times to keep from going onto a major highway in traffic
#2
Brought my bike in because my tire was flat came to pick it up. Wheeled it about 2 inches towards the door and realized my tire was still flat.
#3
I brought my bike in for another flat poop. They informed me it would be $40 and no longer free to fix even with the co-op which was originally free.
Highway robbery

Rei has been getting from bad to years along the years I have been with them. Customer service seems to be staffed with people who hate the company and the customers. Many orders were cancelled for no reasons at all and items which arrived had a high proportion of damage and they refuse to accept take responsibility. Buy from them at your own peril

Seems REI,,, some in Minnesota,,, is no longer the good store it was... The best workers are leaving,,, not recognized for their expertise. Sad ---- no wonder many reviews have changed from very good to one --two star reviews...

I was told in one of the stores that if I purchased my own membership I would receive a 30 gift card. I signed up on line and no gift card. I called and was told I needed to purchase $50 more at that time to qualify for the gift card. I have spent hundreds of dollars since I signed up, but that doesn't count. Apparently their staff doesn't know all the small print and I certainly didn't see it.
There are certainly cheaper places to buy your equipment. Just be aware REI uses some weasel words.
We just bought close to $400 worth of Smart Wool and the clerk told my wife it would be 10% off. We got home and no discount was given. Again beware of what anyone at REI tells you, because chances are it's probably not true!

Went into a store, asked an employee where to find something and was immediately hit with a sales pitch on the membership program. Get to the counter and am told the membership is $30, the cashier asks for the sales rep who told me about it ( no doubt they have a rewards system), made the purchase with the cost of the membership. Went to buy something online two weeks later and lo and behold my membership was never setup in the system. Went online to the chat and they said I have to produce the receipt in order to verify I purchased the membership. Don't have it anymore so now I'm out $30. For the money I spent there and was trying to spend on the website this purchase you'd think they would have just created the membership but I guess not. Too bad the co-op is some scam sh**

This store has a good selection of camping and hiking gear, but is highly over priced. The membership is a gimmick to charge higher prices and to fool customers into believing they are getting a discount. Don't be fooled. Go to browse and buy it cheaper online. They used to have good customer service, but they changed their return policy. When we tried to return our unworn brand new purchases, the manager refused even to give us store credit because too much time had expired. This is despite the fact that we have been members for a number of years. The manager's attitude was smug and arrogant. This was at the East Hanover, NJ store. We used to buy from there occasionally because the service was good, but after this experience, we will never spend a penny there again. If a business charges a premium price, the manager and sales people need to treat the customers with respect.

Transactional capabilities are borderline fraudulent.

Store pick-up items: delayed 20 min at the counter where I'm told my amex card has canceled half my order. I had to call AmEx on the spot to discover that some bizarre intermediary that REI uses had refunded half of it! And now, in the store, they wanted it back. The clerk told me this happens all the time 😜

Delivery items: 2 days later they email and cancel my other 2 delivery items due to " nventory changes"

I purchased over $500 worth of goods at the REI on Brentwood in St. Louis, MO today. I was informed (after I made the purchase) that not only did they not have gift boxes for the items, they did not have bags at all, as part of their zero carbon footprint policy. I would have to carry all my purchases out to my car in the pouring rain with no protection for any of it. I understand the NCF policy but this is taking it a little too far. And I'm sure REI saved a good deal of money with this policy and I certainly didn't notice any effect on their already high prices. It may not have bothered me as much if I hadn't noticed while shopping that the young staff asked all the younger shoppers if they needed help but not one of them asked me if i needed help or even made eye contact. I am in my late 60's. Not a great experience overall.

REI now uses Lasership/ontrac shipping on the West coast in Washington state. Any merchant who uses Lasership does not care about your business. They don't even warn you to give you a choice of another shipper. REI has now lost my business forever as a customer, because I can not trust a company who uses Lasership as their shipper. I would of rather paid $4 extra for USPS.

REI now uses a Lasership to deliver your purchases. Lasership delivered my package to the wrong address. I contacted REI and informed them of the situation, and all I received was a generic response.
REI was no help. I'm very disappointed in REI and there lack of concern.

This place was once an outdoor persons paradise! Now it's just a corporate greed machine. This place went from allowing you to return everything and anything because they originally stood behind the products they sell. Now they offer a 1 year return policy which is still pretty decent but they don't stand behind the products they sell in store anymore. I purchased a pair of shoes from them for $130+ tax and they had already started to tear on the side on 1 shoe. The store seems to think it's normal wear and tear and refused to return the shoes. If that was normal wear and tear why isn't it torn on the other side as well? I did not hike, run or do anything crazy in these shoes so there should be no reason for the whole.

I purchased a pair of REI brand pants for travel, wore them once, and the top button came off in the dryer. I exchanged them and it happened again within 2 weeks. When I tried to return them the sales people were rude and acted like they might not be able to accept the return, stating that their new policy doesn't cover normal wear... I don't know who expects their clothing to just fall apart if they wash them, but if you're going to sell me cheap pieces of crap I can certainly buy that somewhere else for much cheaper. It's also ridiculous to try to shame your customers. I travel frequently for field work, and have spent quite a bit in REI, but after this experience I would not trust them with any large purchases.

My wife bought a pair of Merrell hiking shoes 2 years ago, didn't wear much, but did this past week on a 4 day backpacking trip on the John Muir Trail in Yosemite. It was the first time she really wore them on a long hike. She got blisters pretty bad, even though they were two years old (and worn in). She returned them today to REI and they gave her a full refund. Wow. I have total confidence buying products from them... they really stand by their stuff.

REI and continued 'membership' shenanigans-now I get it. Was initially astounded that REI would not stand behind their flawed product, insisting with Gestapo like force that a receipt/membership number be provided in order to make right THEIR defective product. After reading about the recent history of this company, now I get it. Bottom line for me - will never purchase anything from them. What kind of company is more worried about membership number than the quality of their products? I sent them two brand new shirts with some sort of fabric defect (the wrinkles could not be removed). Were they concerned? Absolutely NOT. FAKE 100% satisfaction guarantee. Incredibly insensitive to think I would insult the giver of the gift (shirts) in order to find out where/when it was purchased.

Working in customer service should be about how to help a customer. At times, I felt I was wasting the agents time. I asked reasonable questions, which could have been responded to with kindness and respect. I think the cardinal sin was her saying I have many customers waiting. Do you have a question? If a customer asks a specific question which needs supervision, then the customer should be informed they are looking into the issue and will provide information. Information as basic as reach out to my manager on Linkedin or here's a great way connecting with our Support supervisors. I think agents need to not deflect and actually provide truthful answer on what options are available. In conclusion, I've never felt so insulted as an agent saying theres customers waiting and to please ask a question deemed worth for a response. Either the agent should have concerted their opinion or not blamed the customer for being an interested party. Please respond only with a support manager.