REI — Attraction in Chicago

The black guy employee with a beard is very scary and rude. He doesn't know what service with a genuine smile means when trying to help the men, he only puts a a fake smile for the ladies.

they have one good bike repair employee, one okay bike repair employee with glasses for basic service and one young bike repair employee again for basic repairs.

It says the bike repair shop is open till 9:00 p.m. but I never see them actually do much. One guy said the evening rush comes in and it gets really busy but I only saw him do one quick fix on a bicycle and another day I saw a different bicycle repair employee not do any work during the so-called evening rush.

It was just my observation during the evenings "plural" that I was there that they could have did up to six repairs in the 3 hours before closing.

I'll put it this way, I'm kind of an undercover boss mystery shopper. I could have taken photos what the employees were actually doing during that 3 hours time.

I think I'm going to have to take some photos on my next trip to the Midwest region.

The bike repair department doesn't warranty their workmanship.

I had them do a repair with their part and they said once you step outside the store they can't warranty their workmanship for any period of time!

That's not proper business ethics as taught in the Oxford Business Ethics Handbook and used by the entire free world.

30 day warranty is the minimum for a universal standard at all bike repair stores. They don't know what within reason means, or the word Reasonable.

They need to change their policy. And do it with a genuine smile.

If they don't address these problems, I don't expect REI to stay in business for long. I definitely wouldn't put stock in them if they ever decide to go public on the NYSE, similar to Dicks Sports which is trading over...

Was just here with my dad, who needed a new pair of sunglasses. A male employee (Bailey? Shorter, young, Caucasian) was helping him for find a pair he liked. Turns out the sunglasses he wanted was the last pair in the store. These sunglasses were the display pair and the employee couldn’t find the case. Because of the inconvenience, the employee talked with his manager who agreed AND PUT IN WRITING they would allow him to get an extra 10% off on top of the 20% store discount promotion.

When we get to the register, two female employees assisted us, 1) Hannah with blond hair and bangs and 2) a female employee with long strawberry blond/ red hair.

The female employees, mainly Hannah, told us they would not give us the additional 10% off THAT WAS PROMISED to us. She said that the male employee “didn’t know what he was doing”. THEN, Hannah called the male employee (Bailey) down to the register and literally YELLED at him in front of us. We felt so bad for him. The red hair employee also Thanked Hannah in front of us for helping implying we were a “difficult situation”.

TL,DR: we were promised 10% off a pair of a pair of expensive display sunglasses without a case. The employee helping us got approval from his supervisor upstairs to give us 10% off the inconvenience. Hannah at the register refused to honor the 10%. Then she yelled at the male employee in front of us. Very embarrassing. The employee with red hair had a lot of attitude, seemed annoyed at us and later thanked Hannah in front of us for assisting because we were “difficult”.

On top of this, my dad has been a loyal customer for years who’s spend thousands at REI in his lifetime. As someone who’s worked in the customer service, if you promise a customer something, you can’t take it back.

These employees should be fired for how they...

I am a huge fan of REI's lovely product selection, however, the attitude and subtle rudeness of some staff members takes it from a 10/10 store to a 6/10 store.

I was recently excited to learn about the trade-in program, as I am a huge fan of trading, saving money, and reducing unnecessary items in the landfill. Several of the workers who have done trade-ins for me have been wonderful, however, a couple like Hannah the sale manager yesterday, seem to have a very snobby (perhaps fatphobic, as both my partner and I are overweight) attitude. She treated every item I presented with a high level of skepticism, even though they were brands like Kuhl, Patagonia, and REI. She began the trade-in by warning that I would not be able to sell damaged items, and then asked if I had screenshots as proof that REI would buy these items. I had indeed checked the catalog and am familiar with how the process works.

The gist is that Hannah and some other staff members seem to favor some customers to help, while dismissing others as not the right demographic to be offering help or kindness to. My partner and I joke that visiting REI is often like the scene with Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman - that we don't look the part and are treated less favorably.

I want to compliment the selection of products and the excellent gentleman who helped us try on Blundstones.

I hope this feedback will be taken in the constructive manner in which it is intended so that staff can address their implicit...