Bass Pro Shops — Attraction in Swatara Township

This place just annoys me every time I have to go there. Store is clean and the fish tank/atmosphere is cool. But the service is lacking. To be fair, I did encounter friendly personnel on the sales floor, asked if we were finding everything alright, greeter at front entrance was pleasant. But the gun counter clerk was unfriendly and acted irritated with me over a question regarding transfers (I just like to know for future reference for FFL’s to use). I asked highly politely and still thanked him for his time (30 seconds tops). The people that try to get you to sign up for their timeshare vacations downstairs were really pushy and when I answered “sorry were just not interested today, they acted pretty angry and didn’t want to let us walk away to the point where we avoided the middle of the store for the remainder of our visit to steer clear of them as to not be pestered! Then I pick up my online order at customer service. I’m standing there for at least two minutes and two representatives are chatting with each other. One noticed me but didn’t come over and went back to chatting. Eventually they come over and I inform them I have a pick up order. I have the email which states they can scan my barcode to streamline the pick up process. They had scanners galore at the counter but he wouldn’t scan the code and wanted me to read my order number to him. Then it took him 3 minutes to sign into a computer to enter my order number… then I show my ID and the other clerk starts to finally go look for my order only after I waited for a bit. Something that should take a few minutes with two clerks and no one else in line took 3 times as long as it should. The merchandise is mostly overpriced with a pinch of deals scattered here and there… I guess they gotta pay for the fish tank and the animal displays somehow. Honestly, go to Sportsman’s Warehouse or a local FFL/outdoor shop. I used to love this place about a decade ago but I always seem to have a bad encounter with a couple employees here that I don’t get elsewhere usually. Never pay for their scope sighting services either. I promise you, you can do it better at home with some trial and error! Place has lost its magic to me which is a shame because I want to like it and always try it again from time to time hoping I just had a one-off experience but then I just get...

My son recently got into fishing. We were in town due to his baseball tournament and had some time before the tournament to go fishing and on our way we saw Bass Pro Shop. The closest one to where we live is about an hour away and honestly I forgot we even had one by us. So my son has never been to one before and he was in absolute heaven! He ended up getting a baitcaster and some new hooks and lors.

My ONLY complaint was that a worker came over asking if we wanted to sign up for their rewards program. He was telling me points never expire, can be used online, yada yada. I specifically asked if this was just a free rewards thing with like a phone number (like most stores do and then send you a coupon or money off after x amount of points) and he's like oh yeah absolutely and anytime you purchase anything in store or online it gets you points. Im like yeah we'll probably do that when we go to check out and he was very persistent like "well come on Ill go ahead and get you signed up now" so we walk over to this desk and he says "ok so whoever is going to be the one applying will come over to this computer" and im like wait a minute... applying? Is this a credit card? He's like well yeah... I'm like oh no thank you, thats why I asked if this was just a free rewards system linked to our phone number.... and he was visibly irritated and walked away. He was the nicest person in the world, giving us recommendations of good places to fish nearby, offering to help my son set up his baitcaster, etc. But as soon as I realized it was a credit card (after being intentionally misled) he was like a completely different person who was irritated and couldn't be bothered with us anymore.

I get it, I'm sure they make some type of commission or something when they get people to sign up for the credit card but intentionally misleading people hopefully they'll just sign up anyways out of being uncomfortable saying no isn't the way to do it. And being visibly annoyed, irritated, and acting like we're bothering you after you realize we're not helping you get that commission also isn't cool.

All the other staff were absolutely amazing. Another staff member helped set my sons baitcaster up and tried to give him some tips and couldn't of been...

I found an Antique 1892 Winchester on the website. The store location for the ad was incorrect (showed Indiana), so it took some legwork and help from my local store to track it down to the Harrisburg store. I called and spoke to a helpful guy at the gun counter that admitted he knew nothing about old guns but said it was there. He offered to have their antique specialist call me the next time he came in, but he didn't know when that would be, he said he didn't think the gun would be going anywhere. The antique specialist called me a couple hours later (pretty late in the afternoon) and offered to send me more pictures, the pictures on the website were fine, I just needed to confirm the bore matched the website description which stated it was an excellent and bright and shiny bore. If it was, I would buy the gun. We chatted a bit and he said he was a Winchester 1894 collector, so he knew what to look for. I asked about the bore and he said it was horrible. I asked him how that could be, since that was in complete contradiction to the listing? He didn't say much and had no way of sending pictures of the bore. I decided because of the bore to pass on the gun. The next morning I thought over the conversation and realized he was trying to down sell me on buying it. I suspected if I looked it up, it would be sold. I went on the website and I was correct. The gun was gone, I'm pretty sure he was talking me out of it so he could pick it up himself. The odds of someone else walking in and buying it in the 5 remaining hours they were open is slim to none. This should be pretty easy for management to verify. I would hope this is a violation of the code of conduct for Bass Pro/Cabelas employees and if my suspicion is correct, he'll be reprimanded or terminated for it. This is the latest incident in a string of disappointments from Cabelas/Bass Pro. I have had their credit card for over 15 years. As soon as I can find something to spend the rest of my points balance on, I'm closing the credit card account and I'm done with this retailer. Since the merger advertised sales have been lackluster and customer service has gone down hill at both...