REI — Local services in Berkeley

Quick summary: REI has gone down hill as they seem to be hiring minimum wage staff to replace the old extremely knowledgable staff they used to have. This new staff in turn are acting like they are being paid minimum wage. Go to other stores if you want staff that are passionate and care about their products and therefore are willing to pay the in store premium. Otherwise stick with the internet.

I used to love REI. It used to be my favorite place to go. The Berkeley store has traditionally had knowledgable staff that were passionate about their department.

Long story short. I was in the bike department. The staff member working the area was talking about getting laid and shitfaced with his coworker at some party a night or two before while they were both (she was helping the winter area) ignoring customers in their section. The two cut off conversation and went to helping customers. At this point its more like okay, I get it, slow day at work, both friends and conversation got a little out of hand and I happen to overhear it.

I was exchanging shoes. They were a gift and the wrong size. The REI employee goes to the back and gets a new pair for me and then leaves. Luckily they ended up fitting me, but I seriously couldn't find him when I had a question after I tried on the shoes.

I then decided to go check out ski's and overheard another employee giving out advice on boots that while wasn't patently false, certainly was not correct nor beneficial to the customer. I was an outdoor professional for 4+ years and been in the mountains for 3 years.

At this point I was pissed. The bike guy was entirely unhelpful/absent and it was clear this salesperson had never spent a season on the mountain, or had even gone up to ski in the past 5 years. What happened to all the awesome employees that were passionate about the gear they were selling.

Anyways I go to outdoor stores (vs online) when I want to talk to somebody who knows more about the product than I do. Otherwise why would I pay the marked up prices? My experience at this REI, and from things I have heard since, leads me to believe that REI is going the classic corporate route of cheaper, more inexperienced staff. There are plenty of other shops in the Bay Area with staff that are knowledgable in their fields and if all else fails at least the internet provides massive discounts. I will not be back with our without REI's golden...

Generally in the past I've had good experiences at REI in general, but my experience this weekend renting camping gear from them has soured me. I went camping with friends at Yosemite and I decided to rent gear since I haven't camped in a while.

The experience renting the gear on Friday was fairly poor to average. The lady there had an attitude problem and did not explain to me even a single thing about how to set up the tent or provide any other useful information outside of how to avoid being responsible for fees afterwards. From a store that basically sells full retail price for everything, the service needs to be much better than that.

For the camping, I spent $84 and the tent was set up for about 18 hours over the weekend. The tent suffered from incredible condensation issues, which I'm sure is partly due to insufficient ventilation, but again they explain zero about tent setup and clearly only inexperienced campers are RENTING camping gear.

So the tent was wet literally due to me and my wife's body heat and breathing, not due to elements. Condensation like I mentioned before.

I go to return the tent. It has to be returned by Sunday at 7pm, which is frankly too early. Sure the store closes, but there should be a grace on return time because many people are trying to squeeze extra hours on Sunday at the campsite, not rush to return gear. The tent is still wet from previously mentioned condensation. I didn't think to bring a towel to wipe off moisture from a tent when California is basically the most bone dry place in the country. And this was not just a little moisture. The tent was dripping water onto our faces from the inside. Despite the poor ventilation in our setup, this is about the least breathable fabric in history.

She wants to charge me a cleaning fee of $25. Yes, that same lady. Not only that, she doesn't ask anything about the experience, doesn't care whether I enjoyed my time at Yosemite, and makes a snarky comment about how it mentions wet tents in the rental agreement and maybe I should read it before signing. We talked her out of paying the stupid fee, but I was upset.

I will not be shopping at REI anymore. I could sometimes pay the prices knowing the service is top notch at least. Now there's simply no reason whatsoever to shop...

I have to say that my experience at the Berkeley REI Bike Shop over the past few visits has been spectacular.

I recently purchased a direct-to-consumer gravel bike and built it up myself. Well, I’m decent with my hands, but am by no means a bike mechanic, and I quickly got in over my head.

My first trip in, the staff walked me through the basics of what I had missed with my bike, and I dropped it off so they could address them. At the same time, I had them install new tubeless tires, new compressionless brake lines, new bar tape, and a derailleur adjustment. They did a fantastic job on all counts, and the cost was extremely reasonable - about $100.

A few weeks later, after maybe 100 miles of East Bay gravel, fire roads, and single-track (and after laying the bike down quite a few times), I had some new problems. My derailleur was a bit out of whack, and I had a few difficult-to-diagnose creaks coming from the bottom end. I walked in expecting to drop the bike off for a few days, but man was I surprised when Art immediately through my bike on the stand.

Art not only diagnosed the issues in a few short minutes, but addressed them on the spot. If that weren’t enough, he pointed out a few other things I had missed, and then went on to adjust the fit of my bike, including adjusting the saddle + levers. All the while, he explained what he was doing, and man did I learn a heck of a lot.

If your bike could use some love, please don’t hesitate to take it into the Berkeley REI Bike Shop for a tune-up. I am thoroughly impressed by their staff’s knowledge, care, and attention to detail. As a bonus, Coop Members get 20% off all services. They’re my local bike shop from here on...