REI — Local services in Boston

It was difficult to find anyone to help me in the shoe section. I stood w/ shoe models in hand while three employees walked by who wouldn’t even look at me. When I finally tracked one down he criticized me for choosing road shoes & trail runners, telling me that some people think they need trail runners but they don’t. When I told him I was replacing a pair of trail runners, he agreed to let me try both types of shoe. When I asked him to try on the next size up, he disappeared for 10 or more minutes & came back with the same size I already tried on and gaslit me that I asked for duplicate sizes & when I showed the original sizes he dismissed me again. I noticed that he was dismissive to another woman too, but attentive & engaged w/ a man in the shoe department. When I checked out, the man at checkout was rude too. I had questions and he was also dismissive - he said that they didn’t have paper bags any more & I tried to ask if I could buy a reusable one but he pushed my purchase aside without giving me a receipt & engages the next customer. He ignored me when I asked for a receipt and told me that I asked for a emailed receipt (I didn’t, & it felt like I was being gaslit again) & when I said I needed a printed one he said it was too late. I left feeling ignored and didn’t feel valued as a customer or as a person. This was one of the worst shopping experiences ever. I wouldn’t have bought anything if i didn’t need the shoes for the next day.

I was so disappointed from this experience with the REI brand. I came in with a specific need (to replace the shoes I was wearing because the sole broke while I was traveling to Boston for a conference) and I struggled to find anyone to help me try on shoes - and when I did, I was mansplained to and treated dismissively. I walked in with a clear idea of what I wanted and made to feel small for the type of shoe I wanted. I hope that everyone at this store isn’t rude or dismissive - the best case scenario is that there isn’t a healthy culture at this store and these employees were acting under stress. But the way I was treated was not acceptable.

I will most likely never visit this store...

This store and its staff cannot be praised enough. Here is a letter of appreciation i took time out to write them from Moscow:

Dear REI Boston shop assistants:

I was moving to Moscow and shopped for 4 days at your store last fall early October for myself and my family. I have finally moved and this is my first winter. Every day, I thank you and thank the assistant (will just find out his name, or my receipt number so you can note who it is) who helped me shop for weather that I had not experienced since my student days in Boston- and which is far, far worse than that anyway! There have been so many technological advances and design tweaks that only an informed assistant could have educated me for dressing in minus 25-40 weather.

Further, it wasnt just the 2 or 3 assistants who helped me overall to sift through sale items so that i would be able to buy all that i needed at a lower price if i found the correct type/ size (trust me this was a logistical NIGHTMARE ), but even the rest of the staff: the cashiers, the manager, all gave me special consideration since they knew i was out of town and shopping for the unknown and allowed me to keep storing the items with them everyday until i had them all and could pay for it in one go. Very. Very, cool. Sigh. This is extraordinary service, but i miss even the ordinary service and experience of shopping in the States. there is NOTHING like it anywhere in the world! (And sadly, Moscow is the worst: they still need to get the hang of capitalism and the relationship between retail and service...!)

I have a growing list of what to buy on my next trip to Boston!

Thank you (every day in this weather!)

Seasons Greetings,

Zarminae...

Very helpful customer service and they didn't try to oversell me like Pappa Wheelies on Com Ave and Community Bike Supply on Tremont. (Beware of bike repair shops telling you that you need to pay for unnecessary repairs. I bought my bike brand new for $300 online. I had an issue with some of the assembly. Someone who put my bike together stripped the thread on the crank shaft so I called around to get it fixed. Pappa Wheelies acted as though it was going to be such a costly repair that it wasn't going to be cost effective. I felt that wasn't true because it was just an issue with the threads and all I needed to do was get the pedal on, so I walked out. I called Community Bike Supply and they said it'd cost about $20 bucks and that they see this all the time. Because my bike was brand new the tires needed to be inflated and the neck for the handlebars needed tightening - very, very minor things. Everything else was intact. When they saw the handlebars were loose and the tires needed inflation they said they couldn't fix my pedal/thread issue until the bike was fully assembled or it was a liability issue. They said it was policy and when I asked to read the policy I was referred to a manager. Again, I felt that I was being sort of hustled. I didn't anticipate that kind of treatment at a bike shop: you know, the kind you expect from a shady car shop? So that was disappointing. I ended up getting my bike fixed by my father for free. All he did was clear the threads and the pedal went on - simple. REI felt like they wanted to help, not squeeze me for every possible dollar they could. That felt good. Check them out. I hope your experience feels as authenticly...