Cabela's — Local services in Brookside

On Saturday, January 13th, I came down to the store hoping to replace my compound bow strings and cables due to fraying near one of the cams. After speaking to costumer services I was informed that Cabela's doesn't sell strings but only performs the labor for replacements. I found this frustrating because I drive nearly a hour to the store, but perhaps I should’ve checked the inventory online first - I can own that. I had assumed that an archery department would be able to perform that change. The rep, Jeff I think was his name, recommended I purchase some strings from the online store 60x or from Lancaster Archery. I purchased from 60x for $137.75. Upon receiving them, I returned to Cabela's to have the strings installed. Carol Protack was my technician. She was very pleasant, however I came to find out that she installed the cables overlapped improperly would which cause irrevocable damage. I found this out in short order after shooting my bow 30-40 times. I immediately saw strange wearing from where fletching came into contact in addition to the general overlapping. Although I’m not an expert in bow setup, I knew something was wrong having never seen something like this in the nearly 10 years of having my bow. To get another opinion and having lost confidence in Cabela's, I took my bow to Lancaster Archery. Before I even explained what had happened, they observed the crossed cables and the significant wear on the strings. After examining the bow further, not only were the cables improperly installed but that also the D-Loop and Peep Sight hadn’t been properly secured. After testing the line, the string had already been cut multiple strings deep and would need to be replaced. So I ended up paying about another $150 for parts and labor. I’m over $300 into this adventure I’ve wasted my time multiple times over on what should have been a routine servicing. I like to be patient with people, but not at the expense of hundreds of dollars. Frankly, I’m pretty frustrated at the lack of quality service. Not to mention that I attempted to contact costumer service via email on February 19th and received no response whatsoever. Don't take your bow to Cabela's if youre in the southern PA tristate area. Just don't. Take the further trip to Lancaster archery. Cabela's please train your people better. Perhaps install a policy where the person has to test shoot their bow before leaving to catch any potential errors that are self evident in defense of the technician. UPDATE: I was able to connect with a manager at the Cabela's and we were able to discuss through things civilly with great follow up. Additionally, they were able to provide some compensation from the mistake. Therefore...reranking them from a 1 star...

I never had a significant problem with this store until recently. Usually the store is crowded but everyone is helped. I went to this location with my father just to take a look at some shot guns and rifles. My father and I were in the gun library looking at some shot guns, rifles, pistols and the lot. I found two guns I wanted to purchase. My father held both guns for me in order for me to find some assistance. In a 15-20 minute span, I went out twice to find someone to help but every time I came close to finding someone, they walked into the back. May I mind you in between us standing around and me trying to find some assistance a handful of employees made direct eye contact but never said a word they just all went in back and did not help one bit. So after 20-30 minutes of standing around, my dad and I went out with the guns (keep in mind there is NOTHING that states you cannot leave the gun library with the guns) to find some help when all of a sudden an employee (that actually passed us twice in the gun library and saw us and never came up before now to ask us if we needed help) was very rude and condescending asked May I help you. My father replied that we were looking for help and no one was around. He said unfortunately you cannot leave the gun library with guns (again no sign stating anything about it and plus they have guns right outside the library) he took the guns I wanted to purchase away and asked again what we wanted and my father said those two guns. He said I need your license and my dad looked at him and said it’s for her. The employee stated very rudely but you were holding them (I assume he thought my dad was purchasing them for me) My dad stated I was holding them for her. The employee rolled his eyes and took my license. Came back and started the process. He was very condescending toward me and halfway through the process handed me over to another salesperson. He finished up. As he was finishing up, he got another salesperson to look for the serial number on the gun. I did not appreciate the other salesperson handling the gun the way they did. I actually had to take a step back. They finished up the sale and the second salesman (although awkward and kinda rude) got the sale done. I feel as though they saw me and believed I knew nothing about guns or weapons at all. My father and other family members are avid collectors along with my growing collection and have taken safety classes to ensure I KNOW what I am doing. I don’t appreciate being belittle, especially being as though I am a consumer. Definitely...

I stopped by today to pick up an online order. I had originally intended to go inside and pick up some other items, but there was a large line outside as they were limiting occupancy due to covid. This is a great practice for public health, but I decided to instead use the curbside pickup and headed to one of the six or so designated parking spots.

I called the store and gave them my order number and was then placed on hold for approximately 15 minutes. A rude woman who sounded annoyed finally picked up and informed me that there was only one person working the curbside pickup and she was quite overwhelmed at the moment. I found this odd since I was the only car in the designated area. This was occurred three more times as I was repeatedly placed on hold and forced to wait. Finally the fourth time the rude woman picked up she directed me to the back of the store where I was told I would be met with my order which was currently being processed.

In the back of the store I found a man on a forklift moving pallets. Although he was obviously not the curbside person, he ignored me. After 15 more minutes of waiting he went inside and another man who appeared to be a manager emerged. He asked why I was there and I gave him my order number explaining that I had now waited an hour. He disappeared inside and came back to tell me that they were 'swamped with a billion orders'. He offered no apology or indication of how much longer it would take. I again explained that I had now waited well over an hour and needed to leave soon for other obligations. He again said that they were very busy and actually seemed annoyed that I intended to leave. He told me that my order would still be there 'next time and suggested I come back another day. I live 45 min away and was only in DE for business today so this is incredibly inconvenient.

Bottom line, I wasted well over an hour of my day due to Cabela's incompetence. The manager and staff had no regard for the value of my time and on top of that were rude. Their 'curbside pickup' which is now standard procedure for most businesses operating during the pandemic is a...