REI — Local services in Conway

My city wife and I (country) drove to REI with the intent on preparing for a scenario similar to Cheryl Strayed's "Wild". An eye-opening book about living in the wild, by oneself, for months. We began in the hiking boot (the image on the cover of Wild) section. In five minutes, I'd tried on and chose a pair of boots that would be appropriate for long hikes on any terrain, including attaching crampons in winter. I moved on to the men's outerwear section and in 15-20 minutes had collected several shells, Spring/Fall hiking jackets, sweaters and insulated pants. My wife was still trying on boots. While she was distracted, I called the young man from REI who was helping her over to inform him that he was in for a serious challenge finding a pair of hiking boots for her that was on par with mine, with the same intended use - hiking and camping every day on extended treks. I moved to the camping gear - equipment, materials, supplies: tent, sleeping bags and pads, stove and fuel, utensils, Leatherman multi-function tool, etc. Nearly 2-1/2 hours later, I was done. My wife was still working on finding a pair of boots. She ended up buying something for day hikes, and she'd discovered that her arches are very high making it, well, nearly impossible for her to find a pair of shoes that fit her right. Nevertheless, the REI assistant stayed with her until his break and a female assistant had taken on the arduous role of working with such a difficult customer. The store in Conway, NH was about to close so I got in line while my wife picked about 25% of her needs, then we had to settle up. A man in line with his wife laughed at my over-flowing cart, clearly not designed for the typical purchase. "What'd you get a gift card?" The man laughed some more and I realized that my purchase was going to add up to a couple of thousand dollars, or so. Sure enough, I'd spent over $4K. What most hikers and campers might spend for similar stuff over their lifetime, we were buying all at once. We needed everything, and my wife still needs the balance of things so she can check off everything on her list. I told the man that the longer it takes my wife to find boots that fit her, the more money I'm going to spend on the things that I want. She, the book-keeper in the family, understood the urgency. The same REI assistants rung up our tab, packed everything in re-usable, heavy-duty boxes, we thanked them and headed for the door. The anti-theft alarm went off several times, as we watched on while the assistants dug through boxes to identify the products that had the electronic detection devices embedded in their packaging. 3-4 hours after entering the store, we were leaving it. I drove down Route 16 telling my wife about the great experience I felt it was doing business with REI. Everyone who helped us find, understand and select the things that we needed, were indespensibly helpful, very friendly, highly knowledgeable, yet not at all condescending to us for our outdated understanding of today's products technology and design, albeit, for the same purpose and function that hiking and camping has always required. My wife agreed. Without hesitation, I highly recommend the Conway, New Hampshire REI, the staff and the products. They get five stars, and I rarely ever give five stars, being the perfectionist that I can often be, from my background in product development and service-type business-owner. Excellent job...

I constantly feel like you have to fight for just basic decent service these days. I recent purchased two Co-op Cycles REV 24 Plus Kids' Bikes. There were scheduled to arrive a few weeks before Christmas unfortunately they didn’t and I was told they were pushed out a week no big deal we still time. The next week same story nope. I call with just a few days before Christmas and they are just wrapping up one and have the second one ready to assemble. The manager offers a discount for not having them ready in time but I’m just glad they arrived. We drove 2 hours and picked them up on the 24th and to be honest at that point I was just glad they had them. My kids were ecstatic we got bells and a few other accessories and were able to ride out the door that day.

I didn’t have to bicker or fight with anyone they apologized for the delay and offer a discount which was gracious. What I appreciated the most was they didn’t make excuses for the delays and inconvenience. It seems so rare these days that a store actually says sorry we committed to something we couldn’t meet and that’s what mattered so I thank the store manager for his honesty, you guy rock and you make two young boys day for sure! Thank you of acknowledging the mistake and...

I've never had an issue with REI when shopping in store, which is why I'm giving them two stars, but think twice if you're considering buying online.

REI doesn't seem to know what they have for products, where they have them or IF they have them at all... but that doesn't stop them from offering to sell stuff to you anyway. They will give you a confirmation and estimated date of arrival upon purchase, but that will NEVER update. It'll just stay the original estimated date even if the order is delayed or not coming at all. If you call or chat with Customer Service, they will give you another estimated date of arrival, but won't update your order info and won't give you any kind of definitive answer about when your item will arrive, because they have no idea. It's an estimate.

In this day and age, where I can order products online and some companies will send me actual videos of my order being packed and mailed out along with tracking info for every step of the journey, REI doesn't even know if they actually have the products they're selling people. There's no excuse. There are independent online merchants working out of their basement with better inventory management and tracking availability.

TLDR; Buy in store. Skip their...