REI — Local services in Flagstaff

I have been a member of REI for over 20 years and until recently had always felt that I had received great service and that the products I got were of good quality and were always warrantied. I often bought things from REI because of their good warranty even though I could have gotten them cheaper on the internet.

Unfortunately, this summer I had a very unpleasant experience with an expensive tent which I had purchase three years prior when tents still had a life time warranty - which they do not have any more now. The zipper on my tent had given out, yet the rest of the tent was totally fine. I called customer service with my receipt info, to check whether they thought the tent would be repaired or replaced as part of the warranty. The young lady with whom I spoke, encouraged me to send the tent in for evaluation, but told me that I had to send the entire tent including stakes and fly i order for my tent to be considered. I went through the trouble of wrapping it up and taking it to the post office, as well as UPS and found out that it would cost 30 to send the tent one way. I decided to combine a hike and a trip to the Flagstaff REI (I live in Prescott, two hours away) and talk with someone directly. As soon as I explained my situation, it was clear that no one had any intention of replacing the tent since it was past the one year date. I was then sent to a young woman who handles repairs, who reiterated the 1 year rule even though I told her that I had bought the tent when they still had a life time warranty. She also told me that it was pretty common by now that my 400+ would not last much beyond a year. When I mentioned that that was disturbing to me she just shrugged her shoulders and politely and in a icy cold voice said, that she was sorry that that was disappointing to me.

Only after taking my info to send the tent to get it repaired, did she tell me it would take at least 3 weeks before the tent would be evaluated and then more time before I would have it back - mind you this was July....At that point I just looked at her in astonishment and took my tent to get it repaired locally.

I am sad that a company from who I had received great products and service had deteriorated that much, and that "professionalism" barely disguised a complete lack of compassion for and interest in their customers.

I hope my experience is an exception and that customer service representatives will receive better training as to give appropriate information on the phone. I would have been upset, but at least it would have saved me hours of work and more upset, had I been told that REI was no longer honoring life time warranties regardless of when an item had...

TLDR: This location does not inspect returns before putting them for sale in returns rack. Over this last weekend I was in the store and decided to stop by the returns rack. I have been wanting to check out those portable solar panels and they happened to have one on the rack that was returned. The tag said "never used, customer just didn't like it." Okay I thought, sounds fine, I'll try it. So I get to the counter and notice there is a ton of dirt on the unit. I asked the sales person about it and she calls the manager over. He goes on to say that he remembers the return and that they tested it/ works fine. I was happy with that new story and even though the dirt and wear on the item didn't match the original story; I thought I'd roll the dice. Got home and the thing doesn't work. Tried a few different devices with it and nothing would charge. So with nothing to lose I opened it up and found one of the wires from the panels to the USB port was disconnected. A few minutes with a soldering iron and I was back in business, the panel now works great. In summary the staff here clearly did not test the return and just took the word of the customer. Fortunately I got lucky and was able to repair the item with no additional cost and minimal time however it is something to know when...

The staff would not shut up about signing up for their mastercard. Even after I told them I was not interested, they kept telling me about it. I was asked by the same people about 4-5 times.

I went in to find the best fit for a backpacking pack. The first night, the guy was super helpful with finding a right fit and adjusting it just right. However, it was closing time so I left and came back the next day to try on a bunch of different packs to find what I liked/disliked about each bag. The 2 guys who helped me the next morning seemed nice but after I tried 2-3 on, they started getting pushy. I felt they just wanted me to buy this bag that sorta felt nice so they could get the sale and move on to the next person. They did not care if I bought the perfect bag for me, just that I bought a bag. This on top of the mastercard bullshit and I left. I then went to Peace Outfitters and they were so friendly and helpful and really cared about finding the...