Luke Main Exchange — Local services in Glendale

The Luke AFB Main Exchange is about the worst military retail store within the Continental US (CONUS). Employee attitudes are lackluster and negative. Requesting assistance nearly always ends up with an "I can't" response to the most general questions. Most prices are on par or higher compared to off-base retailers even with no tax applied to purchases. PRICE MATCHING is a joke and there is always a caveat on why they cannot honor it. They will tell you that they will price match products with Amazon but will be eager to tell you "they can't" because of some outrageous reason embedded in their system. They will also tell you that "they can't" match their online prices while you are physically at the store, but, will tell you if you order from their online site, you can make the purchase at the store. Why? Their home office prices are listed separately from field stores and both systems do not interface. They acknowledge this is a problem but no one has taken this issue up to their home office for resolution. Their online prices are often different from in-store prices and this creates issues with customers who point out these discrepancies. Moreover, prices on products on display at the store are often wrong but no one seems to care about making corrections in the system to preclude recurrence. The store is sparsely patronized and there are good reasons for it. Employee apathy, incompetence, job security for poor performance, all lead to a strong motto of customer disservice and sales prevention. The BX as it once was called is no longer a cherished benefit for military members, retired, and for disabled veterans. They exist because they are supplemented by taxpayer dollars no matter how unprofitable. If this military store had to compete to exist with other retailers outside of the base, it would be shut down due to significant problems deeply rooted in the store's culture. To be clear, military retailers such as the Exchange are necessary to provide support for our troops in many austere and remote working environments. But it is not an excuse to allow poor customer service and apathy to exist even when its operation is supplemented by...

Very rude staff, manager refused to help me on two different occasions.

Prices are too high and they don't price match anymore, I showed an ad and asked the manager to call for verification but she claimed they don't do that anymore and could only lower the price $10. First time I've ever heard that and I worked at the BX just last year, I always had to call to verify prices and fill out price match sheets but they don't do that at Luke. The commissary has some really awful staff as well. HR wouldn't help me either, claimed the manager had final say and it was up to her whether or not she "wanted" to verify. Absolutely infuriating.

I wouldn't recommend this store if it were the only place still open and selling the cure to cancer.

UPDATE: They sold me a game that did not work on two different consoles and was defective, but they said they wouldn’t allow me to return it. Don’t buy electronics here because the manager said

“we offer warranties because of this happening, our electronics are usually defective which is why we do not allow returns unless you buy the warranty.”

She told me straight up their products are usually broken but that they are in no way responsible for the products being bad and will not exchange or return them. Which is pretty dumb.

They sell substandard products and blame you for not buying the warranty, it was bought an hour before returning it. Ridiculous, the employee claimed to work there for 26 years but wasn’t the manager and said she could do nothing for us. Also we only asked to exchange it for a working copy, not a refund. I just wanted a disc that worked. They kept the coin they sold it with too even though we didn’t get a coin originally but that doesn’t matter it was just the employee being rude because she was angry.

UPDATE: the actual store manager said the employee we spoke with was wrong about the...

I purchased a special order shotgun for my son, and 4 days later I received notification that it was ready for pickup. Luke is pretty distant from where I live but I drove out to begin the paperwork process. I fully anticipated that I would get a delayed release as it has happened before. 3 days later I received an email saying again that my purchase was ready for pick up. I once again drove all the way out only to be told again that my documentation had not cleared, so it was a wasted trip.

In each of these encounters I was always treated with a bit of disdain, but I have pretty thick skin so i didn't make a fuss about it. Still, I felt it kind of unfortunate that being a retired Marine I would encounter this kind of attitude at a military installation. I was with my 5yo daughter and our next stop was to register her for kindergarten. It wasn't until quite a while after we left that I realized the counter person did not return my retired ID not my driver's license. It's my fault that I forgot to ask that it be returned, but at some point he must have realized that it was still in their possession. They have all my contact info but there has been no effort made. I can't return because I no longer have identification. And since he knew the transaction was not going to be completed, why didn't he bring it back to me. Again, yeah, I get that it was my error in leaving without my ID, but I find it a difficult stretch that there has been no one aware that my identification was...