REI — Local services in Madison

I've been a fan of REI for probably 15 years, and a member for 11 years. It's still a fine place to buy whatever you want that they carry, but the customer service is pretty uneven. I recently experienced this when I went to talk to an associate about good replacements for my tent of 14 years.

I had researched most of their online offerings, and they seemed to fall into two buckets that weren't quite what I wanted. I had a good chat with the associate who initially stopped to chat, but she was quickly ushered away by another associate who clearly felt that the first associate should be elsewhere.

This second associate proceeded to hear the fact that I wanted to buy a new tent and had a single reason I wasn't about to buy the same model, glanced at my current tent's specs I'd brought, and immediately started pointing at options and talking about how they could do so much better on weight.

I should have immediately clarified that I wanted her to listen in full to my 3 priorities for the tent first, before trying to identify specific models - weight was nowhere in my top 5 priorities.

But I didn't call her out on her aggressive "settle for what we have" salesmanship, so the conversation went on for a full 5 more minutes of back-and-forth, with her trying to say that what I was looking for didn't exist, making sweeping generalizations that made me question how knowledgeable she was about tents beyond the store's current inventory, and saying things like "you're the only person I've ever found who didn't want x feature".

Towards the end she slipped in some sort of "you can order this online since you're a member" "you are a member, right?" that was just weird.

So, if you want to talk to an associate who is well-versed in a given sector of outdoor products and can advise knowledgeably, you may get lucky and find it at this store, but it's by no means guaranteed.

(For those curious - Durston's X-Dome 1 looks like it ticks all my boxes, with Mountain Hardwear's Nimbus UL2 a close second that...

We’ve been REI members for years and have always trusted their quality and customer service though to be honest, we’ve never actually tried to return anything until now. Unfortunately, this first experience has been really disappointing.

We purchased a pair of work boots that were advertised as waterproof. A sales associate strongly encouraged us to buy this specific pair, insisting they were far better than the other boots we wanted and quite frankly wouldn't leave us alone about buying this specific boot. They repeatedly reassured us that if we didn’t like them, we had a full year to return them, which ultimately persuaded us to go with that pair.

However, within just a few weeks, the boots started falling apart and clearly weren’t waterproof at all. My husband stopped wearing them after about two weeks because they simply weren’t holding up, they were completely falling apart and losing their form.

Since REI offers a one-year return policy for members, we weren’t in a rush to bring them back we felt confident that we’d be covered. But when we returned them (within three months of purchase), we were told the damage was considered "normal wear and tear" and that the boots weren’t “gently used.” That was incredibly frustrating. I'm extremely confused about how is it “normal” for work boots to start falling apart and no longer be waterproof within a few weeks? And how can they be both “not gently used” and experiencing “normal wear and tear” at the same time? That explanation doesn’t make sense, especially for a product designed for heavy use.

This experience has made us question the value of our REI membership and whether the company truly stands behind the products it sells and their satisfaction guaranteed return policy. We expected better and are really disappointed. I would be cautious and return products the minute you realize you don't want them, because their 1 year return...

Looong time West Madison REI member and shopper. Always my first choice unless there's significant better value elsewhere. This is due to service and store policies. I recently purchased a new mountain bike from this store. Due to supply chain, had to order sight unseen and have it shipped to store. Waited a couple months. Had a very brief exchange when I went to pick it up, knowing REI's bulletproof return and customer support policies. After getting the bike home I noticed a paint chip in the frame. Being my first brand new bike, maybe ever, I was definitely disappointed ($1500 purchase). Called and asked to speak to a store manager (Elisabeth - eschunc). Asked what she could do to remedy the situation. She insisted I bring the bike back in, and that even if I did there would be no discount option for remedy. Frustrating, considering I needed the bike right away and didn't want to wait months for another replacement. Later that night I sent the same issue into the parent company, via email, and within an hour they'd offered three solutions - one being a financial adjustment that was acceptable. So simple for them, but so difficult when discussing directly with this west store manager. Doesn't make any sense. Almost always 5 stars in my experience, but down to 2 based on this situation. This will still be my go-to place due to proximity and overall support. I'm happy spending a little more here for items due to normal support after the sale standards. Hope they consider this at west; I'm definitely REI's core demographic. Could have been an off-night for this manager, but frustrating and a waste of my time and the...