Rural King — Local services in Morganton

Let's start with I am (was) a very consistent shopper of Rural King & over the years have spent A LOT of $$ here. 2 months ago I ordered a shotgun they had on sale. It took a few weeks to get it to the store but was explained very well on the web site & by multiple emails to me. During this I was moving to South Carolina & the drive to get back was almost 2 hours. 1st trip to pick up the shotgun everything went good. I even found a rifle for my wife because hers was stolen a couple years ago. With Covid-19 and everyone buying guns the background checks had become hectic. So when Thad (Gun Barn employee) told me there was a delay I totally understood. Then I went home and waited. Approx 10 days later I called to check on the delay & Lucas (another Gun Barn employee) told me that everything was good to go & I could come by and pick up the 2 guns. 2nd trip to get the guns... So I drove the 70+ miles to pick them up. When I got there I was told that the delay was OPEN instead of PROCEED. And Lucas had read it wrong... OPEN..PROCEED... I guess if you squint your eyes really hard they look the same. So now being out 4 hours and 140+ miles Thad & Destiny (Store Manager) told me they would take 20% off for my troubles. Which I thought was very fair. I am no way upset with anything that has happened this far. I understand that people make mistakes. It happens... THEN after 29 days passed & still a delay, I call & speak with Thad. By this time I have already purchased a shotgun & pistol from 2 different stores so I only wanted the one for my wife from Rural King. Thad told me that the best thing to do was to call the online order & tell them why so I can get a refund. Since I still wanted the rifle for my wife he said we needed to come back and let her get it so that way I still could get it at the 20% off. He told me that he would put a note on it so other employees would understand what was going on when I came back to it. At this time I am still ok with what has happened...... But THEN.... I go today to pick up the rifle and explain to the guys working what had happened. They were very busy & I told them I could wait until last so they could get to the other people because I had other shopping to do. Time was 7pm. I checked back with them around 730pm & they were still very busy. I checked back about 750pm & they told my wife to fill out the background check since it was for her. After verifying her info they looked for the gun for 20 minutes in the vault. They finally gave up looking & said that thesorry but it must have been sold to someone else. By now most people would have went shell shock on them but I still was not that upset. They said not to worry & called SCOTT, the manager & said he would make it right. Scott never apologized... instead he immediately went into telling me that they didn't have the gun & that since I came up there & had the gun on hold for my Wife that he would NOT sell it to me even if they did have it because it was ILLEGAL! I had not put any money down on it nor did I do a background check on the gun in my name because it was on hold for her. Now I am upset. I asked him how it was ILLEGAL for me to put a gun on hold for my wife ? Also, why would your employee tell me to do it and why would they have her do the background check 1 hour before all this happened if it was ILLEGAL. No answer. Although we just watched Scott escort a dad out with there new rifle he purchased for his underaged daughter that was with him. Now how is that fair? HE knew they were in the wrong and was just trying find a way out by telling me I did something ILLEGAL and if that was true did He not just do something ILLEGAL himself? NEVER WILL I SHOP...

Drove an hour to go to Rural King after years of friends telling us what a great store it was. Needed a few thing but wanted to see what kind of chicks they had first (lost a few hens recently in our flock to predators). After waiting 30 minutes and having different employees call for someone three separate times to come to the chick area, we finally left. On my way out I asked a few employees who were walking by to speak with a manager to explain my disappointment. They walked us back over to chicks even though I said I wasn’t interested anymore. Right away Manager Tim arrived and the employee who walked us over explained everything and he said, “so what do you need from me for?” So I reiterated my story as so, “It was my first time in the store, and we had to ask different employees to call someone to that department 3 times and nobody ever showed up. After waiting 30 minutes we gave up and decided to leave even though we needed other things.” He said he was short staffed. I responded, “like everyone else and that I would not have needed an employee if the chicks were labeled accordingly.” I also explained I drove an hour to get to ‘Royal King’ (he corrected me ‘Rural King’ - because that’s important) because friends told me it was a great place. I said, “I was looking to replace some chickens and the chicks were not marked.” He again had excuses that people lean against the tags and they fall off (the other employee said they come in so fast they don’t have time to label). FYI- might want to get your story straight 🤷‍♀️ AND still original chick employee has not shown up (4th call- 45 minutes in now). Finally manager Tim realizes because he still can’t answer what type chicks are, so he physically goes and gets the department chick employee (manager Tim did not return), who now shows up immediately and not very knowledgeable (interchanging pullet and straight run vocabulary🤦‍♀️). Bottom line, I walked out with nothing. Think I will stick with Tractor Supply where they are friendlier and know who you are. My time is money and “Rural King” is not that much cheaper for my needs. Final note, the employee who walked us back to the chicks probably should switch places with manager Tim because she had better people skills than he did and was willing to go the extra mile to stick around and make a...

Rural king is so fun! Think outdoor world meets walmart but without the crowds! 😂 (It's like a huge tractor supply company) This is a big farm store with everything you'll need to have a successful garden, lawn, etc. They have hunting and outdoor hobby sections (kayaking, camping, etc.), clothing sections that aren't too bad (I snagged 3 pairs of cute double rolled Lincoln outfitter shorts), they had chicks (chickens, ducks, turkeys, pheasants, and more you could order in), and so much more. My husband is huge into bbq and grilling, and we loaded up on LOTS of bags of wood pellets for his pellet smoker. There is so much to see in this store, free popcorn for the kiddos (it wasn't very good in my honest opinion lol, but it's machine popcorn!) Even though we spent a good chunk of time here, I can't wait to go back and really comb through the store. We spent almost $400 without remotely getting everything we wanted, so this might be a good store to check out when you have both the time and the money to spend. I wish I had pics to share! I'll try to take some the next time we go back (it is quite a distance from where we live.)

*Edit: We went back in December after Christmas and the guy who checked us out was CHEEKY!!! 😂 He was having this whole on and off conversation with the cashier 1 register over, someone called to ask if they carried a specific product, they weren't sure (and were pretty busy) so she said "Just tell them we don't carry that." So he picked up the phone, said they didn't carry the item and hung up giggling about it. The person 1 line over had about 20+ bags of feed, so the cashier called over the intercom for help loading feed for a customer. Our cheeky cashier said "Well, you're not getting that today!" I found this entertaining (sit back and eat some popcorn while watching this drama play out...) but definitely felt bad for the customers in the store who needed better service than we did. We just stopped in for a little look around, and got honey roasted peanuts and a mop cover. DON'T GET THE PEANUTS, they taste soooo bad. 😂 #NotGreatForSnacking Rural king is still lots of fun, but there is always room for improvement in the customer service training...