Play It Again Sports — Local services in North Reading

I had a very weird experience there yesterday with my 4 year old son. We came in for some cleats and ended up buying lots of stuff including roller blades and soccer gear. The staff was very helpful and pleasant except one older man, who I think may be the owner. He was visibly annoyed when I was asking my son to run a bit in the cleats to make sure his braces fit comfortably. (He wears ankle braces.)

My four year old was bouncing a ball and being a typical kid. Something fell (nothing broke whatsoever) and I firmly called my son over to me and before I knew it the man was screaming at my little toddler. He was scared and humiliated and I was absolutely stunned. I made my son apologize because I immediately assumed we were guilty if some terrible thing. I very soon realized my boy had just bounced a ball a little too hard and some shoes fell. It really wasn’t a big deal and he could have more gently said, “be careful please.” My son, who seldom cries, ran to me crying and shaking and I quickly paid and left.

Note to staff, if you don’t have patience for children, you probably shouldn’t work in an environment where they frequent. How dare you speak to my son that way. Shame on you, sir.

I am most upset with myself for not yelling back at this man and returning every item back in the shelves because he traumatized both my son and I and we will never be back. Ever....

Bought a new surfboard from their N Reading store. I’m a newbie with only a handful of lessons under my belt so I didn’t realize that the board they sold isn’t really appropriate for surfing. My surf instructors told me that it was basically a bigger boogie board and wouldn’t work out. I tried using it during my lesson and of course they were right.

I called the store back and they let me return it which I thought was super generous of them.

I’m giving them 4 stars for refunding me and also bc everyone I talked to there was very helpful, good customer service, etc. They don’t get 5 stars tho bc whoever does their buying should have done better. This is supposed to be a sporting goods store so I’d expect them to be more knowledgeable about the products they stock. If they sell something it should be because they can stand by...

Called on a Friday evening to hold 3 pairs of skates for a Saturday morning pick up. 2 child and one adult. The sales associate was very clear on the size color and brand that would be held. We were told the hold was good for 24 hours. Arrived at 10 am saturday morning and no skates for the children were held. The ones we asked for were not available. We received no help to get the skates we needed, no answers about why they were not held when we asked. Pretty much were blown off with no apology or help with what we needed. A Little help or an apology would have helped after a drive with 2 kids to not get the skates we were promised...they sold them is my guess since there was no inventory in store for the children's skates we...