West Marine — Local services in Orange Beach

Went in to buy a pair of binoculars. As I walked in the door the female worker was very friendly, greeted me, and when I told her what I wanted she told me she would get me a person to help me right away. She was great! The older male with a beard came over and asked me if he could help. I told him I was looking at Vine oculars. He pulled out two pair of binoculars oh, the two cheapest ones they had there. Not a big deal. I checked both of them and the only difference besides one being $60 more than the other one was that the more expensive one had a different coating on the lenses. When I ask the gentleman if there was any other difference he said they were just better. They were both 7 x 50 so the only difference was the coating on the lenses. How does that make one better than the other. So far so good, but then he sees someone who was looking to buy a more expensive item, a GPS system for a boat. So he tells me he will be right back and goes over and takes care of him, leaves me with the cabinet of binoculars wide open and unlocked. I sit there for about 10 minutes because I don't want to walk away with his cabinet wide open. I then hear him over by the front door greeting people. I walk past them at the door told him his cabinet was open asked if he could help me with something. Are you serious? Did you already forget?...

We just went in to the West Marine in Orange Beach and were treated so horribly that we will never return. We have never been talked to and treated so shamefully by a business as we were today. We have purchased thousands of dollars of merchandise from them just in the last year and were there to buy a friend a $200 gift certificate and to return $412 in products (all still in their original packaging). The manager not only would not make the return but accused us of trying to return used products (again all in there original packaging) and of lying (saying we bought them somewhere else). There can be no debate that they were purchased from there since the cashier scanned the items and pulled up the $412 amount they were worth in their system. We were so upset that we walked out leaving the items behind on the counter - this is not about the money but the principle. We own multiple boats and not only has West Marine lost us as customers for life, but we have instructed all of our family and employees that they are never allowed to spend another penny of our money at a West Marine. We are also sending out an email to all members of our HOA on the water in Orange Beach letting them know how we were treated and pleading with them to never shop at West Marine again. P.S. We gave one star only because you were not allowed...

Wow, that was easy! Sometimes you learn more about a place when things go wrong than when things go right. I bought a boogie board from them on Monday and it broke on Wednesday. Snapped right in half. Granted, the waves on Wednesday were big, full over head, and I think I'm way better than I really am at boogie boarding. But I was still apprehensive about what would happen when I took it back to the shop. As I walked in a lady walked up and said "we don't have any waves here" and smiled. I said "yeah I'm afraid this one wouldn't work even if you did." She responded "oh no, how long have you had it?" "bought it hear from you guys on Monday." She said "well, that shouldn't happen. Have you got your receipt? Would you rather get another one or just get a refund?" I love it when I am pleasantly surprised by outstanding...