Sierra — Local services in Riverton

I took my daughter shopping today at Sierra for a girl's camp she has this coming week. As I'm checking out, out of habit, I asked:

Do you guys have a military discount? (In case you didn't know, my wife has been serving in the US Army for almost 20 years now.) We do, let me get my manager...

(manager walks over)

Hi, can I see your military ID? Sure! Here it is. Oh I'm so sorry, we only offer the discount to the actual member, not to the spouse. She'd have to come in person to make the purchase in order for us to honor it. Really... hmmm... ok. Well, I guess she'll have to come later to get this when she's done with Drill. But just so we're clear... you're saying that my wife could be deployed on the other side of the world, and you still wouldn't honor your military discount? Correct, that's our policy.

You know, in no way am I trying to diminish the sacrifice of those who serve in the military. But let me tell you something, the spouses and the families of every single one of them, are also making a huge sacrifice. Now my wife may not be deployed at the moment, and she may not have been there in person, but she works pretty dang hard to serve not only us regular civilians, but every soldier in her and other units. She's a chaplain, and as such, she's on call every single day, because if a soldier happens to be in crisis, she will not hesitate to drop everything and be there for him/her. Just like her, every soldier sacrifices so much and plenty of their time and life for this country, and so do their families, specially their spouses when suddenly they see themselves raising their kids as a single parent while their husband/wife is on active duty.

Sierra, you could've told me "Sorry, we don't offer a military discount" and you know what, that would've been totally fine. I don't expect people or businesses to offer it and I'm not upset if they don't, likewise I don't care if it's 2%, 10%, 20%, or 40%, I'm grateful anyways. But when your policy excludes their families if the military member is not present, you're excluding the service member as well.

For the record, I didn't wait for my wife to stop by later. I made the purchase anyways, without your 10% discount. I'm not going to waste her time. You may have not lost that purchase, but you've for sure lost any of my...

Based upon about 5 different trips to this store, here are my thoughts. — For being marketed as an outdoor store, they sure sell a lot of home and pet stuff. — Although owned by TJ Maxx (a personal fav of mine) Sierra somehow doesn’t share the same type of cashier system. In short - returns are a pain in the arse and if you don’t have the literal receipt, you’re kinda screwed. — I’ve yet to have a store associate be helpful or show any customer service skills. My last visit I was in the store Christmas shopping for well over an hour (and was one of the only customers) and no one ever asked me if I needed help with anything. That was, Until they gave a reminder that they’d be closing in 15 minutes; and then somehow magically I had a store associate come ask me what I needed help with two different times in less than five minutes. — Overall I feel like this is much more like a traditional home decor and clothing apparel store than a general outdoor outfitters type of store. Prices aren’t that great and some very standard outdoor equipment has been non-existent or very sparse (hydration packs, hammocks). I expect better from a TJ Maxx store, and unfortunately this store...

Buyer beware. Sierra will not return items, even if defective. I bought a mountain bike for my son at this Riverton location. We went for a bike ride and I could hear the gears grinding and wouldn’t engage in the high gears. I made adjustments to the derailleurs screws with now success to improve the grinding. Best part of this conversation with the manager, she said with returns, they put the item back on the floor to be sold. Yes, this includes defective products. A company that puts defective items will no longer have my business.

I took the bike back to the Riverton location and the manager said if the bike was used (even one time), they refused the return. They don’t allow any tested riding prior to purchase so you don’t know how the bike will be upon riding.

I then called the Sierra support and the agent said if I could provide video evidence of the defect, they would refund the price. I provided this evidence and then the support rep said they wouldn’t refund and I would need to reach out to the manufacturer.

This company does not stand behind their product and I will be telling all about this to seek out a higher quality...