Cavender's Horsetown East — Local services in Snellville

I’ve been a customer of Horsetown East/Cavenders in Snellville for at least 15 years. In the past, I would always go to Horsetown for horse tack, boots, treats, etc. Since they’ve rebranded and combined with Cavenders, they’ve transitioned to minimal tack, added a Hat Bar, and focused primarily on clothing. These are things I still come in to Cavenders frequently to shop for, as my family members and I love boots, hats, and western fashion. The last two trips to Cavenders, however, have been appalling. On one instance, my sister went in to pick up a new casual straw hat to wear to a music festival. While she was looking thru the stacks of hats to find what she was looking for, and in her size, a younger male associate working at the Hat Bar came up to us, after asking what we were shopping for hats for, and outright told my sister she was a buckle bunny for buying that hat. (I thought sales associates were working to earn commission?). My latest trip to Cavenders absolutely took the cake. I was Christmas shopping for my husband, and generally knew what I was looking for, but wanted to shop around while there. When I went thru the tack department in the back of the store, trying to find a new lead rope, I was met with boxes, saddle pads and blankets on the floor, a utility cart loaded with heavy merchandise of some sort, and a mess of products out of place. There were no associates back in the tack department, so I had to move the different things out of the way to get to the lead ropes I was looking for. Upon selecting the one I wanted, I noticed two different prices listed, one for $14.95 on two stickers on the item’s tag, and one for $16.95 on the barcode side of the tag. Then, as I went to the men’s apparel, there were shirts everywhere, disorganized, unfolded, falling off the hangers, SnapBack hats everywhere. Once I selected the sweatshirt, hat, and lead rope I wanted, I walked thru the women’s apparel before checking out. Four employees were folding jeans in the women’s department, complaining how a customer that had just left had asked about boots they had in stock, loudly. Then somebody called asking to speak to someone in tack, and the employees said that nobody was in tack, so just put them on hold, and maybe they’ll hang up. Excuse me, what??? The final straw was when I was checking out. The sales associate asked if anybody had helped me, I said No. Then, as she rang my items up, I asked about prices on the lead ropes, just to make sure what I was paying. She proceeded to say it was $16.95 and that two stickers just happened on the tag coincidentally. Then, she rang up the hoodie and hat. The hat initially rang up at $32, but the tag on the actual hat said $30. When I pointed that out, the associate seemed quite irritated that I had noticed that there was yet another inconsistency with their listed prices and what was being rang up. It was quite intriguing to see what Cavenders apparently has become, and how asking for clarification on prices is approached as a chore for sales associates supposedly working on commission. It was definitely my most frustrating experience at Cavenders. So customers seeking western wear, horse tack, or hats? Check out Boot Barn, Tractor Supply, or order online. Just go somewhere else. Save yourself the headache and poor...

I’m sorry for this late review. Also, this is going to be a long post. Grab your popcorn. Last weekend, I arrived at Cavender’s Horsetown East awaiting arrival of my good friend and co-worker Roger Rossato for his first time experience at purchasing Western apparel. I was initially greeted by the store manager Sam. We had not seen each other in a long time and we engaged in delightful conversation. She asked if I had seen the tack department yet to which I stated that I had not seen it yet. Sam escorted me to the tack department where I met up with another good friend Jackie, whom I’ve also known for a while apart from the store itself, The tack department looked awesome with everything very neatly organized. Jackie and I spent some time talking about both personal and store related professional subjects. After visiting with Jackie for a little while, I decided that I would check out the one thing I have a hard penchant for which is Wrangler Checotah shirts. After shortly after making a selection for myself, Roger arrived with his lovely wife. Once we met, I escorted him to the boot department. Once we were in the boot department, Jackie presented a wonderful young lady named Betsy. Being bi-lingual, Betsy was very helpful in helping Roger try on different pairs of boots and explaining things to him and discussing belts, buckles, hats. All in all, Betsy spent a good amount of time with us, which I know is very difficult for this time of year with the holidays coming very soon. Betsy was an absolute trooper! She was absolutely amazing! Although Roger decided to purchase his boots through the Cavender’s website, he still purchased a few smaller items at the store. I would like to extend a very gratuitous THANK YOU to Betsy, Jackie, and Sam for everything regarding both professional and wonderful personal conversation during this visit! Keep up the good work ladies! Hope to see all of you again soon!

Thank you...

BUYER BEWARE Never shop in a store that has a NO REFUNDS policy. All the business cares about is your money …….not your satisfaction.

When I woke up a couple of weeks ago I was pretty sure it was 2016. However after shopping at Horsetown East and Horsetown West I must have stepped back into the 1940’s. Where do any of us shop that has a NO REFUNDS policy, even for defective merchandise?

I bought a pair of boots and wore them for 6 hours. They drew blood on my calf so I called Ariat and they emailed me to return them to the store. At the store I showed the cuts to my calf and the email so they gave me a PAPER STORE CREDIT. A non-descript, not traceable, generic, handwritten, no store copy, 4” x 5” piece of paper. Designed with with the sole intent to be lost, forgotten or destroyed.

Consumer REDEMPTION rates for paper store credits are anywhere from 70% to 0%. In addition consumers redeeming money owed to them from the store have two choices; spend more to redeem their credit or spend less and eventually lose the remaining credit.

In my case the return wasn’t because I changed my mind, decided to buy elsewhere or just not wanted the boots. The boots Horsetown sold me were defective. Ariat instructed me to return them and I expected my money back.

Being short sighted and greedy has caused many local businesses to close. Hopefully Horsetown will be replaced by...