REI — Local services in Sunnyvale

This review is solely based on the Sunnyvale REI Bike shop.

TL;DR - Don't take your bike here for service, especially nicer bikes. Long time for service, scratched paint off frame, did not bleed correctly and contaminated pads and rotors, not taking responsibility, and the manager has an extremely bad attitude.

I brought my canyon aeroad in on 6/15 to swap my integrated handlebars for a longer stem and was promised 3 days. They called me on the 3rd day to tell me the service was more complicated than expected and needed more time/money which I was okay with. They kept providing a promise date and every time I followed up on that promise date, they told me they were backlogged and provided a new promise date. After a week and a half (6/26), they still hadn't started on my bike yet. I was going out of town for 2 weeks and let them know to hold on to it until I got back.

They finally called on 7/3 to let me know it was finally done. When I went to pick it up I immediately noticed a scratch/chip on my frame near the handlebars. I showed them and they initially offered me 50% off the service charge. The manager eventually came and said they would take responsibility but did not admit fault since there was no definitive proof. Technicians working on the bikes are supposed to log any incidents that happen during service but I guess he or she never did.

Eventually, the manager agreed to waive all service charges (for taking 3 weeks to service) and "make things right" by finding a paint/repair service for my bike within 48 hours. The manager did not really put any effort in helping me find a paint/repair service and commented that if it was his bike, he would just use a sharpie. The "research" he did was a google search.

On top of that, after I took my bike back and started riding it, both my brakes/rotor squealed very loudly which has never happened before. I asked the manager about it and he implied that unless I thought it could get like that by sitting in his shop for a month, it didn't happen because of them. I took my bike to another shop for inspection and turns our they did not bleed properly with oil leaking out and contaminating pads and rotors. Had to spend $260+ to solve the issue.

I'd also like to include that this really became a "he said, she said" situation but on my end, I will say that if my bike had that scratch on it and my brakes made that squealing sound before I brought it in for repair, I know that I would have noticed it. I rode my bike up until the day I brought it in, and I look at it many times a day.

I really lost my trust in the bike service at REI, and maybe I should have known better to bring in my bike for service here, but I believed that if they could not handle the repair, they would have been upfront with me about it and let me know. I believe they were careless with the repair, causing the scratch and dirtying the brake pads. This overall experience was one of the worst I've experienced, a complete nightmare. Everything that could...

Long time REI customer - not recommending Sunnyvale location anymore because of misinformation to customers. I am not the one to not read the return policies or misuse them.

Recently, I brought back a pair of shoes to return that I had bought from the clearance section at the Sunnyvale store. I was told that it can’t be return because it was from the Re-Supply section. I know about this policy. What I didn’t know while buying was that I’m buying from the Re-Supply section. The lady at the billing insisted that the employee who helped me that day with the purchase would have told me that before purchase. I definitely would have remembered because I’ve had to make multiple purchases for my sensitive feet. I came home and checked other shoes I’ve bought from the clearance section and what did I see? A bunch of Re-Supply shoes! Now if I had made a purchase of so many re-supply shoes, I definitely would have remembered if the folks at billing have told me that this is non-returnable (they are supposed to as per REI policy). Never been warned this before purchase!

I highly recommend going to the San Jose store in El Paseo De Saratoga since they clearly mark out clearance, 30% off and have a separate store for Re-Supply gear. They don’t trick you like Sunnyvale store where they keep all sale items without a box (yes, they sell you sale shoes without a box). They also stack up the re-supply shoes next to them. Another fun fact, these re-supply shoes don’t show up on your bill. The purchase never “existed”. So I can’t even claim any fraudulent policy on this.

The only way apparently to know is to check the tongue of the shoe marked with a X. It is not mentioned during checkout either. Now I’m at a loss of hundreds of $$$. The employee at the return counter told me there is nothing she can do about it because it is what their policy is and I am the one who probably doesn’t remember being told about it during checkout.

Edit: here is how to check your shoes in this store. The checkout folks will most probably never mention this to you. I’ll find more pairs that I unknowingly bought from this store if I can edit this review later too. Forgetting once is a possibility mistake. No one is dumb enough to forget what the checkout folks told during multiple purchases. Please stop fooling loyal...

We had a deeply upsetting experience at this REI location that left us seriously questioning whether racial bias was involved.

We came to the returns counter to return a tarp we had only used once—it was simply too big for our needs. While we were there, we also bought a smaller size of the same tarp.

The staff member who assisted us—a white male—immediately treated us with disrespect. He exaggeratedly coughed, waved his hands like he was brushing off dust, and acted like we were trying to return something filthy. He repeatedly said things like, “We don’t usually take these back,” even though we were at the designated returns counter and the tarp was in perfectly acceptable condition. We had already shaken it off thoroughly, and even compared it with the new one we just bought. There was virtually no dust or dirt.

When my husband offered to go shake it out again, the employee sarcastically told us to do that. So we did. But when we returned, we witnessed something even more disturbing.

He served the customer right before us—without any issue—and then, as soon as it was our turn again, he suddenly said, “I need to go on my lunch break,” and passed us off to a female coworker. She didn’t even hesitate—just asked one quick question and processed the return with no problem.

We couldn’t help but notice how politely he interacted with white customers, while treating us—Asian customers—with suspicion, disdain, and dismissiveness. We were made to feel like we were dirty or dishonest just for returning an item under REI’s own policy. The contrast in treatment was glaring.

Honestly, if this isn’t racial bias, what is?

We’ve been loyal REI customers for years, but after this experience, we’re deeply disappointed. No one should be treated this way. REI needs to take responsibility and train their employees to treat all customers with the same level of...