REI bashing



Ozark Bicycle <[email protected]> wrote:


> Buy yours now, the cease and desist order is on it's way!


Correction:
Buy yours now, the cease and desist order is on its way!
^^




Yes, it's a small thing, but it drives me nuts.

--
Ted Bennett
 
Ted Bennett wrote:
> Ozark Bicycle <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>> Buy yours now, the cease and desist order is on it's way!

>
> Correction:
> Buy yours now, the cease and desist order is on its way!
> ^^
>
>
>
>
> Yes, it's a small thing, but it drives me nuts.


LOL, what drives me more nuts is the "loose" or "looser" rather than
"lose" or "loser."

How many normal people actually have unresolved problems with REI? They
seem to go far beyond what would normally be expected of a store in
regards to returns.
 
SMS wrote:

> How many normal people actually have unresolved problems with REI? They
> seem to go far beyond what would normally be expected of a store in
> regards to returns.
>

Hence the nickname "Return Every Item". My own experience is that, if
you know what you're looking for, you can get consistently good deals
without having to chase all over town (or all over the internet, if
you're doing mail order). Their mail order operation is excellent. The
store staff are quite accommodating about things like special orders and
holding items for longer than is really reasonable. Product knowledge
varies quite a bit from store to store and employee to employee, but the
employees are consistently very good about referring you to someone with
a little more expertise instead of feeding you a line of ********. This
alone puts them far ahead of most outdoor shops. All things considered,
I think the $2 that I spent to join back in 1977 or so was money well spent.

mark
 
one morning I awoke and found REI selling $300 kayak paddles half
price.
then RE! asked me to sign up for an RE! Visa card with elabrious
discounts
Snot a Visa card, itsa RE! Visa card for RE!'s bank. RE! is owned by a
bank masqueraiding as Visa.
EEEEEK
 
On Oct 4, 7:48 pm, Cruiser Joe <[email protected]> wrote:
> this is hilarious....whether or not your agree with it:
>
> http://www.cafepress.com/reisucks


WTF? My local REI, which is unfortunately in a strip mall in an icky
"new-money" part of town, is pretty spectacular. I can order online,
and pick stuff up at the store in a couple days. Shoot the last time I
picked something up the girls is like, "What's you're name" and I
reply, "Max---" and before I could finish my last name she had the box
in my arm. I swear they gottem on crystal over there.

The only beef I have with them is that they only sell cable housing in
20' lengths-which is pretty odd.
 
On Oct 5, 6:59 am, landotter <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Oct 4, 7:48 pm, Cruiser Joe <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > this is hilarious....whether or not your agree with it:

>
> >http://www.cafepress.com/reisucks

>
> WTF? My local REI, which is unfortunately in a strip mall in an icky
> "new-money" part of town, is pretty spectacular. I can order online,
> and pick stuff up at the store in a couple days. Shoot the last time I
> picked something up the girls is like, "What's you're name" and I
> reply, "Max---" and before I could finish my last name she had the box
> in my arm. I swear they gottem on crystal over there.
>
> The only beef I have with them is that they only sell cable housing in
> 20' lengths-which is pretty odd.


That is odd, because at all the ones I've been to here (Downtown
Seattle, Alderwood/Lynnwood, Redmond) I've been able to buy it by the
foot.
 
> On Oct 4, 7:48 pm, Cruiser Joe <[email protected]> wrote:
>> this is hilarious....whether or not your agree with it:
>> http://www.cafepress.com/reisucks


landotter wrote:
> WTF? My local REI, which is unfortunately in a strip mall in an icky
> "new-money" part of town, is pretty spectacular. I can order online,
> and pick stuff up at the store in a couple days. Shoot the last time I
> picked something up the girls is like, "What's you're name" and I
> reply, "Max---" and before I could finish my last name she had the box
> in my arm. I swear they gottem on crystal over there.
>
> The only beef I have with them is that they only sell cable housing in
> 20' lengths-which is pretty odd.


Maybe they called Chalo or Tom Sherman as part of 'consumer research'.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971
 

>
> WTF? My local REI, which is unfortunately in a strip mall in an icky
> "new-money" part of town, is pretty spectacular.


I think there are two distinct groups of people who have two separate
experiences with REI. Customers, who get stuff cheap and lots of
it....and employees who work for a greedy company that masquerades as
a co-op. Sure, they give some money back to the community, but they're
a big box store that relies almost entirely on part-time employees who
have to work 2 or 3 jobs to pay the rent. Not much better than wal-
mart, in my opinion. oh yeah...and nobody knows anything about bikes
at the ones I've visited. Might as well go to Sears for a bike.

Mike T.
 

>
> Buy yours now, the cease and desist order is on it's way!


I think REI would be too busy to bother, while they take over the
world and open a store in every nook and cranny in the US. After all,
EVERYBODY needs snowshoes, folding easy chairs, and lexan coffee
presses, whether they know it or not.

Plus...the logo isn't even close. Looks like freedom of speech and
expression to me.

I'll take a bumper sticker.

Janet K.
 
<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> oh yeah...and nobody knows anything about bikes
> at the ones I've visited. Might as well go to Sears for a bike.
> Mike T.
>


Reminds me of the time I needed to purchase a water filter. I got
the famous REI employee line: "Do you need any help with anything?"
So I asked; "What can you tell me about water filters?"
The employee proudly walked over to the rack of data sheets, pulled
out the one for water filters and handed it to me. I told him, I can
read, but I want you to tell me about water filters from your expertise of
working in this department. He had a very puzzled look on his face, then
started reading from the data sheet. So I went home empty handed.
Did my own research, went back to REI and purchased the Pur Hiker,
which I've been very happy with. That day, I also sold 2 Pur Hikers to
other consumers, when they asked about water filters. Now I always
do my own research before walking into REI.

About Sears,
I purchased a vacuum cleaner from them and was very please that the
employee knew everything about the products they sold. A far cry
from REI.
-tom
 
On Oct 5, 1:57 pm, "Tom Nakashima" <[email protected]> wrote:
> <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:[email protected]...
>
>
>
> > oh yeah...and nobody knows anything about bikes
> > at the ones I've visited. Might as well go to Sears for a bike.
> > Mike T.

>
> Reminds me of the time I needed to purchase a water filter. I got
> the famous REI employee line: "Do you need any help with anything?"
> So I asked; "What can you tell me about water filters?"
> The employee proudly walked over to the rack of data sheets, pulled
> out the one for water filters and handed it to me. I told him, I can
> read, but I want you to tell me about water filters from your expertise of
> working in this department. He had a very puzzled look on his face, then
> started reading from the data sheet. So I went home empty handed.
> Did my own research, went back to REI and purchased the Pur Hiker,
> which I've been very happy with. That day, I also sold 2 Pur Hikers to
> other consumers, when they asked about water filters. Now I always
> do my own research before walking into REI.
>
> About Sears,
> I purchased a vacuum cleaner from them and was very please that the
> employee knew everything about the products they sold. A far cry
> from REI.
> -tom


But at least REI has the datasheets. Bad information is worse than no
information, in my book.
 
On Oct 5, 3:57 pm, "Tom Nakashima" <[email protected]> wrote:

> About Sears,
> I purchased a vacuum cleaner from them and was very please that the
> employee knew everything about the products they sold. A far cry
> from REI.


My local Sears is great as well. Bought one of their little "Magic
Blue" canister vacs last year. Add a commercial horse hair nozzle, and
it's the business for hardwood.

When I seemed undecided during the purchase, the clerk threw a bunch
of dirt from a jar onto the carpet and said, "you need to test drive
to decide." Gotta love that!
 
Andrew Muzi of the Mad City wrote:
> landotter wrote:
> ...
>> The only beef I have with them is that they only sell cable housing in
>> 20' lengths-which is pretty odd.

>
> Maybe they called Chalo or Tom Sherman as part of 'consumer research'.


Actually, "tandem length" cables generally are long enough for single
recumbents.

Which reminds me, I need to get around to putting new cables on one of
my bikes, since it was originally set up for a woman over 30 cm shorter
than I am. Telescoping the frame out 4 inches means when I tilt the
steering to far forward, it applies the front brake, which make it
harder to walk the bike.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
A Real Cyclist [TM] keeps at least one bicycle in the bedroom.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
 
Tom "Johnny Sunset" Sherman wrote:
> Andrew Muzi of the Mad City wrote:
>> landotter wrote:
>> ...
>>> The only beef I have with them is that they only sell cable housing in
>>> 20' lengths-which is pretty odd.

>>
>> Maybe they called Chalo or Tom Sherman as part of 'consumer research'.

>
> Actually, "tandem length" cables generally are long enough for single
> recumbents.
>
> Which reminds me, I need to get around to putting new cables on one of
> my bikes, since it was originally set up for a woman over 30 cm shorter
> than I am. Telescoping the frame out 4 inches means when I tilt the
> steering to far forward, it applies the front brake, which make it
> harder to walk the bike.
>


Yesterday I was putty disc brakes on my mountain bike. I needed some of
those little end caps for the cable housing as the kit didn't include
enough of them. Went to REI, asked at the shop for them, and they gave
them to me for free.

Like most stores, the employees knowledge varies. The bicycle
departments in the two stores near me are exceptionally good. I was
looking for a rear rack, and their selection was minimal, as is the case
at most bicycle shops. But two of their Novara model bicycles had just
the kind of rack I was looking for. I told the employee, _that's_ the
kind of rack I'm looking for, expecting to be told "sorry, we don't sell
those racks." Instead he told me, "you can order one as a spare part,"
and proceeded to give me the part number. Then I though, oh no, it's
going to be like an OEM auto part, where it costs a fortune, but it
wasn't, it was $25 (since REI probably pays $2 for the rack as part of
the complete bicycle, maybe $25 was a fortune, but it was still much
less than comparable after-market racks).
 

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