I had a need to buy some camping equipment quickly. So I headed over to this store REI. I think they specialize in camping equipment. When I saw an employee, I gave him my list and asked for help in locating the items. He took the list and walked me over to a section for camping. He then handed the list to another employee in camping and said the other employee would help me.The other employee took the list, handed it to another guy, and told me he would go look for the first item on the list. The other guy started talking to me about my list. He was very talkative. Since I was in a hurry, I took the list back from him and started collecting some goods. When I asked him where one of the other items was, he confessed that he did not even work for the store. He was just hanging out there.
I tried unsuccessfully to get all the items on my list. They only had about half the items I wanted. I needed to get out of there so I got in line to pay for the items. Finally I saw the second employee who was supposed to locate my first item. I told him that he abandoned me. He said that the store did not carry the first item. Then he said he got busy with six other customers.
This was some pretty weak customer service indeed. I can appreciate when you are busy. But if you are too busy to help me, don’t take my list, give it to another customer, and promise you will help me. I understand it is hard to get good help these days. But I shop where I can get decent help from the staff. I am not returning to REI. The final insult was when the cashier tried to sell me some type of membership to the store. They had to be kidding me.
