I think a great deal of people share the same philosophy of wanting to be able to be treated fairly and respectfully when purchasing gear. I have always found that sticking to one or two good local dealers sometimes can be far more beneficial than purchasing online. Being able to see the differences, to hold, touch, feel. Sometimes that has been the make or break ideal in whether I purchase a particular item or not.
When I lived in New England I enjoyed a great relationship with a local Eastern Mountain Sports. For almost 5 years I saw many of the same people employed there over and over. Knowledgeable people. People with trail experience. If I had a problem, it got taken care of.
When I moved to Bozeman, MT in Oct 07, someone told me that one of the best places to go for gear was Bob Wards. Someone said "Sportsmans Warehouse". Another said Northern Lights.
In late February I started looking for a new pack for my daughter. We pretty much knew what we already wanted and I knew that Northern Lights was an authorized Osprey dealer. The first trip their was a disaster. The sales person that day claimed to be extremely "experienced" with fitting packs yet failed to measure my daughters torso after I asked 3 times. He kept insisting he knew what he was doing and tried to put a large sized pack on her small frame.
That day I sent a letter about my experience to their customer service department. I never heard one word back. I checked around town and unfortunately, this dealer was the only one in town who had what we wanted in stock.
On my return trip I found someone who was a "buyer", was knowledgeable on the gear, apologized to us profusely for our previous experience and helped us thru with our pack purchase. He restored my faith in their company and decided I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Almost every trip since then has been an exercise in patience and several have been an outright hassle just to purchase a product. As an example, I recently purchased an Outdoor Research tarp that was advertised online at one price, but in their main store it was another price. They then told me to get the special price to go to the other store.
I was also recently sent an email from their member rewards team that listed items on sale. When I went to purchase a pair of socks at the sales price, I was again told it was at the other location.
I went home from and looked at the email. It clearly stated the item was on sale at the location closest to my home. I took the email back to the store and showed it to the manager who then agreed with me and told me they were unaware. They sold me the socks that day for the sale price.
After a 3 day weekend trip I decided I liked these particular socks and went back to the store to purchase another pair. My wife was with me as she was the last time we were there. I explained politely to the clerk that was ringing me up that these socks were supposed to be on sale. She rang the manager who then told her he had already dealt with us and we knew the socks were not on sale there but at the other location. She hung up with him and I explained the story to her. She rang the manager again and asked him to come talk us. The store manager refused and told her he wasn't wasting his time with us.
I swear I have never seen a retail employee almost cry but this one did. She was visibly upset and angry at her manager. She looked up my account and saw that we had been sold this pair of socks at the sale price so rang the manager again and told him she looked up our sale and wanted to know why he sold us the socks at that price.
At this point the manager gets angry and comes to the front counter pointing his finger at me and my wife loudly exclaiming he told us once that the socks weren't on sale and that he had did us a favor, etc etc.
My wife who never gets angry in public was livid. We left the store telling him he had lost our business for good. He simply responded with "oh well".
So why this long post? I guess I am curious to know how much other people put up with before they finally decide they will no longer visit a particular business? I feel like I should have never went back after that first visit. In fact I looked at past receipts and since that first visit we had spent a total of $700.00 there with plans for many new items this fall. This kid obviously hasn't a clue how to run a retail business, treat his employees, etc.
I hope I never again have another experience like this and I guess from now on I will have to look at buying strictly online as it appears this was about the biggest gear dealer in Bozeman.
