Crooked Company
I went into an REI store for the first time and the experience was great! I was looking at an air mattress and the help I received was really good and the people seemed great. I was there just to look at the product that I found on line that had some high ratings, but I didn't want to buy it right away because there was a sale coming up and it would be beneficial to wait. I decided I would purchase it a few weeks later during the sale. The staff said that if I purchased a membership I would get the cost back with a gift certificate which I could apply back to my planned purchase. They also told me that if I purchased a $120 gift certificate while I was there that I would receive a 20% bonus on the gift certificate ($24 credit). I was told that it would go onto my account automatically and I could just sign onto my account and see it when I got home the same day. The following day I signed on to find no credit on my account. I called the REI store in Bellingham where I made the purchase and was told that there was no such credit. I spoke with the manager and he told me at first that there was nothing he could do. I was furious and he eventually agreed to give me the money back for the gift card, but unfortunately there was nothing he could do about the membership because there are "no refunds on memberships". This is completely bogus because I only paid for these things because his staff talked me into believing the whole package was a good deal. Then when I agreed to take the refund he said he couldn't do it over the phone and that I would have to return to the store. It's a 2.5 hour drive for me each way to get to that store. As this was completely unacceptable to me because of the fact they took my money on false pretences and then wanted me to go on a 5 hour road trip to recover some on my costs. I asked to speak with his manager and his reply was that he was the manager. I'm going to try and take care of this through my credit card company, but I would highly recommend that you stay away from this crooked company.