ALEX is awesome! He helped me pick out a new pack and provided excellent service-he knew what he…read morewas talking about, listened to my needs and was so polite and helpful. Thank you Alex!

This one star review is for the manager in hopes that you will read it and make some changes. On…read moreAugust 9th I received a coupon for a discount with REI. As it happens, I was in the market for a new backpack for travels I will be taking in the near future. I was interested in a backpack that was either waterproof or watertight as I will be hiking in a coastal area that will be subjected to intermittent rainfall of a heavy nature. I called your store and inquired about such backpacks and was told that you had many to choose from. The following day August 10th I drove an hour to your store and began looking around in the backpack department. An employee who I assume was assigned to the department asked me if there was anything I was looking for. I opened the REI app on my phone and showed the man an example of what I was looking for. This employee was about 5'9" tall with brown hair and a short beard. I do not remember his name because the interaction was so unlike what I am used to at REI that I left completely confused. When I showed the employee, what I was looking for is immediate response was, " we don't carry that type of product, you need to go to Gear Junction. They will have everything you need." I looked at your employee with complete confusion as he was recommending that I go to a competitor and did not even bother to ask me why I was looking for a particular backpack. I said to the employee, I don't want to go Gear Junction, I always buy my hiking equipment at REI. He looked me straight in the face and said we don't carry waterproof rafting equipment here you need to go to Gear Junction. I attempted to explain to him that I was not going rafting that I was going hiking and why I was looking for a backpack. He seemed completely uninterested and again suggested I go to your competitor. Finally, I asked him. Is there anything in the store that you can show me That is in a 22 L size backpack so I can at least get an idea of what I'm looking for. He waved his arm briefly toward a rack of backpacks and said it'll be somewhere between here and there and then walked away. I stood there confused for a while and attempted to look at backpacks and finally decided to help with it. I had other items that I needed to look for, but I was so upset by this man's insistency that I go shop with the competitors that I left the store. I went to my car and sat there for a while and thought about doing this one star review then and there, and I even thought about going back into your store and asking to see the manager. However, I was so upset. I knew that that would not be the prudent thing to do so I came home and allowed myself to cool down. The following day did exactly what your employee suggested, and went to Gear Junction. The Young man working there was extremely helpful and very knowledgeable about backpacks. After listening to what type of trip I was going to be taking he suggested that I probably did not need a completely waterproof backpack, but that what I needed was a water tight backpack. He showed me several, and the one that I liked the most was made by Osprey. I assume that you carry the same backpacks at REI. I eventually decided on a backpack for my trip, but I did not buy it at your REI store. This is unfortunate because I have shopped with REI since the day you opened at your old location on seventh Street. I am not suggesting that your employee was rude to me. He was not in the classical sense. However, he was completely disinterested as to why I was in the store or what I was looking for and to what end. Had he taken just a little bit of time to find out why And what I needed I would've bought something that day. As it is, you've lost out on a good sale and if I encounter this type of behavior again at your location, I will discontinue shopping local and identify the Denver store as my home store and just shop online. I do not like to do this as I like to support our local businesses. However, I will not support this complete lack of customer service. I hope that you take this review in stride and make the reasonable management decision to have a discussion with this employee so that this does not replicated itself in the future. Enclosing I will add that this is the first time this is ever happened to me at any REI location.