tl:dr "Cluttered/unorganized store but the worse part was the (lack of) customer service and basically not caring enough to contact a customer back as promised."
I've seen the flyers/ads for Ollies for quite some time and finally ventured into one of their stores just recently. They did have some stuff that was at a pretty good discounted price (and some that was probably closer to the same as at Walmart, etc.) My overall impression of the store, however, was "cluttered and unorganized." The aisles in many places were hard to navigate due to how close stuff was together. The aisles also are a mishmash of directions (you'll have some aisles going front to back and then others going side to side and due to the shelf height, you couldn't really tell what sections held what. But part of that is a retailer's idea of increasing sales by preventing a quick in-and-out.) Also there didn't seem to be a plan where "household is over here, home repair is over there, etc." It just seemed rather unorganized over-all.
However, I went in on a Thur eve and browsed around and bought a full-sized mattress and foundation (my main thing that I was hoping to find when I went) as well as some other small things. I didn't have any way to take them with me at the time so had asked if I could pay and then pick them up the next day or so and was assured I could. In fact, their computer system seemed to be fully setup for that very thing, even down to having on the receipt "all items must be picked up within 15 days." I went back on Sat to get them and also bought some other stuff. I paid for the other stuff and they sent someone back to get the mattress set. They first tried bringing me out a twin-sized mattress/foundation set (the SKU numbers were just about the same.) When I explained those weren't correct, they saw the error and went back to get the correct ones. Then came back out and said they didn't have them back there (apparently the cashier should have printed an extra copy of the receipt and used it to tag them as "sold" but did not.)
The manager said they had another truck coming the next day and he'd discount it 25% or he had some alternative mattresses that were cheaper (I declined on that.) He took my name and number and said he'd call me back when they arrived. Sun comes and no call. Monday comes and still no call. I called Monday evening and was told they didn't come in but should be on the next truck on Thu. Thu arrives and no call. Friday rolls along and no call. I went out there Fri eve and he told me they hadn't come in. I then told him I was returning EVERYTHING I'd bought in the other two trips (and it was all still in my van, unopened.) When I was coming back into the store with it all, he came out and was asking me if I'd take a queen-sized mattress at the same price. I told him that was also unworkable (not only was there not enough room in the bedroom for a queen, it would also require a queen-sized frame, headboard, footboard, sheets, etc.) So basically they lost some $400+ worth of sales AND lost a new customer and it was the lack of communication from the manager that was the worse part of it. If he'd simply picked up a phone and called me to say there was an issue (instead of me having to call him) it might have gone better. I may have still gotten a refund on the mattress set but I wouldn't have returned the rest of it. But due to the manager's apparent "who gives a ****** about keeping the customer updated" attitude, I will NOT shop at this Ollies again for ANY reason. read more
