REI

Love this place! Employees are well-informed about the department they're in. Most of them live a lifestyle the REI way. You'll get your questions answered and directed to what you're looking for if you are in a hurry. But, rest assured, because whichever employee is helping you, won't rush you or make you uncomfortable if the place is busy. They'll treat you like you're the only customer in the store. I love it.

DO NOT BUY FROM REI. They are literal thieves. If you try to return something by mail they will NOT give you your money back. I shipped my order back to their return facility and it arrived at their facility within 5 days of me paying money to ship it back and they are telling me my “cheque” with my return money “hasn’t arrived yet cause you’re in Canada”. They will make up excuses saying that they mailed a cheque with the money but it has been two months and I have yet to receive this “cheque” I’ve called customer service and all the tell you is “wait two more weeks”. This is literally a scam. Also what kind of 21st century company returns your money through a cheque? My fiancé has a member account with them so I have no idea why they can’t just put my money back in my card. Oh I know why, because they hope that I’ll forget about my return and they can keep my money. Customer service is useless. Their prices are outrageous. The quality of their stuff isn’t that great anyway. So I would just skip this place all together. Thanks for stealing almost $500 from me REI.

My fianceé tried to return two items of clothing back to REI (following all the return guidelines) they received the item and have yet to give us a refund. It is coming onto 3 months now and they keep making excuses saying that they "sent out a cheque" and to "wait two more weeks" (again, it has been 3 months). We will be filing some sort of police report soon cause now it's turned into theft. They have the items we sent back and our money.

Love the store, unfortunately their lax policy towards shoplifters has made it a dangerous place to shop. Got ran into by a thief running out the door with armloads of merchandise, who then jumped in a car and almost ran over other customers in the parking lot. An EE said their policy is to just let them take whatever they want, and they usually don't bother calling the police anymore, making the thefts commonplace. They just holler at customers to get out of the way, and said usually the thieves wheel out entire racks! Beware if you shop here! Unfortunately these policies and lack of theft deterrents will ultimately end in their demise.

Visited the Rochester store in late summer and was greeted and helped by a wonderful and knowledgable sales associate for at least 15-20 minutes while it was a very busy time during the day. They were super helpful and assisted in helping me find the best product(s) for my weekend plans. They happily answered my million questions without annoyance as well! I visit this store frequently and always am greeted and asked if I need help looking for anything.

Customer service is terrible or more accurately, non-existent. At least 5 employees passed me and none asked me if I had questions or needed help. On a quiet weekday afternoon, there are more sales people in the store than customers, wandering, chatting with their co-workers or restocking, but none speaking to any customers that I can see. Even when checking out, the sales person ignored me and continued on with conversation with other sales people. I’ve shopped at other REI’s around the country and experienced excellent customer service, so this Rochester location is very disappointing.

Wow, this is a lot more than a camping store. They have warm fall jackets, very warm winter coats and parkas, colorful leggings in bright colors, backpacks for students returning to school, and much more. It's large and spacious, so I needed help finding a particular hat. The staff was friendly and got me to the right spot quickly.