IF you ordered your Fenix 5 from REI beware that they might cancel your order!

Former Member over 8 years ago

Hi All,

Quite frankly I'm mad enough about REI's customer service today that I'll just stick to the facts:

I ordered my Fenix 5x from REI a month ago today on the REI Website. This morning I woke to a non-descript email cancellation notice of my order from REI. Calling customer service, I was informed that REI cancels back-ordered items after 30 days if they don't receive confirmation that a customer wants to stay on back order. They claim to have sent me a notice, but I did not receive it. I ask when they sent it and how many attempts that they made to contact the me before cancelling my order and the REI person did not know the answer to either question. I then asked for my order to be un-canceled -- denied. They instead offered to place my order again. I asked if they could put me back in the queue as I was before their mistake -- the answer: NO. I asked to speak to a manager and after about 5 minutes was told that none was available and that I could call back later to talk to a manager. (editorial: not good service -- they didn't give a ^^^^ about screwing me over on my order.)

Now I'm at the end of a potentially very long list to receive my watch. I'll probably go elsewhere. I shouldn't have to work to get a company to accept my order.

If you ordered from REI you might want to give them a call with your order number to ensure that this doesn't happen to you!

0 2goBeyond over 8 years ago

Well, that's disheartening. I bought my first 5X from REI online and got it pretty quick....but I was having issues with it and returned it for a refund. Took said refund (and a new gift card for REI) and applied it to ANOTHER 5X...which is backordered, but ships within the next 30 days (so says the site). That was (5) days ago. I'll be sure to keep an eye on the order. If it gets close to the end i'll give them a call. As much as I like the maps, I could live without them and my local REI'S have the 5 in spades.

0 tep71 over 8 years ago

I ordered from REI on 4/7 and had my watch on 4/13. Seems odd you are waiting for a back order if you ordered it 30 days ago.

0 bglover11 over 8 years ago

I ordered from REI on 4/7 and had my watch on 4/13. Seems odd you are waiting for a back order if you ordered it 30 days ago.

My exact experience as well

0 demarcmj over 8 years ago

My experience with REI was less-than-stellar as well on my oorder (5, Sapphire w/ Black Band). It showed as in stock on the website and throughout the purchase process it gave me shipping estimates commensurate with the product being in-stock. As soon as I placed the order, it changed to backordered. The product page still showed it was in-stock so I tried to contact them and got nowhere. They said essentially "Yea the system shows that we have some in stock. I don't know why your order didn't pull from those. There's nothing I can do to manually fix it."

A week later and the thing was still in stock on the website while my order was still backordered so I decided to try another customer service rep... same response (although she forwarded the issue onto their website team so they could figure out why it happened to make sure it doesn't happen in the future). I tried to make a second order, hoping it would pull from the available stock, but it did not so I canceled that second order.

I believe sometime between Week 1 and Week 2 (probably around 10ish days) it finally shipped, and boy is REI's shipping SLOW. You'd think, since they admitted the thing was in stock all along and there was some sort of problem on their end, that they would have upgraded my shipping for free. Especially since I was a first-time customer and repeatedly told them what a bad experience this had been. But no. Slow-as-molasses shipping.

At the end of the day, I'll put up with the 2+ week wait and poor customer service in order to get the $70 REI dividend (well, $50 if you subtract out the membership).

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Confirmed

same thing just happened to me. While placing the order the site dais it was in stock and that it would ship out to my home. I would receive it on May 2nd or 3rd. I thought...way cool. I looked all over for anything that said backorderd or if the shipping details changed. They did not, so I placed the order.

A few minutes ago, I got the order confirmation. It says it's back ordered and will probably ship in 30 days. They SOOOO did that on purpose. Get the money and run. Bad business.

0 Techy0gi over 7 years ago

industrial extra

FWIW, i had a similar back and forth - i ordered, said a month which expected ( was a month ago) and i ordered and waited semi-patiently.
To my surprise i got an email saying it was backordered with a "let us know in 30 days or we'll cancel it" - so i called.
i was told it was actually coming in and would ship monday.
then i called that monday and was told it was backordered.
then it shipped and i got it like wednesday...

long story short, when i dug in, ALL these retailers are at the mercy of Garmin. They don't know what's coming or how much - they get what they get.... and do the best they can.

Data is what drives this. lack of data = educated guessing. I'm sure REI could do better, but i tried a few others and it's always come down to this story.

-ben

same thing just happened to me. While placing the order the site dais it was in stock and that it would ship out to my home. I would receive it on May 2nd or 3rd. I thought...way cool. I looked all over for anything that said backorderd or if the shipping details changed. They did not, so I placed the order.

A few minutes ago, I got the order confirmation. It says it's back ordered and will probably ship in 30 days. They SOOOO did that on purpose. Get the money and run. Bad business.

0 tickerguy over 7 years ago

Interesting... I've ordered a LOT of stuff from REI (and bought even more in-store) and have NEVER had a problem with them. This sort of experience would REALLY get my angry......

0 SkylineRepublic over 7 years ago

Moosejaw has amazing customer service, and they usually have coupons floating around to get 10% off or more (I got 15% off when I ordered my 5X). Unfortunately, they're out of the 5X right now and seem to have been ever since I got mine at the end of March.

0 demarcmj over 7 years ago

long story short, when i dug in, ALL these retailers are at the mercy of Garmin. They don't know what's coming or how much - they get what they get.... and do the best they can.

There are two problems that have been discussed in this thread, and neither of them really have anything to do with REI being at the mercy of Garmin.

The first is REI automatically cancelling backorders after 30 days.

The second is the REI website saying the item is in stock (and the customer service people repeatedly confirming the exact number that they have in stock), but the orders still getting backordered.

This is just bad service.

0 Techy0gi over 7 years ago

No one is doubting anyone's bad experience. I was sharing mine - including the extensive research i'd done on this. The latter is a poor choice by REI to be sure - quoting in stock based on items "in route to them", perhaps... but for sure this is relevant. Garmin sends poorly documented stock.

but perhaps instead of nit-picking my reply, move on. WE are not enemies here.

-ben

There are two problems that have been discussed in this thread, and neither of them really have anything to do with REI being at the mercy of Garmin.

The first is REI automatically cancelling backorders after 30 days.

The second is the REI website saying the item is in stock (and the customer service people repeatedly confirming the exact number that they have in stock), but the orders still getting backordered.

This is just bad service.