Cabelas CS

Hi...
Glad you had a good experience at Cabela's.
My last experience wasn't quite as good.
I received $75 in Cabela's gift cards at Christmas so my son and I drove over an hour to the nearest Cabela's store in Hamburg, Pa.
I wanted to get some primer pickup tubes for my Hornady LnL progressive presses. I asked a clerk at the firearms counter where I might find them. He said go ask someone else and turned and walked away.
No problem... I was going to buy a coat and a few other things but I left the store without buying anything.
I suppose I will use the gift cards on their website but if that clerk's response was indicative of their customer service they are going to have serious trouble retaining customer loyalty.

Just bought five boxes of 365 ammo. I like Cabelas and don't mind spending couple of bucks more per box than shopping on line.

375supermag said:

My last experience wasn't quite as good.

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I would have talked to a manager about this, you would be surprised how many managers keep bad employees because bad behavior is ignored, I was at Walmart once and the guy at the electronics was playing games in his phone, manager was very happy I chatted with her

Stew0576 said:

I would have talked to a manager about this, you would be surprised how many managers keep bad employees because bad behavior is ignored, I was at Walmart once and the guy at the electronics was playing games in his phone, manager was very happy I chatted with her

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I'm going to second this. My hunting buddy is a manager at a hardware store and he has employees that he knows are crap but can't fire until he has an official complaint.

Hard to judge a whole chain, good or bad, by one employee. But for the most part, how I get treated at a particular store makes a lot of difference whether or not I ever go back. FME, Attitude of the store management towards CS, trickles down to even the lowest store employee. Some of my favorite shops have gone from great to bad, when the owner retires and the son/SIL takes over. Kudos to the sore that gave the OP such great CS.....odds are the gift card they gave him.....and then some....will be spent there.

Would a judge an entire family by meeting one person for 30 seconds? Now think how many employees a store has compared to your family.

I had a bad experience with a Cabela's employ.
I bought a new fish finder, spent hours taking my boat apart to install it then it didn't work.
Spent hours disassembling my boat to take it out.
When I took it back the kid in CS started to walk off with it.
I asked him where he was going and he said he wanted to hook it to their display to see if it worked.
I informed him in very plain English that I didn't care if it worked in their display it didn't work in my boat and I wanted it either replaced or a refund.
He then told me I probably didn't hook it up correctly and did I use a 3.5 watt fuse.
I said hey Mr. Tesla fuses are rated in amps not watts.
That did it and his manager got an ear full.
I told the manager to send the idiot back to women's shoes because he didn't know anything about electronics.
The new depth finder worked perfectly.

CS will continue (generally) to deteriorate as unemployment numbers fall; as with anything when demand is high, you get what is left over. Cabelas has a great store footprint for me as an outdoorsman but their pricing strategy is a little (high) aggressive (Mr. Morris now has a little monopoly since the Cabelas purchase - prices will increase). I like both BP and Cabelas but I find the pricing plus local sales tax to be prohibitive - I shop in those stores but I purchase online. As far as CS in both stores, my many experiences have always been good.

Steve S. said:

CS will continue (generally) to deteriorate as unemployment numbers fall; as with anything when demand is high, you get what is left over. Cabelas has a great store footprint for me as an outdoorsman but their pricing strategy is a little (high) aggressive (Mr. Morris now has a little monopoly since the Cabelas purchase - prices will increase). I like both BP and Cabelas but I find the pricing plus local sales tax to be prohibitive - I shop in those stores but I purchase online. As far as CS in both stores, my many experiences have always been good.

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Me too. I occasionally swing through to see what's on sale or when they had the bargain cave. If its not on sale I don't touch it. As far as CS goes. I have had several bad experiences with the store by me. Pick a number with no one at the gun counter, when it comes time to help you they run and hide. Worst one was they shoved a 21/22yo kid out there on his first day and told him help me. He said he wasn't allowed to help customers alone or he would get into trouble, but he didn't want me waiting. His trainer popped his head out 3 times while the kids was showing me scopes. Another poor CS thing about them is that damn credit card! I am so sick of being stopped by every employee and asked about a credit card! I get its their job, but dang!

I bought a rifle at Cabelas many years ago. Their process was terrible. In Texas, when you have a concealed carry license, you don't have to go through the call-in background check. They didn't care. They pushed me in front of a computer to fill out their online 4473 form. Then took my DL & CHL/LTC and disappeared for 20 mins. Then I had to agree and sign some store policy form, which was crap. And then finally I was able to purchase the firearm and leave with an escort.

The treatment was somewhere between a herded sheep and a criminal. That was my last firearm purchase at Cabelas. I called later and complained to the store management. The manager was friendly enough and understood my complaint but said that was their policy. Maybe they've changed since but I'd much rather go to a smaller operation with less confusion, friendlier service, and quicker turnaround. When I do an FFL transfer at my LGS, it literally takes 5 minutes or less, unless there is someone in front of me.

Only had to contact Cabela’s CS one time. They were great. Almost RCBS great. But, no CS bats a 1000. All in all, from what I’ve read, Cabela’s CS is good to go. Hope that hasn’t changed with the Bass Pro buy out.

somethingbenign said:

I'm going to second this. My hunting buddy is a manager at a hardware store and he has employees that he knows are crap but can't fire until he has an official complaint.

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Sounds like that's their own policy. I've fired employees for no other reason other than poor performance and did not wait for any complaints.

Cabela’s has been Bass Pro’d. It is no longer Cabela’s as it was. At the Cabela’s I frequented in Oregon I watched the changes after Bass Pro took over. They ruined a great set of stores...unless you fish and that’s All you do.
I am pretty sure once I get settled in my new place in CA I am going to pay off my Cabela’s Club card and dump it. There are no Cabela’s here and the nearest Bass Pro is 55 miles from me and not worth my time and effort to go there. Besides, they don’t give any perqs for using the Cabela’s Club card there. Johnny Morris and company can kiss my...never mind.

FYI Bass pro accepts cabelas points and cabelas accepts bass pro points. I know cuz I have both credit cards. I bought a pair of shoes with cabela points at a Bass pro!!

Bull

I bought a rifle at Cabelas many years ago. Their process was terrible. In Texas, when you have a concealed carry license, you don't have to go through the call-in background check. They didn't care. They pushed me in front of a computer to fill out their online 4473 form. Then took my DL & CHL/LTC and disappeared for 20 mins. Then I had to agree and sign some store policy form, which was crap. And then finally I was able to purchase the firearm and leave with an escort.

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I had a nightmarish experience there recently myself. I was actually dealing with them over the phone. Nearest Cabela's is about 3 hrs from me. I spoke with a gent at the gun counter over the phone and set up to purchase a rifle that was on sale and have it shipped to my local Basspro store. Was told that a separate manager would contact me to verify shipping and process the payment. To keep this as short as possible, that first conversation took place on Nov 13th. After 4 additional calls where as promised return calls were never delivered, the rifle was no longer on sale via their website. After speaking with the gun counter I was assured that the sale price would be honored. Finally on the 8th of December I receive notification that the rifle is at my local BassPro. This rifle had a Rebate going that ended on the 5th. Once I finally got home with it I found the receipt from Cabela's in the box and saw I was charged the full retail price. It took an additional 3 calls and a trip back to BassPro to finally get this resolved at the sale price I was promised. In the end they cost me a $75 rebate, a ton of time, and a whole lot of frustration.

When the trigger locks went on this customer had bought his last firearm from Cabelas. When the decision to sell primers by the sleeve instead of box they lost a customer. I'm done.

I refused to buy anything from them after their Black Friday debacle a few years ago that revolved around a scope. It was a crazy deal on a Nikon, I think it was a Nikon M223 for under $200? Anyway, lots of people jumped on it, myself included, including a good number of back orders since they allowed them.

Fast forward a day, and they mass canceled virtually all the orders (a few people claimed their order was in fact fulfilled but I never saw any concrete proof), claiming it was a mistake in the ad. Mind you, not only did it show up in the ad but also was listed for said price online all day, but sure it was a "mistake." Realistically, it was probably a crazy deal to bring people in to hopefully buy other stuff too.

In any event, I swore them off for good after that experience and blasted them on Facebook as they refused to communicate with people whose orders were canceled and deleted any questions on their page about it. Since Bass Pro bought them out, I may give them a look but really haven't seen any deal I couldn't live without. I've been much more impressed with the Gander Outdoor stores I've been to lately as far as deals and service.

I have dealt with Cabela's in KC, KS for years and have always had good to great service, including product returns and exchanges. That is until BassPro arrived. They have gradually eliminated all the Cabela's brand products and replaced them with junk. I've had little opportunity to interact with the new staff since I hardly ever shop there anymore.