Dick’s Sporting Goods

4 trips in a row that they were out of spawn floats. Every time they told me they’d order more. I should be shopping locally anyhow.

I walked in here intending to probably spend over $ 100 on a pair of shoes to wear while I walk on a treadmill since my old ones just weren’t cutting it. Well, I’m not the type that normally shops at sporting goods stores and I was quite frankly lost as far as where to begin to start the search for a good pair of shoes in their well stocked shoe department. At one point while I was wandering around with I’m sure what had to have been a look of complete and utter confusion on my face since that’s the way I was feeling an employee passed by, looked at me and then kept on going. I wasn’t a happy camper. After a minute of standing there being mad I decided to head somewhere else where they would appreciate somebody who was wanting to spend their hard earned money.
As I was leaving the shoe department I noticed a young man coming in my direction so I asked him if he was knowledgeable on good quality shoes since I needed some that would provide my feet the proper support and also hold up to 5 to 7 miles a day walking on a treadmill. He assured me that he was very knowledgeable on the subject of which shoes are the best for different needs and he could help get me fixed up. Sure enough after telling him the physical problems I felt my old worn out shoes were causing me, the amount of walking a day I do on a treadmill and that although I’d like to go as affordable as possible that I was prepared to spend up to around $ 120. He had me take off my old shoes and walk so he could analyze my particular gait and then proceeded to show me his 3 best recommendations based on what I’d told him I needed and what he’d observed while watching me walk. Well, the two that were below my $ 120 upper spending limit I wanted to spend felt good, but not good enough. When I tried on the $ 120 pair I instantly knew they were the right ones for me and I’ve been wearing them daily now on the treadmill and I’m still a fan of them.
If it hadn’t been for Will who was the young man that assisted me I would have walked out of the store and gone elsewhere to spend my money. So his service is what is taking this from being a 1 star review up to a 4 star review. The reason I can’t give a 5 star rating at this time is because I was the only customer I could see in the store at that early morning hour and there’s no excuse for an employee to look at me and just keep on walking when it had to have been obvious I needed assistance. The least that should have happened was to stop by and let me know it was not their area of expertise, but they would send somebody over to assist me. I’m sure it was the fact that I didn’t look or dress like the type that would be there seriously shopping for sporting goods, but there’s a reason the old saying about don’t judge a book by it’s cover has been around so long. They almost lost a sale because instead of seeing me as a customer the first employee looked and saw a fat middle aged man who wasn’t dressed nice and made the wrong assumption that I wasn’t going to buy anything and therefore it was below them stopping to assist or at least stop and inform me that they would call somebody to assist me.
So Will saved the day this time, but if it wasn’t for him this would be a totally different review. They’ve got some room for improvement, but at least now I know that when I go back I won’t shop there unless Will is working.

Went to the Dick’s Sporting Goods in Holland because they had a particular baseball bat my son wanted to buy and the online inventory showed they had the two different sizes he was interested in.
We got to the store and they did indeed have the bat in both sizes… unfortunately most of the bats at Dick’s have a theft prevention device affixed to the middle of the bat. This device not only adds weight, but affects the balance of the bat, so you can’t get an accurate feel for a bat with this stupid thing attached to it.
So, I found the sales associate working in the baseball section and asked if they could remove the security device so my son could determine which of the two bats he wanted. The sales associate said that they couldn’t remove it. What!!! You’ve got to be kidding me! Now, I could have just bought the bat, had my son check it out, and then return it, but that really doesn’t make much sense now, does it?
I promptly walked out of the store, frustrated that we drove 30 minutes for that! A great example of a customer service failure. Won’t be going back to the Holland store again, I’ll stick to the Rivertown store from now on (the location where we did end up buying the bat). Neither location has great service, seems to be common thread with most of the DSG’s I’ve been to. Only reason we didn’t go to Rivertown in the first place was because their website didn’t have an accurate inventory of the bat being in stock. Go figure.