That's the last time I buy anything at Cabela's Calgary

[SageValleyOutdoors]

Planning on taking my 14 year old son on his first backpack hunt in the mountains this fall, and we're acquiring the gear he's going to need. I had half a day off last week, so stopped at cabelas to kill some time, and look at their trekking poles, insulated mattress pads, and packs. They had a good selection of cabelas brand and therm-a-rest air mattresses, but only a few demo models hanging for me to look at.
The camping sales associate came over and told me great things about a particular therm a rest mattress, but since they didn't have a demo model for me to look at, I had to take him at his word that it was what I was looking for.
So I bought it ($150) and took it home. Took it out to check it out, it came with a little battery air pump, so I tried it all out. Inflated it with the pump, and had conner lay on it in the living room. It was a little small, but that was no big deal. It was VERY loud and crackly - Conner told me he likely wouldn't be able to sleep with how loud it was, and I agreed. We decided we'd return it and get a larger, quieter one this weekend.
So we went there this morning, and I explained that I wanted to exchange/return it. The customer "service" associate told me they can't return air mattresses for hygienic reasons - people sleeping on them, or using their mouths to blow them up. I told her "I get that - but nobody had slept on it, and we used the included air pump to blow it up. Besides, where does it say that we can't return it?"
She looked at the back of the reciept, said "hmmmm... it should say something here... hmmmm... it doesn't... but that's our policy."
By this point, I was starting to get annoyed. So I said "wait a sec - let's pretend that right on the back of the receipt it said 'no returns on air mattresses'. Do you think that would be adaquetly informing the customer BEFORE we buy it?? We don't get the receipt until AFTER it's been paid for. So what good would that do??"
"I can go ask a manager, if you like?"
I said "yes, I'd like to speak to a manager. I understand the policy, but if I had known about it before, I would not have bought it."
So she went to the back. Was gone a few minutes and said "I'm sorry, the manager is busy and can't come see you, and said that we couldn't return it. He's asked a camping associate to come talk to you instead"
"What? What good is an associate going to do? Is there a sign on the wall saying 'mattress sales final'?"
I went and looked. There was no signage indicating ANYTHING about returns or exchanges. The ONLY signs visible anywhere said "within 90 days we will be happy to exchange or refund purchase price with receipt etc. etc. etc"
I fully understand the logic behind WHY that would be their policy - if someone had blown it up by mouth, or someone slept on it before I bought it, I wouldn't want it. For hygiene reasons. It makes sense, thinking about it from that angle...
What REALLY bothers me about the situation is that;
a) they didn't have demo models of all the products. Only a few of them - so I couldn't see/feel the product to know it was too loud before buying it.
b) there was absolutely NO signage or indication from the sales associate that no returns or exchanges were allowed before I bought it.
c) the manager refused to come speak to me directly. He/she was "too busy" to talk to a customer who had a problem. What kind of customer service is that???

Since the Cabelas store opened in Calgary, ive been torn between them and Bass Pro. I like some of the cabelas products better, but bass pro is larger and has more selection and is a little closer to my home (Airdrie). This experience has completely soured me to Cabelas. I won't be spending any more of my hard-earned money there, and I would urge every single one of you to double and triple check BEFORE you make a purchase there, to ensure that their "customer satisfaction guarantee" applied to whatever you're looking at.

So that's my rant. I'm done.