Sports Authority

On 12/5/2011, I bought a $20 Florida gators fabric chair for my boss. I left it in my jeep until I saw her next about a week. When I gave it to her the fabric bag, the chair came in was ripped apart at the seam at the bottom of the bag. I was horrified. At the end of December, I submitted a complaint to the Sports Authority and they never ever responded.

I ordered an expensive foosball table for my husband for Christmas on 11/28/11 via sportsauthority.com. I received an email notification that the item shipped on 12/6/11 and I went online to inquire about the expected date of arrival on 12/8. The tracking number of my order was input incorrectly and was not showing up on the website which I was redirected to.

I called the 24-hour customer service hotline and was told that the tracking information was just not updated as it was after hours and had recently shipped. The rep, who was very short with me and couldn't be bothered, asked that I give it until the next morning, and that my order should have shipped from the same state (since there is a warehouse there) and would arrive very soon. On Monday morning I called again to be told that the tracking number was processed incorrectly and that customer service was waiting on the warehouse to respond to their request for updated information. I never heard back, despite calling daily.

Finally after several days of being told that a supervisor was not available to take my call and that someone would call me back (no one ever did), I finally got a hold of a supervisor who informed me that he would personally take on my case and get a hold of the warehouse to update me. Once again, after days of not hearing back (and again calling customer service daily, to be told that no supervisor was available to take my call), someone informed me that my item was lost and reordered. Misinformation, because when I finally got a hold of yet another supervisor yesterday (12/22), he informed me that he's been having this problem with several orders. It was not shipped from the Sports Authority warehouse in my state, as I was originally told, it was shipped via freight directly from the manufacturer in Canada and was probably stuck in customs.

The supervisor said he'd do some digging and would get back to me within the hour (worst case scenario, he'd refund my money and reorder the product at a discount, having it overnighted to me in time for Christmas). Instead of hearing from him in that hour, I received a call 3 hours later from the original supervisor that was handling my case, apologizing for not getting back to me and saying that the other supervisor was mistaken, since the product was coming from Ottawa, it could not be overnighted (once again the runaround). He refunded my $45 shipping and we said we'd wait one more day until today to see if we could get a status update. I just now received a call that there has not been any update on my product; and that it's being sent to me but no one can tell me where and when.

I was offered a discount on my next online purchase, but you can rest assured I will never be shopping here again!

I purchased an elliptical machine for $600 plus 4-year extended warranty for $220 from Sports Authority. When the machine broke after 10 months, I called the warranty company--"NEW." It is now 17 days since I contacted them and still no tech has come to even diagnose the problem. I have spoken to managers at both Sports Authority and NEW and they are apologetic for delay but neither will do more than apologize. This is the classic rip-off. Once they have your money there is no incentive to provide the warranty service.

While in the store, I found an Adidas tennis racquet that felt good. It was the last one, and the sign said it was marked down from $100 to $67. I bought it.

Later, I saw that the average price for this racquet is about $65 to $68. I felt I was cheated. I complained on the website and got no response. I wrote to the company president and also got no response.

I can only conclude from this lack of response that such misrepresentations are not uncommon. I felt I was cheated and now question all the other purchases I made at Sports Authority over the years. If I ever go back, I will check third parties before making a purchase.

I purchased an elliptical and also an extended warranty a couple of years ago. It's now time to use that warranty for maintenance. I opened a maintenance work request on April 1, 2011 (yes, April Fool's Day for sure) and it is now May 23rd and I'm still waiting for them to return to install parts that arrived last month. My initial turn around time for the first technician to come out was quick (about a week), but he quit because he said he wasn't being paid for return trips to customers homes (I totally understand why he'd quit). Since then I have called Sports Authority every couple of days and I am always promised someone will call me to schedule a time for the technician to come out and replace the part. I still have not received that call, almost 2 months later.

I go through home gym equipment every couple of years and will definitely not be purchasing my next piece of equipment there. I'll check out Fitness Resource or Sears (since I know they do better with maintenance calls).

I had called in to talk to an employee named Steven in this store to get a price of a rifle held for me to purchase at a later date. Then when the time came to pick up the rifle, the price was not honored. That's really dirty because I could have bought that item in another town if I knew that they would have not honored it! Long story short, I found a local business in town with the matching price and it wasn't even a sale price like Sport Authority's sale price slash scam! I wasted fuel and time!

I had stopped going to this store for awhile because there is never anyone around to help you and they never carry or have my size (xxl tops, xl shorts). I tried one more time and as usual my size was only in one color, so I tried to find someone to help me. There was not one person on the entire floor, only the one cashier. I asked where there was someone to help me and she said, "I guess no one." Then I asked for the manager and she just stood there looking at me. Then I had the shorts that I was trying to get help with. She kept asking me if that was all, and was gonna try to ring it up. I left it on the counter and left but I want everyone to know what a horrible place that is and no one should ever even think about shopping there.

My tennis racket needed some work done and I wanted to try out getting it re-strung and re-gripped by the services offered by Sports Authority. Instead of me buying a new racket, which I bought from Sports Authority, I decided to drop it off Sunday, June 27 to get re-strung and re-gripped. The employee took down some information and told me they would call in a week for the racket. In my head, I thought that's a little long just to get a racket re-strung, but I figured I'd give it a try. I was charged for the strings that I bought and a $3+ fee.

It is now Thursday, July 7 and I still have not gotten a phone call. I decided to give them a call and a man answered and he took down my name and placed me on hold. I was on hold for 5 to 10 minutes until another man picked up and asked me if I could be helped. I told him that I was already on hold by someone else who was checking on my racket. Again, he took down my name and placed me on hold. He came back and verified to me my racket.

He told me that my racket wasn't ready because the technician quit, which is not my problem. I did not get a phone call from them telling me that there was a delay and why did I have to call for them to make up excuses. I asked him when was I going to get my racket. He told me someone else was coming in at 4pm and will work on it. I asked him how long that will take and he told me it'll be ready by 5pm. Why does a one-hour job take over a week to get done?! This is purely poor customer service!

The expanded store at Ward ave in Honolulu is nice. The salespeople are rude, sullen, dismissive and all but impossible to find. It is difficult to understand why, in a time of double digit unemployment, you can't hire and train polite, helpful, and knowledgeable salesperson. These young people really don't care whether you find and buy what you want. They just enjoy passing the time with one another (and presumably drawing a salary).

We ordered a Texas HoldEm poker table from the Sport Authority online store. The unit cost was $169 after a 15% coupon was applied. They advertised FREE shipping for orders $99 or more but we were charged $69.99 for Standard Ground Shipping. When we called about a credit for the shipping we were told this was not really standard ground shipping, since the weight was more than what UPS would deliver for $6.99, per their standard UPS rates. We were also told because we used the 15% off coupon we could not combine any other "specials" on our order. We argued to no avail that FREE shipping in not a "special" promotion.

After speaking with a supervisor he credited our account for $40 - still leaving us with a $20.99 shipping charge. To boot, the local Sports Authority retail store is offering this table for $99.99 - however we were told the online store and retail stores have NO relation to each other so we can not even make a return at the retail store. So we have to pay SHIPPING again if we elect to simply cancel the order and send it back. As a result we will NEVER shop at a SPORTS AUTHORITY retail store or online again.

Took Tennis Rack to get it restrung. Filled out paperwork with tech and he promised it would be done by 12:30pm the next day.

Called the next day in the afternoon, employee told me they lost my paperwork and my racket had not been worked on.

Contacted customer service and was given a bunch of excuses (new employee I spoke with on the phone, tech not in until 1pm, brand new 72 hour service turn around policy that was unwritten on the forms i filled out).

She said the store manager said the racket would be done by 6pm (that's 5 hours to string a racket) !!!

Customer service did not offer refund and it was just bad customer service.

We used an online gift certificate to order football cleats for our son. The online gift cert. can not be redeemed in stores. We received our order in a timely manner, only one problem, we did not receive the correct item. We ordered an Under Armor size 4 1/2 youth boys' football cleat. We received a woman's size 9 tennis shoe. I have no idea what the brand was, mountain something. I could understand if the size was wrong or maybe the color or something simple like that but the entire shoe was completely wrong. The shipping list on top of the box even reflected what the item should have been. Do they not cross examine themselves when they package these things. I almost feel it was done on purpose to delay the delivery of what I originally ordered.

That was just the first of my problems. I immediately called the customer service number on the box and explained my situation. I was told a bin check would have to be done meaning they would have to make sure my item was in stock and that their stock was in order and that it would take 48 hours, in the meantime i would need to return the incorrect item. I was so upset by this time. I demanded to know more about this bin check and why the heck would it take 48 hours. I also demanded that my returned item be expideted out. They agreed to that but of course i got no where with them as far as moving it along faster, I kept getting the same story. So the next day we returned the other shoe.

The day after that we called back, they informed us this was an isolated incident and their warehouse was now corrected and they would ship out our item as soon as they received the other. We waited two more days they still hadn't received it and they are now telling us when they do they will credit our gift cert and we would need to go online to place the order again. I was fuming. Why can't you just send out my corrected item I kept asking, but kept getting the story about how their "process" works. It has now been two weeks and they apparently still have not received my returned item in order to credit my gift cert and I was told they have 14 from time of receipt to issue the credit but they would email the warehouse to put a rush on informing them that the item was received in. I will let you know if and when we ever get our cleats, by the way, football has already started.

I will NEVER order from them again nor will I visit their store. This has been the absolute worst shopping experience of my life and i'm so amazed at how customer satisfaction means nothing anymore.

Purchased a golf club (driver) at tent clearance sale (7/13/2009). Upon very first use, the driver fractured. Returned to store and was told that this is between me and the club manufacturer and that Sports Authority would not accept the return or be responsible.

This is the last that Sports Authority has seen of me -- unlike McArthur, I shall not return!

Last month (3/2009) I went to the Sports Authority in Springfield Mall (Springfield VA) and asked to use the handicapped dressing room since my wheelchair will not fit in the other dressing room. When a sales person unlocked the door the room was full of shelving. I called the headquaters to complain and they had the ditrict manager called me to apologised and promese that will never happen again.

On 4/5/2009 I went to the Sports Authority in Potomac Mills Mall (Woodbridge, VA), was going to buy several shorts and t-shirts, I ask to use the handicapped dressing room and I was told that I will have to wait because the manager likes to put the extra stock in there. when the sales associate open the door the room was full with shooping cards full with clothes and the were pile of clothes on the the floor. I'm calling the headquaters again now.

I didn't buy anything at this store but I did a Modell's and the Nike store.

Shopped in the store for well over an hour selecting and trying on apparel. When checking out I intended to pay with a credit card. Total sum of $216.00 The cashier asked for my driver's license as well. I've shopped in the store many times and was never asked to produce a license with picture in order to use a credit card. On this particular day, I was not carrying my license. I did , however, have a bank debit card with my signature. Also had a car insurance card with sig. and license number.

After calling the manager, the cashier told me, the credit card would not be accepted without a picture ID. The manager said I should use the debit card. My issue is: 1. This was never a policy before. 2. It was not advertised with their credit card user policy. 3. I spend a good part of my afternoon in the store selecting apparel of which I was not allowed to purchase..huge waste of my time. 4. Offense at being told to use the debit card. Does this mean that a person without a picture license is prohibbited from using a credit card at this store? If so..this needs to be advertised! I have excellent credit and am outraged at this treatment. Not to mention, the manager failed to appear in person when I requested to speak with him/her.

1. Loss of time 2. Personal offense at treatment 3. Discriminatory treatment as a result of not having a drivers license on hand.

The day after Thanksgiving I purchased a Halex Lexington BT heckler dartboard from Sports Authority in Brandon, Fl becasue of the heckler feature. On Christmas day we set it up only to discover NONE of the sound worked so this dart board is completely usely to us. Sat 12/27/08 I tried to exchange it at the store and they had none is stock so one of the associates called all the stores in the area only to find out they were all sold out.

I ask about them returning it to the vendor and this RUDE department Mgr. spoke up stating this was against policy that I would need to do this myself. I ask if they could order me one in and he again rudely stated this was against store policy. I immediatley ask for the General office phone number and the general mgr's name and it took him 10 minutes to give me this information, but he again rudely told me I would have to call that number to find out what the general managers name. I called the number and they wanted my life history. Why would they need my place of employment, work #, work address, my home information for a complaint.

They said someone would be back to me within 2-3 days. I think if you purchase a product from a company and it was defect from the very beginning they should be responsible for the return and replacement of this item. I used to be in retail and know this is how we did it and the store I worked at still handles their customers this same way. The Department manager was rude and his body language showed that he did not care about the customers and definently did not want to be at work.

I went online to find this item and don't see that anyone has it, so I'm assuming this is a closed out item that was not mentioned in the ad.

They placed a Thanksgiving / Black Friday advertisement that was not fulfillable. I went online and placed an order through their site for the product (youth football jersey) on 11/27/08. My credit card was charged for the full amount, plus shipping and taxes, that day. I receved two confirmation emails stating that they received my order, and that, as they were to be personalized, they would not ship immediately. This was exactly as the website had stated, so I was expecting a few weeks to ship.

On 12/4/08, I received another email from them stating the order would be shipping, and I should receive them between 12/18/08 and 12/29/08. While that was longer than the website stated, I was still fine if these jerseys, that were for my two sons, came after Christmas.

Today, 12/06/08, at 6.42am, 10 days after my order was placed, I was notified - again by email - that my order was cancelled. Extremely confused, I called their cusomer service team, who could not figure out why it was cancelled, other than they did not have the jerseys in stock...they guessed this, because now the site doesn't even offer them!

When I asked if I could get a raincheck or be placed on a notice list of when the jerseys were available, I was told, Oh, no, they won't do that. So, they have taken 10 valuable processing days from me where I could have ordered these from another supplier. At any point in the past 10 days, they could have notified me of this problem, as opposed to giving me assurance that my order was placed.

In this economic environment, retailers should not presume to have the leverage to lie to or cheat their would-be customers. I sincerely hope that this company is one of those that will reap the consequences of their actions and lose the valuable customer base to keep them in business. As I am also a purchaser for 3 youth football teams, they have lost at least 174 customers as of this morning.

I don't think the dollar amount of this one purchase is considerable, and I am sure I will get it back. This was more for the benefit of those that are curious about how this company treats its customers, or former customers, as it now stands.

Repeatedly advertises products which are not in the store, spoke with store staff member and was told they are not responsilbe for what is ordered in the store, also they could not order the item for me.

I bought treadmill from Sports Authority on 11-30-05 at the same time I bought the 3 year extended service plan. The treadmill stop working about 1 month ago. I called the service people they came and looked at the treadmill and the serviceman said that he was going to order the parts to fix it. He said it would take 2weeks to arrive. Thats the last I heard from him.

I tried many times to talk to a representive from the service plan and I have left many messages and no one returns my calls. I also called Sports Authoriy store and talked to diffrent supervisors and they do not resolve my problem. They tell me to call the service plan people.

I have a health problem and I need to exercise daily. I can not exercise outside because of the smoke from the fires in California.

I ordered a treadmill online February 13, 2008. Today is March 13th and I still HAVE NOT RECEIVED my order. However, I was billed for this item that I DO NOT (yet) have in my possession. I had to e-mail the Sports Authority a few times (absolutely no help at all) and then call two (2) different numbers (got 2 different stories) to find out that the item is still in a warehouse somewhere.

The funny part is, I was further informed that they called me (NEVER!) and are waiting for my phone call to schedule a delivery date. Wow! That was news to me! Well, for one thing no one ever called ME! And why wasn't I at least sent an e-mail with a number to make an appointment?! It has been one (1) MONTH since I placed the order! No one seemed to have any answers as to where the merchandise actually was but they had the NERVE to debit my account $799.99 for something that I have NEVER RECEIVED. I thought that until I physically take possession of merchandise (sign for it) that I would not be charged for it.

I wanted someone (upper management) to contact me with some REAL answers ASAP. I have never heard from anyone form the Sporst Authority (yet). This is ridiculous! The machine could be lying in pieces in a warehouse somewhere but I paid for it without seeing it, using it or even inspecting it. Remarkably enough, last night I finally found out that they are delivering the machine today. Wow! That is the slowest delivery and worst customer service I have ever dealt with. They have a lot to learn about customer service. And if they are going to give consumers so-called helpful information at least get their stories straight! They did not know where the merchandise wass but they knew where to take the money from (my checking account). They were very unprofessional and uninformative company. They stink!

I purchased on online gift certificate from Sports Authority on 12/06/2007. When it did not arrive by 2 weeks after Christmas, I called Customer Service. They offered to send a replacement card and cancel the first card. After 2-3 weeks, no card had arrived, and I called them a 2nd time, asking for a refund instead. They had no record of my first call, refused the refund, but told me that they would send a new card right out. After another 2-3 weeks, still no card. I called them a 3rd time. This time, they offered to credit my credit card. I'm still waiting to see if they are finally true to their word this time.

They sell gift cards at location in Safeway eighty miles away that can only be used in there store. More in gas then card is worth. Wont honor it online. That is thieving. Who is going to pay 75 dollars to cash in 25 dollars. HELLO

On Sunday 12/30/07 Sports Authority advertised on the front page of their circular, which started 12/30/07, a Nordictrack elliptical machine for $399.00. I tried to order it online at 2am on the 30th, but you could not. When you clicked BUY IT NOW, it just took you to a page with elliptical trainers but that one was not even in the bunch. I went into the Hazlet store on Jan 1st, and as the man saw me looking at the floor model he approached me and said, "Don't fall in love with this one because I have none in stock, nor have we had any in more than a month, and there are none in the district. If you look at our inventory it says we have 3 but we do not, I don't know why it says that." I asked if they would be getting them in, and he said, "I don't know." I asked about rainchecks, he said, NO, substitutions? NO. Can I buy the floor model, NO. So why do they advertise a product they do not have, not only in that store but in the eastern district. Isn't that false advertising? I really liked that machine. It had all the features I wanted. What does someone do about this? I cannot afford a more expensive machine.

I ordered a bicycle for my sister and made sure there was a store in Orlando,Florida so if she didn't like it she could return it. She recieved a bike from her husband and I told her to return mine and buy workout clothes instead. I knew I was already screwed because of the shipping and handled fee I paid but now I find out that the only way she can return it is to ship it back and she can't return it to the store. Guess what- I now will not ever shop at Sports Authority. These stores do not realize that alot of people boycott certain stores because of their policy's. I make sure eveyone I know also knows the crappy nature of the policy.

i had to return the gift for health reasons. sports authority refused to reimburse me for return shipping costs stating that their return policy is disclosed on their website and since there was nothing wrong with the product, i was to pay the cost. although i explained to several peopple that this was a surprise gift and i had no knowledge or opportunity to research their return policy, they refused to reimburse my cost. i feel this is a disservice to clients.

My wife and I had been researching Elliptical machines for some time. We saw that Sports Authority had the ProForm 20.0C on sale and that was the model that my wife had wanted. We went into the closest Sports Authority (which isn't even a 1/4 mile from our home) and we were told that they were out of them. We called around and found that the Manchester location had one left. My wife was told to hurry up and come if we wanted delivery before Christmas.

We made a special trip to Manchester, which is almost 18 miles away, to buy the Elliptical that night. We paid an additional $150 for delivery and setup. When the deliverymen came to the house and assembled the unit, they asked where the power supply or batteries were. My wife was astounded, because nobody in the store even mentioned that the power supply didn't come with the unit and when she called the store to ask, THEY didn't even know the power supply wasn't included. We ended up having to call the manufacturer and order the power supply, which was almost $70 additional. Therefore, the deliverymen were unable to test the unit to make sure everything was ok.
After they left, my wife went out and bought D batteries for the machine. She tried every workout program on the machine, only to find out that the system would shut down after 5 seconds.
Needless to say, we were less than thrilled. I called Sports Authority and spoke with the manager, who told me that we could call the manufacturer and they would have somebody come check it out (which was completely wrong, because they are only in AZ).

After much aggrevation, the store manager agreed to have the delivery service come pick up the unit from our home and return the unit to the store. However, they aren't refunding our delivery and setup fee. I will NEVER do business with Sports Authority ever again.

I ordered a product on-line from Sports Authority and paid for the product as a Christmas Gift. Follow-up with Sports Authority through thier Customer Help Desk 800 number determined the product never shipped and, would not be received in time for Christmas. The order was canceled and I was informed my money would be credited back to my account. That did not happen. Repeated follow-ups on thier 800 number (lack of) Help Desk consistently led to agreement by both parties that I am owed a complete return of my money. Each time the representative provides a date within a week that I would get my money back. Each time, it does not happen.

It is now the 24th of January and still, Sports Authority can not, or will not, credit my account with the money they owe. My only alternatives is to forget my money or file a claim in court against Sports Authority. Seems to me this is an illegal practice, if not deceptive. Certainly there are laws to protect consumers from fraudulent agencies taking peoples money on-line and never delivering a product or returning thier money. I don't recommend Sports Authority to anyone.

I'm out the money I paid on-line for a product, can't get Sports Authority to credit my account (even though they agree I never received a product) and I'm out untold hours chasing down my money.