REI Co-op – Shop Outdoor Gear Reviews

by Ketorcim

I have been trying to make a purchase on REICoop for the past 2 hours with no success. First, I tried to use PayPal, I had gotten all of my information typed in & it needed me to verify my identity with one of those "recapture" tests where you select pictures related to the prompt, but once I had selected the pictures needed, the verify button simply wouldn't work, it wasn't even clickable, I refreshed the page & retried several times to no avail. After that I attempted to manually type in my card info, however after the annoying process of typing in all the numbers it gave me the prompt "Tender is not found" this process was repeated about 8 more times even after restarting REICoop . I am extremely frustrated and annoyed and I expected a better user interface from a company as renown and respectable as REI.

by Badgebffr

Never retains login. Not updated with Face ID technology either. Once logged in, errors abound. Layout is nice, cool that I can pick what store I’m closest to, but man is this rough to shop in! Can’t filter sales by brand. Can’t load more than 1 page. Maybe they should have made the developer work on Black Friday rather than giving them the day off. #optoutside should be reserved for folks who do their job well.

Previous: Naturally, on the last day of member coupon week, REICoop breaks and won't allow log-on or shopping cart additions. It's also giving bizarre errors saying I have no internet connection yet here I am, on the web, posting reviews! I thought it was bad enough that REICoop constantly forces log-ins, but this is ridiculous.

by Golf Bit

The last two times I’ve tried to use REICoop to buy things on my phone, it has failed to work properly. The time before I had to call in and place my order Over the phone which consisted of six or seven things that required me to give item numbers and sizes then go through all my credit card information address etc. This time I was simply trying to buy shoes and REICoop wouldn’t confirm the purchase at the end. The very last step just wouldn’t show up. If I am going to pay more for items that I can buy at other stores online, I should at least expect to have a good app to work with. I’m not calling in to buy the shoes this time.

by Jp356la

I love REI in general; my feedback here is specific to REICoop . The one issue I’d fix above anything else is to avoid blocking the UI with full-screen spinners unnecessarily. When the user taps the back button to go to the previous screen, or returns to REICoop from somewhere else, blocking everything with a painfully slow reload is very frustrating. Instead, keep the UI unblocked, make a background network call to check for updates, and then update the UI when the updates are received. I know that the current user flow guarantees that whatever is displayed is always 100% up-to-date, but it’s not worth the performance hit.

by Jimmerkid

I found the REI App somewhat difficult to use when searching for a product. And checkout wasn’t as easy as I’d like. It was a bit confusing to select my credit card and ultimately I had to enter the numbers to complete my purchase, it didn’t seem to recognize the information from a previous purchase, maybe I needed to save that in the past. Also, I tried to find a head band / ear cover and when I searched for it and selected “in-store” availability, it showed numerous products but when I selected several they said they weren’t available at my local store. Please fix! I do appreciate the opportunity to order online and how easy ultimately it was to order other items and arrange pick up later in the week. I live ~90 min from the closest store. Jim

by Jjiggajouncer

Overall I like REICoop. It is fairly intuitive and easy to navigate. There are however two things that I wish were different... First, please bring back the ability to search/view brands that used to be on the home page. I have no idea why it was removed in this version. Second, please try to speed up the add to cart and delete from cart process. It seems strange that it takes so long for those to occur in REICoop . So, I give REICoop 3 stars for now. I would add in a star each for each of the issues listed above assuming they are effectively addressed.

by Darkmatter0714

REICoop has so many odd design choices and unintuitive interface quirks. There are several area where text is illegible due to the foreground/background colors (purchase history). Perhaps the thing most annoying is the filter function. When you add a filter it opens to that filter and there is no way to just multi select your filters and view the results. I would expect you select filters and a way to just clear them... Last but not least is size section, horizontal scrolling is odd, why not vertical? After being on the All Modern app, this seems like they paid some two person app company a few grand to build this...

by Sintactic

Lately they’ve been pushing notifications every single day, in addition to daily emails. I just checked and there’s no preference to stop naggy promotional crap like “see the gear fellow co-op shoppers rated 4 stars or more!”

I wanted to receive notifications for sales (1 per sale, maybe 2 max, for the beginning and end), but this is just obnoxious and means that they just contribute to the everyday noise that I ignore, so I guess my only option is to turn them off altogether. Just another company whose marketing department is willing to be as annoying as possible to pump up their numbers, unfortunately.

by Orangetwelve

This is a pretty good app. It’s solid, works when you need it to. But notifications are very frustrating. If you have notifications turned on, which will alert you of coupons that are pushed to Wallet, you also get inbox notifications, which you can’t turn off unless you turn off all notifications. That’s frustrating, because those inbox messages are frequently advertisements.

I don’t want notifications for ads. I want them only for things I find useful. As it stands, there is no granular notification control, and it seems like REI takes advantage of that.

by Fugly_mofo

I love REI! Their app is ok, good product photos. Navigation can be circuitous, but I’d say overall it’s above average for a retail app.

The one place that really annoys me is their over-use, I’d say abuse of notifications. I want to have it on so I know about a big sale, but they spam the crud out of me about the same sale relentlessly, and other notifications that have no value whatsoever.

Please give us a choice of levels of notifications like many other sites do, once a month, 2-3 per week, only for big annual sales, etc. Some of us have other things to do in life than be nagged incessantly even by a company we otherwise adore!

by Bruce MacFergus

This item shows that it can be carried as a backpack, but anyone who carries a backpack especially one of this size, knows that it is going to require more than just a strap on each shoulder! It is also going to require a strap around the waist at the top of the hip area that will latch! Does this bag have a means to attach one, either by a strap that I could purchase separately, or not, such a strap, and can it be connected by any of the attachment areas on this duffel bag? I do not want all of the weight of this to be only on my shoulders because that will make my shoulders very tired very quickly if I am to carry any weight over any period of substantial time and distance, and uphill or downhill, etc!

by Ghostlikecharm

The REI app is really pretty good. The imagination behind it gives a nice holistic experience to REI and the many facets it encompasses. Occasionally during a sale it does something weird where if you are ordering something online it takes you to a screen where it is unclear if your order has gone through or not. So... that’s weird. Plus REICoop has a place to track your REI dividends, but never actually tracks them which is a bit disappointing but nothing to cry over. On the whole it is a VERY comprehensive app and is worth downloading.

by Jessbcuzz

For some reason, my REI Co-Op membership card had “expired” and was deleted from my passes. I’ve had the card in my Apple wallet for 6 years. I deleted REICoop and reinstalled REICoop . Every time I try to add my membership card back through REICoop , I get an error stating my card could not be added, even though REICoop allows the option to add the card.

Update: The issue has been fixed! I wish other app developers would take the time to address issues and fix them promptly. Thanks for fixing!

by Kazyr

I love the convenience of the application on my phone. It lets me do almost everything that the desktop full website does. But there are some UI issues. On the screen where the products are shown in a grid with tiles there is some text overlapping when a product has a discount.

In reviews the more lengthy reviews which don’t fit on the screen can’t be seen in whole. Please add scrolling to the reviews. More than once I had to switch to my desktop in order to read reviews.

I have an old iPhone 8 and it’s possible that the application is designed for bigger newer phones in X-series. But there are lot people out there who still use older phones like iPhone 7 and iPhone 8. Please fix the UI.

by @jack_son_hall

EDIT: the issues with the reviews seem to have been resolved so I’m changing from three to four stars. Pictures are still slow to load.

The layout and most of REICoop as a whole is great. It’s easy to use and I can find what I want. However, there are some very frustrating issues:
-Often, product reviews don’t load. There might be a rating based on six reviews and when I try to open them to read, it tells me “There are no reviews for this product.”
-Pictures sometimes take a ridiculous amount of time to load. I click on a picture, place my phone down, and when I pick it up minutes later it’s not loaded. This is very frustrating.
-Reviews for products aren’t available from the REI garage. If a product is from the garage, even if it is a regularly purchased and popular item and has been reviewed many times, reviews just don’t show up from te garage side unless they’ve been purchased there. This is very frustrating because I buy much of my gear from the garage and can’t read reviews without exiting and opening the “other side” of REICoop . This seems like it should be a simple fix.

by Lys781

Overall REICoop works pretty well. It’s easy to find what I’m looking for, categorized well, the filters are very specific which helps narrow things down. The main problem I’ve had is when I click on the description of an item, I’m unable to scroll down, the screen is stuck. I am able to go back though so it isn’t frozen. The only other issue I’ve had is a delay populating the page when I click on an item.

by 1421009

*Edit: Rei has fixed what I was unhappy about.

As a through hiker I need specs on everything. Weight is a critical factor for everything I purchase when planning a PCT trek. Since I can’t access that information using the rei app, I’m getting that information from rei’s competition. I spend thousands on backpacking equipment every year and this will be the first year in a long time that rei isn’t getting a penny. Better get this fixed, REI! I’m done with my shopping for the next year and a simple glitch in your app might have cost you a customer for good.

by ThumbTD

I love your app just the way it is!! Adding a bunch of extra technology like bugging people about their cart or closely monitoring people currently on the website, bugging them to request help, etc. is a bad idea. If you ever think about doing these things, PLEASE ONLY CONSIDER MAKING THEM OPTIONAL and allowing people to opt out of any new things that might be irritating or objectionable. As an older person, I very much appreciate the way I can simply zip in or out of REICoop and nothing has changed. No emptied shopping cart, no changes to the Saved For Later part (except standard alerts about Out of Stock or Re-Stocked items or other inventory-related messages). I love being able to “drop the ball” and “pick it back up later,” because then I can feel comfortable about doing things late at night in bed, if I fall asleep, no problem. Keep up the great work REI!!

by Waffleneggs

The new updated app is amazing! The UI is much simpler, cleaner, and modern. The spinning compass doesn’t impede the middle of the screen anymore, and appears inside of clicked buttons. When the compass does appear in the middle of the screen, it makes sense that it is. The navigation bar at the bottom is helpful to get to different potions of REICoop much faster and follows Apple design. Many of Apple’s default apps as well as apps from major tech companies use this navigation procedure. Overall, this is a huge step forward compared to the previous app design. Huge kudos to the developers.

by Yrlk

If you’ve been to REI, you know they’re like the Trader Joe’s of the outdoor gear world.

Their people typically really care about each other and the customer, their product team (internally) seems to consistently bring competitive, fairly top-notch gear to the table at very competitive, more accessible prices, and their app is pretty awesome too.

If there’s a coupon or sale, those things get added to your cart on an item-by-item basis. Gone is the chance that you’ll miss a discount, because they don’t force you to add them on yourself: they do it for you.

Other app features I really like: wish lists are awesome to have. Haven’t used the shareable link yet, but I look forward to trying this feature.

REI really is an amazing company, and I feel encouraged for a better, more connected world every time I leave there.

Thanks, and bless you REI teams, staff, crew, friends.🙏🏼