DICK'S SPORTING GOODS

I had a damaged tent pole which needed to be repaired. I went to Dick's to find out whether they had a repair kit that I could purchase. They had a guy standing near the entrance, and when I asked him where I could find a repair kit he directed me towards what I believed was the camping gear area. He used his walkie-talkie to do this. So, I walked to that area, where another guy with a walkie-talkie was standing. I asked him about it, and he didn't seem to be the expert in tent pole repair kits, so he directed me to the area where they keep the guns, where another guy was behind the counter. This third guy must have been the one who the first guy spoke to because when I walked into his area he said "tent pole repair kit?" He sent me back towards the tent equipment, where he claimed there was a rack which had those types of kits. I did find the rack but I was not sure whether what they had would work, and eventually decided not to purchase their kit. I think the people that work in that store depend too much upon their walkie-talkies, and from the amount of service I received I guess they don't know very much about tents. Or, maybe they're just lazy. They sure do seem to like their walkie-talkies. While talking into their walkie talkies, the workers tended to turn away from me. They would actually say "excuse me" and turned their backs to me, and then start talking into their walkie talkies. Their service is very poor. I then went to another sporting goods store. At that store, someone greeted me at the door, asked me whether he could help me, and after I described the problem, he told me he believed he could help me with that. He looked at the pole and then got a small, inexpensive (less than 1/2 the price of the one at Dick's) repair kit, and then proceeded to REPAIR my pole! All I had to do was buy the kit. The kit was only $5. I'm glad that I left Dick's and went to their competitor.