Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cabela's sucks

I gave up on Cabelas as a serious source of outdoor stuff long ago. Now, it's more of a travel stop when I'm in an area that has one. I still check the online sales from time to time and pick up deals, mostly on clothing, but there's no continuity in their clothing lines anymore; so I can't go back and replace stuff that's worked well for me with the same item.

It's more trouble, but I've had good success by searching out quality American-made products either directly from the manufacturers or through online outlets like Amazon and even Costco (yeah, Bezos is a Lefty slug, but the service is the best in the business, and a lot of stuff is actually sold by others through Amazon).

I've had zero trouble with a Cabelas store, their credit card, their customer service or their online ordering system. It's all been good.

I have the Cabelas' credit card, and if it wasn't for the "free" stuff I wouldn't buy from them. Their prices aren't the best, not terrible just not the best, but the thing that I hate is their shipping policy. If you order from them on a Monday and pay the $10 expedited shipping fee you will have your stuff by the weekend. They don't ship overnight or second day, they just put it in a box and ship it that day. If you don't pay the expedited shipping fee, they wait until the next week to ship your order.

There are to many other places with competitive pricing, that will have what I need here in two or three days, for me to fool with Cabelas. Midway, used to be expensive on shipping, but have become my go to lately. They now ship fast and reasonable, and have added a lot more than shooting stuff to their inventory.

We had stopped at LL Beans on the way North to hunt Moose because one Bud had drawn a tag in the North Woods. Two of us were going to Grouse hunt some and then help him if he was successful and he had a week to scout out his unit. Mentioned that to the girl at Beans and she said let me get this other employee. Turns out he loved his Moose hunting and asked us what unit he had drawn. Went and got a topo map and started circling areas, but said this particular one deserves your attention. Bud checked it out and there was Moose sign everywhere. 1hour or so into the hunt he heard a Bull grunt and called this one in. Just another stupid gun counter guy story.

Poor little Kentucky Snowflake!!!!!!!!!!

Probably all you needed to do was wash the rain coat... and there basically is nohting such as breathable rain suits... but if you fall for that goretex joke it needs to be kept VERY clean... dirt makes it fail. Thats been common knowledge on "breathable" types for many years.

Hey Tzone--I have quite a few Leupold scopes with Lifetime Warranties, if one fails after 20 years are you saying it shouldn't be returned to Leupold to be fixed? I bought the coveralls because they had a Lifetime guarantee. Do you think it's OK to advertise a Lifetime waterproof guarantee and not stand behind it. I fish with guys who return waders to LL Bean and Orvis after 10 years, that's who will get my business.

Cabin fever in June?

lol

After 20 years of use? No, I wouldn't return it and expect it fixed at no charge.

^ this.

I get irritated with poor customer service but a tizzy isn't worth it; just don't go back.

And don't let it rob you of your serenity. Nothing in the realm of the inner webs is worth that.

Defiantly not the Sam company they once were....Walmart mantality all made in China crap...

So you want them to delay shipping orders? Then you would be bellyaching about how slow they were to deliver. You cannot have it both ways!

chit happens, and happens with every company that has a web presence. Shrug. It will work out most of the time.

I've bought a fair bit of stuff from Cabela's over the years: clothes, footwear, hunting gear, fishing gear. They have a great range of stuff, some of which isn't available here, and I usually have it on my doorstep, here on the other side of the world, in less than two weeks. I've had no problems with them - even the time I accidentally double ordered was fixed straight away, with no fuss and at no cost to me.

AND use the proper detergent, And retreat the outer layer- that is what repels the water (on occaission, if you get lucky, and it is not a hard or driven rain), not the Gore-Tex fabric itself. It won't pass water molecules, (they say), only vapor, but the membrane is permeable in BOTH directions.

It works fine in the snow....

Yeah, i had bought a Cabela's rain parka - g-tex, etc. It was about $100 so i wasn't expecting a whole lot from it - just basically keep the rain off me.

So after a little over a year i noticed the parka just wasn't doing the waterproof thing at all. I had been noticing it was failing for a good while before the year was up, but it was a Cabela's brand and had a "life time" warranty so i wasn't too concerned.

I called them and asked for some help with the parka (ie warranty) and the CS rep said that it was only a year. I told him there were tags on the parka that said "Life Time Warranty". The reply was that the garment had an expected life time of 1 year - thus my parka was beyond it's "life time".

No amount of polite, rational discourse would dissuade the CS rep from his position. He said the best that could be done was a percentage discount off another Cabela's branded item.

I was furious! I know you catch more bees with honey than with vinegar, but given the situation i was right to expect longer than 1 year of acceptable service and became pretty irate.

So, I took the discount and bought a Cabela's "Guide Wear" parka. It is an awesome rain parka, but i'll never shop their soft goods ever again.

In fact, BPS has a great rain parka - looks absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately it has their huge, FULL-COLOR brand logo/emblem stitched in a highly visible place.

PHOUCK THAT!!!

If they wanted to sell me a rain parka that would be fine and dandy, but i'm not sporting nor supporting their free advertisement no way - no how.

PHOUCK THAT TOO!!!

Was in Cabela's the other day, bought a pound of powder, later same day walked into a local place, in this small town of 6,000., same powder, five bucks less.
Person with me bought the small green propane bottles at Cabela's for $4.99, I noticed $3.49 here local.
So much for Cabela's if price is any concern. I guess they gotta pay for all that yuppie ambience some how, I just kinda doubt much of it will be my dollars.
Also the gun powder in Cabela's was behind the glass counter, just a display to see, the sales guy had to go into the back to get a pound. That was a first for me, and probably a last time too.

*****

https://www.gore-tex.com/experience/our-promise

http://www.evo.com/guides/outerwear-waterproof-ratings-and-breathability


- contamination effects GTX performance
- relative outside air temp and humidity effects GTX peformance.
- incorrect choice of GTX product can give lesser performance and lifespan
than expected.
- like many things, all GTX products do have performance limits and a lifespan.

the seam sealing tape has come off one of my daily pack use 3 layer GTX garments, so IMO its past its official
reasonable use lifespan but I can get it re-taped at GTX authorised repair shop and it will be good to go again.
..the actual fabric and PTFE membrane seem to be holding up fine.

some of the lightweight fabric garments 2.0 or 2.5 layer GTX , with the narrow lighter grade seam taping
(again depending on use and or abuse) I don't expect to last as long as the heavier 3 layer GTX with sturdier
regular seam tape.

with 2.0 or 2.5 layer GTX you need to be more careful what constantly rubs up against the inside surface
of the garments PTFE membrane surface . i.e; coarse belts or what is attached to them , also zipper
hardware on your under layer garments ,especially if you have constant load bearing involved.
even my 3 layer GTX was starting to wear away on RH inside in small areas where my shoulder bag constantly
rubs on my hip against the edge of my tough nylon belt that also happens to run underneath .Micro abrasion
eventually adds up with daily use.