Hey, what’s up, guys? So this is the next day. My order is finally ready for pickup. Now, here’s what I want to explain. Order pickup needs to be convenient and fast. So as long as or curbside basically. If the product is available at the store, and I’m just comfortable, because I don’t want to take the time to go in, the search for the products, they pay for it, get out which takes like if you’re in a rush 10 minutes, you’re opting for curbside, right? You indeed you wait out until it’s done, usually an hour max two. You go there, you’re expecting as soon as you arrive to the store within a minute or two, somebody brings it out, and you are basically on your way.
But it becomes very inconvenient when you cannot do this. When you have to wait a day or even longer for the product to be ready for pickup. And at that point, it’s like, why did I even order it? Maybe tomorrow, I’m completely busy, or I need it today. After all there’s a reason why you’re not requesting the product to be shipped home. So, at that point, you have to make sure your system is ready to be able to process curbside or store pickup. So you have like a fraud check, a good fraud check in place that does not request additional information A few hours later, you do the billing information check upon checkout, not after, just to make sure that you can take that order as fast as possible.
So the customers’ order can be fulfilled as fast as possible so they can come and pick it up. That’s the whole point of store pickup or curbside, right? If you cannot make sure that that works right, the whole concept of store pickup is just like a cool feature to have. That doesn’t really work, like it just doesn’t. At this point I would have like rather go to the store, walk into the store, do my shopping, come out. And it’s actually a business practice that is hurting your business. First of all, I don’t like this experience. Second, if I walk into the store for sure I’m gonna pick up something else as well, right? So I think it hurts more than it helps if it’s not well implemented. So anyways, now finally the product is ready for pick up, it’s next day. More than 24 hours later. Okay, got it. Good, you know, I like it that they tell me here somewhere that they hold it until February 20th.
Let me see that great news here. They should have said pick it up until whatever is the date, with the preheader message. I think that that’s super important. Anyways, I get the directions when I get there, what do I have to do. I have to call. Select option five, and after we come out. Maybe they don’t answer the phone. It happened with Walmart, you’re saying like, of course they’re going to answer. No, Walmart didn’t answer the phone. Or even worse. Maybe you don’t have reception to make a phone call, or I don’t know, it’s just, it’s much easier. You know, you’re there, click a button and whatever. Anyways, they hold it. It’s all good. So I’m going to go there, and I’m going to actually pick it up. And I’m gonna let you know guys how everything goes. Let’s check out this direction map. Please open a map, please. That’s good. I like it. That’s really good. Okay, I’m gonna go there, pick it up. And I’m gonna see how long I have to wait for this product to be brought out. And I’m going to show it to you guys. Bye. Bye. See you soon.
Curbside Experience
Okay, so I’m here at Cabela’s. As you guys can see, I have a problem. I’m not sure if you guys can see that. It says curbside pickup, and it has an arrow, but the arrow, I think it moved. So I’m here at the handicap spot, and I feel really bad, but this cannot be the spot for curbside. And I went around and around, like multiple times. And I just cannot figure out where is the curbside because that, first I parked there, not sure if you guys can see it. But that is for pregnant people, pregnant moms. So if you do curbside, make sure you have designated spots that are very, very well marked. Because then there’s another sign there, it says customer pickups and you’re behind the building and there are just trucks. So that doesn’t make any sense either.
Anyways, so I’m here, this is the order. I hope you guys can see. It’s ready for pickup. It was ready yesterday. And in order to do the pickup, I basically have to give them a phone call. So let’s do this. Let’s call them.
Thank you for calling Cabela’s. Our world’s foremost Outfitters are excited to help you get connected to the great outdoors. To better assist you, please listen to the following options. For store hours and location, press one, for firearms, press two, for ammunition press three, for in store pickup orders or customer service, press four, for curbside pickup, press five. Wait while I transfer your call.
Okay, this is not a good sign. Come on Cabela’s, answer the phone. That’s not good.
I feel really bad sitting here. The handicap spot just doesn’t make sense. Probably there are other people leaving this spot. So I’m going to pull out from here and I’m going to park on the pregnant lady spot until maybe they answer the phone. Clearly they don’t. So this is bad. This is really bad. Let me park somewhere normal and then after I park, I’m gonna give them another call. I just feel bad. For sure there’s somebody with handicap who wants to park here. Cabela’s, this is not good. Nobody’s answering. Nobody is answering. Okay, so I’m gonna park here and I’m gonna give them another phone call.
They’re distinct times up, out. Okay, that’s what I’m talking about. If you guys are doing curbside pickup, then do it properly. Otherwise this is a wasted opportunity. So initially the problem with this order was that it says cause you’re expecting it to be ready that day and they have a fraud-check system, that’s not the best. So you have to wait for next day. So clearly you rather just go in. And then if you want to pick it up, they don’t answer the phone number. This is the phone call.
I’m gonna give them another call just so you guys can see it one more time. So this nonsense here and you cannot even read it. Call this and press number five.
They just don’t answer it. So at this point, Cabela’s from my perspective, you failed miserably. There’s no reason to offer curbside pickup if you guys cannot handle it. Like honestly, it’s not a good experience.
Hey, I’m here outside for curbside pickup. Alright. They are transferring me somewhere else.
Over seven minutes just trying to tell them cause I’m here. Okay, this clearly doesn’t work. So this is where Cabela’s failed so far. I placed the order, they should check if billing address is good. So basically the order goes through. This is where they already failed. They didn’t check that, then their fraud filter caught my order, having some issues. By the time they emailed me and I responded, it was too late for that day to be picked up, the product. Second, as soon as you come to the store, the arrow is pointing nowhere. They point basically towards the handicap spots. You cannot park there for curbside pickup. Then I drove around, I couldn’t even find the curbside pickup. I found Customer Pick Up, whatever that means, behind the building where the trucks are. And it’s a loading dock I guess, you go there when you buy a boat or something, but not for a small product. Then you can call them and they are not answering the phone. And even when they answer the phone, clearly you push number five for curbside pick up, they transfer you again where they don’t answer. So be more than six or seven minutes, I waited you know for them to answer.
Okay, I got the product finally. So I had to walk in, took around 20 minutes, I have to say so. And I got some explanations. So the reason why they don’t have the curbside pickup signs up is because the other day it was snowing, and it was windy, and they had to take them off. But apparently, they’re somewhere on the side of the store, whatever. And that’s where it’s supposed to be. It’s not there right now. I went inside to pick it up. They basically at the front desk, they write you down on a piece of paper, then somebody is going to go in the back of the store. This is a big store. If you guys haven’t been at Cabela’s, this is a significantly big store. They go all the way to the back, then they pick up the product, then they come back and that entire thing took 20 minutes. I’m not kidding. I have it on my phone, I basically took a screenshot when I actually received the product. It takes forever. I think Cabela’s really tries, but they are quite far from actually achieving proper in-store pickup or proper curbside. There’s a lot of room for improvement here. But as of today, this is not a good experience.
I still need to receive a few other products. And as soon as I received those, I’m going to start to return and show you guys how the entire return process works. And yeah, I’m gonna let you know. Take care.
Hey, guys, so I’m back at Cabela’s. A week has passed and the weather is still bad and there’s still no sign for curbside. But anyways, because this time I know the process, I’m gonna give it another try. So let’s do this. A new product arrived and you can see it here. Basically this product is ready for pickup and they are going to hold it until February 25th, which I really like that they show it here. I think that’s a really good idea. There’s no questions as asked, I know exactly how much time I have left to pick it up. So let’s give them a call and see what happens.
Let’s see if they answer it this time What do you guys think? This is not curbside, guys. You cannot have a customer waiting outside twice, this is the second chance.
Hello! I’m here outside for curbside. I’m sorry you’re here for curbside? Yes, to pick up something curbside, I have an order that I want to pick up. All right, what line are you on? Are you out front or in the back of the store? No, I’m basically in front of the store. Alright, and what is your order number? My order number is W131431367. Okay, W 131431367, and what is your name? Virgil Ghic. Number you’re calling from? What’s the rest of the numbers? Okay, hold please.
This sounds good. Somebody is gonna come. I hope so. So I’m not sure if you guys can see it, already two minutes 34 seconds.
Hey! Hi. Are you for curbside? Yes. Can you give me your order number? Sure, it’s W131431367. Do you mind driving around to the back of the store? It says customer pickup. Yeah, sure, no problem. I’ll be right there. Okay, sounds good. Thank you. Bye bye.
Okay, three minutes, 30 seconds. And now we’re going to drive all the way to the back to pick this up. So, it’s gonna work. Let’s see how long it takes them. But this is definitely a really bad experience to be quite honest. I hope you guys can see me when I drive around. So let me just explain. Telling the phone number, the order number twice, waiting on the line for three minutes and a half. And then you have to drive again around is definitely not the way to go.
Okay, so we’re gonna drive around. And let’s see if they have it. So here is where I’m talking about, having a better system to actually manage these curbside pickups. They should be automatic, hey, I’m here, I just click a button. And I don’t have to tell you three times, like, what’s my order number, people don’t understand, you might have like, an accident or they just don’t understand what you’re saying.
It’s just not a good experience. And after I tell them my order number, why did they ask me again about it? You know, like the second person. Oh, I found it, curbside pickup. Oh, my goodness. So check out, you have to basically drive here in the back of the store, and here they have the signs that are not in the front. And somebody’s gonna come on from there to give me the product, basically. So that’s what I was saying. Overall, not a good experience, because this should be automatic, you know? And this again, takes time. Okay, there you go. She’s here. Three minutes. Okie dokie.
Hello. Thank you. Bye, bye.
She did it. She did it. Okay, so we have the product. This didn’t take too long. You know, after that, two minutes and a half, plus three minutes, about five minutes. Back and forth.
So, as you can see, I can see here on my camera, seven minutes, and you know, a few seconds, seven minutes, 15 seconds from the moment you arrive until you give them a call, until they answer, they redirect two – three times, they send you around the store in the back. And after that, you actually get the product. So, a lot of room for improvement. And as I said, this should be automatic, not on the phone. It would be just a much faster and better experience. And these signs should not be just showed there, they should be outside telling you Hey, this is where you pick it up. And the current curbside pickup arrow should point towards here or something, not towards the handicap spots, because that’s confusing as well. Well, this was the experience, I’m going to go home. And after that, I’m going to go and engage into a return experience. Going to return these products and see how they do it. So stay tuned.
Order Review
Okay, so after all the happenings with Cabela’s, I finally received all the products, and I picked them all up. So let’s do a return. So this is my view order page. If you guys remember, I placed one order with multiple products, right? And clearly they are split into multiple orders. This is how they do it. I like that they have here a reorder button, not sure what this see more does, basically the same thing. And I can basically open any of these orders and see what I have here.