"I purchased some items and bought a membership. When I tried to make additional orders, the system tells me I'm not a member and would I like to join. After several conversations with customer service I was told it was a problem on my end.
Obviously a case of user error. (jerks) I cancelled my membership only to find out they subtract my "savings" from my refund and I get $3 back. There are much better savings out there. Besides most of the stuff you would want, they always seem to be out of.
They have lost me as a customer. I never got the cancellation email from them. I had to call them to find out about the $3 thing. Did lose my temper."

"Grandmother bought a bow for 16 year old son's Amazon wishlist. Sportsmans Guide sent the wrong handed bow, and said they would send him a credit to his account. 2 mos later, we write and ask what happened, the kid wants a bow, and they say Grandmother has the money in her account. Sure she does - but she won't remember where it came from. Way to go, TSG. Both thumbs down."

"Ordered and paid for 500 rounds of 9mm 147gr ammo. Was shipped 400 rounds (8 boxes of 50) of 124gr ammo. Upon contact with SG customer service was told SORRY, we weighed the ammo and the shipping weight was correct. Too bad so sorry! Never again!! Avoid SG!!"

"Purchased some surplus from SG. Called me about a week later to ask for a ridiculous sum of money for shipping. Reluctantly agreed as this sum seemed out of line with past purchases, like 6 times higher. OK figured the dummies packed all into one pack this time rather than breaking up the order into manageable portions in the past. Several days later ABF logistics call to schedule delivery instead of the usual UPS. ABF guys then asks me if I have hands available to offload as their guy would not be able to offload the heavy package and said SG did not order a lift gate. So basically they would drive to my house to deliver and not have any way to deliver. Called SG to stop the order as I did not have any way to offload either. Several day later they refund me cost minus shipping about 200$. Talking with SG, they refuse to refund the shipping claiming they told me 3 times that I would have to offload myself and they told me that they would not refund shipping when I cancelled the order. They claim their reps told me these two things and have documented it but would not provide a voice transcript. Basically my word against theirs and I'm the one lying. Would not even speculate the order was grossly mishandled. Unfortunately the law almost provides consumers no recourse besides an expensive lawsuit. I have no reason to make this up. Years ago SG was a great company but this and a few hic-ups in recent times indicates they have become very very shady. I would take my business elsewhere if I were you."

"We doubt we will ever order anything from here again.

Today is Monday and we placed an order last Thursday. Their online order status says the shipment date was supposed to be Friday via UPS Ground but it still has not shipped out.

When we called them, they said it actually will not go out via UPS Ground but rather a US Post service and it may not even go out today. So, their website order status lies.

We are not happy at all and will avoid this company in the future. "

"I have been buying from SG for a couple of yrs as a club member! Everything has been fine until the past couple of months....I mean they have hit rock bottom. I ordered 2 chilian mausers, one in 7mm one in .308

The 7mm mauser came in perfect shape, double boxed, with cleaning rod, great shape, 90% bluing intact! was happy!!! The .308 Mauser arrives, single carton, no packing, muzzle poking through the box, front sight nocked loose, broken firing pin, and stock beat to $hit barrel shroud warped! sent back two weeks ago for refund, still waiting....

Then I order 2 other items on the deferred club member plan, same as did with chilean mausers.....I can not now do the 4 payment option??? unless I pay full, but yet they still took payment one of almost $300.... and holding my money! Visa merchant regulations state they are not suppose to bill till item is shipped! so they hold my $300 not ship item but want payment in full after 2 yrs on club membership and several thousands spent with them!!!!! Their service has dropped 100 percent in the past month...no more SG and GOOD BYE!"

"I dont know whats happened to this once great company. Maybe theyve just gotten to big. I cancelled my buyers club membership today..I just couldnt take any more screwups!! I have had a buyers club membership there for 12 years and have watched it slowly degrade over the last year or so. Its like no one knows whats going on there!! I have also noticed a LOT of the stuff I was purchasing lately was bad quality or defective. Ive had to return a lot of stuff in the last 6 months. Dealing with there customer service has become a nightmare, you can never speak to the same person twice! I hate to say this, but I would advise anyone considering using sportsmans guide to think twice before doing so. Odds are it will not go well.
Good luck regardless!"

"If you can get past their endless supply of corny descriptions, you soon realize that virtually anything worth buying, can be purchased cheaper elsewhere. Yes, they have a few quality items, I even got one, but much of their stuff is crap and every time the guy gets a new item, he thinks it's worth it's weight in gold, charging about double of what it should be. "

"I have ordered numerous items from this site and have for the most part been happy with everything. I have only been disappointed on 1 or 2 occasions and it has been my own fault for not reading the description fully. I have noticed that on my more recent orders they seem to have a lot more "back ordered" items than they have in the past. I have also run into the item being sold out, even though I have just gotten the e mail or catalog. I have never had an issue using the discount certificates I receive in the e mails or with the membership. I have also had no problems with returns that I have had to make, although the last returned item was over 1 year ago. "

"I have ordered a lot of .223 ammo from them, guide gear tactical flashlights, slings, and many 30 round mags. They have great prices (especially with buyer's club). I joined and made my first purchase early December 2010. I have already spent nearly $800 with about 9 orders in the 2 months of doing business with them. It usually takes 2-3 days for my order to process and ship, once shipped I receive my order the next day since I live in Wisconsin. I will probably do business with them even if I get dwindled out of an order with up charges, wrong orders, and/or broken merchandise since I have had a significant amount of savings through the site. If you are skeptical just take a chance, spend $20 and if you aren't satisfied then go elsewhere.

Oh yeah, I also bought a product for x amount of dollars and the next week I saw the price was lowered by $10 so I emailed them and they refunded the $10 back to my bank account. Their price guarantee is real."

"I ordered a Compact efficent iHeater 1500. The catalog description is, the amazing iHeater 1500 uses an incredibly energy-efficent enviornmentally friendly quartz infraid heating element that produces a surplus of radiant warmth, yet costs just pennies to operate. My electric bill for the month of January 2011 was $146.76, up from $22.00 as I average each month. On the box the heater came it says that you will see 50% savings a month. Consaquently, all this is not true. There is nothing wrong with my water heater etc."

"My Fiance wanted to get me a new bow for Christmas. She used her Afees military credit to shop online and found Sportsmans guide. She put the order through on Sunday December 19th. Then the week before new years I received a letter with a not from her and also saying if I have not received my item yet I will shortly. She then told me she ordered me a new bow. I then looked up the order status and it said it was due to ship the 27th of Dec.
The third of Jan came and I called the guide and asked IF I would get an email saying it shipped. They werent sure? then I asked if they know when it will ship. They said soon I said okay and hung up. My girl called right back and said I want a date. Then they said they would call the vender and get back to us in the next 24 to 48 hours. that night I also wrote a letter saying its not right to not contact someone after so much time and that it had not yet shipped..

two days later I got a call from SG saying they just refunded my money and my member ship.. and that the bow was out of stock.. and that was that..

so I called Bear Archery and asked if they were infact out of the assault bow and they said they make them daily. and that they were closed from the day I ordered the bow to the day I called. no wonder the order wasnt filled yet.. why couldnt SG just say that if they infact called Bear????

So I reordered the Item and just let it go. my girlfriend insisted on writing them again cause she felt like they did nothing for us.. like asking if we would like to wait for the bow to be in stock.. or would we like a different bow.. but no they just said here is your money good bye...

they wrote my girlfriend back saying they no longer carry the bow.. but yet I just ordered it. and they did not want to say it was their fault.. they treated us like we were the bad ones for ordering from their site. not to mention we got letters back from sportsmans guide abotu 6 times.. each one signed with a different persons name.. and on the phone it was a different person every time..

the next week the status showed my bow has shipped... thank god finally.. on that day they wrote again reassuring that we could not order that bow because it was out of stock and no longer carry it.. by this time I was like what ever.. Its coming..

all in all its a huge game trying to get what you order for 700 dollars.. which by the way the ups guy was going to leave on my step with out a signature..
ALMOST A MONTH BEFORE I RECEIVED MY ITEM.

I have an order in right now for some boots.. it has been a week and still have not shipped it.. . I think I will get my member ship money back and never order from them again..

ALL IN ALL.. THIS COMPANY HAS VERY BAD CUSTOMER SKILLS AND RELATIONSHIPS.. I WOULD RECOMMEND THAT YOU SHOP ELSE WHERE... "

"How to lose a long time customer in 30 days...

Like a few of the other reviews I've read, I'm also (or I should say was) a long time customer of this merchant. I've shopped first via catalog and later online for many years without a problem. I checked my records and in 2010 I placed 6 orders. I'm also a buyer's club member.

My customer status has changed due to this order. I ordered three items on 12/8, and the box arrived on 12/14. Due to the holiday season and a lot of items coming in, I didn't realize one of my items (a pair of boots) had been left out until I checked the invoice and the online order to see all showed as being in the same box. I initially thought they were shipped in another box.

I called customer service a couple of days later and reported the shortage. I was told the package weighed 10 pounds, so it must have been complete, but they would run a "trace" through UPS. Needless to say, I didn't weigh the package on arrival, and by now I had cut up the box and recycled it in the trash.

I followed up via email on 12/26 and was advised the trace takes about two weeks. I was also advised in a subsequent email that I didn't pay the 99 cents "package protection" that would have allowed an immediate correction to the situation. Never mind the $30 or so I paid to join the buyer's club. The quoted two weeks have come & gone with no further communication. Also no boots.

I wrote a letter to SG CEO Jay Berlin and observed this was not a sound business practice for a long time customer. I can understand caution on the merchant's part for a new customer that may be trying to defraud them, but I'm certainly not in that category.

I'm now filing an item not received complaint with my credit card company to perform a charge back against the merchant.

I buy a lot of stuff online due to what I do. It's not unusual to have a couple of deliveries each day between FedEx, the Post Office, and UPS. Recently, another merchant left out an item in a shipment. I contacted them via email and the following day I had the item in hand via FedEx. That is customer service.

I'm glad the item from SG was not a Christmas present.

In summary, SG used to be a great place to shop. Something has changed, and not for the better. I won't be giving them any more business."

"I own a small company in Omaha Nebraska. Each year I search out a unique gift to give to each of my employees- 35 this year. This year I was a little late in focusing on what to give them.

I found your Sportsman’s guide web site and found an idea that I was happy with which was home made ice cream makers. I spoke with a gentleman who guided me through the purchase of 35 of these items. It was important for me to stay within a given budget for the items. One of the areas that we discussed was the promotion of free shipping. I had no idea what the shipping would have cost but I was assured several times that there would be no additional fees for shipping due to the promotion that was being offered by The Sportsman’s Guide. After fully reviewing all of the details I was comfortable that purchasing 35 of these items would fit into my budget.

Last Friday, December 10th, I received a call from one of your customer service agents who tells me that they didn’t realize that these items were that heavy and that I would need to be charged an additional several hundred dollars for shipping. I explained that I had already been assured that there was no shipping however, your employee was unwavering and let me know that either they wouldn’t complete the order or I needed to pay the extra fee. At that time I had no means of looking into other options and getting the gifts here by when I am planning on giving them to my employees so I had to acquiesce.

I want you to know that this is a clear bait and switch and your decision on this matter has no integrity or honesty included. Weather or not this was intentional, you processed my order and rather than outlining my costs up front, you took my order and then force the additional fees on after I have no means of selecting a company that uses fair business practices.
"

"Ordered item on 12/6 and never stated that it was on backorder. Now its 12/15 and nothing...... I just received another message stating that the item will be in their warehouse on 12/30..... Pretty bad experience and their customer service is hopeless !!! Never will buy there again !!"