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Rural King

I have had the worst customer service experience with these folks. My first time since they are not a presence in Maine. What are others experiences?

Have never talked or did business with them on the phone but stop in every time I hunt Ohio. Wish they were closer, great Farm Supply/ hunting and general everything store. 20ft ladder stick a month ago $20,00.

They have an F rating with the BBB in Illinois. Their headquarters is just up the road from me. Used to be a good family owned business until a few years ago. They started to grow and then hired a former WalMart director to oversee the expansion. Bear hunted with that guy and he can be an arrogant ***. Won’t hardly go in the place anymore. They do have decent clearance prices but CS stinks. Don’t buy a battery in there, might last 3 months and then they give you another junk one.

For farm related items (yes I own a farm and am a real-life farmer, LoL), I love RK. Their prices are hard to top, and their selection is also. As for the sporting goods side, well, it's only so-so. I don't shop RK necessarily for sporting goods, I am a farm customer.

I buy my motor oil for them. Pure synthetic oil for something like $8 for 5 quart jugs. Their filters are higher then some places though. Either way, I can change the oil on my truck for less the $24. I don't buy much else fro them because it takes 30 minutes to find a employee to ask where something is.

just like any place else, you get good and bad. I shop clearance after hunting season picked up a grounder 350 blind for $45

There are two Rural King franchises. One in south east Illinois is family based with 6 stores including one in my town. The other based further north has about 100 stores in over 15 states. We also have this franchise store within 45 miles. Great farming selection and basic hunting and fishing gear. I have had good customer service from both franchises

They have a wide variety of products some hard to find elsewhere. Good prices too.

To attract business from the 5000 workers at the Shell Oil plant where I work they donated $5 gift cards to each employee. Come to find out that only 1 out of every 3 or 4 actually has the $5 credit activated on it. When guys go there they say “This card has already been used” Scam to get people in their door!

For the guys who say they have good prices, what are you shopping for? I would agree that there are select items that they have good prices on, but mostly their prices are high in my opinion. Motor oil is one item I buy there because it is generally pretty reasonable. Here they have pushed the other "farm supply" stores out of business and now that they have the market cornered, charge high prices. I've watched their flyers go from pretty good sales, to the common "Everyday Low Price" for almost all items in it. Often that "Everyday Low Price" is a high one. Many times I've looked at something at Rural King and then found it considerably cheaper at Walmart or the small town hardware store.

I'll add that one of their ploys to get people in the door is to put a sale on an item that they only have one of (or sometimes none of). When the "limited supply" is out, you don't get the sale.

I've had both good and bad at the ones in my area.

A few years ago at this same time, RK had an XOP climbing stand on year end clearance for a good price. I bought it online with my CC and later that day I got a message that they were sold out. So I found another source about the same price and bought one from them. Several days later a stand showed up, but had an RK shipping label? Next day the 2nd one showed up.....so immediately called RK. Apparently someone had cancelled an order and they just shipped and billed it without contacting me after sending the "sold out" message. The lady was decent on the phone because it was 100% their fault and told me she would send a return shipping tag. In the meantime, a buddy was interested in buying one from me at that price so I called RK back and told her if she credited my CC accout the amount of the return shipping, I would keep it. She talked to her manager and they agreed, so I split the shipping discount with my buddy so we paid the same. That is my ONLY dealing with RK and the reason I don't use them any longer. It worked out OK, but I didn't like the fact that they played a bit of "bait and switch" without letting me know.

We have a couple locally here in NE Indiana. They have been here locally for probably 14 or 15 years. Personally, I've never had any negative experiences there. You kind of have to know what you are shopping for. For farm type of stuff, they have some decent stuff and some stuff that is not so decent. I buy all of my lawn chemicals there and they are fine. Livestock feed ... NO thanks. Basic hardware, power tools, hand tools ... all are fine and pricing seems to be in line of most places. I don't really buy hunting or gun stuff there simply because I really don't need much gear and when I do buy gear it is usually so specific that I have to go to online sources anyway. But what I see hunting related seems to be a pretty good selection and prices look fair. I will sometimes buy a hang on stand or two after seasons when they have left over stuff deep discounted. Again, you just have to know what to look for I guess. Unlike what someone else posted, I've had real good luck with vehicle and deep cell batteries for example.

I'm sure they are not perfect, but I haven't had any real negative experiences at our two local stores.

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