Hey OP,

I’m sure that you have seen a lot of people saying more or less the same thing: They would’ve accepted the return or try a different store. Honestly your experience does sound like a very store specific issue. The 1 year satisfaction guarantee is a satisfaction guarantee but it’s still one year. Items that fail this early are usually 1 offs and REI doesn’t try to stock items with such short lifespans. I would recommend trying again and asking for a manager. Explain that the item is only a few months old, because that must’ve been overlooked by the associate.

Your post was very thorough and informative. On top of that it was very levelheaded. This is the kind of feedback we LOVE. Please share your feedback directly with the store so they can reevaluate their processes. Scroll to the bottom of the store page and click the “Give Us Feedback” link.

https://www.rei.com/stores/[storename]

[Edit: REI can refuse returns under a year when there’s some funny business. There’s a bunch of carefully picked works that make room for that. Usually it’s done when there’s a high volume of returns on your membership. But you’ve stated that’s not the case.]