Great experience, the guy there gave me a quick tutorial on how to set up your rod and gave helped me pick out my lures baits hooks and string read more

The culture at Ballard West Marine is too casual. I went in there to buy some marine epoxy, a few bungee cords, and four small deck attachments - all of which I found after spending some time looking. I paid for the items, though asked to use the restroom, and the sales assistant insisted on withholding my bag of items whilst I did so. When I returned the bag was nowhere to be seen. Much frustration. The issue was not settled in store at the time. However, after over a week had passed, West Marine did get in contact with me and settled the issue - I now have the parts I need. read more

The pricing at this store is outrageous. I've stopped in two separate times, once for a breaker and once for a buffing pad. In both instances, the west marine price was twice as much as the other boating store in the area. $15 down the road, $30 at West Marine!!! Two stars for friendly staff and well laid out and stocked store. I would highly recommend going elsewhere for reasonable pricing, though. read more

my son and I walked in on a Sunday looking to get simple fishing gear as beginners and Charles was so helpful and patient with us. He showed us different options and got us set-up. what impressed me so much is how he didn't rush us, get distracted, or treat us like we were stupid; instead he taught us how to tie our own line on, how to pick out the right kind of fishing line and how to get setup. highly recommend this place. Probably more expensive than Dick's Sporting goods but worth it for the quality customer experience. read more

Fantastic place to get fishing supplies. Went there after going to a fishing supply store earlier that had no fishing supplies for recreational fishing. Immediately after walking in we were greeted and asked what we were looking for. They helped us for over an hour explaining to us newbies the fishing equipment we would need for what type of fish, giving us recommendations of what additional equipment and locations we should go to, and even drew us diagrams to explain how to attach different bait and hooks. They even went as far as to get us licensed, we didn't even know we needed to get a license. Geddy and Benson and would recommend anyone at any stage of fishing to go to West Marine for all their fishing needs. read more

The new store is big, well stocked, and the staff is friendly. But the prices are out of this world -- literally 50% more for the exact same item than at Fisheries Supply. I don't see why I'd ever go here first. read more

Bought a few things here last weekend, and one of them was leaking and defective. Went back the same day, dealt with exactly the same cashiers, and gave them the same phone number used for purchasing. Despite all of this, and the product being West Marine branded, it wasn't sufficient for an exchange. So I brought back the rest of the stuff with the receipt for return. And at the end of the day, I'm having to initiate a charge back dispute to get my refund, despite them getting back all of the merchandise, same day, and with a receipt. This is absolutely insane Luckily we have great local marine supply stores. Fisheries is awesome, and I would think SeaMar and Sure Marine in Ballard would give much better service than West Marine. Please patronize those places instead of this one. read more

we went to west marine in ballard today to get some red and white 5 mm braided twine. there were two guys hanging out at the front of the store. i said i needed 3mm braided twine, and one of them went upstairs to check for it. the other guy was unfazed when i answered "what do you need it for?" with "i'm going to knit a fence." the second guy radioed down that they had it. i told upstairs guy that i was going to knit a fence. he was intrigued and asked why. "it's for our camp at the burning man regional up in granite falls." the pattern gives weight, not yardage, so upstairs guy got someone to set up a scale so he could measure out 30 feet and weigh it. then we did a rough conversion to kilos and decided to get a 300-foot spool. they packaged it up, and as we were heading to the register, upstairs guy said, "i didn't know there was a regional up here." i gave him the info, of course. everyone there was awesome and went above and beyond to help us get what we needed. and now i have yarn to for making a fence! read more

Wandered into this shop looking to get into fishing. Right as I walked in two boys there Geddy and Benson greeted me and asked what I needed help with. They knew all the right questions to ask. After some back and forth they had me equipped with all the basic supplies a new angler like me would need. Pole, tackle, and they even took care of getting me a fishing license. Benson drew me some pictures of how to rig my pole (they told me to fish for trout) and Geddy made sure I had the right line to catch fish in fresh or salt water (off the shore, dock, or pier). I walked out of West Marine blown away by the retail experience I'd just had. I mean it when I say that this was perhaps the best customer service I've ever had, I even managed to catch a fish right after leaving their store! A small trout at Green Lake! I just can't really capture into words how helpful these young men were getting me setup for a memorable first time fishing in the Pacific Nortwest. I wonder if they know that it's thanks to them I'm likely hooked on fishing now for life, and I'll definitely patron West Marine again. read more

Nice store. Good layout. Very friendly and attentive staff. This location doesn't always have what I'm looking for, but the staff has always tried to assist in finding it. read more

Great store and customer service. We will be back! Abby and Lynn were very helpful and we got what we need. Thank you guys! read more

Grand opening today, located by PCC, by the Ballard bridge, replacing the Interbay location and 3 times larger. Many of the prices surprised me as very good. Clearly a lot of thought went into presentation of the products, well done. I would like to see this store succeed. Here's the difficulty, there is a competing local business not far away (across from Gasworks) that has a somewhat comfortable feel to it. You will have to really work hard to survive in my opinion so I would suggest you offer to beat their price by some percentage, plus one more thing ... The reason for only 2 stars: We were there yesterday. The attention of the boy with me went to a table with some things on it for some reason, like keychain floats. I explained that I thought it was for tomorrow's opening. Behind us we were yelled at, to get away from that table, that it is for tomorrow. So we moved away. We were circling around the upper level to just see what was there. On the opposite side, maybe 5 minutes later, we were yelled at again ... "Get away from that table or I'm going to have to ask you to leave." I had been walking at the end of the aisles looking down them to see what was there and kind of keeping an eye on the kid, while on my other side there was another one of those tables, this time with only a table cloth on it, and I had not noticed it. She was ordering me to get away from that empty table. The name tag of the person yelling had three letters starting with 'M'. She said she would get the manager, who showed up, and didn't care. The next day at the opening, I asked her about it. She had a grin on her face, being very vague. No apology for us. Obviously quite proud of their ability to demonstrate their control over the customers. I had been considering buying at least a pair of $100 shoes and an audio amplifier, thanks to that great functioning display on the wall. At the other store mentioned above, by Gasworks Park, my experience is that I know I can always expect to be treated with dignity and appreciated, rather being threatened with being kicked out for standing near a table. Just saying, you can have the finest store the world has ever seen and if you aren't smart about who is running it, there's no chance, the public is kind of funny that way, we like to be treated humanely. read more

Just left the store and I have to say the nicest people work there. Rudy in particular took the time to teach my son all about fishing. He got us set up with the right hooks, weights and bait. I have a feeling that kindness has got the next generation hooked on fishing. read more

Sharing on behalf of my husband. "I am a 40 year old on the autism spectrum and navigating daily life is a struggle, social situations are extremely overwhelming, especially stores (not to mention on a first visit). My wife helps me to communicate with others and navigate social situations. Social situations are extremely difficult under normal circumstances and in the Covid-19 world nothing is normal. I have been saving to buy a boat. It's a lifelong dream of mine to sail and I've found a stripped hull that I am excited to refurbish. When I arrived at the store, with my wife and my service animal, we were immediately accosted by multiple store personnel who simultaneously barked at us to leave the store because we did not have masks on (it was in my hand and I was actively putting it on). The store staff also argued with me about bringing in my service animal. My wife's mask was not with our items so she was told to wait outside. No store personnel was available to help me find the items I was looking for (too busy guarding the door I guess) but didn't seem to mind staring and watching as I located the paint on my own. The person who grudgingly helped me was condescending and unable to actually answer any of my questions and finally just shoved a paint pamphlet at me. Outside my wife and I found what I needed in the pamphlet. When I re-entered the store there was a store employee leaving the back who graciously offered to help me find the paint I was looking for and she helped me bring my items to the register. I was told that I could return unopened paint, and I ended up buying $2,000 worth. The cashier was offended that I paid with cash and not worried about being rude about it. I wished there had been someone knowledgeable to help me purchase the right amount of paint and I dreaded returning to the store where I was again greeted with a bad attitude. The clerk was rude about the fact that I was returning unused materials and barked at me to put my mask on during our discussion when my face mask started to fall. I'm hoping to get a 3D Sonar Transducer and all of my weather and navigation instrumentation (not cheap stuff), but when I attempted to ask questions about the items on display I was barked at not to touch. For my return I was given part of my refund in cash and part on a gift card, which I perceive as a manipulation to get me to come back into the store. I had exactly the opposite experience with Fisheries Supply and their prices are far more reasonable as well." read more