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REI changed their return policy from effectively "forever" to one year. Sounds like perhaps that move gives them the freedom to pay all their employees for a da

• gkoberger 11y ago
  One year still seems like an overwhelmingly liberal return policy. They're just trying to find the balance between being fair to customers, and being taken advantage of as a rental agency.
  • voltagex_ 11y ago
    Heh. I was shocked at how bad consumers have it in NA - https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/repair-replace-refund https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees...
    • refurb 11y ago
      Umm... that's different. REI is known to allow you to return a product for a refund even when nothing is wrong with it. Your links infers to a law that gets you a refund if something is wrong with the product.
      • voltagex_ 11y ago
        Right - but REI is unusual, right? I believe Costco has the same policy.
• shkkmo 11y ago
  That change happened over two years ago, I doubt it has any relevancy to this choice.
• tashoecraft 11y ago
  Probably considering how badly people were taking advantage of the policy. Returning 10 year old socks because they got a hole.
  • datashovel 11y ago
    I say good for consumers calling them out on what obviously was a BS policy.
    • ceejayoz 11y ago
      REI successfully fulfilled that policy for decades. It wasn't BS, and it's sad to see it go.
      • datashovel 11y ago
        The math doesn't add up. Plain and simple. They likely had actuaries analyzing that policy on an ongoing basis to ensure it wasn't causing undue losses. You've got to admit it makes your product seem a lot more appealing if you "claim" you give your products a lifetime guarantee. Then customers get savvy and realize, hey if I just keep my receipt in a box, and make some extra copies for redundancy (digital?), for decades I can get a free replacement. I equate a claim like that to how businesses treat "rebates". Most consumers will abandon or forget to redeem on the rebate process, and many will get some technical details of the process wrong so they'll not qualify for redemption of the rebate, etc. But it certainly is appealing when you see that if you buy something you'll get 50% back in a rebate if you jump through hoops and send them a letter in the mail. After all how many people in the world keep receipts around for decades just in case they need to make a claim on the company's lifetime guarantee policy? And how many receipts will retain their black ink for that long? These days I get receipts that start losing their ink days or weeks after the original purchase. It's a bogus claim. A facade, that businesses will keep claiming as long as "the house" is in the black. In other words, "It's only a lifetime guarantee as long as only a few of you ever call us out on it". EDIT: I mention "lifetime guarantee" here. It seems, for the purposes of this thread it's equivalent to "lifetime return" since it appears there was a no questions asked policy when customers would return products (even without receipt?)