L.L. Bean Guarantee

[Lost Dad]

LL Bean is finally addressing guarantee abuse......

A Letter to Our Customers

Since 1912, our mission has been to sell high-quality products that inspire and enable people to enjoy the outdoors. Our commitment to customer service has earned us your trust and respect, as has our guarantee, which ensures that we stand behind everything we sell.

Increasingly, a small, but growing number of customers has been interpreting our guarantee well beyond its original intent. Some view it as a lifetime product replacement program, expecting refunds for heavily worn products used over many years. Others seek refunds for products that have been purchased through third parties, such as at yard sales.

Based on these experiences, we have updated our policy. Customers will have one year after purchasing an item to return it, accompanied by proof of purchase. After one year, we will work with our customers to reach a fair solution if a product is defective in any way.

This update adds clarity to our policy and will only affect a small percentage of returns. It will also ensure we can continue to honor one of the best guarantees in retail, with no impact for the vast majority of our customers. To learn more, please view our full return policy at llbean.com.

L.L.Bean has stood for quality, service, trust, and getting people outdoors ever since my great-grandfather founded our company over 100 years ago - and that will never change. Thank you for being a loyal customer and we look forward to continuing to inspire and enable you to Be an Outsider.

 

[peakbagger]

I expect the NPR story last year was the final straw. The "garage sale ladies" who combed garage sales for anything with a beans label will be disappointed.

Note LLBean is currently doing employee buy outs to cut staff and also getting rid of their defined benefit pension plan. That was quite a nice benefit for employees. As they are privately held they couldnt hand out stock as that is very closely held. One of the few private companies where someone could still get access to pension.

The extended family has resisted the temptation to sell out and have kept the firm closely held. I expect the issue is that the number of Beans descendants expecting a share of the profits has expanded while the company doesn't have a way of significantly growing. They have tried to expand into less outdoor related markets and to date those expansions have been less than successful.

 

[peakbagger]

By the way, they also will start to charge for shipping on packages on orders under $50 (unless its ordered on their credit card). Time to dust off the credit card as it was pretty useless when they extended free shipping to all customers.

 

[JoshandBaron]

http://nhpr.org/post/hey-ll-bean-can-i-return#stream/0

 

[Peaks]

LL Bean is just following the trend of others, including REI.

 

[Peaks]

Like many other things, the abuse by a few (although apparently a growing trend) ruins it for everyone

 

[TJsName]

I don't interpret this really as a change in how they stand behind their products, just cutting a loophole that some people were abusing. I have no doubt they'll make exceptions for faulty gear, but no longer will people get new gear for standard wear and tear.

I once had a landlord try to take a furnace cleaning out of my security deposit. Another case of someone trying to force another party to assume the cost of wear and tear. Of course, in my case I sued in small claims and they settled rather than pay treble damages.

 

[Jazzbo]

My wife did spell working the register for LL Bean. She told me about obnoxious individuals who returned some totally beat garment and having to give them credit for it.

Even with new policy register clerks and telephone service still have ability to look up customer's sales history and see whether they are long loyal customer and have discretion to cut them slack. I for one have been long and loyal customer for decades. I've had personnel look up my sales history verify I'm loyal customer and then cut me slack even offering summary on the spot 10% discounts high value items like item of living room furniture.