L.L. Bean, Citing Abuse, Tightens Its Generous Policy on Returns<br />Anyone who says they won’t shop at Beans anymore because of this change isn’t the kind of customer you want anyway.”<br />But Jen Tedesco, a homemaker in upstate New York, said she was “really disappointed” with L. L. Bean<br />and what she said was a “one size fits all, super-stringent policy that is going to alienate customers.”<br />She said her family, which includes three children, was willing to spend more at L. L. Bean than at Walmart or Target<br />because of the expectation that the products would last longer.<br />The purveyor of outdoor products, famous for its 100 percent satisfaction guarantee, said<br />that a growing number of customers had abused the policy by treating it as a “lifetime product-replacement program.” The retailer will immediately begin enforcing stricter rules for shoppers seeking to exchange items or obtain or get refunds.<br />Shawn O. Gorman, L. L. Bean’s executive chairman and a great-grandson of Leon Leonwood Bean, the company’s founder, wrote in the post<br />that the changes would affect a small percentage of returns and would have “no impact for the vast majority” of customers.<br />A former L. L. Bean employee, Jessica Pikowski, confirmed Mr. Gorman’s view that many customers had abused the returns policy.<br />The retail industry had $3.5 trillion in sales last year, with 10 percent of that, or $351<br />billion, lost to returns, according to a report from the research firm Appriss Retail.
