After Years of Abuse....

**Ken** · 01-13-2014, 07:42 PM

Retailer REI Ends Era of Many Happy Returns

Customer Abuses Lead the Outdoorsy Chain to Nix Unlimited Exchanges

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...68991226997928

**BENESSE** · 01-13-2014, 08:06 PM

Don't blame REI one bit. This from the article"

Chad Thomas, a longtime REI customer who has returned used items, put it another way: "Some people think I'm a scumbag," he says.

Earlier this year, Mr. Thomas, says he returned a backpack he bought in 2004, which he had hauled up the tallest mountain in Yosemite National Park and hundreds of miles across a number of states. But it "was getting old and dirty, and I didn't like it anymore," he says.

Yeah, I think people like him are scumbags with no sense of decency or propriety.

**crashdive123** · 01-13-2014, 08:10 PM

I'm surprised that this didn't happen much earlier. As a co-op of sorts they kind of owe it to their members.

**finallyME** · 01-14-2014, 10:33 AM

I knew this day would come. It's sad, but after a certain number of scumbags take advantage of the system, it was bound to happen.

**RandyRhoads** · 01-14-2014, 11:06 AM

Damn, there goes all my dirt cheap used once secondhand REI gear.....

I got several hundred dollar ultralight down sleeping bag for like $20 because of a "broken" zipper. The tab was missing, that's it. It still worked fine.... Long live the return room...

**Rick** · 01-14-2014, 12:33 PM

I can speak first hand about how customers abuse products and then return them. I'd be embarrassed to admit that I had misused a product so badly. I certainly wouldn't have the cajones to return it. I'm amazed they absorbed the cost for as long as they did. And yes, it is one or two idiots that ruin it for everyone.

**RandyRhoads** · 01-14-2014, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

I can speak first hand about how customers abuse products and then return them. I'd be embarrassed to admit that I had misused a product so badly. I certainly wouldn't have the cajones to return it. I'm amazed they absorbed the cost for as long as they did. And yes, it is one or two idiots that ruin it for everyone.

No kidding. I've had friends and family tell me to just buy something and return it when i'm done if it's something I need to use real quick. Am I the only one around here that naturally feels that's BS and wrong?

**Rick** · 01-14-2014, 12:45 PM

That goes against overhead and is accounted for in increased price. Want to know why we can't compete against the Chinese? Employee theft and that kind of conduct play a huge role in the prices we pay for products.

**Remianen** · 01-21-2014, 02:40 AM

Almost anyone who has worked in retail can relate similar experiences. It's rare to find a retailer with such a generous return policy. Heck, when I worked at JCPenney, there were women who returned (obviously used) underwear (bras, girdles, and yes, panties too)! My manager told me to just do the return and then used a pen to toss the stuff in the trash when the customer left. Some people are just nasty and lack moral character.

I completely disagree with you though, Rick. We can't compete with the Chinese because we don't work for pennies on the dollar. A large part of China's manufacturing workforce is operating under the same conditions that existed in the US a hundred years ago. "Company towns" where everyone who lived in a city worked for the company (FoxConn City = Hershey, PA and Flint, Michigan, Bethlehem, PA, etc) and made a bit less because their housing was included in their pay. While shrinkage can play a role in eroding profit margins by increasing overhead, those margins are already inflated by paying $8 per unit to make an item rather than the $40 per unit it could cost if made domestically (and that's if you can get away with the employee abuses that allow for a much higher rate of production). The Chinese have employee theft too. That's how you can buy a $500 video card for $16-$28 because it "fell off the assembly line" (like stuff falls out of trucks here) so you got it before somebody stamped their name on the fan cage. None of that matters though because they don't have to pay their people a wage that the West sees as 'decent'. They can make their people work 24 hours straight with no breaks and fire the women if they get pregnant. All of this contributes to being able to produce more stuff at a far lower cost.

**Rick** · 01-21-2014, 07:29 AM

Notice I said the two play a HUGE roll. Obviously, the items you mention contribute as well. How much closer would we be, however, if employee theft, shoplifting and shameless returns didn't occur? It speaks to our moral character as a people.

I had a friend who was a manager over our retail operations. The cash registers had a camera directly above them. When a new employee was trained it was pointed out that, "this is the cash register, up there is a camera. It records everything you do." Care to guess how many were fired for theft from the cash register? It boggles the mind how stupid some people are.

I've had metal fishing gear put away wet and it rusted. Then told how poor of quality it is. I've had sharps returned that looked like someone tried to beat it through steel with a hammer and then tell me they only tried to cut with it three times in soft wood. True stories. Some folks just take no responsibility for their own actions and retailers respond like REI did. Frankly, I don't blame them at all.