LL Bean's Refund Policy?

I started to write this a couple of weeks ago and then decided to hold off and see if I found a resolution- I did, and then I debated whether or not to write it since the issue had been resolved. However, I have since decided to go ahead and just tell both sides of the story, just as an FYI thing..

For those of you from away or who aren't frequent shoppers of LL Bean, it has always been their policy to guarantee everything they sell, indefinitely. In their exact words from the back of their receipt "Guaranteed You Have Our Word Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise, we do not want you to have anything from LL Bean that is not completely satisfactory. "

I know of people who have taken advantage of this, but I haven't and didn't expect any problem a couple of weeks ago when I wanted to return a leather "Heritage Bag" . The bag had minimal use and multiple defects and my my dad had paid well over a hundred dollars 5 years or so ago when he bought it. The bag had the LL Bean sewn in tag, and it is still available in an almost identical style online and in the store.

That said, I was unprepared for the service I received at the customer service counter. The woman who waited on me couldn't find the bag on her computer, she told me that ordinarily they would not take it back but she was willing to do it for me and would refund me $39.95. She said the the LL Bean guarantee really means that an item is expected to last a certain amount of time and that she felt as though my bag had performed that. I was probably there at the counter for 15 minutes while she fiddled with the computer saying she could find nothing like my bag to compare it to, to verify it's price. It was awkward.

Normally I would have been more boisterous about this, but she made it perfectly clear that she had the final say and I could take it or leave it. Finally she said she would refund me $49.95 but that was her final offer. I took it as I had no use for the bag, but I felt really violated. Seriously, I was upset about it all day.

When I came home I looked the bag up on the LL Bean website and found it instantly. I then wrote to customer service and asked what exactly the return policy is on purchases and I received an email back verbatim to what is on the back on the receipt. I then followed that up with an email explaining what had happened to me and in a couple of days I received a phone call from a very apologetic young man who said he looked it up on the in house computer and found 10 pages of the bag in several variations that had been sold over the years. He offered to email me a $50 gift card for the difference in its value.

I felt better (much) after talking to him and I don't know that there was any followup done concerning the woman who waited on me, and I would just as soon think there wasn't. I don't like to feel like I have caused a problem to anyone working for a living, I just don't like feeling taken advantage of either.

So the situation did get resloved and I spent the gift card at the outlet store in Bangor yesterday on some travel stuff.

Once home I found that the water bottled printed LL Bean was made in China and the accessory bag with an LL Bean tag sewn in was made in Vietnam... I was tempted to write another letter to customer service but this time my issue can't be resolved by one persons email. It isn't a matter of a refund or a cordial employee being apologetic on the phone, it is an issue much bigger than that and just a sad reminder of a sign of the times. LL Bean. Founded in Maine in 1912 by one man making hunting shoes... and now it's a huge complex raking in billions of dollars a year and importing stuff from China and Vietnam. Humph.