REI Bans Some Members from Return Program

If you're an REI member and return items frequently, you may want to think twice before your next purchase.

REI is banning returns or exchanges of items after finding that some of its members were apparently taking advantage of the program, according to a new report from KUSA. This has only affected a very small number of customers so far, said Katie Barosky, REI's senior manager of store communications.

“We identified a very small subset of members (less than 0.02 percent out of 24,000,000) who were clearly abusing our policy,” Barosky said. “While they are welcome to shop with us, returns or exchanges will no longer be welcome.”

Longtime member Lindsey Powell learned via email that her return and exchange privileges had been revoked. Since she was diagnosed with a foot condition and has small feet, this policy helped her and allowed her to try different shoes and sizes before committing to one.

“Their whole philosophy is based on testing their hardware,” Powell told KUSA. “And you know, if you're not happy with it for any reason, you can bring it back.”

“In my mind, I buy things and test to see if it will work, or I buy multiple sizes of something to see what will work for me.” added.

Related: REI Lumen: Sleeping Bag Review

The notification from the company explains why his account was flagged and the 12-year member is not allowed to make any returns or exchanges from now on.

“When we reviewed your account, we found that the number and frequency of returns you made were much higher than what we normally see from members,” the email said. “While we stand behind the equipment we sell and acknowledge that we don't always get it right, we realized this was an established pattern rather than an isolated incident.”

Be sure to double check return policies before purchasing anything, whether at REI or any other store.

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