“They’re not what they looked like online,” Berry said. She used it to buy a pair of winter boots, which she hoped to exchange Friday for something else. Bean doesn’t make that shoe style anymore, Berry accepted a $70 store gift card. “But I’m probably the reason they’re discontinuing it.”īerry said she returned a pair of camp mocs last week that were more than 20 years old, hoping to have them re-soled. “They’ve always stood behind their guarantee,” Berry said. The Portland Press Herald has unmasked several of them.Ĭharlotte Berry of Topsham said she was disappointed by the policy change. Prices do not reflect quality because somebody has to pay for the dishonest customers trying to game the system. Bean’s products, once USA-made and made to last, are outsourced overseas (the famous boot is still made in Lewiston) and have become as cheap as anything that can be found at cheap retailers that aren’t living off an old reputation. In truth, they probably were never getting away with anything. Some customers are outraged that they will no longer be allowed to dishonestly abuse a “neighbor.” Indeed, the reaction to Bean’s announcement is America 2018. It was an odd corporate experiment in believing the best in people now that it’s over, it seems crazy that it lasted as long as it did. You don’t have to grovel or lie or tell a pretty story-you probably have a good reason for what you’re doing, and, either way, we don’t need to hear it. Bean policy was the ethics of being a good but appropriately distant neighbor: we don’t care how old your boots really are, or what actually happened to that backpack, or why you suddenly are dissatisfied with a decade-old fleece. Bean’s return policy was treasured largely because it reflected the values and characteristics that we like to celebrate in ourselves and each other as Mainers, ones that we may not always live up to but to which we might aspire-traits like honesty, good nature, and a mind-your-own-business ethos in which asking someone to explain himself is tantamount to calling him a liar. Writing on The New Yorker today, Ian Crouch, who lives in Maine, says the policy reflected the values of the people of Maine, or - as the visitors like to refer to them - suckers.Įven if it seems to have failed as a business model, L. Pay attention, kid, this is how it’s done. That’s a kid who went north with his family for Christmas vacation, bought the gear needed for skiing, then his parents dumped the parka back at the store for a refund before heading back to warmer temps. How else to explain this? A ski parka returned with the ski-lift tickets still on ? ![]() Let’s admit: those customers knew better and what they were doing was stealing, then rationalizing it by saying, “it doesn’t say I can’t.” Posted by L.L.Bean on Friday, February 9, 2018 A Letter to Our Customers,Since 1912, our mission has been to sell high-quality products that inspire and enable…
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