WalletPop has a great round-up of various stores’ return policies up that’s worth a look if you have some gift-returning to do.
Keep in mind that with any store, persistence often pays off. If you don’t get the answer you want, keep trying, move up the food chain (“May I please speak with a supervisor?” is a magical phrase), and stay pleasant. You won’t always get satisfaction, but you may be surprised at how often you do.
WalletPop gives the best return policy award to Zappos, and I agree that Zappos is fantastic. I’ll add that both Lands’ End and LL Bean really stand behind their guarantees as well—even years later—so I think they top Zappos.
Add Eddie Bauer to the list. I had a very pleasant experience yesterday returning a backpack that had shown some signs of fraying after a couple of uses. They took it back no questions asked and apologized for the inconvenience.
For clothes, the best return policy I’ve found is Anthropologie. Pricey, but the sale section can drop things to affordable. If you get a free store card to track purchases, it substitutes for your receipt as proof of purchase, and there’s no time limit on returns or exchanges.
Hey, update on the situation I emailed you about: My coworker called back later that night and did ask for a supervisor (as I mentioned she should have earlier that day). She said that the person she spoke to wouldn’t switch her to a supervisor without knowing the situation, and when she found out the issue, she was aghast that the previous person hadn’t issued a return mailing label (no cost to my friend) and immediately sent out a replacement pair of boots. Persistence DOES pay off. 😉 Thanks again for your perspective on that.
And I am LOVING Lands’ End’s return policy. They now also do repairs, which is nice. My winter coat zipper went kaput after a year (last year about this time) of owning it, but they didn’t do repairs then, so I only received my money back (and ordered a new coat). This year shortly after Thanksgiving my husband’s winter coat (same style and same zipper) zipper died as well, now after two years of use. This time they said they recently added repairs. My husband loves his coat (and I loved mine, but alas), so we sent it in and just got back home to find it waiting for him with a nice, new zipper (of a different kind, thank goodness. Those zippers were terrible.) He’s glad to have it back, seeing as we live in the northern part of Minnesota. 😀