REI prohibits some customers from returning or exchanging equipment

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Starting this week, some REI customers will no longer be allowed to receive refunds or exchange their purchases. This comes as part of a new policy aimed at stopping repeated abuse of the outdoor retail giant's vaunted returns program.

In a statement to Denver's 9 News, which first reported the story, Katie Barosky, REI's senior manager of store communications, wrote that REI has “a very small subset of members (less than 0.02% of more than 24,000,000) “Identified a clear abuse of (its) policy.” In an email sent last week, the company told a customer that as of November 6, she could still make purchases, but no longer could purchase items returned or exchanged and that any return attempts would be rejected by staff or returned to you by post.

“When we reviewed your account, we discovered that the number and frequency of returns you are making is well above what we typically see from members,” the email, obtained by 9 News, said. “While we stand behind the equipment we sell and recognize that we don’t always get it right, we have found this to be an established pattern rather than an isolated event,” the email continued that store and customer support staff were not involved in the decision to exclude the members in question and cannot reverse it.

While REI's returns page does not specifically mention that members may be denied returns, an FAQ states: “In the rare event that REI determines that there has been an abuse of the returns policy, REI will not accept returns or exchanges, even within a year of purchase, to ensure that any return or exchange is handled fairly and the integrity of our members and customers is protected.”

Until a decade ago, REI's lifetime return policy allowed customers to return almost any product for a full refund, regardless of how much time had passed since purchase or what condition it was in. Heavily used goods were a common sight at our company's regular flea markets, with some signs indicating that the products were simply returned when they were worn out.

In 2013, the company announced that it would eliminate the lifetime return policy and instead give members one year and non-members 90 days to return most items. Speaking to trade publication SGB Media, then-senior vice president of retail Tim Spangler said the number of customers “extending the policy beyond its intent” had grown to the point where it was having a significant impact on the company’s business .

“We have to watch our profits carefully if we want to pay a dividend to our members every year, and we got to the point where it was difficult to do both,” Spangler said.

Based on numbers included in the REI statement, the new policy change could affect up to 4,800 members this month.