Isle Royale Forums

I applied mine to the Big Agnes Scout UL2 tent.

Did everyone get the notice about their change to the return policy? Now there is a 1-year limit from the date of purchase. Some folks had to ruin it for the rest of us.

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesste ... nsxml.html

I am hard pressed to blame them; I am sure their old policy was badly abused. I hope they do not overreact. I was concerned about the line in the article about not accepting returns without questions. Not sure what that means.

Yeah, they sent me a notice. Having been to a couple of their "garage sales", the old policy was definitely abused by some, but it does make me wonder how much business they will lose. For example, I generally buy footwear there because I once returned a pair of shoes that were well worn but far from wore out, except for the sole that separated--to my mind that should never happen, even after a year. So I'll just be shopping on price and selection from here on out. And in my experience, local shops will often take back or offer compensation on gear that breaks or fails before its time, regardless of the warranty. To my mind, it's the last thing that made them any different than anyone else, the final word in the corporatization of a "co-op".

My experience is that the return of defective merchandise at REI has not changed. Shortly after they changed their return policy, I brought back a pair of hiking poles that one of the poles would not lock into position. When I explained the problem, it was explained that they don’t carry the same poles any more, but they would give me a full credit of the amount I spent on the poles back in 2007 – either as a refund or to be applied to the purchase of new poles. I was able to “upgrade” to better poles and because I hadn’t purchased anything full price during the spring sale and use the 30% off, they gave me a discount on top of it. They went well beyond my expectations when I walked into the store and I walked out with a new pair of Black Diamond poles for ~$28. Can’t beat that!

DonNewcomb wrote:I dropped into an R.E.I. store recently and couldn't find anything I really needed to spend my small dividend on. I need more time to do stuff, not more stuff to do it with.

I ended up buying a bottle of water purification tablets and they gave me the other $7 + change in cash.

I got the MSR WhisperLite Universal Backpacking Stove and some isobutane/propane canisters.

I got the Big Agnes Q-Core SL sleeping pad. 72 inch x 20 inch rectangular version is 3.5 inches thick and only weighs 18 ounces. Extremely comfortable.