A federal judge has quashed an Illinois customer’s attempt to challenge L.L. Bean’s limits on its famously generous lifetime return policy.
The Freeport, Maine-based retailer put a one-year limit on most returns in February in an effort to reduce abuse of its satisfaction guarantee. Less than a week later, Victor Bondi sued in U.S. District Court in Chicago, saying a warranty with “no end date” was part of the deal when customers chose to buy from the company. Bondi’s lawsuit sought class-action status.
Judge Robert Gettleman dismissed the lawsuit last week, saying Bondi, who never said he’d attempted to return items to L.L. Bean, failed to show he’d been hurt by the policy change. L.L. Bean never said it intended to stop honoring the old warranty on items bought prior to the policy change, Gettleman wrote.
L.L. Bean has said that products bought prior to the Feb. 9 policy change are not subject to the new one-year limit on returns.
Bondi “did not claim to be dissatisfied with his L.L. Bean purchase, was never denied a refund and therefore has no basis on which to pursue this case,” L.L. Bean spokeswoman Carolyn Beem said.
The company is “very pleased” with the recent ruling, she said.
Bondi’s attorneys could not be reached immediately Tuesday for comment.
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