In this Feb. 2, 2018, file photo, photo customers leave the LL Bean retail store in Freeport, Maine. An unhappy customer is suing L.L. Bean over its new return policy, claiming the company broke a vow to customers. The lawsuit in federal court in Chicago contends customers bought items because of L.L. Bean’s unlimited “satisfaction” guarantee. The lawsuit accuses L.L. Bean of breach of warranty. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

An Illinois man has filed a class-action lawsuit against Freeport-based L.L. Bean, claiming the company’s change in its return policy is “deceptive and unfair.”

Bean late last week announced that it was changing its unlimited return policy,saying a growing number of customers were abusing the practice of allowing customers to return any product, regardless of age and condition, if the customer wasn’t satisfied. Company officials said that more customers were treating it as a lifetime replacement policy, and will now allow returns only within a year of purchase or because of a manufacturing defect.

The suit was filed in federal court in Chicago by Victor Biondi who, in the suit, calls himself an longtime and loyal Bean customer. His suit said that the company has used the policy as “a core component of L.L. Bean’s marketing.” Biondi’s complaint includes copies of a couple of Bean catalog covers with the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” return policy prominently featured.

Biondi’s suit notes that customers who bought products before this week’s announcement did so under the belief that they could be returned at any point if the customer wasn’t satisfied.

“The warranty was a basis of the bargain with the sale of L.L. Bean products,” the suit alleges. “Because of L.L. Bean’s unilateral refusal to honor its warranty, Plaintiff and the other class members were harmed, and have been deprived of the benefit of the bargain.”

The suit said Biondi and others who join the class-action suit are seeking unspecified damages or an order that Bean honor the warranty and corrective advertising on the return policy.

An email seeking comment from L.L. Bean was not immediately returned Wednesday morning.

This story will be updated.

In this Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, photo Dawn Segars accepts a customer’s returned items at the LL Bean retail store in Freeport. L.L. Bean’s generous return policy is going to be a little less forgiving: The company, which has touted its 100 percent satisfaction guarantee for more than a century, is imposing a one-year limit on most returns to reduce growing abuse and fraud. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

 


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