Lululemon Return Policy - Too Good to be True?

For my Consumer Buyer Behavior class, each student is required to give a 10 minute presentation on a particular brand and it's respective marketing efforts, as it relates to consumer decision making/purchase behavior. Each class, 2 students present a brand and there is a class discussion about how their efforts would or would not prompt consumers to behave. Therefore, I have become very aware of many updates and plans that many brands are adopting. This has been great for me as I am looking to start a career in marketing within the next year, and also great to just keep up with evolving news and trends.

There is one brand in particular that I wanted to highlight, because I was skeptical about their strategy and was proven wrong. Lululemon lives by the slogan, "If our product doesn't perform for you, we'll take it back." I was told that no matter how long you have owned an item, whether it be 2 weeks or 2 years, Lululemon will take it back and give you a refund if there is any issue with the merchandise. They claim that the quality of their offerings should be good enough to last a lifetime. This seemed strange to me, as I had never in my life heard of a company run this way. After all, there is always a chance for consumer error, meaning it could be the consumer's fault that a product has been ruined. I decided I needed to go see for myself. 

I took a pair of leggings I had owned since high school to Lululemon, and showed them a tear in the leg. Though I had had these leggings for years, there was in fact a rip that I didn't remember making myself. I explained this, and sure enough they refunded me, with no more questions asked. I was amazed at this, and believe this impressive customer service is doing HUGE things for their brand. Making people more aware of this policy would improve sales even more, and I think should be a step they can take with their marketing efforts going forward. As of now, their website still says the return policy time period is 30 days. This could be very confusing for a customer who hears about the unlimited return policy, but sees the restricted version on the website. However, with increased awareness and promotion of this policy, I think it would improve their brand tremendously. 

I was so incredibly glad that I was wrong about this policy!