The interesting thing is that I think this mostly applies to the US. I’ve lived in the middle east as well as in Europe, and the level of service is nowhere near as good there. So even if you had a justified reason to ask for a refund/replacement, often you would not even get an answer let alone the product itself.

Although I think this system is generally open to abuse (and I know personally people who are proud for abusing it), I believe that in the long run it does pay off. Yes, you put faith in your customers, but they return the faith. If that were not the case, I don’t believe most companies would continue it here.

In other countries this faith doesn’t pay off, and that’s why it won’t work.

Excellent article!