Some people take lifetime guarantees to heart — or to other body parts.
Kent Slaughter is a Bass Pro Shops client. Over seven years, the Missouri man bought about a dozen pairs of audaciously-advertised stockings. RedHead’s All-Purpose Warranty Wool Socks will be a great fit for him.
Kent was a believer — in not only the items’ quality but the promise footing them. It was obvious that the socks would last for an inexhaustible amount of time, which is why the name.
Kent put RedHead’s claims to test repeatedly: He swapped his dirty socks over the years.
In 2021 however, there was a new weed growing in the garden. Allegedly, Bass Pro’s Springfield location wouldn’t identically replace his lifetime leggings. Instead, a $12 package with a 60-day warranty is offered.
The Washington Post says that there is now a case against the company.
[S]laughter is suing Bass Pro Shops, claiming the…outdoor retail giant is duping customers with a “hollow promise” that no longer lasts a lifetime. He filed a lawsuit against Bass Pro Shops earlier this month in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri. He’s asking for a jury trial and is seeking $5 million in damages for himself and anyone who joins his suit.
Singleton Schreiber is an attorney who specializes in litigation.
This lawsuit is about one simple principle: a corporation’s obligation to tell consumers the truth. Bass Pro Shop made an offer to customers, offering a lifetime guarantee on its RedHead socks. These words must mean something.
According to the Post, certain national vendors have changed their most generous promotions.
Grappling with higher costs and abuse…retailers — including L.L. Bean, REI and Costco — have curtailed their lifetime guarantees and generous return policies in recent years, USA Today reported in 2018. In a world where people often buy a replacement after trashing what they’ve broken or worn out, lifetime guarantees “are a dying breed,” Edgar Dworsky, founder and editor of Consumer World, told the [publication]It was at that time.
Regardless, RedHeads were sold as “the last socks you’ll ever need to buy.”
Kent’s filing cites a 2018 YouTube video posted by The Tennessean. “[I]t truly is a lifetime sock,” a manager of Nashville’s Bass Pro Shops says in the clip. “[W]hat makes it really unique is…if anything ever happens…we give you a brand new pair of socks…”
Kent, as stated in the suit bought approximately 12 pairs from 2014 to 2021. He began exchanging between two and four pairs per visit in 2015. He made his final successful swap in 2020.
He was refused replacement in January the following year. The next step was to refer him to customer service.
Slaughter was allegedly informed by employees there that they will not trade RedHead’s wool socks for any newer ones. Instead, they offered socks…that had been “distinctively-marked” with a stripe pattern, “presumably so that its store employees know that no warranty will be honored for those 60-Day Socks beyond the limited warranty period,” the suit alleges.
Kent also claims that he placed an order online for his regular socks last month. On Bass Pro’s site, the product still purportedly pitched a lifetime guarantee. However, the packaging of the products arrived by mail without any guarantee.
Singleton Schreiber has now filed suit against Bass Pro Shops on behalf Kent and other similarly degraded individuals.
The plaintiff’s point of view, if I adequately understand: Kent Slaughter purchased woven items to wear under his shoes. A replacement was promised for once he’d sweated in them so much that the footwear was foul. And if you can’t trust the merchants with which you do business…that stinks.
-ALEX
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