The Illinois man who in mid-February filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against L.L. Bean for changing its lifetime return policy never tried to return his L.L. Bean boots, the company said in a series of court filings.
L.L. Bean last Friday filed eight documents responding to the lawsuit and asking the Illinois Northern District Court, among other things, to dismiss the suit. The retailer claims the plaintiff, Illinois resident Victor Bondi, lacks the standing to sue on behalf of a nationwide class of people because he does not live in other states or hasn’t bought goods from L.L. Bean in other states.
The retailer also noted in its filings that Bondi did not appear to try to return the boots he mentioned in his lawsuit. L.L. Bean wrote that Bondi has not suffered any injury and thus has no standing to pursue his lawsuit.
“[Bondi] has never tried to return his L.L. Bean products, and has not been refused a refund. Plaintiff has not alleged a deceptive or unfair act, or any actual damage, as required by the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act,” L.L. Bean wrote in a memo to the court.
In his Feb. 12 lawsuit, Bondi said he was a loyal customer who made purchases based on L.L. Bean’s unconditional satisfaction guarantee.
“Among the items he has purchased from L.L. Bean are Bean boots purchased at a L.L. Bean retail location in South Barrington, Illinois, in 2017,” Bondi’s lawsuit said. “L.L. Bean’s warranty formed the basis of the bargain for all of Bondi’s purchases.”
On Feb. 9, the company imposed limits on the 100 percent satisfaction guarantee on returns that it had in place for more than a century, placing a one-year limit on most returns to reduce what it called growing abuse and fraud.
L.L. Bean told the Associated Press that it had lost $250 million over the past five years on returned items that were in such poor condition they had to be destroyed.
L.L. Bean also asked that Bondi’s individual claim be dismissed because the retailer said he misunderstood the change in its policy.
When the lawsuit was filed, L.L. Bean spokeswoman Carolyn Beem told the Bangor Daily News that, “The recently filed lawsuit misrepresents the terms of our new returns policy. L.L. Bean products bought prior to Feb. 9, 2018 will not be subject to the new one-year restriction.”
Ben Barnow, an attorney at Barnow & Associates in Chicago, which is representing Bondi, said through a spokesman that, “We do not comment on pending litigation.”
Anthony Anscombe, an attorney at Steptoe & Johnson in Chicago, which is representing L.L. Bean, was not immediately available for comment on the next steps in the case.
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