The Rise of the Low Trust Society

Photo Credit: Anthony 22/Wikipeida, CC BY-SA 3.0

One reason some cite for America’s success is that we’ve been a high trust society. While some caution was always prudent, you didn’t constantly have to keep watching out for other people and businesses to be scamming you. It seems to me that this high-trust society has been eroding for sometime, paralleling the decline in trust of our institutions. A small example would be that when I was a kid in my home town people left their doors unlocked and often their keys in their cars. People don’t do that today. You have to have things locked up or risk theft.

This news item goes along with the same theme. LL Bean just announced it was changing its guaranteed policy. Here was their statement:

A Letter to Our Customers,

Since 1912, our mission has been to sell high-quality products that inspire and enable people to enjoy the outdoors. Our commitment to customer service has earned us your trust and respect, as has our guarantee, which ensures that we stand behind everything we sell.

Increasingly, a small, but growing number of customers has been interpreting our guarantee well beyond its original intent. Some view it as a lifetime product replacement program, expecting refunds for heavily worn products used over many years. Others seek refunds for products that have been purchased through third parties, such as at yard sales.

Based on these experiences, we have updated our policy. Customers will have one year after purchasing an item to return it, accompanied by proof of purchase. After one year, we will work with our customers to reach a fair solution if a product is defective in any way.

This update adds clarity to our policy and will only affect a small percentage of returns. It will also ensure we can continue to honor one of the best guarantees in retail, with no impact for the vast majority of our customers. To learn more, please view our full return policy at llbean.com.

L.L.Bean has stood for quality, service, trust, and getting people outdoors ever since my great-grandfather founded our company over 100 years ago – and that will never change. Thank you for being a loyal customer and we look forward to continuing to inspire and enable you to Be an Outsider.

Sincerely,
Shawn O. Gorman
L.L.Bean Executive Chairman

Today, the number of scammers in America is going up. So companies like LL Bean that used to be able to take a high trust approach for many decades, assuming very few customers would abuse its generous returns policy, now have to change direction. Note that their new policy is still very generous.

Lowering of trust creates sand in the gears of relationships and transactions. This is only one example, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

from Aaron M. Renn
http://www.urbanophile.com/2018/02/20/the-rise-of-the-low-trust-society/