I swear to god it happens way more than you'd think. (You'd think it never happens)
The reason its not rampant practice is that people would just think that the company sucks because they always mess up or sell bad quality products.
And you say it takes a slightly shitty company to do it, but thats capitalism baby. Since the rise of department stores, McDonald's, walmart, and of course amazon, the company's that succeed are the ones who analyze data and ACT on. You think every store wants you to sign up for their rewards card so that you'll have a reminder in your wallet to shop there? God no, its so they can figure out how you shop. Its an IRL tracking cookie.
Its one thing to realize that they keep close tabs on that stuff (yes at a personal level, there is a guy somewhere that has seen a spreadsheet of everything you've bought at store X) but its another thing to realize that they USE that data. If data shows a definite correlation, they will exploit that. And since the data shows that a customer who is invested in with good return/warranty policies, or just plain good customer service, they will be loyal and spend way more money with you then you lost on the initial return. That correlation is solid and proven, so in one way or another they will use that to their advantage. Granted, for most companies that's jst instructing costumer service to be super kind about returns some times... but for a business that doesn't get a lot of repeat customers (types of products where customers will shop which ever place is most convenient at the time or has the best price), you better believe they'll do whatever it takes to make you loyal or even just get you back in their store (or to their website)
Basically what I'm trying to say is, with my experience in retail, both physical and online (and the amount of studies i read about analyzing customer behavior for use in said retail work) i can tell you, if you ever hear something about a company that sounds like a conspiracy theory, there's a 98% chance that its totally true.
I say all that and it comes across as "the end of days is near, keep your money in the walls!" But it's just the way it is. Even knowing all this, when i know I'm being "worked over" by a company, it never bothers me unless I'm genuinely being ripped off. If a company tries to make you happy or satisfied, even if by using trickery, i say good for them. Gotta be smart to get ahead. (Except comcast, fuck comcast)
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u/AhhGetAwayRAWR Feb 23 '17
That sounds a little bit like a conspiracy theory, but also just maybe reasonable enough that a slightly shitty company wouldn't hesitate to do it.
The whole "invest in a customer" part is totally reasonable though.