In crossing borders 14.3 on page 409 entitled It Depends on What “Not Satisfied” Means. This article starts off with Amway’s refund policy that states if you are not satisfied with our products for any reason you can return the product for a full refund even if the bottles are empty. Well apparently the Chinese where not so familiar with such a capitalistic concept. Some people in Shanghai where investing $84 Dollar U.S. for soaps and cosmetics they could sell as Amway distributors, they would then repackage the product and return the original packaging to Amway for a full refund. At one point the refunds where totaling as much as 100,000 Dollars U.S. a day. Amway had to rethink their refund policy in a hurry. So they called a press conference to explain what is deemed to be dissatisfaction. Amway had to explain that returning a half empty bottle was ok and every once in a while a empty bottle would be refunded but only after a record check is done to see if that customer dose not have a history of returns. The article goes on to say that the satisfaction-guaranteed policy didn’t spell out specifically what dissatisfaction meant, something people in the Western world understand. Their mistake was in assuming that the people of China or anywhere else would automatically understand this concept.
As side note one of the founding Fathers of Northwood University started Amway in his basement. The company was originally named American Way later shortened to Amway.
