I’m surprised it is against policy considering I make use of this technique all the time. I don’t think it is being sold by the manufacturer but one of the faceless amazon third party sellers. Sometimes amazon.com. I haven’t had a byzantine return process in a very long time. YMMV I guess.
Just in the past six months I bought an air filter and a 12" skillet directly from manufacturers instead of Amazon. The air filter was nowhere near the claimed performance, but still required a 15% restocking fee. The skillet, they sent me the wrong model. But because while the title of the listing was wrong, but the correct model name was in the description text, they refused to pay for return shipping and it cost $25 to ship it back because it was 5 lbs to the other side of the country.
Amazon is never an issue. I just drop it off at Whole Foods and it's easy. Buying direct from manufacturer is just too risky. By now I'm willing to pay even more at Amazon just for the peace of mind of returns.
