Maybe the “Seattle Nice” stereotype really does hold true. Well, at least when it comes to doing business. Consumer Reports today unveiled its 2011 Naughty & Nice Holiday List, showcasing the best and worst holiday shopping policies of companies.
Interestingly, four of the 10 companies on the “nice” list — Amazon.com, Costco, Microsoft and REI — are headquartered in the Seattle area.
Here’s what Consumer Reports had to say about Amazon.com:
The e-tailing giant has taken a stand against wastefuland hard-to-open product packaging. It encourages customers to share photographs and feedback with manufacturers, who can then modify their package designs and submit them to Amazon’s engineers to see if they qualify as frustration-free. If so, the companies can use the “Certified Frustration-Free” logo as a marketing tool. To date, hundreds of products from companies including Philips, Garmin, and Logitech have met the criteria.
And here’s what they had to say about Microsoft:
If someone buys and installs software on his or her computer, most retailers won’t give out a refund, no matter how much the customer hates it. Not so with Microsoft. Consumers dissatisfied with a Microsoft software or hardware purchase from any retailer can send it back to the company within 45 days for a refund and reimbursement of shipping costs up to $7.
Luckily, no Seattle companies made the “naughty” list, which included American Apparel, Sirius, GameStop, The Swiss Colony, Liberty Travel, AirTran, Southwest Airlines, Verizon and RadioShack.
The list was first introduced last year, compiled by reporters and editors of the popular magazine.
