Pillow Cube Lawsuit Accuses Bedding Retailer of Duping Online Shoppers by Touting ‘Free Returns’

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges Pillow Cube and Redo Tech have essentially stolen money from the former’s online customers by automatically adding a purported “free returns” fee to all purchases, even though consumers who return items incur a sizeable penalty charge. 

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The 44-page lawsuit says that when customers of Pillow Cube, whose most popular products are pillows designed specifically for those who prefer to sleep on their sides, click to purchase an item, an additional product is automatically added to their cart that, until recently, was labeled as “Try Risk Free with Free Returns or Exchanges for $2.98 via re:do.” Per the case, although customers are led to believe that the $2.98 fee is added to their purchase so that they may return products without any additional cost, the retailer will not, in fact, fully refund a shopper’s purchase price. Instead, Pillow Cube will deduct an undisclosed, “unjustified, legally unenforceable and hefty penalty” of 15 percent of a consumer’s purchase price should they return a product, the complaint claims. 

According to the suit, Pillow Cube will charge a consumer this 15-percent “processing fee” regardless of the fact that they have already paid $2.98 in exchange for “risk free” and “free returns” at the point of sale. The suit additionally chides Redo Tech, an e-commerce software developer specializing in the Shopify platform, for failing to reimburse or compensate consumers for the 15 percent penalty charged by Pillow Cube, or for any other extra costs incurred through their purchase. 

“While Pillow Cube advertises ‘free returns’ on its website, its actual return policies are anything but free to consumers,” the Pillow Cube lawsuit summarizes. 

Redo Tech’s main product is a software plug-in that it brands as “Redo Free Returns & Exchanges,” which is free to merchants that wish to install it on their websites. The premise of Redo’s business model, the suit says, is to “shift the cost of product returns from sellers to consumers,” with the developer collecting commissions along the way for effectively “discouraging consumers from requesting refunds at all.” 

By automatically adding its “re:do” product to consumers’ online shopping carts, Redo Tech induces shoppers to pay more than they otherwise would for what they are buying, the case claims. 

Further, Redo Tech’s return portal requires consumers to “jump through hoops” to receive a refund for products they bought but no longer want, and the company uses an array of methods to guide consumers toward accepting store credit or alternate products from a retailer rather than receiving a refund of their money, the lawsuit states.

Overall, the bottom line of Redo Tech’s operation is to minimize costs for itself and its online merchant clients while driving up how much money consumers spend, the suit claims. 

The plaintiffs, a married Wisconsin couple, claim to have first heard of Pillow Cube’s 15-percent return fee in their attempt to return two pillows after being dissatisfied with the products and experiencing sore necks. The plaintiffs allege that Pillow Cube updated the language on its return policy online after they asked why they were being charged a 15-percent fee for a refund even though they had purchased Redo’s worry-free return services for $2.98 during their initial purchase.

The lawsuit looks to cover all consumers in the United States who bought one or more pillows from Pillow Cube and returned them within 60 days of their date of purchase and were assessed a 15 percent fee. 

The case also looks to represent all U.S. consumers who bought one or more pillows from Pillow Cube, purchased services from Redo, Inc., returned their pillow to Pillow Cube within 60 days of their date of purchase, and were hit with a 15 percent fee that was not reimbursed by Redo, Inc. 

Lastly, the suit aims to cover all consumers in the U.S. who purchased one or more pillows from Pillow Cube and purchased services from Redo, Inc. 

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