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7-Eleven’s Satisfaction Guarantee

Despite guarantee, TINA.org reader can't get no satisfaction.

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7-Eleven’s Satisfaction Guarantee

After opening a bag of 7-Eleven store brand popcorn and finding the contents “extremely stale and inedible,” a TINA.org reader wasn’t too worried. Her satisfaction, after all, was guaranteed. It said so right on the back of the bag.

It wasn’t until she called the 1-800 number underneath the words “Satisfaction Guaranteed” that she learned a customer’s satisfaction is really only guaranteed at corporate locations. At franchise locations such as the 7-Eleven store where our reader purchased her snack, it’s up to the franchisee to decide whether the guarantee should be honored, she said she was told.

Ignoring for a second the absurdity of this policy, which we attempted to confirm with 7-Eleven but have not heard back, if that’s how the “guarantee” works, it needs to be clearly and conspicuously disclosed on the bag. As our reader rightly pointed out, the “packaging statement does not indicate the guarantee only applies to corporate stores.”

We probably don’t need to tell you that the franchisee refused to give our reader a refund. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that, while the popcorn tasted like cardboard, the expiration date had yet to pass. But the reason for refusal could be anything, if the decision comes at the sole discretion of the franchisee.

Which begs the question: Who is actually benefiting from this satisfaction guarantee?

Find more of our coverage on guarantees here.


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