A while ago, I bought a pair of shoes from Zappos, and whle they look pretty cool and are fairly comfortable - they're made of a weird leather on the interior that squeaks non-stop with every step. It's incredibly annoying. I wrote to the manufacturer, Tsubo, to see what I could do about it, and got no response. With dismal expectations I turned to Zappos to see what they might do; but their return policy (which amazingly allows you to return shoes up to 365 days later!) states that you have to have the original packaging. Still, I wrote to them, asking what mght be done. Maybe there's some magic sock that stops squeaking?
I was delighted to hear back from them the next day - they'd wave the packaging requirements and let me return or exchange them anyway. I ordered an exchange for a cool pair of fluevog's. Within seconds, the nice lady on the phone had them on the way, and emailed me a label to return the old ones. Couldn't have been less painful.