Full Refund Research Articles

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Reciprocating gait orthosis powered with electrical muscle stimulation (RGO II). Part I: Performance evaluation of 70 paraplegic patients.

Seventy paraplegics were fitted with an improved Reciprocating Gait Orthosis powered with or without (low-level injury) electrical stimulation of the thigh muscles (RGO II) as a secondary rehabilitation phase after the acute period. The patients comprised a broad cross-section of the paraplegic population applying for medical services and varied in age from 16 to 55 years, time since injury ranging from less than 1 to 15 years, injury levels ranging from C-6/7 to T-11/12, and varying levels of spasticity, contractures, scoliosis and other related medical and physiologic problems. The success/failure ratio was dependent on the injury level, which was 1:1 for paraplegics with injury level at C-6/7; 1.67:1 for those with injury of T-1/3; and about 4:1 for paraplegics with injury level from T-3 to T-12. Lack of motivation and medical problems unrelated to the RGO II treatment were the primary reasons for failure. The duration of treatment (outpatient service three times per week) ranged from 2 to 48 weeks (mean: 16). Forty-one patients who completed the RGO II rehabilitation and were sent home with the orthosis for independent use (for at least 6 months and up to 3 years) were surveyed by a staff member for analysis of the meaning and impact of the RGO II on the patient's life and health, and potential problems. It was shown that 80.5% of the 41 patients were regular users and 19.5% were non-users. Thirty-eight of the 41 patients declined an offer to return the RGO II equipment for a full refund, while three patients were willing to return the orthosis. It was concluded that the RGO II is viable orthosis for restoring standing and limited walking in paraplegics while providing sufficient function, safety, and reliability. The most appropriate patients for the use of such an orthosis consist primarily of those with T-3 to T-12 injury level and good motivation, although highly selected patients with higher injury levels also can benefit from its use. Regular use of the RGO II, even for exercise only, had a general positive impact on the patients' health and outlook.

Optimal control of continuous-time terminal-value birth-and-death processes and airline overbooking

Consider a continuous-time airline overbooking problem that relates to a single-leg flight and a single service class with a stationary fare. Passengers may cancel their reservations at any time and receive a full refund. Therefore fares can be thought of as being paid at flight time. At that time, the airline bumps passengers in excess of flight capacity and pays a penalty for so doing. The wflight-time revenue, that is, fares received less bumping penalties paid, is quasiconcave in the number of reservations at that time. We model the reservations process as a continuous-time terminal-value birth-and-death process. A more general model than is necessary for an airline reservations system is considered, in which the airline controls both the reservation acceptance (birth) and the cancellation (death) rates. In current practice airlines do not control cancellation rates (though other industries do exercise such control, e.g., hotels) and control reservation acceptance rates by declining reservation requests. The more general model might be applied to other targeting applications, such as steering a vehicle through space toward a target location. For the general model a piecewise-constant booking-limit policy is optimal; that is, at all times the airline accepts reservation requests up to a booking limit if the current number of reservations is less than that booking limit, and declines reservation requests otherwise. When the airline is allowed to decline all reservation requests, as is the case in practice, the booking-limit optimal policy defined by using the greatest optimal booking limit at all times is piecewise constant. Moreover, these booking limits fall toward flight time. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Determination of Time Period for Full Refund in a Warranty

Abstract Almost all consumer products are associated with a certain warranty time as stipulated by the manufacturer. Such a statement of warranty provides the buyer with an assurance on the performance of the product in the stated period. On the other hand, manufacturers use warranties for promotional and protectional purposes. In most cases, the type of warranty offered is linear pro-rata. This means that the rebate offered to the customer decreases linearly, from the price of the product to zero, as the time of product failure varies between zero and the warranty time. However, in some products, better promotional characteristics are observed if a full refund of the product price is made up to a certain period and linear pro-rata takes place thereafter. The purpose of this paper is to determine the time up to which a full refund is to be made given an allowable proportional increase in the expected rebate, compared to a linear pro-rata plan, that is acceptable to the manufacturer. By providing full refu...

How long should a producer offer full refund?

Almost all consumer products are associated with a certain warranty time as stipulated by the manufacturer. Such a statement of warranty provides the buyer with an assurance on the performance of the product in the stated period. On the other hand, manufacturers use warranties for promotional and protectional purposes. In most cases, the type of warranty offered is linear pro-rata. This means that the rebate offered to the customer decreases linearly, from the price of the product to zero, as the time of product failure varies between zero and the warranty time. However, in some products, better promotional characteristics are observed if a full refund of the product price is made up to a certain period and linear pro-rata takes place thereafter. The purpose of this paper is to determine the time up to which a full refund is to be made. The conditions under which this time for full refund is found is based on maximizing the market share of the product subject to the constraint that the proportional increase in expected warranty costs, when compared to a linear pro-rata plan, does not exceed a chosen value.

Measuring the Cost to Consumers of Product Defects: The Value of "Lemon Insurance"

BY end of 1986, forty-one states and District of Columbia had enacted so-called laws aimed at protecting new-car buyers from automobiles that prove to be hopelessly defective. These laws give new-car buyers right to a new automobile or a full refund if car turns out to be a lemon.1 According to Wall Street Journal, lemon laws are sweeping country.2 The expeditious treatment that laws received in state legislatures might indicate that these statutes conferred large benefits on consumers. Alternatively, it may be that these new laws provide little additional protection to consumer but instead represent the kind of consumer issue that looks good when legislators go back home.3 To date, no study has attempted to estimate value

Using science for decision making: The chula vista bayfront local coastal program

Consumer return rates have been steadily rising in recent years, resulting in growing costs for retailers who must manage the returns process and the disposition of returned products. This cost pressure is driven in part by extremely generous return policies, such as giving consumers a full refund upon return. Interestingly, this common retail practice of full refunds is inconsistent with the recommendations of many analytical models of returns, which nearly always show that a partial refund is optimal. Such inconsistencies between theory and practice might arise when the decision drivers included in the analytical models do not match the decision drivers in practice. It might also be the case that retailers are overly optimistic about the value that consumers assign to a full refund, and thus assume that the value of such a policy outweighs its costs. In this paper, we use data collected from eBay, where identical products are sold with different return policies, to investigate these open questions in the literature. We analyze both the return policy drivers from the retailer's perspective and the return policy value from the consumer's perspective. Our results suggest that the value of a full refund policy to consumers may not be as large as one might expect, and it also exhibits a large heterogeneity across buyers with different levels of online purchase experience. In addition, we provide empirical evidence for what has long been suspected by online retailers – that a non-refundable forward shipping charge quickly erodes any value that consumers assign to return policies. The generality of our results is limited by the fact that eBay differs from traditional retail contexts in many respects, including the fact that eBay buyers may not be representative of the general buyer population. However, our study of how eBay consumers value free returns provides new insights into an understudied area, and it can serve as a starting point for future studies of the value of return policies in other retail contexts.

Water Chemistry Laboratory Manula

Soil Science Society of America JournalVolume 37, Issue 3 p. viii-viii Book Review Water Chemistry Laboratory Manula Prepared by David Jenkins, Vernon L. Snoeyink, John F. Ferguson, and James O, Leckie, Purchase through booksellers or directly from: AAPSE Water Chemistry Laboratory Manual, c/o Professor Joseph F. Malina, Jr., 305 Engineers Lab Building, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712. 1972. $3.00 per copy; unused copies can be returned for full refund within 8 weeks of the start of the term First published: 01 May 1973 https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1973.03615995003700030010xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume37, Issue3May-June 1973Pages viii-viii RelatedInformation

Statistical Analysis of the Problem for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the World of 1970

In order to illustrate the level of the audiological services in the world, standardized questionnaires were sent to 132 countries. The answers received from 59 countries from all parts of the world represent 1.5 mia. individuals. Statements on the number of ENT- doctors per 100,000 inhab. show highest frequency in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, decreasing via New Zealand, Australia to the USA and Canada with the lowest frequency for the African states. Statements on the audiological treatment frequency by application of the number of persons treated with hearing aids in 1970 per 100,000 as a criterion, show the highest treatment activity in countries with full refund by the State. Lowest treatment activity where no refund is granted by the State. Statements on the quality of the audiological rehabilitation of deaf and hard of hearing pupils estimated percentage of children attending the special education of the ordinary elementary school show that it strictly follows the audiological treatment frequency...

How Not to Operate an Airline

IF YOU RESERVE A SEAT for the theater you expect to bear the cost of the ticket whether or not you find it convenient to attend the performance. The reason for that, of course, is that the theater management has, at your request, held a specific seat for your exclusive use. You expect to be equally responsible if you ask a hotel to reserve a room for you. But, on the airlines, there is no binding obligation that you will respect a reservation which has been held at your request. People make reservations for airline service and either forget or disregard their obligation to cancel the reservation if it is not to be used. And they expect, and receive, a full refund of the amount paid for the ticket, irrespective of the reason, or lack of reason, for not using it.