On Bureaucracy In Commerce

Alright, I'm not going to pretend this isn't my fault. I put a weight bench on my Birthday/Christmas list that was woefully unsuited to the workout routines I've adopted.

And I'm not going to pretend it isn't partially also my mom's fault for buying a birthday present back in October and then deciding to hold it for Christmas, thereby negating any chance of utilizing any return policy.

All I want to point out is the following craziness:

Modell's Sporting Goods will not accept returns from Modells.com. Not with a receipt, not without and all the shipping stickers meticulously pealed off (because now there's no barcode). There's a good reason for this. Modells.com is run by a different company than Modell's.

What?

How do you even manage that? Is Volkswagen.com run by Ford? Is Amazon MP3 run by iTunes? No. Because that would be insane. Who sells off their digital rights to keep an overpriced physical store alive? I mean what company is that stupid?

I guess what I'm saying is, is anybody interested in purchasing a brand new, never used weight bench?

It's real pretty. Flat/decline positions. Great for sit-ups, barbels.
Please buy my weight bench. Like $50. I'll even build it for you.
Desperation.