Sorry, can’t agree with you on this one.
It is still the norm, but it always depends on your expectations. If you have low expectations in the company’s abilities of customer service, then why would you deal with such a company in the first place?
The return of items after Christmas has nothing to do with this, it is rather a new national sport.
To buy without thinking, and then return the unwanted merchandise (very often after it was used during the holidays) at the first given occasion is made possible due to lax return policies.
I don’t know Frontier Firearms (never heard anything bad about them), and Marlin might be the greatest guy the world has ever seen, but to call it amazing just because they fixed one of their own mistakes, puzzles and at the same time amazes me in a sad way.