Complexity causes 50% of product returns

Elke den Ouden, of the Technical University of Eindhoven, has found in her thesis that half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can't figure out how to operate the devices. Product complaints and returns are often caused by poor design, but companies frequently dismiss them as "nuisance calls".
More -
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-03-06T144808Z_01_L06746423_RTRIDST_0_TECH-PRODUCTRETURNS-DC.XML

The solution? Making the devices easier is one route, but that's very tricky when more and more features are added to complex devices. The other route is to make it easy to figure out how to use them - by supplying really good user documentation.