I've seen Kelty backpacks mentioned on here once or twice, so I wanted to share my recent experience. This stands in stark contrast to my experiences with Columbia, Jansport, and other outdoors brands.
I have a Kelty "Redwing" backpack that is somewhere around 9-13 years old. I mainly used it around town and occasionally as a carry-on bag for short trips -- I left the serious stuff for more heavy-duty packs. Many years ago, I noticed that the frame of the backpack was starting to poke up through the top of the bag. I did my best to cover up the exposed metal, but it got worse over time. See pictures here. Some time in the last few years I scratched myself on the exposed metal to the point of bleeding and decided to retire it to my closet.
Later on, I read about how great the warranties are in the outdoors industry and decided to try to get some of my equipment repaired.
Jansport: I had a trusty old backpack that had busted open at one of the seams. I sent it in for repair, and while they (sadly) couldn't repair it, they contacted me and offered to let me pick a current model as a replacement, completely free of charge.
Columbia: Similarly, I had a great jacket that had a broken zipper, tear at a seam, and a ripped-out button. It also couldn't be repaired, so I was sent a credit that covered the cost of a current, similar model.
Kelty: Since I liked the size of my Kelty backpack, I was hoping it could be repaired or replaced as well. I googled "Kelty Warranty" to see if people had generally positive experiences with their warranty service, and saw older posts like these:
- "In 2012 I sent my 41 year old Kelty D4 pack bag to Kelty for a seam repair — something I expected to pay for. They repaired it for free."
- Broken waist strap buckle replaced.
- Replacement for broken part on a tent.
- "At Kelty, they believe gear should last as long as you do? That’s why the company honors a warranty on defects of material and workmanship for the duration of the the owner’s natural life."
- Amazon description of warranty (PDF warning): "Shouldn’t your gear last as long as you? We think so. That’s why we guarantee the materials and workmanship of our products is defect-free for life"
- “Shouldn’t your gear last as long as you? We think so.” If you ever discover a defect in your 40-year-old tent, Kelty will fix or replace it.
And so on. The warranty page on Kelty is more vague but says products are "warranted...against manufacturing defects in materials and workmanship for the lifetime of the product." but doesn't include "normal wear and tear."
So I sent the pictures of my backpack and was promptly told that the backpack couldn't be repaired and given a 25% off full-price coupon for Kelty's website. It was a nice but useless gesture since the price after the coupon was still more expensive than the normal price on amazon.
This didn't line up with my previous experiences and what I had read, so I asked why it wasn't covered. Interestingly, I was told that "Our packs have a limited lifetime warranty which we average to be around 8-10 years," and since my backpack was toward the end of that lifespan any problems were considered normal wear and tear (despite the problems having started years ago). I then confirmed with someone higher up that, regardless of the marketing talk about the owner's life, the warranty only lasts for the "natural" life of the pack (8-10 years), and past 6 months any problems wouldn't be considered manufacturing defects. She then offered me a 50% off coupon, which I refused.
This seems to confirm the general consensus that Kelty has gone downhill since they were bought out and shifted production to Asia. It would be perfectly reasonable for Kelty to have a 5 or 10 year warranty. But advertising a lifetime warranty with an internal policy of 8-10 years seems duplicitous at best. I was considering buying the Kelty Redwing 44 as a carry-on backpack before all of this, but I'll definitely stick to Osprey now. Meanwhile, the great warranty service at Columbia/Jansport/Osprey/etc has convinced me and my family/friends to spend far more on them than the cost of the few products they repaired/replaced.
Submitted December 12, 2017 at 06:02PM by anonymostest http://ift.tt/2C3zcqN
