Beware of Lone Peak Packs Non-Warranty

I have a two year old Lone Peak RP700 rack trunk where one of the four
attachment straps came off. It wasn't abused or anything, my wife was
pulling the strap tight though the buckle, and the sewn on strap just
came off the rack trunk where it's sewn on. The rack trunk has probably
only been used about 20 days in the last two years.

No problem I thought, It has a lifetime warranty, so I packed it up and
sent it off to Lone Peak for repair, complete with a copy of the receipt
(even though no receipt is really necessary since it's a lifetime
warranty). Today I get a call from Lone Peak that the repair is not
covered by the warranty, and that the strap must have been caught in a
spoke or something to come off like that (it wasn't). Since it's an
expensive pack, I reluctantly agreed to pay for the repair and return
shipping.

So just be aware that Lone Peak Packs doesn't honor their wonderful
warranty. If you're feeling good about spending more to buy a made in
the U.S.A. product, partly because you think that there's a company that
will stand behind the product, think again. I really liked the RP700
because it was the only rack trunk I found that didn't use Velcro straps
to hold it on, they use buckles, and I own two of them.

So stupid. For $12.50 they've alienated a customer that has bought
several of their rather expensive products Next time I'll go to
Performance and buy the Performance house brand. At least with Velcro I
can repair it myself when the Velcro wears out.

On Dec 4, 11:27*am, SMS wrote:

So stupid. For $12.50 they've alienated a customer that has bought
several of their rather expensive products Next time I'll go to
Performance and buy the Performance house brand. At least with Velcro I
can repair it myself when the Velcro wears out.

Apparently, they're not in the business of making money. Very few
people actually utilize lifetime warranties--their worth is usually in
how they're handled. If they'd spent the $10 in labor and fixed your
bag, they're have gotten it back a hundred fold in free word of mouth
advertising. They're stricken from my list for sure.

On Dec 4, 11:39 am, landotter wrote:
Apparently, they're not in the business of making money. Very few
people actually utilize lifetime warranties--their worth is usually in
how they're handled. If they'd spent the $10 in labor and fixed your
bag, they're have gotten it back a hundred fold in free word of mouth
advertising. They're stricken from my list for sure.

100% correct. It is silly to argue about $12 and lose hundreds.
I had really good experience with Kurt Kinetic sending me another
resistance unit for their wind trainer. No questions - once they
determined that I am using it correctly and that old unit is very
likely out of balance they sent me one within a week.
So later when I had a chance to buy their fluid trainer on sale
I did not hesitate. Small investement in customer service bought
them loyal customer.

Woland99 wrote:

100% correct. It is silly to argue about $12 and lose hundreds.
I had really good experience with Kurt Kinetic sending me another
resistance unit for their wind trainer. No questions - once they
determined that I am using it correctly and that old unit is very
likely out of balance they sent me one within a week.
So later when I had a chance to buy their fluid trainer on sale
I did not hesitate. Small investement in customer service bought
them loyal customer.

I thought of asking the guy that called me, "are you _sure_ you want to
charge me for this repair?" Then I figured that saying that would just
antagonize him, and I didn't want it to appear as if I was making any
kinds of threats or anything. If I said "I'm gonna tell Usenet on you"
that wouldn't have solved anything.

Ironically, I used to be a big promoter of this particular Lone Peak
product, see "http://tinyurl.com/6ysysn", where someone was looking for
a Velcro-free rear rack bag. I even show the bag on one of my web sites,
see "http://nordicgroup.us/s78/batteries.html" where I praise it (this
is my older one, not the one that broke). I guess I have to update that
page now!

On Dec 5, 8:48 pm, SMS wrote:
Woland99 wrote:
100% correct. It is silly to argue about $12 and lose hundreds.
I had really good experience with Kurt Kinetic sending me another
resistance unit for their wind trainer. No questions - once they
determined that I am using it correctly and that old unit is very
likely out of balance they sent me one within a week.
So later when I had a chance to buy their fluid trainer on sale
I did not hesitate. Small investement in customer service bought
them loyal customer.

I thought of asking the guy that called me, "are you _sure_ you want to
charge me for this repair?" Then I figured that saying that would just
antagonize him, and I didn't want it to appear as if I was making any
kinds of threats or anything. If I said "I'm gonna tell Usenet on you"
that wouldn't have solved anything.

Ironically, I used to be a big promoter of this particular Lone Peak
product, see "http://tinyurl.com/6ysysn", where someone was looking for
a Velcro-free rear rack bag. I even show the bag on one of my web sites,
see "http://nordicgroup.us/s78/batteries.html" where I praise it (this
is my older one, not the one that broke). I guess I have to update that
page now!

Wayne, the owner/operator of thetouringstore.com is a major seller of
Lone Peak bags. (His other bags are Ortliebs. There may be no more
than 6 more online sellers of Lone Peak. I'll bet that Wayne would
have stood behind the bag.I think he claims never to have seen a
failure.

I understand from him that Lone Peak is a virtual factory. That's to
say the bags are made in home workshops on piece rate. Visit the
LonePeak web page or otherwise try to get descriptions of Lone Peak
bags, and you can see that is a small operation without marketing and
branding capacity. Before this complaint was posted, who know but that
fortune might have been made buying the company and giving the web-
page the full Arkel treatment.

So, LonePeak are made in Utah, USA, right in homes; unlike Tubus
racks--designed in Germany, but fabricated in China.

Harry Travis

incredulous 2 wrote:

Wayne, the owner/operator of thetouringstore.com is a major seller of
Lone Peak bags. (His other bags are Ortliebs. There may be no more
than 6 more online sellers of Lone Peak. I'll bet that Wayne would
have stood behind the bag.I think he claims never to have seen a
failure.

I know two of them then, gaerlan.com and Lickton's. The first Lone Peak
bag I bought was from an LBS. I remember it because this store was
having a "Super Bowl Sale" where everything was 15% off during the time
the Super Bowl was on. Alas, that shop has been sold, and the new owners
aren't much into these weird sales promotions.

I guess it all comes down to what constitutes "normal wear and tear."
It's really a win-win situation. The manufacturer gets to claim that
anything that goes wrong is not normal, and the customer doesn't have to
buy any products from that manufacturer ever again. It's a page right
out of GM, Ford, and Chrysler's business plans.

Well, I don't know if the blame is with the LBS or Arizona Innovations,
but I've been trying to get a "lifetime warranted" floor pump repaired,
replaced or credited (since AZ Inno does not seem to make actual pumps
anymore, just CO2 fill systems, which are of no interest to me) for over
6 months now. Nothing.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

Ecnerwal wrote:
Well, I don't know if the blame is with the LBS or Arizona Innovations,
but I've been trying to get a "lifetime warranted" floor pump repaired,
replaced or credited (since AZ Inno does not seem to make actual pumps
anymore, just CO2 fill systems, which are of no interest to me) for over
6 months now. Nothing.

Maybe the lesson here is to shop at REI. They'll make good on warranties
that the manufacturer doesn't want to honor, or more likely they force
the manufacturer to honor the warranty.

The warranty is part of the value of a product from Arkel or LonePeak
since luggage products often have straps and buckles that fail. You pay
for the warranty in the high price of the item.

In article ,
SMS wrote:

Ecnerwal wrote:
Well, I don't know if the blame is with the LBS or Arizona
Innovations, but I've been trying to get a "lifetime warranted"
floor pump repaired, replaced or credited (since AZ Inno does not
seem to make actual pumps anymore, just CO2 fill systems, which are
of no interest to me) for over 6 months now. Nothing.

Maybe the lesson here is to shop at REI. They'll make good on
warranties that the manufacturer doesn't want to honor, or more
likely they force the manufacturer to honor the warranty.

Most likely REI just eats the cost and sells the item for pennies on the
dollar at the monthly "scratch and dent" sale. REI has a "100%
satisfaction" policy.

The warranty is part of the value of a product from Arkel or LonePeak
since luggage products often have straps and buckles that fail. You
pay for the warranty in the high price of the item.

Or at least you thought you did.

"Tim McNamara" wrote in message
...
In article ,
SMS wrote:

Ecnerwal wrote:
Well, I don't know if the blame is with the LBS or Arizona
Innovations, but I've been trying to get a "lifetime warranted"
floor pump repaired, replaced or credited (since AZ Inno does not
seem to make actual pumps anymore, just CO2 fill systems, which are
of no interest to me) for over 6 months now. Nothing.

Maybe the lesson here is to shop at REI. They'll make good on
warranties that the manufacturer doesn't want to honor, or more
likely they force the manufacturer to honor the warranty.

Most likely REI just eats the cost and sells the item for pennies on
the
dollar at the monthly "scratch and dent" sale. REI has a "100%
satisfaction" policy.

The warranty is part of the value of a product from Arkel or LonePeak
since luggage products often have straps and buckles that fail. You
pay for the warranty in the high price of the item.

Or at least you thought you did.

Most better shops try to deal only with companies that take care of
things that shouldn't have happened. That's one of the reasons we don't
deal with a major company known for wheels, because their idea of
"customer service" when something goes wrong is abysmal. As it is we eat
it from time to time on product that went bad where either the
manufacturer might not be in business or simply doesn't take care of
things (and perhaps for that reason we no longer sell the product).
Life's too short to deal with suppliers that don't stand behind their
product. Sometimes something might be so popular that you think you have
to, but doing so just "enables" such companies to continue to not take
care of their customers.

Please note that I'm not making a case for "100% satisfaction" no matter
what. If something happens that shouldn't under reasonable use, fine.
But some people will put products through use that they weren't designed
for, and often were even warned ahead of time that it was inappropriate
for the task. Being excessively lenient on such things increases the
costs for everybody.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com