Read that warranty carefully. I don't think the OP understands what it says. I think I do and again, I stand by my earlier statement-don't expect things to last forever.
The warranty excludes normal wear and tear " or the natural breakdown of colors and materials over extended time and use." You can't read just the part of the warranty you want to enforce without reading the rest of it. Unless the warranty says "we will replace this product for any reason at any time," then expect there to be certain exclusions.
That is what he says happened to his pack-the waterproofing broke down after 5-6 years. Same thing happened to my SD tent after a few years stored in its bag. Remember, you are dealing with synthetic materials and coatings that are subjected to water, air pollutants, etc. If the pack had come apart due to stitching problems, then that would be a different story.
Sure, the surly girl on the phone could have been more polite, but there are ways to deal with that-I just demand to talk to a supervisor and if that doesn't help, I write to company officers and complain.
My other suggestion-read the warranty before buying whatever it is. If you don't understand it completely, ask; if you don't like the warranty, buy something else. Some states have specific statutes that preclude some exclusions or grant buyers certain rights other states don't.
My main beef with the warranty thing was that one of their staff told me that they would normally only cover the liner of a daypack for the FIRST YEAR. I understand very well that things break down, and that no one covers anything from breakdown of materials... However, what this implies is that TNF now considers the lifetime of a TNF pack to be only one year. If it a lining breaks down before that, well that's natural breakdown of material, could be water damage, humidity etc. she told me... (And I've read of others who have had similar experience. If taken widely enough, anything could be "natural breakdown of material." It's really quite subjective.)
Based on the reviews that TNF stuff gets--they continue to get mention in Backpacker Magazine every so often--and my own experience with a variety of their things, I have to say that they are not totally a fashion company, though they certainly pander to that market heavily. They do continue to engineer and design good stuff. In fact, I have been thinking about their Apex Jackets recently because they are well reviewed, and TNF cut just fits me well. However, based on my experience with their warranty department, I'm not inclined to purchase any TNF stuff unless it is from REI, who will take care of any warranty issues, or if I buy it knowing that anything that happens to it, basically no matter what, I will have to deal with myself. (And if I buy a Apex, it will be with the latter understanding).
And by the way. After two unreplied emails and two promises from two different members of their staff to send me a buckle for my Solaris, two months later, I still haven't got one. Went to a local shop and picked up one for a buck. I hope you have better luck with their warranty department. I don't think I'll bother calling them again!
Yi-Jien
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