macpac repairs

stewart wright

01/10/2009 at 18:42

got an old macpac Gemini & the shoulder strap slides have broken wherer they attach ti the back struts & straps ripped while wearing it. Sent photos to 'official' repair place (scots repair) and they say they'll fix it for £30.
Aren't macpacs guaranteed for life? Website appears to say so.
So anyway, a) speak to macpac direct?
B) worth getting it repaired? Is £30 a good price?
C) are scottish mountain repair good?

is there a cheaper way of doing it?

cheers all!

stewart

Glyn

01/10/2009 at 18:50

As far as I know, Macpac sacks are guaranteed for life regarding faults arising due to manufacture or materials - NOT general wear and tear.

I've used Scottish Mountain Gear for repairs where they've received the item and assesed the problem prior to carrying out the repair. I'd speak to them first, pointing out the 'lifetime warranty', send them the sack, and hopefully they'll carry out the repair FOC.

Kelvin

01/10/2009 at 21:58

My Macpac Amp Race is falling to bits

stewart wright

02/10/2009 at 17:31

no one else had one repaired? i'm not entirely convinced it's worth it, quite...

Glyn

02/10/2009 at 17:40

yes I have, the repair was fine and cost me nothing.

Stuart Thomas

02/10/2009 at 19:41

The reapir will be fine from them, had stuff done before, it should be under warranty though if manufactured in NZ if in vietnam then no. Thats what i was told anyway.

Glyn

02/10/2009 at 19:59

I had an Amp Race (made in Vietnam) repaired FOC.

Stuart Thomas

02/10/2009 at 20:26

got it wrong then, that will be why i don't shop at Taunton Leisure anymore then!!!

Glyn

02/10/2009 at 20:31

I didn't go to the retailer as the sack was a couple of years old, I just went directly to SMG, explained the problem - they looked at it, agreed it was covered by the warranty and fixed it.

(it was a detached bungy cord btw)

stewart wright

03/10/2009 at 11:00

cheers fellas, i'll ask SMR if it's covered & if not, why not!

Glyn

03/10/2009 at 11:51

Scottish Mountain Gear

Sw3

10/10/2009 at 14:34

update: got a mail back. ' elastomer materials used for the slides etc are excluded from the lifetime warrenty as they're expected to last 8-9 years. '

I've got a berghaus that I'll use instead, I think

Kelvin

10/10/2009 at 15:23

mine lasted less than 3 years...

It will be replaced with an OMM

Sw3

10/10/2009 at 16:59

3 years! That's awful! Unless you were using it as a sledge or something.

Kelvin

11/10/2009 at 12:58

Only used in summer-ish - bit of scrambling is the worst its done. Seems like all the elastic pulls have just rotted where they connect to the bag. All the rest of the bag has worn well to be fair and I do actually like it lots... One side pocket has been cut off, the back pocket pulls both went last time out, so that's gonna be attacked with scissors before the next trip.

Best thing I can say is it's a lovely shade of orange!

eee

17/01/2010 at 13:01

My slides on my macpac pack busted in 1999, SMR happily replaced them under warranty then. Seems strange that they somehow exclude the slides from the warranty now. Did a good job, fortunately I was living in Edinburgh at the time so I could speak to them directly. They did some minor wear tear fixes at my expense, again good job.

The padding in the harness has recently completely disintegrated so I will try my luck again.

John Garside

18/01/2011 at 23:00

I've had a similar problem. It seems that Macpac are determined to get out of paying for this material and / or design fault under their warranty. They even have a pre-prepared letter dealing specifically with this fault and trying to make out that the life of elastomers is usually only 7 to 8 years. Absolutely rubbish - come on Macpac, are you honestly trying to convince us that our car window seals will fall out of the car after 7 to 8 years. My girlfriends cheap Eurohike bag has outlasted my expensive Macpac, with no degradation of the plastic parts.

Montgomery Wick

19/01/2011 at 07:16

That's interesting - do you mean like this? I'd put it down to heavy usage, wear and tear. SMG gave me a new strut and replaced the plastic bits on the back of the strap. I just put it all back together yesterday. SMG would've given me the strut free if I hadn't already binned it.

James Young 2

23/02/2011 at 16:20

Yup, I've just had the same phone call with SMG (nice guy).

The plastic holding the straps to the metal bar on my 1990 MacPac Gemini has completely disintegrated. The broken bits are brittle and sticky. If this isn't a 'fault in the materials' as stated in the warranty then I don't know what is.

A plastic lasting 7-8 years(!) what a joke.The only plastic I have ever seen disintegrate like this is the recyclable plastic which is supposed to break down into pieces.

Don't think I'll be buying MacPac again.

Not even sure it's worth going to court over the matter as it's hard to pin down exactly who to serve the papers to.

Although if the MacPac stuff is still carrying the lifetime warranty label in the UK I might just give the trading standards people a call to see what they think of this.

Real shame as the materials (plastic or otherwise) on the rest of the item have really lasted well.

Montgomery Wick

24/02/2011 at 02:06

I'm wary of self selecting sample groups such as this, but it does seem there might be a problem.

My pack was 3 years old, although it had a lot of use. When I bought it I was willing to tolerate the weight because I thought I was getting a bombproof pack. To put it in perspective, the pack it replaced was an eighteen year old (lighter weight!) Lowe Cerro Torre II, that was still in good enough nick to be passed on to a friend.

On the other hand, the Crux AK70 I bought 5 months ago is now at SMG following warranty repairs for a detached haul loop, so...

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