UKC

My son managed to lose half the waist strap of his Squirrel 20 in the Alps so i emailed Blue Ice who very promptly sent us a new strap with just the postage to cover!

I think its great when you can deal directly with the manufacturer who is committed to good service for their products.

Just for balance, I had the opposite experience with Blue Ice, neither myself nor the retailer could get any response from them. Fortunately the retailer took the hit and refunded me.

Your Sale of Goods Act contract is with the retailer, not the manufacturer.

Yes, I know that but we'd both tried to contact Blue Ice and failed. It's often (understandably) the case that retailers are reluctant to refund until they've contacted the manufacturer.