UKC

I am a man who is happy to pay for good quality as i have learnt, often the hard way, that cheap gear is very often a liability.
However, so far this year the following 'quality' items have let me down:

a platypus bladder that sprung a leak after 2-3 months use
a leatherman that broke after 2 months...and hardly even used it in that time
the strap of a 'Nite' watch...laughably aimed at 'special forces' which has just snapped after 8 months use
a saddle-bag - not branded but well-reviewed on amazon....zip broke whilst out on a trail and tools lost

Now, am i just being unlucky? Or do all these 'lifetime guarantees' mean very little and are just a way to sucker people into believing their products are indestructible and then counting on the fact that a lot of people wont bother to return things for repair??

Losing faith...

In reply to kieran b: It's impossible to say for the individual items you listed, overall it's probably a bit of both, often you're just unlucky, sometimes the quality is just poor. Anything that holds water/air, if it doesn't leak just count yourself lucky. leatherman, shouldn't have any quibbles with replacement.

In reply to kieran b: agreed, build quality of many things is rubbish nowadays, sign of the times, squeezing every last drop of profit out of things without making too much of an impact on price

In reply to kieran b: In a strange way I think this works in my favour , I ve long been a fan of patagucci , but have noticed over the last couple of years that it's no longer as bomb proof as it once was . Twice in the last year I ve taken things back after a couple of years use and said "this is falling apart .....new one please " . I wonder how long before the accountants that probAbly run the company decide to make the cast iron guarante a wee bit weaker .

In reply to kieran b: I think there is a difficulty in mass marketing good quality gear. Once you get to a certain volume of sales, the only factories that are geared up to manufacture are in China. Although I believe there is now a shift in china towards better quality, more expensive manufacturing, so this may be short term.

We looked at LED lighting at work and got lots of samples in. The only ones of any quality were not from China. By the time we ordered them they had shifted production to China. While the 'manufacturer', packaging, design and model number were exactly the same the country of manufacture label read China. The light output and build quality were woeful. Considering we had paid well over what we could gave paid for the "same" product from another manufacturer.

In reply to Sharp:

Replacement is not the issue (all of the above companies agreed to a replacement) but when you live far away from a postman then its all a bit of a drag. I now have to wait until May when i return home to the UK to get things replaced...either that or pay a lot of money in couriers fees which would rather defeat the object.