Kifaru Warranty Not What It Used To Be

[Steve300xcw]

$1 per minute? Repair guy stopping the clock when he goes to take a dump or no? Man have they fallen.

$60/hr is pretty cheap. Really cheap... Charging just the time they have in something vs just a flat out rate that would cover worst case scenario doesnt sound bad.

 

[fngTony]

Was that including a zipper and return shipping? You can get a cheap zipper for $3 but I bet what they use is $10 or more.

 

[Scrappy]

Broken zipper is wear and tear? Is that standard for packs?

Badlands will replace after blown zipper. I have no idea on how they can afford it due to everything they make the zippers fail. Sad kifaru has dropped below badlands on warranty.

 

[Eship]

I guess if the warranty sucks anyway, might as well just buy used Kifaru. To me, the only benefit of buying new is that you still get the warranty.

 

[Bcoonce117]

Badlands will replace after blown zipper. I have no idea on how they can afford it due to everything they make the zippers fail. Sad kifaru has dropped below badlands on warranty.

I have a friend that had a heavily used 10+ year old badlands pack, ripped and a broken zipper. Sent it in and fixed for free. He ended up buying badlands bino harness for one of his kids, 2 more packs for his kids, and got my brother to buy one pack just based on them still standing behind their product. So they definitely made their money back from that one repair

 

[renagde]

I guess if the warranty sucks anyway, might as well just buy used Kifaru. To me, the only benefit of buying new is that you still get the warranty.

I'm not sure that we know what a response looks like for a product that was purchased directly from them recently. But it is pretty telling that there is a thread like this and no response from them. In years past, Frank or Aron would have chimed in to give them a call that they'll take care of the issue.

 

[Trial153]

Companys pigeonholed themselves with these life time warranties on products thats shouldn't have a life time warranty.
You end up with situations like this that come down to two choices, both of which pass the warranty costs to the customers. A) you have reasonable warranty against defects and any repairs from use get paid by the owner of the product if they use the service. Or B) you bake huge margins into every product and everyone pays for warranty ( use repairs) no matter if they use it or not. Think fly rods, cheap overseas packs, optics ect.
pick you poison, you can't have you cake and eat it to. Those ships have sailed

 

[Jake Larsen]

Companys pigeonholed themselves with these life time warranties on products thats shouldn't have a life time warranty.
You end up with situations like this that come down to two choices, both of which pass the warranty costs to the customers. A) you have reasonable warranty against defects and any repairs from use get paid by the owner of the product if they use the service. Or B) you bake huge margins into every product and everyone pays for warranty ( use repairs) no matter if they use it or not. Think fly rods, cheap overseas packs, optics ect.
pick you poison, you can't have you cake and eat it to. Those ships have sailed

This is a very logical take

However it’s also definitely true that Aron and Frank used to be all over posts like this, and Roksliders got their stuff taken care of. Seems likely we were only a portion of the market, so it would make sense from a reputation standpoint to go above and beyond to help us out when there were issues.

Idk where I stand on it yet. I haven’t had any major product failures or need to repair for a few years. They still make an incredible product. There’s no other company that does things any differently, so it’s not like you can take your money elsewhere to get service that’s any better.


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[FrankieP1988]

This is a very logical take

However it’s also definitely true that Aron and Frank used to be all over posts like this, and Roksliders got their stuff taken care of. Seems likely we were only a portion of the market, so it would make sense from a reputation standpoint to go above and beyond to help us out when there were issues.

Idk where I stand on it yet. I haven’t had any major product failures or need to repair for a few years. They still make an incredible product. There’s no other company that does things any differently, so it’s not like you can take your money elsewhere to get service that’s any better.


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This is speculation and opinion based but here is what I've observed:

Besides Eric, no skilled sewers (that I know of) moved to Riverton with the company. While I still worked there, they had the idea of creating "Kifaru University" to train and employ people to become sewers in Riverton. As far as I know, they didn't really get the numbers they were looking for to support a company of that size.

Around the time of the company move, they cut ties with all in-house sewers and contract sewers in Denver/Denver area and planned to rely solely on the sew company they used in California and the new in-house sewers in Wyoming that they planned to train up.

This strategy didn't appear to work out, and they were forced to rehire the Denver area sewers. They would have contract sewers drop and pick up their items at a hub in North Denver and someone from Kifaru would have to drive back and forth once a week to pick up and drop off. I know this because we were using the same sewers when we were trying to get Catamount up and rolling.

All of the above to say, my guess is if you send something for warranty repair, Eric has to step away from his other duties to repair the item or they have to ship it down to Denver to get fixed. Again this is speculation, so take it for what it is worth.

As far as online engagement, I think they are really missing a large customer base here on Rokslide. I'm kind of surprised they let go of their presence here. I think they are working on rebuilding their identity now that Aron is gone. I personally think re engaging here would be a great start, but what do I know lol.

 

[LongWayAround]

Ole Kenneth (does he still work there?) sure got a warm welcome.

Kifaru leaving Rokslide pretty much gave their market share here to Exo.

On that note... You would think Stone Glacier would make an occasional appearance.

Meanwhile... You have T&K willing to make repairs on Kifaru packs.

 

[Trial153]

The move to Wy, especially the location they chose in WY was big mistake. When politics supersedes reason it’s an easy way to make errors like that.

 

[Marbles]

Companys pigeonholed themselves with these life time warranties on products thats shouldn't have a life time warranty.
You end up with situations like this that come down to two choices, both of which pass the warranty costs to the customers. A) you have reasonable warranty against defects and any repairs from use get paid by the owner of the product if they use the service. Or B) you bake huge margins into every product and everyone pays for warranty ( use repairs) no matter if they use it or not. Think fly rods, cheap overseas packs, optics ect.
pick you poison, you can't have you cake and eat it to. Those ships have sailed

Kifaru already charges enough that everyone pays for their warranty no matter. Exo is cheaper, and they do much better on warranty things.

I had some experience with Exo's warranty with K3, and my buddy did as well. The issues got fixed, and for my buddy, they went above and beyond what even a life time, unconditional warranty would require.

Seek Outside also has a good warranty from my one interaction with them. They also don't charge the premium that Kifaru does.

Those are two US manufacturing companies that sell quality products at more reasonable prices.

Kifaru's current behavior appears to be the exception, not the rule. So, the defense of that behavior presented doesn't stand up.

 

[FrankieP1988]

The move to Wy, especially the location they chose in WY was big mistake. When politics supersedes reason it’s an easy way to make errors like that.

Not to say there wasn't one, but I never saw any comparative analysis that reflected the move as being more beneficial over x period of time. Also I never really understood leaving a whole fleet of skilled sewers behind to go and train new ones. It is like leaving a herd of elk to find more elk.

What really baffled me was there was a couple of huge new warehouse built less than a mile from old HQ in Wheat Ridge. The owner of the warehouses was a huge Kifaru and Kifarucast fan. Said he would give Kifaru a great deal and build out whatever we needed, possibly offered to sell instead of lease. Instead they bought a run down old Big R in Riverton and had to dump a TON of money into getting it ready.

 

[Trial153]

Kifaru already charges enough that everyone pays for their warranty no matter. Exo is cheaper, and they do much better on warranty things.

I had some experience with Exo's warranty with K3, and my buddy did as well. The issues got fixed, and for my buddy, they went above and beyond what even a life time, unconditional warranty would require.

Seek Outside also has a good warranty from my one interaction with them. They also don't charge the premium that Kifaru does.

Those are two US manufacturing companies that sell quality products at more reasonable prices.

Kifaru's current behavior appears to be the exception, not the rule. So, the defense of that behavior presented doesn't stand up.

Kirfaru with its years in business has more product out there exponentially than exo and seek combined. At some point the costs start catching up to you especially when your line up has some age on it and the products sold years ago have be used a lot. Unless you have a crystal ball, I wouldn't be guaranteeing what any company is going to be doing in the future.

 

[Trial153]

Not to say there wasn't one, but I never saw any comparative analysis that reflected the move as being more beneficial over x period of time. Also I never really understood leaving a whole fleet of skilled sewers behind to go and train new ones. It is like leaving a herd of elk to find more elk.

What really baffled me was there was a couple of huge new warehouse built less than a mile from old HQ in Wheat Ridge. The owner of the warehouses was a huge Kifaru and Kifarucast fan. Said he would give Kifaru a great deal and build out whatever we needed, possibly offered to sell instead of lease. Instead they bought a run down old Big R in Riverton and had to dump a TON of money into getting it ready.

No doubt it was a bonehead move.

 

[as.ks.ak]

You could just change the title of this, and omit the word “warranty” and that’s pretty much just hit the nail on the head.

All good things must come to an end.


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[Marbles]

Kirfaru with its years in business has more product out there exponentially than exo and seek combined. At some point the costs start catching up to you especially when your line up has some age on it and the products sold years ago have be used a lot. Unless you have a crystal ball, I wouldn't be guaranteeing what any company is going to be doing in the future.

But companies like Ka-Bar and Leatherman still have outstanding warranties and actually do have exponentially more product out than Kifaru. Kifaru isn't even twice as old as Seek Outside, over all Kifaru is a pretty young company making boutique products, more are likely in the field, but certainly not exponentially more.

I certainly have no crystal ball, but companies do not have to become money grubbing, they make a string of decisions that get them to that place, and then make a string of excuses to avoid responsibility.