KLIM warranty, what a joke.......

[black swan]

update

thanks guys for all useful input, I have actually got nothing but love from members thu PM's, so thanks.
Thats why i chose this 4M, you guys are honest and vocal and i appreciate that.


edited for mass consumption!

Beware!!

I have been a long supporter of their products, but.......here comes the rant.


If you have a brand new product that falls apart immediately, then maybe they'll replace it. Most likely they will repair it, but you cover shipping.

If your product encounters tears, rips, scratches, pine needles, running-boards, children w/ scissors, rogue trees, angry hummingbirds, small metorites, lawn darts, flying toothpicks, bullets, scrapnel, or flesh penatrating wounds---------> you should expect a run-around.With their response being " your garment has exceeded the life of the fabric"



and ps................................................Klim just called and offered me 2 new pairs of any bib, i choose if i would delete the thread........mmmmmmmm....






























































not really, just kidding.............lmao...........flame on!! brothers.......

 

[skibreeze]

I had a lousy experience with them also. I had the klimate gloves that seperated at the seams on the 3rd use. They refused to pay shipping and also refused to let me pay to upgrade to the tog gloves. I have head to toe klim gear and the azzholes can't pay for shipping on NEW gloves or let me pay to have a different glove? **** them!

 

[m8magicandmystery]

i have been thinking of Klim..but with reservations...i have had such good luck at snowboarding shops and their outdoor clothing....Ripzone for example is an awesome product much less expensive then Klim..i think i will stay away from Klim unless PowderPatrol gives me some of the freebies he is scoring from Klim when he deletes this thread...lol..

 

[deaner]

i think it depends MUCH more on how you present your issue to them. i have only ever talked to one person when ive called for warranty service. i think she is the only one who handles claims?

i sent back a pair of boots, well out of their stated 1 year warranty, with a big rip in the bottom that i caused kicking my running boards (and i told them that) - replaced with new boots. sent back 5 or 6 yr old pants that were getting damp in the butt and knees, middle of the season, and they were replaced OVERNIGHT shipping, so as to get me back on the snow asap.

the tags on the garment clearly state: ANY rips, tears, burns, patches, improper care, etc. etc. WILL VOID the warranty. also explains that "lifetime warranty" is useful life of the garment - not your lifetime. why would they replace/repair a garment that has reached the end of its "useful life"? i thot the jean analogy was a great example. klim cant provide you with free bibs for life just cuz you bought one pair.

i cant imagine some of us getting this kind of incredible service and others getting "shafted" just because of who you talk to or what day of the week it is....
as i said above, it makes a HUGE difference how you approach them. speak and act politely, and they'll return the favor. also, i know it helps to register your new gear when you buy it.

KLIM customer for LIFE !!

FYI.........I was very polite with them.

Bottom line is that when they found out it was the bottom of my boots that were toast, they didnt want anything to do with it. They acknowledged that there was an issue with their boots on the newer snowmobile running boards, and said that they were not warrantying anything. They wouldnt take into consideration the extremely limited amount of time the boots had on them.

As others have said........you pay a HUGE premium for these products because of their "quality". Klim's products are designed to be worn while riding a snowmobile. I ruined my boots while riding a snowmobile in a normal manner. Shouldnt they have warrantied my boots?

Whatever. If thats how they want to conduct thier business, I can shop elsewhere.

 

[Yamadoo04]

Dude i dont want to be a jack A but i think you are missing the point of what a "WARRANTY" actually is. A warranty is there to fix or replace manufacture defects or defects in the materials or workmanship. Yes the products are made for extreme environments but nothing is indestructible. NORMAL use of the product only goes so far. Normal use of the product does not include a child that gets ahold of some scissors and makes a bunch of cuts in your pants. That's called SOL. You are complaining that they will not warranty something that has rips or tears in the product. You mention a child with scissors, so from where you come from if my child gets a hold of a pair scissors and cuts a bunch of holes in my pants I should be able to go back to the manufacturer and expect them to fix or replace my pants for free.
You can't be serious can you?

I don't know what you do for work but I bet you are not in sales. If you were you would understand what a warranty is and that there are a lot of people that take for granted that they have a warranty and then get pissed because they find out what they did to the product voids the warranty. We see this all the time in the HVAC business. People think they can run equipment in conditions other then design conditions and expect us to warranty their product. Small example; We sell an Airhandler (air condition / furnace) for a school and construction is to run through out the winter. The contractor has received the equipment and gets it installed and ready to run. Meanwhile there is still sheetrock to but hung and painting to be done and a number of other things that need to be done before the school is finished. The air conditioner / furnace was never designed to run during construction but for some reason it gets turned on because they need to heat the building to get the work done. Well sheetrock dust, paint overspray and other contaminants
get sucked up the return duct and in the unit. Now the motors and fans get coated with this debris and the motors fail after only a couple of months. do you think this would be covered under warranty? NO it wouldn't because the unit was run in adverse conditions that it was not designed for. Now take that back to your pants. Were they designed to have kids cut holes in them with scissors? I don't think so. Having rips of tears in the pants voids there warranty because they do not know how those got there. If they replaced every pair of pants because it had a tear in them they would be out of business because people would rip them on purpose to get free pants.

Sorry about you luck and bad experience but you can't really expect the manufacture to repair something under warranty when it has clearly been voided under their terms. You would have saved yourself and Klim a lot of trouble and head ache if you would just buck up and admit that your pants aren't warranted anymore and just go pay $20 to get the zippers fixed yourself. Everybody in this world is always trying to get something for nothing and never take any responsibility in their lives and this is a classic example.

Rant over.

 

[Yamadoo04]

FYI.........I was very polite with them.

Bottom line is that when they found out it was the bottom of my boots that were toast, they didnt want anything to do with it. They acknowledged that there was an issue with their boots on the newer snowmobile running boards, and said that they were not warrantying anything. They wouldnt take into consideration the extremely limited amount of time the boots had on them.

As others have said........you pay a HUGE premium for these products because of their "quality". Klim's products are designed to be worn while riding a snowmobile. I ruined my boots while riding a snowmobile in a normal manner. Shouldnt they have warrantied my boots?

Whatever. If thats how they want to conduct thier business, I can shop elsewhere.

This has not been a problem in the past because the running boards have not been as sharp as they have become in the last couple of years. Maybe you should take it up with the sled manufacture instead of the boot manufacture. My boots have lasted just fine on 12 different sleds I have ridden over the past years. I rode my brothers XP one time and could see cuts in the boots after just one ride. Do you think that is the boots fault? I say no its not, it is the sleds fault. Take it up with them. I just don't understand why they put razor blades on the running boards to get more grip. Doesn't make sense to me.

 

[black swan]

You mention a child with scissors, so from where you come from if my child gets a hold of a pair scissors and cuts a bunch of holes in my pants I should be able to go back to the manufacturer and expect them to fix or replace my pants for free.
You can't be serious can you?

this is a joke, i repeat this a is joke----->
If your product encounters tears, rips, scratches, pine needles, running-boards, children w/ scissors, rogue trees, angry hummingbirds, small metorites, lawn darts, flying toothpicks, bullets, scrapnel, or flesh penatrating wounds---------> you should expect a run-around.With their response being " your garment has exceeded the life of the fabric"

Read the thread again....no small children w/ any sharp objects were involved or injured in filming of this thread.......geez...whatta ....bag of hammers.........where's mtndoo when ya need him to set people straight?

Recommendation for Yammawhatever: Go play lawn darts with your siblings, wear your KLIM and save us all some time ....

And to your question....
I don't know what you do for work but I bet you are not in sales. [/QUOTE]
Reply: Sales, no. I work in the backcountry repairing communication sites. Gear is essential for my safety and excuses are useless.

out.

 

[deaner]

This has not been a problem in the past because the running boards have not been as sharp as they have become in the last couple of years. Maybe you should take it up with the sled manufacture instead of the boot manufacture. My boots have lasted just fine on 12 different sleds I have ridden over the past years. I rode my brothers XP one time and could see cuts in the boots after just one ride. Do you think that is the boots fault? I say no its not, it is the sleds fault. Take it up with them. I just don't understand why they put razor blades on the running boards to get more grip. Doesn't make sense to me.

Do you work for Klim?

I understand that snowmobile running boards changed. But I bought the boots a year after they did. ie....they were wrecked on a holdover 2005 RT1000, meaning that sled had already been out for a year. Again these are a SNOWMOBILE boot, that got chewed up on stock SNOWMOBILE running boards. (that had been on the market for their second year) So Klim had ample time to adapt their product to meet the changing market.

And again I will stress............and Ill try to speak slower this time, I have used other boots on these running boards. I have used WAY cheaper boots on these running boards that lasted WAAYYY longer. So what is the point of paying a premium price if you are not receiving a "premium" products??? Hmmm.........for my next set should I buy a $300+ dollar set of Klims that will last half a season? Or another pair of $50 airwalks from sportmart that will last at least a full season?

 

[Yamadoo04]

No i do not work for Klim. Far from it. I just get sick of people complaining that their stuff wasn't covered under warranty and then go bash the manufacture when it wasnt their fault in the first place.

I am done with this thread. Peace.

 

[Vertical-Extreme]

** The lifetime of a product unfortunately does not mean your lifetime. The intensity under which the product is used determines this factor. Rips, tears, cuts, punctures and burns will void the lifetime warranty of the product even if the warranty issue is not related to these damages.


WHY IS THIS SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND

 

[black swan]

** The lifetime of a product unfortunately does not mean your lifetime. The intensity under which the product is used determines this factor. Rips, tears, cuts, punctures and burns will void the lifetime warranty of the product even if the warranty issue is not related to these damages.


WHY IS THIS SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND

Goodness that keeps on giving.....................No one expected their gear to last a lifetime. I nor anyone else has stated this, geez. Lifetime? Who stated it should last a lifetime??

But we DO EXPECT THE GEAR TO LAST THRU ONE SEASON, MAYBE 2 OR 3. And there inlies the problem. The clothing is assembled in China and it falls apart prematurely. PERIOD. Each year the products get cheaper in construction, while the prices go UP, UP, UP. Then why doesnt the quality also go up??? NO IT GOES down!!

Possibly KLIM should hire more chinese children to do the same job, and quality could improve. At $400 for a jacket or bibs, you'd think they could make the stuff in the US... Hell i'd pay $600 for coat that says" made in USA"

But why would they do that, when they can manufacture over there for $50 and mark it up 800%.....mmmm.....simple economics right.....and it the garment fails then they buy another coat, wow. Now, we made 2x the profit and never had to lift a finger, or pay Americans to produce it, saving payroll taxes, health insurance for employees, benefits, or wages to a US citizen....

Just business as usual, right?

 

[corpeleven]

Just business as usual, right?

For better or for worse Ray, you're right. I work in action sports equipment manufacturing, and currently our lines are about 75% US made (most right here in Grand Junction) and the other 25% we outsource to Asia - purely from a cost standpoint in order to be competitive in the market place. Apparel is a highly competitive market, and making top of the line equipment is expensive, and we consumers want it cheap. It's quite a quandry. What do you do? Produce in Asia so you can actually sell product and stay in business, or not and risk pricing yourself out of the market? Then who wins? Company X is out of business and we have less choice as a consumer. Tough to answer.

But, back to the warranty issue, that's a bummer. I handle some warranty claims in our business, and it's hard to see how a rip in fabric that could occur any number of ways (and is not what is requested for warranty repair) could affect a warranty decision on something unrelated (IMO) like a zipper. (And I can't believe they removed your patch and sent them back without repairing the hole that you had already fixed!!) That sucks. What also sucks, is the vague description of the "lifetime" warranty. Only they can say what the useful lifetime is. I've always been a fan of a finite amount of time for product warranties. And I'm sure most companies and consumers would agree, but if you have one company offering a "lifetime" warranty, then another company has to offer that too, or they are putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage right off that bat, even if they are being more direct.

Is it snowing yet? Man this summer is killing me.

 

[Vertical-Extreme]

Goodness that keeps on giving.....................No one expected their gear to last a lifetime. I nor anyone else has stated this, geez. Lifetime? Who stated it should last a lifetime??

But we DO EXPECT THE GEAR TO LAST THRU ONE SEASON, MAYBE 2 OR 3. And there inlies the problem. The clothing is assembled in China and it falls apart prematurely. PERIOD. Each year the products get cheaper in construction, while the prices go UP, UP, UP. Then why doesnt the quality also go up??? NO IT GOES down!!

Possibly KLIM should hire more chinese children to do the same job, and quality could improve. At $400 for a jacket or bibs, you'd think they could make the stuff in the US... Hell i'd pay $600 for coat that says" made in USA"

But why would they do that, when they can manufacture over there for $50 and mark it up 800%.....mmmm.....simple economics right.....and it the garment fails then they buy another coat, wow. Now, we made 2x the profit and never had to lift a finger, or pay Americans to produce it, saving payroll taxes, health insurance for employees, benefits, or wages to a US citizen....

Just business as usual, right?

So if I am reading this right you have a problem with klim as a product and as a company, so dont buy it. Go buy something else that is built better with a better warranty.

 

[Xrider]

Our whole family has had Klim for years and no problems and all dry. (6 people). Maybe just older stuff or lucky, however I know several people over the past few years that have clearly taken advantage of their generous warranty and then bragged about it and I said well someday they'll probably be a lot less generous with their warranty. I'm just sayin

 

[Sxrlar]

Love my Klim gear, had a zipper break on my bibs last year, sent it in, and it was fixed under warranty, yes I paid shipping to get it there, big deal.

Here are two pics of my right foot, Adrenaline boots, as you can see, I kick the living crap out of my running boards to clear snow away, 07 RMK. I am by no means going to try and get these warrantied, who would? Wear and tear baby?

 

[Echohunter]

Is potato spelled that way or this way, potatoe?

I dunno... but I heard they grow'em in Iowa!

 

[Steamboat-RN]

** The lifetime of a product unfortunately does not mean your lifetime. The intensity under which the product is used determines this factor. Rips, tears, cuts, punctures and burns will void the lifetime warranty of the product even if the warranty issue is not related to these damages.
How many of you would buy a sled or a car with this wording in it's warranty?


WHY IS THIS SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND

Simple, it hard to understand because if is intentionaly vague. It allows the company to deny a claim based on their subjective feelings. If they feel it has exceeded it's lifetime then, no warranty.

Klim's "lifetime warranty" is a bogus marketing tool. It is like offering a lifetime warranty on a non-rechargeable battery. "Sorry, it is not fully charged so it has exceeded it's lifetime."
Sorry, you have worn your klim gear so it is not covered.

Remember, he did not send the bibs in for the fabric, but for faulty zippers. They kept trying to pawn the repair off to Gore. And Gore, rightfully, denied the claim due to rips..
Kilim does not warranty it's workmanship, only Gore's fabric.
Gore, an AMERICAN company.

How many of you who are defending this type of B.S. warranty would sit still if you had your sled's warranty denied if the seat was ripped or it had scratches on the hood? If your track is missing a lug does it void your drivetrain warranty?

I like Klim gear. I have quite a bit of it for both sledding and biking. I will likely buy more, but I have no illusions about their "lifetime" warranty.

Sears Craftsman tools have a real lifetime warranty. I have had them replace a 30+ year old ratchet wrench that was bent and used as a hammer. No questions asked.

 

[BigRed118]

Did you speak to the actual vietnamese child that sewed them together or did you contact the U.S. namesake? LOL

Sounds like HMK's boot warranty. Never worry about dry feet again should be their motto.

Better send a letter to Obama for a bail out. Just address it to Santa and he will get it.

I think a lot of you are missing the point. He sent them in for the zipper, not the tear. It doesn't matter if they were torn by a rabid monkey with a rotten banana shoved up it's arse, that wasn't the issue. FOCUS PEOPLE!!!!!

If you take your truck to the dealer because of an engine noise, they don't deny the warranty claim because it has a dent in the fender.

Until the new Voyager boot, HMK has never had a warranty for waterproof. Mainly because they do not claim for them to be.

 

[WFO or go home]

My best advice, go to a sporting goods store and save a ton of $.

I paid $120 for boarding pants and 2 pairs of fleece liners 3 seasons ago and they are still rocking. Not only that but they make my @ss look hot, according to my lovely wife anyhow. Plus I don't look like a walking billboard for KLIM or HMK.

Until the new Voyager boot, HMK has never had a warranty for waterproof. Mainly because they do not claim for them to be

I would have been happy with water resistant. If I ever get stranded in the desert I hope to have a pair of HMK boots on as I am fairly certain they actually CREATE water.

Anybody notice how the definition of "Lifetime Warranty has changed over the years? It used to mean that the product was guarenteed not to break under normal usage FOREVER!!!!! Now it simply refers to the "Lifetime" of the product. What a crock. Why not just say "We will warranty it if we feel like it, otherwise, POUND IT SUCKA!!!!!!"

 

[BigRed118]

Here we go. It amazes me how many people follow Klim blindly. The member had a problem with zippers and expected them to be fixed. They didn't even offer to do that for a charge. I know that there have been a lot of good experiences with Klim over the years but look at them now. They are changing. At your expense. Boots that don't hold up, gloves that the seams pull. If you have an older set and have taken care of them, you are in the clear. If you have a newer set, the percentage of problems seems to be much higher. If Klim would take care of the customer, this would not be an issue. But, they aren't like they used to be. Just my .02. Flame away if you want.