The Butt Ugly Weblog

Bestest customer service ever by Peak Design

Back in 2015 I saw a Kickstarter project on a new kind of a messenger bag. The company was called Peak Design and they seemed like a nice, albeit a bit hippyish company from California, with a fairly decent bag design. It was a bit expensive, but you could see from everything that they really loved what they were doing, so I figured why not - finding a good bag is always a chore. So I punched in my order and hoped for the Kickstarter to work its magic.

Turns out this was one of the successful ones, and after a few shenanigans involving our beloved Finnish Post Office (who - you guessed it - lost the bag in the mail), and I got mine and it was way better than I expected it to be. It's a bit heavier than you'd expect, but that's because it's designed as a camera bag, so it's got a bit more padding everywhere. And the way you can redesign the interior with movable walls is simply genius. If you've seen me, you may have had to endure some way too wordy praise on the Everyday Messenger bag I've been carrying around for years.

Well, buckle up! (ChatGPT insists that I keep using this phrase whenever I ask it to write a blog post in the "Butt Ugly Weblog style"). There's more wordy praise coming!

This winter the bag finally broke down, with the strap having eaten through the attachment point. I really like the bag and the durability otherwise, so I sent Peak Design a letter asking if they have any spare parts, so I could buy them, and fix and continue using my bag, thank you.

They responded immediately saying that "hey, no worries, just fill a warranty claim and we'll get it sorted out." I thought - a warranty claim? That sounds odd for spare parts, but no worries, I can fill whatever you want.

A bit later I get a message "Sorry about the problem you're having, we'll send you another bag."

I'm floored. The bag is frigging seven years old, and you want to send me a new one? "Yeah, we don't make the exact same one anymore, so we don't have any spare parts, so we'll send you a new bag under lifetime warranty."

I'm more floored than I was before. A lifetime warranty? Seriously? A few days later, I have a spanking, brand new backpack that fits pretty much everything I could need, and which is padded to the max so I can put whatever in it and it's quite safe. It's also filled with a ton of geeky features that make my inner nerd purr very happily, they're climate neutral, and they have a mission I can get behind on.

I know it's a big thing to say, but you know, sometimes you just find a brand that you know you want to stick with for the rest of your life. And Peak Design has just done that by winning me over with their products, quality, warranty and their customer service.

There may be better bags out there. But honestly, I don't need to look further. This thing does everything I want it to do, and I have faith in the company that makes them. So satisfied, I'll continue talking your ears off on this one.

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