More Than Points

I’ve been a die-hard Tumi fan since I purchased my first backpack and tri-fold over 10+ years ago. I’ve been the owner of 5 Tumi products (3 backpacks, 1 tri-fold, 1 carry-on) in the last decade worth well over $2200 dollars. This was the first time I had to actually send a bag in for repairs and I was expecting a hassle-free experience based on the Tumi Guarantee. The whole reason I was a Tumi die-hard was due to the comfort I felt with their lifetime warranty. Little did I realize, they had changed it to a 5 year warranty. I don’t know when this happened, but based on my experience, the "no questioned asked" policy of the lifetime warranty is a far cry from the current warranty and associated customer experience. Settle down for a little story on my Tumi Repair Customer Experience.

First a little background - I’m a frequent traveler and use my carry-on every week. I own a Tumi 20’ inch carry-on which recently had two clip brackets break on me under normal wear and usage. While it still worked, I was worried the other side of the clip would break and prevent me from locking in my clothes and also keeping the suiter flap closed. I had several other things which needed repairing:

• The handle no longer has a spring when opening/closing
• The plastic corner guards and back guards had come loose
• The wheels weren’t smoothly rotating
• The leather corners protectors were ripped

I had held off on sending in the bag for repairs because I didn’t want to deal with multiple returns, but after the clips broke I felt now was the time to take advantage of the lifetime warranty. The first thing I did was bring it into the Tumi store where I had originally made the purchase. The sales representative was happy to help me send in the bag for repairs. This is where I learned about the $25 shipping fee. I figured for $25 it would be worth getting it repaired, but was surprised this was part of the warranty cost. I told him the reason for wanting the repairs and showed him the broken clips. He filled out the form based on the damage and was about to close out the transaction when I asked him about getting the other items repaired. He seemed annoyed and flippantly said, "You can ask them to repair whatever you want." So I had to go through the form and manually tell him what else I wanted to get "repaired". He seemed genuinely bothered I was trying to take advantage of the warranty. WOW. Talk about bad customer service from the get go. You would think he would look at your bag and tell you what else should be fixed.

Next I asked for a "loaner" and he brought out a random assortment of old and dilapidated carry-on bags. I certainly didn’t feel like a Tumi customer when I looked at the poor selection he offered. I picked out the only 20’ carry-on available - something circa 1990. I opened it up to find the suiter add-on was missing from the flap - I needed this to keep my shirts and jackets from getting wrinkled. At first he said that was all he had, but after a bit of prodding he said he would look for the add-on in the back. He finally came back with a few and luckily one fit the zipper although I don’t think it was the original for the bag.

I finished the transaction and went home. I hoped this would be the end of an already poor customer experience. Little did I know.

A few days later I received a call from Tumi Repair. Here’s a summarized recap of the conversation:

TUMI: Your bag is out of warranty so you’ll have to pay for out-of-warranty repairs if you want it fixed.

ME: What do you mean? I thought it was a lifetime warranty.

TUMI: No, it’s 5 years. (This is when I found out Tumi’s Lifetime Warranty was no longer in existence)

ME: Fine, but I know I haven’t had the bag for 5 years. How did you determine it was out of warranty?

TUMI: We looked at the tracer number and determined the bag was manufactured in April of 2005. Since bags typically go to outlets after 6 months we used a date of Sept 2005 to determine you are out of warranty.

ME: Well I know I didn’t have this bag for more than 5 years.

TUMI: Then you need to provide a receipt for when you purchased it.

ME: Okay…I’ll see if the Tumi store has a copy of the receipt and get back to you.

So I called the Tumi store and they were able to fax me a copy of the receipt. The date was April 2007. Not only did I have to get the receipt from Tumi myself (you’d think they could just call the Tumi store and validate the purchase date) their rationale for adding 6 months was either a total fabricated lie or I was ripped off because I purchased a bag almost 2 years after the manufacturing date and it was not from an outlet store. You can’t make up things like this. Anyways, I sent in the receipt and waited for a response.

A few weeks later I get another call from Tumi Repair:

TUMI: We’ve evaluated the repairs required and determined none of the repairs fall under warranty coverage. We only cover wear and tear damage if they are related to defects in manufacturing, but we’ve decided to go 50% on a few of the repairs (lists out the handle, wheels) but you’ll have to cover 100% of the other repairs and also all shipping costs since nothing falls under the warranty.

I nearly lost it when I heard this. I asked them how they determine wear and tear due to manufacturing defects and I couldn’t get a straight answer. I had paid over $600 dollars for the bag and I would be paying well over 30% of the original price in repairs WITHIN the warranty period. I couldn’t be more livid. Why would I spent $600 on a piece of luggage only to pay an additional 30% premium within 3.5 years of the purchase? I jumped at the ridiculous ambiguity of the "wear and tear due to manufacturing defects" clause - how was this not normal wear and tear? One could argue the clips, handle, etc. should last longer than 3.5 years and if it didn’t under normal wear and tear, then it was a manufacturing defect. The Tumi representative could sense my anger and said he would escalate to a manager.

A few days later I received this call from Tumi Repair:

TUMI: We’ve re-evaluated the damage and determined everything will be covered under the warranty. The manager looked at your bag and agreed this was normal wear and tear and should be covered. We’ll also be informing the repair evaluation group to ensure they update their warranty evaluation process so this doesn’t happen again.

I was certainly glad with the response I heard, but it didn’t change my impression of the Tumi repair experience. I would definitely think twice about purchasing a Tumi bag after going through this warranty fiasco. You only get one chance to give a good first impression. Tumi bombed this one. I would dread ever having to go through this same process if I needed to have something repaired under the new Tumi warranty. Did I truly believe they would fix the process so I wouldn’t have to go through again? No way.

Fast forward 3 weeks later and the Tumi store finally informs me my bag is ready for pickup. I was pretty frustrated it took so long to fix the bag, but was happy to have my Tumi back after wheeling around the terrible loaner for almost 6 weeks. I looked at the bag and noticed Tumi had just repaired exactly what was "checked" on the form. There was a plastic guard which was clearly scuffed up but they fixed only what I has requested. (Note to readers - I advise you to check every single box on the form because Tumi will only follow what’s on the form instead of going out of their way to give you a great experience) I took the bag home only to realize they forgot to return the suiter add-on. It was the original reason why I sent in the bag for repairs and Tumi had failed to return it! WOW. The story doesn’t end here. I called the Tumi store (which is about 40 minutes away) and told them the situation.

ME: Tumi forgot to return the suiter for my carry-on.

TUMI STORE: Oh really? Okay, come to the store and we’ll give you a new one.

ME: How do you know you have one which will fix my carry-on? (She just ASSUMED they would have one.)

TUMI STORE: Tell me your tracer number. (I read them the number) Yes, we have that one in stock.

ME: Should I bring in the carry-on bag?

TUMI STORE: No need, you can just pick it up.

Fortunately for me, I didn’t trust they would have it in stock so I brought my bag to the store. Of course, the suiter they had did not come close to fitting my bag. The sales rep’s explanation, "Oh you have an older model!" Had I listened to her, I would have had to make a trip back home only to find the suiter did not fit and come back to the store again. Unfortunately for me, they said they would have to have Tumi send one which would fit and it would take another week. I left the store with my original loaner. Back to square one, almost 8 weeks after my Tumi was sent in for repairs and still without my original carry-on.

Tumi, you’ve lost a fan and a life long customer. My next luggage purchase won’t be a Tumi. You can bet on that.