The Jansport guarantee is that if your backpack ever breaks or malfunctions, you can send it in for them to repair or replace. I bought my rolling backpack five years ago and one of the wheels has stopped turning. Apparently the ball bearings “are shot,” whatever that means (a neighbor diagnosed it).
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| Jansport: returns must be clean. |
So, even though I had no receipt, I went to the Jansport website and printed out the Repair Return Form. I filled in my information, what’s wrong with the backpack, and gave my top three choices of color in case they have to replace it (pink, then purple, then red). I actually don’t know if they’ll really fix or replace it since I don’t have a receipt, but the form didn’t ask for proof of purchase. Maybe they take it on faith that if you’re taking the time and money to send the thing back, you must be the true owner.
I managed to find a box big enough to fit it, but when I took it to the UPS store last Saturday, they said it would cost US$56 dollars to ship, even using the slowest option. Fifty-six dollars! No way. Since I consider this an experiment so see if Jansport really stands by their guarantee, I had decided I was willing to spend up to $30 to mail the pack in. So UPS was not going to be the way. But the UPS employee gave me a good idea: he said if I could package it without the box, it would be cheaper. UPS apparently charges by size, not weight.But first I wanted to see what the shipping cost would be at the United States post office in Rogers Park (Chicago, Illinois), which is my neighborhood. Unfortunately, I spent 34 minutes in line there just to be told that the register had stopped working and they couldn’t take any more transactions.
That was inconvenient, but I don’t usually have much to do on weekends, so it was fine. Plus I got to overhear this exchange at the pickup window.
The clerk gave a box to someone who was picking up her mail. The customer pointed to the address on the box and said, “This isn’t me.” The clerk walked back to her, glanced over the box and muttered, “Oh, really? Are you sure?”That made it all worthwhile. I even chuckled with another customer at that one.
But by then I was out of time and energy, so I decided to try again the following Saturday (today).
Last night I took the pack out of the box and got every brown paper grocery bag in my kitchen. I cut the bags, leaving them in the biggest pieces possible, then taped them together, wrapped the backpack, cut to size and wrapped packing tape all over the thing. It felt and looked ridiculous, but I didn’t care.
My friend Ceece gave me a ride to the post office in Evanston, Illnois and took these pictures to commemorate the day I discovered that you can still use cut up brown paper grocery bags to ship stuff. And sure enough, not only did the U.S. post office accept this package, but it was only US$16.44 to send! That’s the slowest rate, but it will still arrive at Jansport in a week.At this point I don’t care if Jansport replaces my pink rolling backpack, repairs it, or if the thing never even reaches Jansport. I just want it out of my life and now it is.
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| And it’s off! And out of my life. UPDATE*****UPDATE******UPDATE*****UPDATE*****UPDATE******UPDATE
On September 26th (19 days after mailing the old one) I received this replacement rolling backpack. The legends were true! If you have a Jansport that dies on you, ship it back to them and they will repair or replace for FREE! They don’t make this model in pink anymore or purple, but I got a nice deep red color.
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