Every year when we start running our Back to School Savings articles I get a lot of readers who say how great it is that if you buy a Land’s End backpack it is guaranteed for life.
They tell how their kids got the backpack in kindergarden and used it until college. I have to say I was IMPRESSED so when Elly found a rolling one at a garage sale for $3 we grabbed it up.
After using it for 2 months the zipper broke so I decided to take them up on their offer and get an exchange. I about passed out when I found out it was going to cost me $13 to ship it back! Now normally I would have just trashed it and moved on but she just LOVED this backpack so I went ahead and sent it in against every frugal bone in my screaming body.
I partly sent it in just to show the kids that you should take companies up on the guarantees and she was so excited about the backpack that I couldn’t break her heart on this one.
 Jack loves big sister’s backpack, too!
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I have to say I was very impressed that in 10 days Land’s End sent her a new backpack. But…(you knew it was coming) I would say this was far from a good deal since I can get a nice backpack for $16 or less at Walmart this time of year easy.
Now, having said that if you buy their backpacks in the store you can return them there and get an exchange without paying the shipping but you do have to have a receipt.
Still is it worth $60 for a backpack? In my opinion, no, it’s not. I see backpacks in good condition at the thrift store all the time for .99-$2.98. I could make it their entire 12 years of school for less then the shipping cost even if I had to buy a new one every year.
While I am very impressed with Land’s End customer service and I LOVE their clothes, I still wouldn’t pay $60 for a backpack
Tawra
I maybe way off base but do the kids always absolutely have to have a back pack? I remember when my last grandson started school. He carried this huge backpack for the first couple of years and the only thing that was in it was a couple of papers and sometimes a library book. Even when I was in high school I had 8 classes and carried most of my books, paper, pens etc. with me all the time. Am I missing something here?
Jill
Tawra is right. You really need to follow all the way through with the money trail on these things and check it out carefully. I was watching a thing on TV the other night and it said you get this item for $10 but they would send you a second free you only pay for shipping and handling. I was curious what the shipping and handling would be and it was over $12. So you get this:
$10 item
$12 it’s S&H
free item
$12 it’s S&H
Total = $34
for what looked like a $10 item
I don’t know how many things have a money back guarantee butit can cost almost as much as the original item to ship it not including the time packaging it up so be careful.
I highly recommend the L.L. Bean backpacks. First of all, theirs are less expensive than Lands End. Theirs are equivalent in quality, if not better. They guarantee theirs, no questions asked, just like Lands End. Plus, if you have the L.L. Bean VISA card, shipping is free, both to you and to return an item.
All 5 of my children have L.L. Bean backpacks. I got tired of spending $10 for a backpack that would last a year, possibly for two, then wore out beyond use. The L.L. Bean Deluxe backpack is a wonderful item, holding all that my kids need in junior high and beyond. They retail for $39.00, but are marked down 20% right now.
I needed to get one for my daughter, who is entering 7th grade this fall. She has one of their smaller models that I bought for her in 1st grade and it wasn’t going to hold all of the books for homework from her 7 classes a day. (It still looks like NEW after 6 years of use!!) Their Deluxe backpacks were marked down to $31.95. I have an L.L. Bean VISA card, the use of which earns me “Bean Bucks” which are essentially free money to be used only at L.L. Bean. I had enough “Bean Bucks” to take the price of her backpack down to $1.95! It shipped for free, and I had it monogrammed with her initials for free as well. I think that was a very frugal purchase.
Tina, that’s a great deal!!
Your Elly is such a lovely girl. I hope that she enjoys her new backpack. My oldest child (Samantha, age 4 3/4) starts school for the first time next month. My kids have never been in preschool or had a babysitter, so I am very uptight about the whole thing. I’ll try to remember how much I enjoyed school–
I would not pay anything more than $20 on a backpack (and hopefully less than that), so Land’s End will have to do without my business on that particular item.
I had a LL Bean bag that I loved that lasted through college and grad school. Even with those heavy books! We snagged one of the Staples free after rebate backpacks last week.
We have an outlet near us that sells Jan Sport backpacks. They are also garenteed for life and you can take them to any store that sells them. I got my son’s backpack for $15 at a back to school sale. If it ever breaks he will be able to get a new one for free.
I am not going to argue about whether Land’s end backpack is worth it. The fact is, the cheap backpacks often break and they are bought more often than a quality one would be. That said, we still buy the cheap ones anyhow since we have six kids!
Also, my kids bring home massive amounts of heavy books and backpacks are pretty much expected, so that papers and things get home safely even if there were by some chance no books involved.
Wow, I just re-read your article and I am super impressed by their commitment to their product by replacing your yard sale find with a new backpack. YAY! Who knows how long it had been used previously. I love hearing stuff like this about companies, there are certainly enough bad customer service stories like that. I tell ya if I find one at a yard sale I am grabbing it!! hehe
I would like to say that I agree with you, but Land’s End backpacks really are the greatest and you can get them for a steal at the end of the season. Four years ago, the shoddy backpack my daughter BEGGED for from Wal-Mart was ripping by the third week of school. By then, most stores had moved out their school supplies and were stocking Halloween and holiday items. I couldn’t find a backpack anywhere! One day, I was in Sears (which has a Land’s End department) and found a wall filled with closeout backpacks, lunch boxes, etc. – all by Land’s End. I got her a really nice new Land’s End backpack for $10! Best of all is that she is in high school now and still using it … and it looks GREAT! They are definitely fantastic backpacks, but you don’t have to pay $60 for them.
I would also recommend the L.L. Bean, my kids have them and for some reason my younger ones smaller bag the top handle keeps coming loose but my son has the larger model recomended for middle school to high and no prob! All we do is send my daughters back and get it replaced. They are very well made other than the top handle, on the smaller one! I believe hers was around 30! I spend that much in crappy cartoon character ones at walmart or kmart! So spending it once instead of every year is great!
When my daughter went to Jr. High, she wanted a Jansport backpack which I was reluctant to buy because it cost $30 but I had heard such good things about them, I went ahead and purchased it. She used it all the way through college and we sent it back twice for a zipper repair. Once they replaced the bag and once they fixed the zipper. I was able to ship it back for about $5 each time. The thing I loved was that the company sent my daughter postcards from the backpack stating its progress in the repair process. She really enjoyed them.
When my son went to middle school, he wanted a Jansport, too and I got one for him. He has been out of college for 7 years and I am still using that backpack. It was repaired once (a hole in the bottom corner) but it still is waterproof and going strong.
I would invest in another for my grandson if the warranty is still the same. Sorry this is so long, but I have been very happy with this company.
We wnt through at least two cheap backpack per year for my son for several years. For us, living a ways out from town, the gas, time, hassle, and sometimes cancelled business commitments to get to the only store that had backpacks was a major factor. Thankfully he got a hand-me-down LL Bean backpack that lasted him 8 years, after doing 14 yearswith his cousins, and he still uses it for weekend trips!
I worked for Eagle Creek for a very short time in 1979. I bought a backpack there in the clearance department and my husband also bought one. My husband is tough on things. He used his for 20 years before it needed repair. These things are tough! I believe Eagle Creek originally made their backpacks for backpacking. Imagine that! They were one of the first to make the full sized backpacks with the internal frames. Below is their life time warranty information. They have more than backpacks.
http://www.eaglecreek.com/company/warranty_information.php
Eastpack and Jansport have no cost, lifetime guarantees on their backpacks. I had an Eastpack from high school until our oldest lost it her senior year. We had it repaired two times, with no shipping charges. We also had one repaired that we bought at a thrift store from Jansport. You just take the bag to a retailer that carries that brand and they ship it for you to their distributor. You only have to pick it back up when it comes in.
First, regarding price…I’m not sure where everyone else is shopping, but I have never found a backpack
For less than $15. And yes, while a thrift store may me a good option for that less-than-$5 price point,
I have yet to find one in good condition that doesn’t have the last owners name sharpied in every nook
and cranny. Would you want to carry a purse around that had someone elses name written all over it? I
doubt it.
Something else to consider…while this article/suggestion works great in theory for an elementary kid, you get to middle school and its a whole new ballgame. Many middle schools no longer have lockers (none in our district, or at the MS my oldest daughter attends in another state), but students still have to use large books, haul them home, and use them as “walking lockers” IN school, siince they still change classes, yet only have 12x12x12 cubbies in homeroom, as if its daycare. A $10 backpack will NEVER hold up to that kind of use, and one without rollers is just setting your child up for life-long back problems.
So a $60 backpack that carries a lifetime warranty? Absolutely! While is always smart to be frugal, its smarter to do the math of “cost per use”. I can spend $10 on a walmart back pack, but if I have to replace it every 3 months, I’ll have spent $90 over the course of middle school, versus $60 for something that will last 6+ years.
Some things are worth the xtra money!
I live in Chile.. and I just looovvveeee reading what you write in Living on a Dime.. I will recommend it to my mom.. she lives in Brazil!!! I just love it! Thankkksss