This page explains our policies for shipping, taxes, returns, and warranty. In brief, we ship with FedEx and Canada Post, we charge all taxes and tariffs at the checkout for orders to the USA and Canada, while for the rest of the world taxes are not included in the price or charged at checkout, so normal taxes may be applied at delivery. We accept returns on new gear within 30 days and our warranty is 1-2 years (depending on the product).

All orders from DurstonGear.com ship from BC, Canada. You can choose shipping with either FedEx or Canada Post (our national postal system, who will give the package to the postal system in your country such as USPS, Australia Post etc). Shipping speeds are shown at checkout.

If you are shipping to a trail town in the USA, we recommend to allow 2 weeks to be very confident it will arrive in time. If you are shipping general delivery or a PO Box please choose Canada Post shipping which will arrive with USPS.

If something goes wrong during shipping such as package that never arrives, we will support you through that and replace the item. If the tracking shows that the package is delivered at your address, but you report that it is not received, we will work with you to try to find a good solution. We want to be supportive when the postal service makes a mistake but unfortunately it is common for people to falsely claim they didn't get the item, or for packages to be stolen from your porch. These types of theft are outside of our control, so we can't provide free gear to everyone who claims this. If you want to avoid the risk that your package is stolen from your porch, please leave a note on your order at the 'cart' page asking us to require a signature on your package.

For orders to the USA and Canada we charge all applicable sales taxes/tariffs/duty at checkout so these packages arrive with nothing owing. Typically this is either no tax or a small sales tax. Recent USA tariffs on Canadian made goods do not apply as our gear is not made in Canada but by partner factories around the world (mostly Vietnam) and because most orders are under the USA's $800 tax free threshold.

For orders to the rest of the world, we do not include any tax in our prices or charge any tax at the checkout, so taxes may be charged when it arrives. The packages can be tax free to some countries if the value is under a threshold (e.g. Australia and New Zealand are usually tax free since they have tax free thresholds of $1000 AUD/NZD).

In Europe there is VAT of about 20% that is normally charged and an import duty on tents of 12% that is only occasionally charged. While this is high tax, it is the same or less taxes you would pay on gear purchased locally and the difference is just that the taxes are charged separately instead of being includled in a higher price. In addition to these countries, the postal service that delivers these packages may charge a handling fee which is usually 5-10 euro but can be higher. While you will not pay higher tax purchasing abroad, if you do prefer to shop within Europe for faster shipping or greater clarify, we have a variety of partners in Europe including ValleyandPeak.co.uk, Pod7Kilo.cz, Backpackinglight.se, and Outdoorline.sk.

We accept returns and exchanges within 30 days of you receiving the item. For a full refund, the gear must be brand new. That means it is indistinguishable from new including being free of smells, dirt, dog hair, and it is returned in the original packaging. If you are unsure about your purchase and wish to set up a tent or try out a backpack, it is important that you take precautions to keep it fully clean while doing so. When new gear is returned, we will provide a 100% refund. Please know that the original shipping cost is not refunded because we did incur the cost of that service and the buyer is responsible for the return shipping cost (we recommend using an affordable method like USPS First Class Parcel).

If the gear is not brand new, many other companies do not accept returns but we understand sometimes gear doesn't work out and want to be helpful, so for larger items (tents, backpacks) we are willing to accept a return while applying a modest deduction (usually 20%) for the depreciation that has occured from your use (because we can no longer sell it as new gear). In this case we inspect the gear and provide a partial refund depending on the condition. We then clean the gear at our expense and pass along the discount to the next owner, so we provide this service at our expense as a way for people to return lightly used gear. Gear can become used from usage in the backcountry but also a failure to keep it clean while trying it in your backyard or local park. Signs of use include dirt, odors, animal hair, sweat marks, bugs, and more. 

For smaller items (e.g. groundsheets, accessories) that are used, it is not practical for us to clean the item and try to find a new owner, so we do not accept returns on smaller used items.

To initiate a return please contact us.

Durston Gear is a small family owned business, so you can count on being able to discuss any issue you might have with a real and sympathetic person who is familiar with the gear you’re talking about. We sincerely design and test our gear to be the highest quality, so instances of warranty claims are very rare (well under 1%) but we’ll be there if you do have an issue.

We formally offer a 2 year warranty (tents) or 1 year (packs) as our promise to you, but ultimately we genuinely stand behind our gear so if something happens beyond this and it is our fault, we’ll make that right.

What our warranty covers is defects in the design, materials, and construction (things within our control). It could be that the fabric has a defect, or something wasn't sewn right. Defects like this are eligible to be replaced, refunded, or repaired under warranty at our discretion. Please note that color and pattern variation in DCF is normal, as it is a hand assembled fabric.

What is not covered is wear and damage (things outside of our control). Our gear is lightweight gear that should last a long time when used with reasonable care for the intended use but some wear will occur over time, and damage can still happen as a result of misfortune or misuse. Some examples of damage that are not covered are broken zipper teeth, mice chewing holes in your tent, broken pack buckles from being stepped on, tent guylines broken from rubbing on rocks, and broken trekking poles from taking a fall. Examples of wear that are not covered are abrasion damage to fabrics, zipper sliders wearing out, and UV damage.

While wear and damage are not formally covered, we still want to be helpful and typically provide free repairs and discounted parts. A focus of ours is to support our products with replacement parts and repair services, such that even if something doesn’t fall under our warranty that doesn’t mean you’re in a tough spot.

For warranty issues or repair needs please email us at support@durstongear.com.