This page explains our policies for warranty, returns, and shipping. In brief, we accept returns within 30 days, our warranty is 1-2 years (depending on the product), and our shipping is normally 5-8 days within North America and 10-15 days internationally but we do have faster options.

Any item sold on DurstonGear.com ships from our workshop in Golden, BC, Canada. We often ship via Canada Post who will give the package to the national postal system in your country (e.g. USPS, Royal Mail, Australia Post, Deutsche Post etc). Some items will ship FedEx Ground (mostly packs). For all of these regular shipping methods it normally takes 5-8 business days to the USA and Canada, and 7-15 business days internationally (e.g. Europe, Australia, Asia) but can be faster or slower depending on the service selected and if you are lucky/unlucky with the postal service.

For faster methods, we have FedEx Express within North America that is usually 3-4 business days. We can use this method internationally but it is expensive (about $75) so it is only available upon request. Instead, we have offer Canada Post Xpresspost for a faster international option that is not quite as fast but more affordable. If you want FedEx Express internationally please contact us at support@durstongear.com

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 your timing is tight, please select the FedEx Express option.

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 has been delivered at your address, but you report that it is not received, we will work with you on the matter to try to find a resolution. 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 when they did, or for packages to be stolen from your porch. These types of theft are outside of our control, so we can't provide free tents to everyone who claims this. If you want to avoid the risk that your package is stolen from your porch or not actually delivered properly, please request that we require a signature for pickup.

For tax, we charge sales tax at checkout for shipments within our home country of Canada while in other countries tax is charged by your country when it arrives. Packages are typically tax free to the USA and Australia since they have tax free thresholds of $800 USD or $1000 AUD. In Europe there is VAT of about 20% and import tax of about 12% on tents (not for other items). While this is high tax, it is the same taxes you would pay on gear purchased locally and the main difference is just that the tax is charged separately instead of hidden in a higher price.

We accept returns and exchanges within 30 days of you receiving the item. For a full refund, please understand that the gear must be in new condition and the buyer is responsible for the return shipping cost.

If you cause depreciation to the gear by using it/getting it dirty such that we can no longer re-sell it as new gear, then we still want to be helpful and may still accept a return but it would be at a small discount to reflect the depreciation. We would then pass that discount along to the next buyer to incentivize them to choose the lightly used gear rather than something new.

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 oven time, and damage can still happen as a result of misfortune or misuse. Some examples of damage that are not covered are 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, zippers wearing out from extended use or harsh conditions (e.g. sandy conditions), and UV exposure.

While wear and damage are not formally covered, if you do encounter these things there is no need for worry because a focus of ours is to support our products with replacement parts, repair advice, and repair services, such that even if something doesn’t fall under our warranty that doesn’t mean you’re left in a tough spot. We offer affordable replacement parts and repair services, so the difference between something covered under warranty or not is typically just a small repair or replacement cost. For instances of damage we will often often replacement parts at below cost, and repairs for minimal or no cost.

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