North Face Odyssey Triclimate Walking and Hiking Jacket

I bought (or rather my wife bought for me . . . with my money) a North Face Odyssey Triclimate Jacket in December 2006. The cost of the jacket at the time was about £180.00. I wore the jacket on a few weekend walks and occasionally to work on the old fashioned 'dress down Friday' - I am usually a suit, tie and black mac clone.

Now the only time I wore the jacket in the car was on these isolated Friday trips (albeit only about 4-6 of them) between home and the office car park (about an 8 mile trip). In late February after approx 8 weeks of owning the jacket I noticed excessive wear near to the lower left pocket, which had gone as far as making a few small holes in the fabric.

I took the jacket back to the shop it was purchased from, which was Blacks in Stockport, who courteously dealt with the matter saying that they would have to send the jacket back to the manufacturers for testing.

I have just heard back that the testing has been done and the conclusion is that the jacket was not faulty - the damage had been done by the car seat belt and that the jacket is not designed to be worn in the car!

I have a number of issues with this.

Firstly, if the jacket cannot cope with the rigours of car wear on such a short number of trips then how would it cope with backpack straps and the like. I had assumed that the brand name 'The North Face' suggested clothing hardwearing enough to be hauled up the North Face of - a mountain?, but maybe I am wrong.

Secondly, the last such coat I bought was a Berghaus which I used when I was at University and this involved driving from Stockport to Leicester every week, a trip of about 80-100miles, wearing the said garment. This jacket lasted 4 years of that and lasted 3 years beyond before going seriously out of fashion rather than wearing out.

Thirdly, and I know these things do happen. The jacket is now for sale at 'only £89.00', which means that I am a £100 loser even before the defects arose.

I have been offered a repair BUT at a cost of £40, or a replacement coat but again at an additional cost of £40.

In my mind I have been sold a dummy, I should be given a refund to the value of the purchase price (a credit note would do) but how can I convince them?

Paul Mcloughlin

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