Arc'teryx in court after refusing to replace jacket purchased in 2012
A BC man has filed a lawsuit and says he is entitled to $650 to replace his 10-year-old Arc’teryx Sabre jacket, which he claims is damaged.
According to Mitchell Cereghini, the pocket of his 2012 Arc’teryx Sabre jacket is delaminated and peeling from the outer shell. He said he tried to fix the jacket, but it didn’t work, so he contacted Arc’teryx Equipment (a division of Amer Sports Canada Inc.) last August to replace it under the limited product warranty.
In an email, Cereghini said the jacket “ripped at the hem due to stitching that fell apart.”
The man said he believed the jacket’s “delamination issue” fell under the warranty, but an Amer customer service representative declined Cereghini’s request.
Amer claims the rips appeared to be previously repaired by a third party based on photos, “which voided the warranty in any event.”
Out of “goodwill,” Amer said despite the jacket not being covered by the warranty, they offered to physically assess the product to see if it was repairable or provide Cereghini with a voucher for 30% of the jacket’s original value after he returned the apparent damaged one.
Amer said Cereghini refused both offers. He instead filed a civil suit with the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal and sought a “comparable replacement jacket,” which he values at $650.
Documentary evidence
According to the tribunal member, “The difficulty for Mr. Cereghini is that they have provided no evidence of the delamination for which they claim.”
The tribunal member said Cereghini didn’t submit any documentary evidence such as photos of the jacket. Amer, on the other hand, did submit photos.
“One is a shot of the whole jacket showing what seems to be a repaired front right outer panel. The repair appears to be to a rip or tear in the panel,” the decision reads. “The second is a close-up of a zipper with multiple layers of stitching sewn onto the adjacent fabric.”
Neither photo showed a delaminated pocket, the tribunal member said.
“Nowhere in Amer’s submissions or evidence does it describe the issue with the jacket as one of delamination? Rather, Amer consistently refers to the jacket’s rip as seen in the photos it says Mr. Cereghini submitted to it,” they said.
Without evidence to support Cereghini’s claim, “I find there is simply no evidence there was a delamination problem with the jacket at all,” the tribunal member added.
Even if he did provide documentary evidence of the damage, the tribunal member said it would be unlikely they would find Amer liable for the claimed damages since the jacket was more than 10 years old and “likely have been beyond its practical lifetime.”
Cereghini’s claim was dismissed by the tribunal.
Amer was also told that it is not bound by its initial offers to physically assess and possibly repair the jacket or to provide a voucher to Cereghini since he had refused the earlier option.