You're gonna scream your guts out, you'll be so happy.*

As some of you may recall, my CamelBak broke when I was hiking around in the Grand Canyon in September.  I was heartbroken - mostly because I love my CamelBak.  I ended up taking it to REI because I had another hike planned and I needed a new one and several friends had told me to take it back to REI (where I purchased it a little over a year ago).  I kept telling them, "but I don't still have my receipt" and they all said it didn't matter.  So I took a chance on an unknown kid* and took it in.  I figured, all else, maybe I could buy a new pak without the bladder (since that was still good).  The lady at REI was so helpful and she went and got the exact same pak I had (yay!) and replaced my broken one with the new one....for free!  I was thoroughly impressed!

So then I blogged about the last hiking day in Arizona when the CamelBak broke.  I got a comment from a nice lady, Claudia, in the PR Department for CamelBak asking me to e-mail her because they would like to replace my CamelBak.  I e-mailed her back and informed her that REI had already replaced the pak for me but that I was very impressed and grateful that she reached out to me.  I told her that I was very impressed with both companies for their customer service! I mean - they read my blog post and wanted to replace my broken CamelBak - I didn't even have to go to them!

Claudia wrote back letting me know she was glad I was able to get my pak replace without any issues but also let me know that if I ever have issues with my pak that Camelbak has a "Got Your Bak" lifetime warranty! So if I have more issues with mine, then I know where to go.  I thought that was where the e-mails would stop, but the next day she e-mailed me asking for my address to "keep me posted on the latest news and products".  I gladly gave her my address because I'm impressed with CamelBak and wanted to know what else they have. 

Yesterday when I got home, there was a large box on my porch.  On the side was written "CamelBak".  I took it inside and opened it up and here's what I found!

I was seriously geeking out - it's the nicest thing any company has ever done for me (since they obviously topped REI on this one...but REI is still a close second). 

This pak is legit - I haven't tested it out on a hike yet (since I just got it last night) but it has extra cushioning for the back (I'm really excited about this actually cause on the long hikes you start to feel it).  I can't wait to get this thing out on a hike - who's in?!