The bag that became the bane of our lives

To Whom it May Concern:
My name is Melissa Goodman and I have been travelling for 1 year around the world with Alexndra Hewett leaving on June 1, 2010 and returning June 1, 2011. Before we left Lonon for our year long adventure, we researched the perfect bag for such a journey and based on reviews and information provided online, we settled on the Men's Jalan 60+10 Convertible Travel Rucsac item number 4-62621. It was described as having a versatile 60 litre bag with a 10 litre detachable daysac.
Now it is important to note that we had multiple options when choosing our bags and a budget to allow for flexibility with whichever model we wanted, but we chose the Berghaus brand based on reputation and reviews. Throughout our year away, we have truly enjoyed the 60 Litre bag that carried the majority of our travel gear. The front zip capability allowed us to easily access items from the top or bottom of the bag with little effort and we were able to fit everything we needed in the bag comfortably without incident. They proved to be quite durable and despite the numerous flights, busrides, cab rides and even being thrown from a moving bus on a highway when the storage compartment door was left open they remained strong with only a few markings displaying any wear and tear.
The daysacs, on the other hand, have caused us NO END to problems strating from the very beginning of our trip. The zippers used or the way they were manufactured were substandard to say the least. Early days into our trip, we noticed that the small zippers in the front for quick access small items stopped moving along the zipper line making it impossible to close them therefore rendering them totally useless. We continued using them, as it was no necessary to have a tiny extra zipper compartment on the bag if we had the use of the bigger section in the back.
Soon after the front zippers failed, we noticed that the bigger zipper would get caught on the material running alongside the zipper line and this was frustrating to say the least, but we continued to use them, as we needed them to hold out carry-on items, for day trips, when camping and for just walking around random towns and cities. By the third month into our trip, the zippers on both bags began breaking regualrly...and by breaking I mean they would come apart while zipped closed from the middle of the zipper line revealing our items and preventing them from remaining in our daypack all together. I have attached pictures to provide visual evidence of what I am describing.
This caused no end to issues for us, as we were constantly worried that someone would steal something from our open bag or we might lose something should it fall out from our open bag that we might be unaware of. We started carrying the daypacks on our fronts, while holding the zipper together with our hands, but this was very challenging and painful when hiking through the jungle or up a mountainside and totally defeats the purpose of a backpack, which are meant to be a handsfree bag.
We looked for people who could replace the zippers to no avail and we were forced to get rid of the daysacs less than half way through our trip...that is 6 months into our trip. I feel that this is totally unacceptable and I expected more from the Berghaus brand. I am very disappointed in the manufacturing of the daysacks and would not chose to purchase another item from Berghaus in the future due to the experience we had with the daysack, despite the fact that the 60 litre backpack has worked well without incdient. I feel that we used the daysacs more regualrly than the backpack and we really required a dependable daydack for the numerous activities we engaged in during our adventure.
We trusted that Berghaus would be the brand of bag that would ensure a quality product to their customers and were sorely disappointed that this was not the case. We do intend to take another around the world trip for a year in 2013/2014 and will need to purchase new bags for that trip and I can ensure you that Berghaus will not be our first choice, though I do hope that this letter might make a change regarding the manufacturing of the daypacks so future travellers do not experience this during their adventures. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Melissa Goodman