A couple weekends ago, me and a couple friends went on a bikepacking trip. The three of us were strung out on the forest road, with me bringing up the rear. My friend in front stopped at a bridge to wait for the two of us behind, and his foot slipped from the railing and because he was coming to a stop, his momentum carried him over the side and into the creek 12 feet below. He landed on my backpack he was borrowing, stuffed with his sleeping bag, so he escaped with just a cut on the arm from the bike chain and some scratches and bruises. Luckily, he missed the basketball sized rock and stood right back up.
My MSR Autoflow was strapped to the outside of the pack, and once we bandaged him up, we realized the filter was gone from the bag. Somehow the impact had released the connection to the bag, and I couldn't find it in the creek. It must have washed downstream, and with no amount of wading could I find it.
He's ordered me a replacement filter, but the replacement doesn't come with the quick release part needed to plug into the bag. I wrote MSR, and Chuck from customer service dropped one in the mail for me, along with about 2.5' of replacement hose that I didn't even think about until I opened the envelope. I got it within 5 days to boot.
So kudos to one of the big gear companies.
tl;dr: Lost a vital filter part and MSR customer service sent me a free replacement right away.
-Jeff
