I think the lifetime warranty turning into a "product lifetime warranty" is common to present times. I have bought thousands of dollars worth of products from Cabelas over the years. Customer service was always first class and kept me coming back. I never had any issue of returns for any reason. A couple of years ago I had a Cabelas brand camo packable rain suit which was mid price range ($250- $300) start to fail. I contacted them and got the same story that the lifetime warranty really means product lifetime. That was the first time I ever had them pull that so I went up the line through management until I finally got them to refund money as a credit to be applied to an upgraded product. My own opinion is his lifetime warranty business was something many did during the era when customer service was the in thing. Now years later it doesn't appear to matter probably as a result of many of the proud manufacturers being bought out by mega companies who just don't care.