diff --git a/cmd/promtool/main.go b/cmd/promtool/main.go
index 8a881330c..6323845e1 100644
--- a/cmd/promtool/main.go
+++ b/cmd/promtool/main.go
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ func main() {
 		os.Exit(checkErr(dumpSamples(*dumpPath, *dumpMinTime, *dumpMaxTime)))
 	//TODO(aSquare14): Work on adding support for custom block size.
 	case openMetricsImportCmd.FullCommand():
-		os.Exit(checkErr(backfillOpenMetrics(*importFilePath, *importDBPath, *importHumanReadable)))
+		os.Exit(backfillOpenMetrics(*importFilePath, *importDBPath, *importHumanReadable))
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/cmd/promtool/tsdb.go b/cmd/promtool/tsdb.go
index 85d8da112..8d04eadab 100644
--- a/cmd/promtool/tsdb.go
+++ b/cmd/promtool/tsdb.go
@@ -618,16 +618,16 @@ func checkErr(err error) int {
 	return 0
 }
 
-func backfillOpenMetrics(path string, outputDir string, humanReadable bool) (err error) {
+func backfillOpenMetrics(path string, outputDir string, humanReadable bool) int {
 	inputFile, err := fileutil.OpenMmapFile(path)
 	if err != nil {
-		return err
+		return checkErr(err)
 	}
 	defer inputFile.Close()
 
 	if err := os.MkdirAll(outputDir, 0777); err != nil {
-		return errors.Wrap(err, "create output dir")
+		return checkErr(errors.Wrap(err, "create output dir"))
 	}
 
-	return backfill(5000, inputFile.Bytes(), outputDir, humanReadable)
+	return checkErr(backfill(5000, inputFile.Bytes(), outputDir, humanReadable))
 }