This week has been all about tents. Kind of a long story, but apropos to this thread. It all started in March when my daughter wanted the Burning Man experience in the back yard.
During the worst, wettest, coldest week of the year, she and her friends were putting up the 12'X18' Gigatent in a downpouring windstorm. My daughter over-torque one of the plastic hubs and it snapped. In the windstorm, I glued it with gorilla glue and duct-taped the shit out of it. The hub is still together under a pillow of the silvery sticky goodness of webbing.
So I call Gigatent for replacement parts. They assured me a spare of each hub and an extra for the broken one would be sent out immediately. They charged my debit card for $17 to pay for the "spares" and replace the broken one for no charge.
I waited,,,,,, 2 weeks,,,,, I email them,,,,, "parts are becoming hard to find for this particular model. We will do our best to locate and get them out ASAP." Another 2 weeks go by,,,,
Another email,,,,"parts have been discontinued manufacture,,,, we are still seeking,,,, hope you understand." Finally, the middle of this May,,,,, email,,,"We have found this particular part faulty and the engineers are redesigning the hubs due to common failures." I responded with the following:
My patience is wearing thin. We have discussed this issue on the phone and I expect to receive the parts paid for over a month ago. If you are familiar with the Burning Man community, you may realize the potential for customers among 50,000 participants of this event. I am a theme camp sponsor and have been asked numerous times about tent selection. I have always spoken well of your product and currently have second thoughts. I am very disappointed your company does not back up their claim to provide replacement parts in a timely fashion. Attached is a copy of my bank statement for payment to your company. I have yet to receive what was paid for and insist upon receiving the parts.
If the policy of your company is to no longer provide replacement parts, please provide specifications for independent reproduction and cease claims which are nothing more than false advertising.
So the next day, I'm told via email,,,,"I've spoken to my manager and he permits me to offer you another tent selection to send out immediately."
I chose this one
10'X20' with and 8' ceiling and partitioned into THREE ROOMS
Of course it was understood that I would "speak well" of their product and customer service and,,,,, well,,,, there I've said it!
Because of my concerns about these hubs on the first tent, I also purchased a 10'X14' Kodiac canvas tent.
Of course I had to put all of these tents up and see what they can do and make sure they are healthy specimens. That Kodiac kicks ass! Anyways,,, I have tents,,,, along with our Coleman 10X14,,,, we can shelter about 20 people,,,, and put them all under shade,,,, with full headroom shelter. Am I nuts?