Gear

Hi all,

This is my first post on this site but I have looked through here several times for info when purchasing new gear and thought I would give something back

I have been looking around for a while now to purchase a large family tent "this years hols will be here in the UK with recession!"

I decided to go with Vaude as my first choice of manufacturer after I found out they supply a standard 3 YEAR GUARANTEE. All of the Vango's and alike seemed to be reluctant to offer anything other than a standard years guarantee. Obvoiusly that wasn't the only reason but it was a bit of a deal breaker.

I have been searching around for the best deal and this is what I came up with. Field and Trek are offering some very good deals on the Vaude range likewise so were Cheaptents.com but I decided to give my local shop a go because I knew he did alot of Vaude and hoped I might be better off there. I printed off the prices that I had recieved from the other stores and took them in with me. I spoke to Dave the owner of Action Outdoors in Ipswich and he offered me an exellent deal. He offers a 10% discount on-line with the addition of a free ground sheet protector which usually costs £60 so that on its own was £10 cheaper than the competition.

Then came the good bit... he said that as I had come to him before purchasing one on-line that he would give me an additonal 5% discount! Apparently in the next couple of weeks or so they will be reducing their prices for a "SUMMER PROMOTION" by an extra 5% making there deal considerably better than the competiton.  

I later discovered that other stores that I had gone to did not actually have the tent in stock as they had stated and that there would be at least 10 days wait before I could get one

All in all I think the lesson learned was to shop locally and support your local retailers, however I thought it would only be fair to share this little heads up on prices with Outdoors Magic forum users

P.S I purchased the Badawi TC, the technical cotton helps keep the condensation under controll and makes it more comfortable in hot climates so in future years camping in southern France should be a joy!

Here is a link to their site if anyone want to take a look: www.actionoutdoors.co.uk

Action Outdoors are a good shop in my opinion, they have supplied when they could and given advice when they couldn't supply.

I know Suffolk may not be heaving withhills but they are worth supporting.

Here! Here! Support your local independant as they often do deals for repeat offenders, I mean repeat customers.

My local camping store has done me proud with Vango tents in the past and even when there was a fault with one he replaced it off his own bat when Vango was doing the old paperwork shuffle before he could send it back. I mean a manufacturing fault under any guarantee shouldn't become a couple of month long form filling excercise. This is where a good relationship with your local retailer comes in, they know they will get the money back off the manufacturer for faulty goods so will often sort it out for you with a new tent then wait to get the money back from the manufacturer.

I am surprised about vango tents, I have the force10 sub-brand tent and I am sure it has a longer guarantee against workmaship and manufacturing faults. I suppose the mass-market family tents are not the same as the mountain tents with a lower level of movement.

There was a thread where people listed companies that offered good service. It was in response to numerous threads warning of poor service. I think we should post more on the companies that do take care of their customers. Extol the positives out there. I do know people are always praising the BPL-UK service and I always recommend Outdoor Warehouse (even if only for good prices).