After reading many good things about the polish manufacturer of down gear, CUMULUS, in this forum and other places, I purchased a TENEQA 850 sleeping bag, costing 307 euro’s at the time (it’s cheaper now because the zloty lost value). This was on the 4. of September – the 9. the sleeping bag arrived, complete with are large messed up stitching on the back – approximately 5 cm that looked like it was stitched over and over again. I wrote the company straight away and – on their recommendation – mailed it back to them the same day. They would pay the postage and give me a 10 % discount. According to track and trace it arrived in Poland on the 10. A week went by and the sleeping did not arrive at Cumulus. After that I wrote the company several times without getting an answer, and after 2 weeks I called Jacek, the owner of Cumulus. He told me not to worry – that he would go to the local post office to see what had happened. The package was indeed at the post office – according to Jacek the reason why they did not deliver it to Cumulus was because Cumulus wasn’t open in the late afternoon when they delivered packages…
Whatever, I thought, as long as he sends me a new bag and the refund! The new bag arrived on September 30. There were quite a few loose feathers in the storage bag and as I examined it, I noticed several loose treads, some of them sewn into the seams (maybe not important for performance, but ecstatically ugly), but most important I noticed a seam that was stitched so it creates a fold on the pertex. Moreover I noticed a strong smell of goose, or rather bird cage, coming from the bag – not a particularly nice smell.
I wrote the company straight away of course, but haven’t heard from them yet and I don’t expect it. These people are a bunch amateurs.
It’s hard for me not to compare this bag with the Feathered Friends hummingbird sleeping bag that I bought earlier this year. This thing is flawless: not a stitch out of place, not a loose tread, not even a single loose feather in the transport box. No – absolutely no – smell. I never owned a sleeping bag that smelled before, and I’ve owned quite a few, but the Cumulus bag reeks like a bunch of dirty birds. So that’s what I got: a smelly bag with a nice ugly fold – do you want to pay 307 euro’s for that?
I note that there is a 'UK' Cumulus, and a 'PL' Cumulus. I'm not sure what the relationship is between the two, or which of these are the subject of comments you've seen in the past.
What you say doesn't sound good service, but I'd certainly persist.
UK Cumulus and PL Cumulus seems to be the same company. They got the same logo and both sell the Mysterious Traveller ect. The UK site seems to be older and not updated, as they've got a lot of new models on the PL site.
I've never had to deal with Cumulus, but I do own one of their bags (a Quantum 200) which I purchased second hand from another OM forum user. It is well made, has no poor stitching and does not leak down, does not have any smell and has performed well for me.
There have been other positive reviews of their gear here and elsewhere, too.
I'd have a chat with the UK people - as in, there is an address and a phone number. They may not be able to help directly (it looks to me that they are the UK distributor) but may be able topoint you in the right direction
I've bought two bags from Cumulus. Liteline 400 and Xlite 200.
Both bags was very well made, very fine stitching and very fine down. No smell, no problems what so ever. Of course fine down will sometimes try to escape through the pertex quantum fabric but it's easy to just pull it back.
I felt they where compareble to PHD quality which I also had (Minimus ultra overfill). After comparing with the phd, since the phd was more expensive, and black, I kept that and sold the red Xlite 200. Later on I also sold the Cumulus Liteline 400 too and replaced it with an extra wide minim 400 overbag for the minimus from PHD, black, exactly right size for the job as overbag, 900 fill, and no zipper. I felt some regret selling the nice Liteline and I'm contemplating whether or not to order a new bag from Cumulus, perhaps a Teneqa 850 g (-24c, 1330 g, mm perfect for the middle of the winter where I live)... but maybe I will be fine with existing bags.. and a downjacket (still sale on PHD btw....Ice Camp -25C, 1350 g, more expensive, but...).
Over all I've had very positive experience from Cumulus. However, had they not warned me that it would take long before delivery I would have felt that one month was too much. They were obviously very busy at the time and had troubles with prompt deliverys.
I cannot help noticing that Thomas Rosenquist, seemingly a fellow swede, seem to have registred on Outdoorsmagic with the immediate intent of posting his Cumulus warning.
That does not necessarily imply that he didn't have a negative experience with Cumulus, but in my prejudiced mind that circumstance lowers the general credibility compared to "older" forum members.
If the fact that I joined this forum to post this warning weakens my credibility to the senior members - then so be it. I’m not questioning that other people have had excellent experiences with Cumulus (that’s why I bought the thing to begin with), I’m giving you an account of what happened to me, about the two bags that I received and examined. This is not so much about the minor stuff, like loose treads, but about two bags with larger errors on them both. That says something about this company’s quality control, I think. That they didn’t answer my email yet says something about the customer service (or lack of it). Whatever conclusion you draw is fine be me, but there’s not a chance in hell that I will buy anything from these people again.
Oh dear! No one is questioning your credibilty, Thomas. What people are saying is that the bags they have bought which were originally sold by Cumulus UKare of high quality. No one is saying that you are telling lies just that there seems to be a huge difference of quality between UK distributed products and those directly imported from Cumulus Poland who seem to be charging similar prices similar to those that the higher quality UK sold products attract.
If the companies in both countries are connected, accounts such as yours appearing on forums like this will be of great concern to to Cumulus UK.
I would indeed be strange if there was a UK company and a PL company with the same name, the same logo and same models...
I just got an email from the company in POLAND that apolgizes everything and offers to fix or replace the bag or give me an additional discount of 15%.
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