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Hi all

Would appreciate your opinions on a problem we have we a Vango Aspen 700.  Had to return this tent because the first time we tried to erect it in our garden the stitching on one of the anchor points on the inner tent came undone.  Tent was purchased via a well known internet supplier who have been extremely helpful and arranged collection of the inner the day after my complaining.

Have had to make numerous phone calls to try and get a tent returned and was given a day for return, which turned out to be 3 days later. 

Have just taken a look at the inner and realise it is not a new one, but instead the original repaired. 

My question to you is would you accept a repaired tent, bearing in mind that this is a brand new tent which has only been erected once to pratice putting in up and taking in down and has never actually seen a camp site.

I think I've seen on this site that Vango have no stock of Aspens at the moment and this may be there reason for repairing.  We are going away this week and need to use the tent, I'm tempted to tell the supplier that we intend to use, but still want a replacement.

Opinions/comments gratefully received.

Ginger 1

As widdid says...did you tear it or did it come like that? If you yourselves did the damage then it really doesn`t matter whether you did it in the back garden, campsite or just by taking it out the bag. For your supplier to give you a free repair for something not their fault is good customer service.

If the inner was already defective when you took it out the bag then I would say that you should be entitled to a replacement if that`s what you want. If you made it clear at the beginning that was what you wanted then I`m at a loss as to why your supplier did otherwise. I would have thought that if your supplier was told by Vango that they couldn`t currently give him a replacement then the obvious thing would have been to discuss the situation with you?

To be honest though, if it`s a sound repair and it`s good-as-new usable, I`d just go ahead and keep it. Tents do get knocked about and marked pretty quickly. They are only stitched together fabric with a finite life span, not bricks and mortar.

Hi Widdid and Val

Thanks for your comments and take on board what you say about tents not being brick and mortar and also that it may have been taken as read that we caused the damage.

I do understand that you can damage a tent in the back garden just as easily as on the camp site, but perhaps if I explain exactly what happened things might seem different.

The seam did not tear, but the stitching came undone, when we erected the tent we did have to put a little tension into it to get the poles into the ring and pin set up, all the other anchor points were fine, but this one just came unstiched, which makes me think that the stitching was never finished off properly.

Think I'll try ringing the supplier tomorrow and then Vango, see what they say.

Thanks once again.

Hi Ginger 1,

We have a Vango Aspen 500, it sounds that you have had exactly the same problem as us.  The stitching came underdone where the inner tent's roof pole come out.  It happened again when we were erecting it, when the most amount of tension is being put onto the area.  I have stitched it back together again as the fabric hadn't ripped, I just hope it holds.  If not I will be contacting Vango also to see what they will do about it.