Bought a Camping Gaz Vario stove and a Vango folding handle kettle from an internet merchant. Inadequate packing with none of those bags-of-air padding that the better suppliers use so enroute the stove gave the kettle lid a crunch and a ding and we unpacked one very mishapen kettle lid.
Supplier apologetic but now out of stock but was good enough to adjust the price sensibly to reflect the fact that fellow campers would be looking at our shiny designer kettle and snicker at it's mishapen lid. The Shame,the Shame!! Quick e-mail to Messrs Vango UK and a very helpful chap called Andrew posted a free gratis and for nothing lid off to us which arrived a couple a days later.
But of a hurrah then for Vango and you can rest assured they'll always be on the list when we buy stuff in the future.
I have been a big fan of Vango products for many years and own at last count 4 Vango tents and various other bits of gear, sleeping bags etc... like you I have found customer service very helpful over the years.
I also remember when the really small compact gas stoves came out I purchased a Primus one, which I lost during a backpacking holiday. I contacted Primus singing praises of this new stove and was unable to find a local supplier (before internet) to replace my lost one. Within a week a had been sent a new one without charge, couldn't believe it.
------------- It is a wise man who has something to say.
It is a fool who has to say something.
Yes - Vango customer services are very good. We bought our daughter a Vango 3-person pop-up tent just after they came out (she'd had her eye on a pop-up for a while, but I wouldn't let her have a single-skin 'festival' tent, or one without a porch - the Vango has an inner AND a porch!) ... the instructions for folding it made no sense, and after several hours of fruitless wrestling with the thing in the garden I threw it, still 'popped-up' in the garage and fired off an irrate (and, though I say so myself, mildly amusing!!) e-mail to Vango asking how the h*ll you were supposed to get the thing back in its bag. The following day, I had a reply - they apologised profusely, saying the printed instructions and sewn-in 'how to fold' label were both from a smaller model and they had overlooked the fact there were 2 extra steps to folding the bigger tent. The e-mail went on to describe, in detail, how to fold the tent and promised a proper set of instructions once they had been produced - sure enough the instructions turned up, with more apologies, a couple of weeks later. I know there was no money involved, but the prompt and full response was greatly appreciated and meant I did not return what is a superb tent just because I couldn't fold it (though how I would have got it back to the retailer when it's bigger than my car when out of its bag is anybody's guess!!).
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Hats off to Mr Vango
