Totally disorganised unproffesional person & furthermore I wouldn't trust him as far as I could spit a healthy rat !!!
Wouldn't order anything from him ever again. I ordered & paid for an awning from him over the telephone after he assured me he could get the one I was after within a week.
It never turned up & was fed a series of lies - the awning hadn't come in at all. His telephone most of the time was left to ring for ages, then he put me on hold for ages.... once I sussed he was lying through his teeth he didn't pick the phone up at all - unless I concealed my telephone number ! My emails were mainly ignored too.
Once I sent a letter threatening him with legal action he eventually refunded my credit card, but no telephone call / email / letter even to say he was refunding never mind an apology. I think it took about 3 weeks from when I told him I wanted my money back before he refunded but had I not kept at him & threatened him with my solicitor god knows how long it would have been.
I've used him a couple of times and he's been fine. One time, I mistakenly had 2 of the same awning delivered and charged to me. It took a while to get him on the phone admittedly but he refunded my money promptly and arranged for the 2nd awning to be picked up.
He isn't the quickest to answer e-mails and several times his phone rang for ages before he answered - I think he badly needs to pay for a secretary or someone to help him out (I get the impression he is a one-man band).
------------- 'In later life, you will be more disappointed with the things you didn't do than with the things you did.' - Mark Twain
We bought an full awning with annex and inner tent from them last year. Placed the order online and was told awning was in stock. Received an email next day to say they didn't have the awning but could get it in the next few days. Gave me the option to cancel or have a different colour. We opted to wait, were kept informed and received the awning after about 10 days.
Were pleasant and helpful when I spoke on the phone and rang back when I left a message so no complaints.
Sorry for my english, but I'm French. I ordered an awning on 5th December 11. I paid online and this man sent me immediately an invoice by email. He said that I will be delivered in France on 9th December. One week later I called him back and he said that the awning was delivered but someone (my wife) refused the shipment. The awning came back to the UK and he sent it again by air freight. We are the 4th of January and still no awning. May be the plane made a stop in Hong Kong or somewhere else. Not really honest. A perfect lyer. I really don't know what can I do.
Quote: Originally posted by JOHN BYRNE on 12/6/2011
I bought a eurovent sancere from him about three years ago it is an excellent awning and I had very good service from him.
John
[Off topic: Glad you like the awning John. We have one too and also like it - not from Bowens though. What sold it for us were the pegging points - much better than ladders, IMHO. Would have preferred two-way zips, but not a major issue. Do you have fibre poles? We have replaced the wing nuts on our fibre poles with Ventura Fixus Clamps ands they work a treat. Have you tried replacing the plastic brackets which hold the poles against the van? I'd like to replace them with a better quality bracket, but all the others awnings seem to have a slightly larger 'secondary awning beading'.]
I still have the awning but unfortunately my van was a write off last year, so I no longer use it.
I did not have a fibre frame but what I did have was a dorema aluminium frame I had to cut the inner spikes off it but it fitted perfect.I also was able to use the dorema fixing pads that came with the frame.
Regards
John
Quote: Originally posted by JOHN BYRNE on 06/1/2012
I still have the awning but unfortunately my van was a write off last year, so I no longer use it.
I did not have a fibre frame but what I did have was a dorema aluminium frame I had to cut the inner spikes off it but it fitted perfect.I also was able to use the dorema fixing pads that came with the frame.
Regards
John
Sorry to hear about the van, John. Thanks for the other information.
We ordered from him an omnistor awning and it came the next day delivered to the dealer where it was being fitted. Have spoken to him a couple of times and found him quite helpful.
We ordered from him an omnistor awning and it came the next day delivered to the dealer where it was being fitted. Have spoken to him a couple of times and found him quite helpful.
With regard to the above I refer to an order which we regretfully placed with Jeff Bowen Awnings.
Before we placed our order we had been in touch with Kyham.UK but decided to go with Jeff as his price was a bit cheaper than Kyham.uk.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but - the groundsheet actually came direct from Kyham.UK and Jeff managed to send us the wrong kador. We returned the kador for which a month on we are still awaitng a refund; and ended up ordering the right one from Kyham.UK seperately.
Apart from this our Kyham experience has been fine. We just wanted you to be aware of Jeff Bowen Awnings bad service as he reprsents a bad Kyham experience.
Very unprofessional. We ordered Eurovent Montreaux with TALL annex last year. Awning fine, but annex was the wrong one. Replacement sent had the wrong poles, so another wait until right poles arrived. We had ripped our old awning down as it was leaking but was still able to use as storage so we were left in the open so to speak. When we eventually got the unit erected we found a small hole in the annex. He wanted it taken down and returned but I persuaded him to give discount on presentation of photograph. He said to send photo to an assistants phone and gave me the number and I got a right mouthful as it was her personal number and nothing to do with the shop.
The prices are good but be careful.
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: Jeff Bowen Awnings
