our year old awning was collected by courier sent by novosail but they said it never arrived at their premises. They said they would replace the awning but said they could not source the exact size and therefore would only offer us what we had actually paid for the awning. we had bought it the previous year in a half price offer so they said thats all they would give us which i explained would not buy us an exact replacement . they said that was their final offer as they were obligated to do no more.the managing director was the rudest man i have ever had to deal with . he tried to bully me into accepting their offer by phone and email and threatened to sue me if i gave his company a bad review on any website. This went on for 5 weeks! then by funny coincidence he said the awning turned up at their company and he returned it by courier to me still in the same clearly labelled packaging it had left my house in complete with the labels with my handwriting on, which makes me wonder if it was lost on their premises all along ? it was unopened and had been in the sack for 5 weeks still dirty.
don't worry about pristine awnings we sent it off to them and they did a wonderful job of cleaning it and returning it safe to us like new. they were courteous and helpful and a pleasure to do business
We work on a site in Cornwall and after seeing the ad in Practical Caravan We and five other owners decided to send our awnings to Novasail to be cleaned. We received them back screwed up in the bags with the skirting so hard we had to use a hair dryer to soften it, there are pink marks on one of the air vents at the front and two six inch rips in the side however that is not the worst of the problem. All of the windows have holes in them and I don't mean pin pricks, all of them are between two and four inches long. The tares are on all four windows and when I spoke to Novosail's ref Jason the bloke basically told me it was because of our 'cheap' awning. We paid £700 for it last year, 2012 was it's first season. Novosail don't want to know
We work on a site in Cornwall and after seeing the ad in Practical Caravan We and five other owners decided to send our awnings to Novasail to be cleaned. We received them back screwed up in the bags with the skirting so hard we had to use a hair dryer to soften it, there are pink marks on one of the air vents at the front and two six inch rips in the side however that is not the worst of the problem. All of the windows have holes in them and I don't mean pin pricks, all of them are between two and four inches long. The tares are on all four windows and when I spoke to Novosail's ref Jason the bloke basically told me it was because of our 'cheap' awning. We paid £700 for it last year, 2012 was it's first season. Novosail don't want to know so I would say to anyone thinking of using them 'don't', in my option you are taking a very big risk.
i'm sorry Jedsmum that you had a bad experience too. maybe it was a godsend that they lost ours and returned it still dirty at least it was in one piece. Jason the rep you speak of is the managing director of the company and i have never come across a nastier , rude and offensive man in my life. He certainly has no idea of what customer service is all about.As a consequence Jeff Bowen awnings who originally referred us to novosail have stopped using them and now use a new company called pristine awnings who cleaned our awning and sent it back in excellent shape.I forwarded all my correspondence from jason anderton to Jeff Bowen and he was appalled enough to immediately stop sending awnings there.
I hope you get somewhere with compensation for your awning from Novosail and all i can say is don't give up or let him try and bully you into giving up ! he quotes the law but he's not a lawyer just a frustrated one and i would get your own legal advice from trading standards.
good luck
Thanks for your reply Truthfairy we are certainly not going to give in our fight for compensation and I have also contacted Practical Caravan magazine who ran the piece on Novosail. It was this article which convinced me and five other owners to send our awnings to this company. One of the owners has agreed to return their awning and I'm waiting to see what happens with them. I'll let you know what happens.
We sent our folding camper canvas and awning to 'Pristine awnings' for cleaning and found the service to be absolutely terrible.
They arranger a courier to collect which was fine but then never gave us any indication of whether or not it had arrived. In the end I phoned them and they told me it had. Several weeks later I phoned again to ask when we could expect the canvas back and the said they had has some issues with the premises and did we need it before the end of March as they were trying to prioritize work. I told them that we didn't and would be happy to wait a little longer but that we were going away late April.
After some time we began to wonder when we would be getting the canvas back so we rang them again and got no answer, straight to answerphone. So we rang again, and again and again. They never answered the phone once after this point. I emailed them and received no reply so I mailed again and this time got a reply saying we would get it back before the end of April. I mailed back saying we were going on the 26th so would need it before then....no reply.
This went on for a week or more with them never answering the phone or phoning us back until we were getting close to the date we were due to go away.
Eventually I phoned 'Jeff Bowen Awnings' and told the lady I spoke to the situation and she said she would try them on their home number and get back to me, which she did saying they had said they were very sorry and would get the canvas back to us ASAP.
Unfortunately due to the date of our break being so close and the uncertainty over whether or not we would be able to make it we had to cancel.
We finally received an email from Pristine say the canvas had left there premises and would be with us the next day (when we were both at work)!
My wife arrived home from work that evening to find the package dumped on our drive!!!
All in all a shocking way to do business, I really would have been very flexible with them regarding the return date if they had only communicated with me and kept me in the picture, but to refuse to answer the phone time and time again is just not acceptable. We were beginning to wonder if we had been totally ripped off and would never see the canvas again!
As for the condition of the canvas, well perhaps I have unrealistic expectations of what can be done with a dirty awning but many of the stains I had hoped would be gone are still there. As I say though that may just be me being naive about how good a job can be achieved.
All in all very disappointed to say the least and I could never recommend anyone to use them in the future.
Hi our awning is now only fit for the dustbin thanks to Novosail. it is only 3 years old but look 30. Novosail say it to is our fault for sending it to them . they want us to pay them over £200. for them to repair it, but it is beyond repair with holes all over it, hundreds of them. They are difficult to contact no one ever rings you back, we have asked for our awning to be sent back to us, but as yet nothing. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS FIRM.
Hi my 2yr old awning came back from Novosail totaly ruined.Mud skirt shredded,holes in all the windows, mud wall looks like its been shrunk. I complained and sent it back to be inspected. I have been told the sun has caused it to shrink but it only became noticeable because i chose to have it cleaned and its my fault because its a cheap awning £800. The company are a joke with their so called "professional service" They now have some ammusing new terms and conditions- thrown together with no spell checker included !! I have been offered a " good will gesture of half the cleaning costs £65 refund " So my problem is still ongoing. I have not spoken to the rudest man yet that will probably be my next step.
There is another awning cleaning company. I will find out who it is. But here on site.(seasonal awning) was full of green, in general dirty. so they sent it off to be cleaned. Yes it is clean and looking nice, But it leaked like a sieve. the company sent them pva to seal it,lol still leaked. so fabsil did the job.
------------- Roughing it in style at Calloose caravan and camping holiday park nr St Ives.(seasonal pitch)
Its not a hangover, its wine flu!
I used Novosail to my cost....!
They arranged for my awning to be picked up on 19th Dec.
I chased them many times after they said it usually takes 6 weeks! I eventually got it back in May, over 18 weeks later! I didn't think it could get any worse but then after putting the awning up, they had not done the repair I had asked for and there were many holes in the roof where it looks like it's been dragged across the floor!
They did suggest that I could send it back to them to have a look at. There is no chance they are ever getting their hands on anything I own ever again. USE NOVOSAIL at your peril!!!!!
Sounds like it would be better to clean it yourself with soap flakes, as this won't destroy the canvas and is easy to rinse off afterwards. It cleans really well. Then fabsil afterwards.
I recently did mine, as I had been parked underneath a tree and the birds were roosting in it at night!
Choose a fine sunny day... identify the parts that need doing (if only spot cleaning) get a bowl of warm water and swish the soap flakes in to lather up. Spread the awning out on the ground, then use a soft mop to slosh the soap onto the awning. I used a dishwashing brush for stubborn marks, a bit of scrubbing didn't do any harm. Move the awning around until you've cleaned it all, then rinse with a hosepipe. I pulled mine (heavy when full of water!) over two outside chairs to drain off, then threw it over the washing line to dry. lovely and clean and smelling nice and fresh.
If the awning is nylon or polyester based, there's no need to fabsil as the soap flakes shouldn't destroy the waterproofing. However a bit of it on the corners and the seams won't do any harm. I would fabsil the whole of a canvas awning.
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Topic: awning cleaning
