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The North Face are stupid as well - i've got a North Face Bedrock 55 on which one of the DAC alloy poles snapped at the end and another has got a crack developing. I emailed North Face...and not so much as an acknowledgement was forthcoming. I followed up....still nothing. All I wanted to know was where to source 2 poles sections for a £400 tent that had been used twice! They're an unusual size and seem hard to get hold of. As I didn't get a reply I gave North Face a scathing review on Trailspace.com...to55ers!

I tried a zillion times to contact Vango over a problem with a Sumatra 09 pole up-grade - they used to have an answerphone you could leave a message on - but they never rang you back - now they just have an answerphone that says you cant leave a message - in otherwords - get lost !!

So - When I decided it was time for a better Rig - I ( and sadly ) gave them a miss - sorry guys but if you are not contactable by phone - then your not giving us confidence - ( although some of their stuff is great )

We got for our Vango Vancouver 800 (before it died) got poles from go camping, we found it not too difficult to cut poles to the right length. They were dura wrap, other people might know if these are better.

Sadly this sort of thing happens when market sectors are affected in the way that the camping equipment market has been over the last 12 months.

With the sudden upturn in business, companies look to cut their production costs to maximise profits by outsourcing the manufacturing to the cheapest bidder but sadly this is always to the detriment of quality. Models all start to look the same as they are all now coming from the same manufacturing area and new names start to appear on things that we know as something else. Quality and customer service goes out the window because these companies are now too busy dealing with supply issues and the ever growing pile of returned faulty stock to be able to deal with the people who matter...... their customers.

The decline in the quality of products in general and the recent lack of customer service is clear to those who are not new to this lifestyle and regrettably the situation is not going to improve over night.

Whilst these companies are hay making due to our desire it will not improve, but when normality returns and they look at the damage that this has cost them in the long term they then need to ask themselves......was it all worth it to loose our reputation ! 

5 weeks 2 days and 14 emails and still no reply from Vango.