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Hi All,

I have recently purchased a Vango Orchy 600, Vango footprint groundsheet,  Vango Large Sun Canopy and Vango Carpet. Extremely happy with all but the carpet not very good quality.... the sun canopy( i haven't had chance to put it up so can't really say if its good or not!!)

My reason for this thread is this... Vango must make shedloads...bucketfulls.... of money, or should i say the AMG Group Ltd does, from us Vango, Lichfield, Phoenix and Blacks of Greenock customers and i feel that from a Vango customer point of view,  that their aftersales and customer service is nothing short of attrocious, infact it is non existent..! 

I sent an email over a month ago and they have not responded (regarding the carpet). I also wanted info on the sun canopy as it is not clear which one fits the Orchy 600. I have not received anything, I talked to several different companies and individuals including someone on this site and had different opinions as to whether the Large Sun canopy would fit my tent, I ended up talking to Outdoor Megastore who phoned Vango on my behalf to find out (many thanks).

This brings me onto another point of contention...25P A MINUTE TO PHONE THEM! if that isn't a clear statement of "WE DO NOT WANT TO TALK TO YOU - DO NOT CALL US! " i don't know what is. Most companies out there are more than willing to talk to their customers...even British Gas don't charge!!!

Finally the sales tickets attached to the items i have bought offer a free PRIZE DRAW!! - Wow giving something back to the punters   ...NOT!!!!!

So i went to the web address printed on the ticket:

www.vango.co.uk/prizedraw

and it doesn't exist....par for the course really....i really do want to swear i feel so annoyed with them  ..it such a shame they make in the main great products!!

The last thing is that i could always send my prizedraw registration ticket to Vango, but then i would have to spend more money on stamps..god forbid that Vango offered Freepost !! just to be entered into a "probably ficticious" prizedraw.

If there are any other AMG Group customers out there who feel the same way maybe reply to this and we can start and get something done about it, if enough people start shouting... they may listen.. especially if we send them a lot of emails!!! 

What would be nice is if we could use the muscle of this site to make Vango aware of this, as i can not believe that i am the only one!!

I look forward to hearing from anyone

Cheers

Steve

I haven't had any reason to contact Vango this year, but up till the end of last it was generally agreed that Vango aftersales service was the best in the business. Certainly over the handful of times (in 30 years) that I've had to query things with them I've had a spectacularly good response from them.

I do notice they're revamping the AMG website though. Wonder if their domain (and thus possibly their email system)  is causing them problems?

I emailed (aftersales at vango.co.uk) them middle of august regarding a split window pole on my Vail, got a reply within 2 hours on a weekend!  I replied to that one and got another reply the next day.  They would have resolved the problem but unfortunately I needed a new pole quicker than they could get it to me, so I bought a spare pole and cut to size.

Landline for AMG/Vango 01475 746000 then ask to be put through to the relevant department no 25p a minute!

We bought a Vango Yukon tent, footprint & carpet & were delighted with everything. (The packaging looks & feels good & we feel this indicates that the product in side will also be of the same quality...) The only thing was that the pole bag seemed a bit short for the poles. We emailed both the supplier (Complete Outdoors) and also Vango. The response from both parties was second to none & infact Vango have responded that they will be sending us a free replacement bag. Although we have not had a chance to put up the tent (rainy weather), we are delighted with everything & can't fault the customer service.

Hi All,

I have told my story alsewhere on the site, so I won't bore you all with the details.  Suffice to say that our new (2008) Killington 900 was returned to Vango with a suspected leak.  Vango confirmed the problem and are going to send us a brand new Killington (or equivalent) when they get next year's range in.  We had to go through the retailer first to get the return procedure and additional information, then downloaded the return form and then sent the flysheet back to Vango.  I honestly can't fault the company's customer service which has been outstanding throughout.

Sabalias

Further to posting a message on the 17th September, I now report that actually I'm not so charmed with Vango Customer Service.

2 weeks have passed - and a couple emails - with no reply & no tent pole bag as promised. Hopefully they will send it soon...!

I have major concerns about the vango equinox 350 tent and vango customer service in general.  In perfect weather, on my 6th outing (with a practically brand new equinox 350), the font pole randomly snapped just above the join on the 3rd or 4th pole at the side of the porch.  The tent had been up for one night. When the pole snapped it punctured a small hole through the sleeve.  I fixed this initial break with the single small alloy sleeve provided as part of the in-tent repair kit.  Having had no previous issues with vango tents I was very surprised by this incident and wrote it off as a once off. 

The next week I took the tent out on a small expedition for my holidays.  Shortly after erecting the tent the second pole snapped in the middle sleeve ripping a large 12inch tear in the sleeve.  Having already used the single pole repair piece provided I had to make do with a temporary duct tape fix.  Shortly afterwards the third pole snapped in exactly the same way, just above a join at the rear of the tent.  The tent was pretty much useless forcing me to cut my holiday short. 

These breakages happened in the same fashion on all 3 poles, just above where the poles are joined.  I am a very experienced camper and outdoors person and I am always extremely careful in taking care of my tents, particularly when putting them up or taking them down.

This was clearly a faulty set of poles so I returned the tent to vango via my retailer (Jackson’s Sports).  Vango informed me that I had failed to put the tent up properly and that I would have to spend over £75 for a repair job to a tent that retails at almost £300.  They claim I had not connected the poles together properly when erecting the tent.  I consider it virtually impossible not to connect the linked poles together properly. It is simply not possible to push the poles through the sleeve if they are not connected properly!  The poles were properly connected on all occasions and the tension bands were not connected, yet vango refuse to repair or replace this clearly faulty tent that broke in the same way on 3 separate occasions in mild weather. As far as I am concerned this tent is £300 down the drain

Prior to purchasing the latest equinox 350 I had nothing but praise for Vango tents.  I had 10 years excellent heavy use out of my original Equinox 350 so I did not heisted to purchase this new version.  After this experience and the complete lack of respect I received during several phone calls with Vango customer service I will never purchase a vango tent or product again.  I would advise others to think twice about vango and equinox tents in particular.