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Hi,

    I brought a zenith 6 from go outdoors just before xmas 08 seem to be a good buy at £130 to refuse i have read the reviews of the tent but wondered if there are any members who have one now,can't wait to try it out but want to try a pratice pitch up but my garden is to small the tent is 7.80mt x 7.20 mt is this going to be a problem when trying to get on camp sites has the site we are interested in say if it is more than 5mt x 5mt we need to contact them first.

This is a bit like shutting the stable door after the horse as bolted but here goes. Just before Christmas 08 my wife and I popped into Go Outdoors Wolverhampton as we were looking for a new tent for the summer ahead. While looking around we found a tent a "Gelert Zenith 6" we both liked it suited our needs and better still it was reduced from £399 to £199. We started talking to one of the employees at the shop who inadvertently let slip that there would be a sale over the Christmas and New Year period and rather than buy then wait a week. We did this and checked on the Go Outdoors website sure enough the tent we wanted had gone down another £30 to £164.99 great we thought a £399 tent for £ 164.99. So I ordered it over the internet. Two days later the tent was reduced again by another £30 well just my luck but never mind I still had a bargain. The tent arrived but being it was now January we had nowhere to open the tent but being new we wrongly assumed that everything would be okay.

We were going to go away on Sunday being Easter with the kids to visit my brother in North Wales and thought we would try the tent last Sunday 5th April to familiarise ourselves with the tent we finally had the weather to give the tent a trial run we erected it but then found that an important weather strip on the rear entrance was missing leaving a gap. I Contacted Go Outdoors the next day who asked if we could return the tent so they could verify the strip was missing I did this on Monday. The store manager was very defensive saying we should have notified them within 28 days of receiving the tent and we could only have our money back as there was no other tent available due to it being an end of line item and Go Outdoors no longer stocking Gelert Tents. He did however say that for an extra £150 the "Hi Gear Sahara 6" was the same tent but from a better manufacture. As we did not fancy paying an extra £150 after we got on to their head office and the internet site who said they could offer us a tent valued at £150 an Iowa completely unsuitable and refund the difference of the original £164.99. After a day of phone calls and getting nowhere I finally gave in and accepted my money back I feel I was wrong in doing this as we are now left without a tent of holiday. I feel that as we have brought other Gelert products and never had any problems with them before we should bring to your attention the after sales care offered by your distributors at Go Outdoors who have a sod the customer attitude.

Hi There, katadamick,

Join the boat as we had similar experience as we bought the gelert Zenith 6 from Gooutdoors at Christmas time for £199 as it suited our familty needs, and due ti weather and space we could not pitch the tent until easter time finding that there was a manufacture faiult where by the ground sheet was doubled over and stitched onto the main tent causing excessive strain and the tent to stretch,. We went into Go Outdoors in Coatbridge, Scotland to discuss with the problem and have been given the following option after much discussion on both my part and my husband. The offered to send tent back to gelert to fix or ask if the had alternate tent to exchange for but have to sent to local tent repairer who will take 4 weeks to fix, which will mean we have no tent to go on our scheduled trip at the end ofmay break.

The finally offered to upgrade and exchange for the following two tent and not pay difference from our purchase price

Outwell - Georgia L or the Outwell Hartfort Xl

But on looking at both they do not meet out spec

we are going back tomorrow as we wish for this to be fixed ASAP as no other tent meets the spec of 3 seperate rooms and a hydrostatic of 5000 but we too feel as they they are trying to fob us off. They have advised that gelert are washing there hands of this brand of tent as the equivelent to this for Go Outdoors is the Hi Gear Sahara 6 but only with a  hydrostatic.I will prevail and keep you posted as they will not fob me off.

I'm not sure you can expect too much other than a refund, because the Zenith is discontinued so they can't replace it.

If you buy a tent in winter it is impractical for them to insist on it being returned within 28 days, so a reasonable time period (being now) should be acceptable to them.

I don't think any retailer will pay for an upgrade to a similar alternative tent, but they must offer a refund if the product wasn't of merchantable quality.

The Hi-Gear tents are the same as last year's Gelert's. I think they've just downgraded the listed hydrostatic head from 5000 to 3000 because they had some counter-claims about the 5000 specification, but I think it's the same material and manufacturer.

Definately a fair weather camper. I don't like rain. Rain + Tent = Trouble.
2011:
July: Galpton, Devon
August: Duinrell, Holland