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Hi, We're fairly new to Caravanning and to save costs we bought a cheap fibreglass pole'd 390 porch awning off Ebay, it was fine for quite a few months but then we took it up to Keswick early in the summer and (tried to) put it up in the middle of a force 10 gale, we got it up for all of 5 mins then the wind got hold and bent and broke the poles and ripped the thin cloth to bits, we had to admit defeat and hurridly take it down and throw it back into it's bag, completely Cream Krackered!

We decided to spend a bit more money on a replacement awning and as we live reasonably close to Riversway Leisure decide to go and view their range in their display area. We spent a long time looking at all the different awnings available but eventually went for the Riviera Swift 350 Porch Premium Range, first time we put it up the van was on quite a slope, sideways, and it was quite difficult to get the awning to sit correctly as the poles are not adjustable for length. When we eventually got it up we were quite pleased except it straddled our bedroom window, this is not a fault of the awning but we should have measured it before purchasing. Before you read on I must stress that the awning was erected correctly and was as taut as we could get it.

Anyway, we went out for the afternoon, whilst we were out the heaven's opened for about 10 mins and everybody took emergency shelter wherever they could. When we got back to the caravan we were horrified to see that the awning roof was full of water and was drooping down by a good 18" or so and was full of gallons of water!

On our return from the weekend away I rang Riversway Leisure and told them I was unhappy with the awning and wanted to excahnge it for a more conventional type as in my opinion the roof was not suitable for our unpredictable weather. The lady I spoke to said she'd have to ask somebody higher up and I should call back later. I called back later and she said she'd talked to one of the directors and they had had similar complaints from other customers and were looking into some extra strengthening poles to stop this from happening, if I wanted to exchange it just take it back to the store with my receipt.I took it back to the store a few days later and explained the story again to the young bloke on the sales desk and told him I wanted to exchange it for a different type, he then started to ask me what height my caravan awning rail was as this could be the source of the problem?? I explained that my caravan was a standard height and that the awning had been erected correctly and that their director knew the awning had an inherrant fault and eventually he got the message that I really did want to exchange it for a different type.

We have now bought the Riviera Luxe 390 Porch Premium Range, it has external steel poles and the material is very thick, it has zipped curtains, rear poles to stop draughts, we are extremely pleased with this awning, only thing is the time it takes to put up, but then you can't have everything can you?

Just be aware of the problems that you may have with the Riviera Swift 350 porch awning, ask them if you have any rain problems then can you return it? Their advert states that "Beware that budget awnings have limitations which the great British weather can test past their limit. Riviera lightweights awnings are fully rain tested and a three year guarantee comes as standard!" In my opinion the Riviera Swift 350 Porch awning has not been fully rain tested!