Tale Of Two Companies

[johnsquires]

First let me say I am a fan of REI and their products, so I'm not dissing them in any way, just relating my experience.

On my last AK trip we got hit by a severe storm that trashed the poles on three tents, one Big Agnes tent and two REI tents. These were high-quality tents and I wanted to repair them, not toss them and buy new ones.

Turns out REI doesn't do repairs on their tent poles, they refer them out to Tent Pole Technologies, In checking with TPT, the repair cost for the damage I had would be about half the price of a new tent.

Turns out Big Agnes does their repairs in house and wanted to help in any way they could to prevent the tent from "ending up in the landfill." Their charge is $5 for each tent section that needs repairs. In addition, when they saw I am an outfitter, they waived the repair charge in total and are only charging for shipping.

Guess which brand tent I will be purchasing in the future.

[Terry Thomas]

Great service, thanks for the information. I'll put that to use in the future.

[JasonB]

We've put a lot of miles on two BA tents. Overall, we really like them. The only issue I have is that I wouldn't rate them as the most bulletproof of tents, good but not great. The company, and their service get's an A+ from me though. We had a similar experience with repairs, which is a big factor for me on gear. Patagonia has been really great in that respect too, I've had my waders repaired I don't know how many times now.
JB

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I think that is valuable info John.......thanks.

[johnsquires]

We've put a lot of miles on two BA tents. Overall, we really like them. The only issue I have is that I wouldn't rate them as the most bulletproof of tents, good but not great.
JB

I agree. I'm sure if I stepped up to the expedition models they would be tougher, but quite a bit more expensive, like all the tent manufacturers.
I stopped by REI in Berkeley today because they were having the used equipment sale. I really do like the Half Dome tents - and I get the Half Dome 4 and put two clients in it so they can spread out. I found a returned HD 4. The cashier said he'd bet it was taken to Burning Man and then returned (the old trick). We pulled out the tent and fly -- and there it was, dirt and dust the color of Black Rock Desert. You'd think they would at least clean it before returning their "free rental tent."

[dynaflow]

Man that's the cheapest low rent act I've heard in a while.Does that sum up the Burning Man patron demographic?

[tfish]

I have a similar story. I too, bought a returned Burners tent from REI's parking lot sale. I knew ahead of times some of the poles were damaged. As it turned out, about a fourth of them were bent or broken. The manufacture of the tent Marmot (Limestone 6P), is near my house. I took all the poles with me to find out about buying replacement poles. Long story short, they called me 2 days later to come get them. When asked what I owed the reply was "nothing". They were even aware of how I bought the tent. That tent has now been to Alaska 3 times. I liked that tent and Marmot's customer service so much I replaced my backpacking tent with a brand new Marmot Limelight 3P.

Tony

Tony

[johnsquires]

Yes, Marmot is another great company. I also like Mountain Hardware.
I think Alaska is a good testing ground for equipment, Tony. Not a good place for cheap gear.

[EricO]

Yes, Marmot is another great company. I also like Mountain Hardware.
I think Alaska is a good testing ground for equipment, Tony. Not a good place for cheap gear.

Ya, no joke if a storm destroys tent poles....must have been quite a storm...I would have hunkered down
in my tent and drank beers.