[pct-l] 2 person tent under 3lbs

[Henry Shires]

re: James Vesely, I need to respond. What he neglects to mention is the prior history of what I consider us going above and beyond the call of duty.

Back in 2007, he ordered a Rainbow. Then he returned it a few weeks later and wanted a Double Rainbow. So we sent him a Double Rainbow. Then, a few months later he requested custom trekking pole handle adapters so we send him those (no charge). Then several months later, after using the Double Rainbow for 5 days in the field, he decided that he wanted to “trade up” for a Rainshadow 2. He sent back his used DR and we send him a new Rainshadow 2 (no charge, again). We were left with a used DR which could no longer sell. Then, two years later he sent back his Rainshadow 2 for repair. At that point, we admittedly lost his package for many months. We were in process of moving into a new office and temporarily working out of a tiny garage with everything in storage. I did eventually find his box and spend a couple of hours repairing the things I saw that needed repairing. One part of that–a grommet tear out which took a few minutes to fix–was our responsibility. The rest of it was his wear and tear after many weeks of use. No charge, again, for the repair. Then he informed us that there were floors tears and that it was our fault. Maybe. Or maybe not. I certainly never saw any floor tears when I worked on it. At his request we then sent him some scrap fabric to do a glue repair. Then, not happy with that, he wanted us to sell him another Rainshadow 2 “at the lowest price”.

So..I will accept responsibility for taking much too long to repair his Rainshadow but at some point we are just not responsible. Selling him another Rainshadow 2 keeps this obviously broken relationship going and at this point we just can’t continue. I would hope that he finds another line of products better suited to his needs.

Henry Shires
Tarptent


On Dec 16, 2011, at 9:35 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> Message: 26
> Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:16:38 -0800
> From: "James Vesely" <JVesely at edmsupply.com>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] 2 person tent under 3lbs
> To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Message-ID:
> 	<1B64CE751A7DE74FB3673AA17F6A154E5CC309 at mail.local.edmsupply.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="US-ASCII"
> 
> 
> I used a Tarptent Rainshadow 2 for a summer of about 3 weeks of hiking
> and although I liked the tent it started to fall apart after a couple of
> weeks.  The seams in the high stress areas of my tent started to come
> apart but I was able to make a field repair and it lasted the rest of
> the trip.   
> 
> I sent my tent back for repair and Tarptent lost it somehow and for
> almost one year and after many unanswered emails (they responded after I
> said I was going to be in the area so I would stop by) they said they
> found my tent had repaired it and that it was in the mail (by this time
> I had purchased a new tent).  The tent arrived but it now had two rips
> on the bottom when I mentioned this to Henry Shire by email they did not
> respond but instead sent a tube of silicone and some patch material.  I
> have heard many positive things about Tarptent so maybe this was just a
> fluke but I thought it might be worth mentioning to see if anyone else
> has had similar problems.