Gordigear RTT Adventure

[jorgito]

Hello,

I have chosen the Gordigear tent based on all the good reviews. I purchased the Gordigear explorer plus tent with explorer plux annex and gumtree awning. The biggest issue with the tent are the zippers. The zipper connecting the cover to the tent broke after having the tent packed for the third time and now it is not possible to zip it anymore. The zippers are not YKK anymore and they are SBS which to my opinion are lower quality. The zippers don't match and you need to put a lot of stress on the zipper to move. This is not only for the tent to cover zipper but also tent to annex zipper. It was really hard to zip the annex and took real hard effort.

The bad thing is that the zipper "base" is on the tent itself so if the zipper brakes you need whole new tent which is not great design.

Now one day before shipping the car to Russia I have tent with broken zipper which is not great. I would not recommend this tent to anybody.


Jorge

 

[Kevin108]

Sometimes even reputable manufacturers put out a less-than-perfect products amongst thousands and thousands of high-quality offerings. The true story of any company is in their customer service, how they stand behind their products, and the lengths they go to fix a problem like yours. You need to contact the manufacturer and give them an opportunity to make things right.

Pictures or video of the problem you're having may be useful as well. Some person put your tent together, and some person can likely repair it. Suggestions as to whom that person is can be offered with a clear illustration of the problem.

 

[Gordigear]

Hi Jorge,

My apologies for the bad experience you had with our tent. You sent an email to our Customer Service on Easter Sunday and posted this message on Expedition Portal on Easter Monday.
The problem with your zipper will be easily fixed and I will ask our North American distributor to take care of it for you. But please give us 24 hours to respond to your problem, in particular over the Easter break, before posting "nightmare" threads.
Kind regards from Australia,

Helmut
Gordigear

 

[GordigearUSA]

Hello Jorge,

We are sorry for your experience with the Gordigear zippers. Regarding your immediate problem – the broken zipper – you can put a new slider on the existing zipper, or easily replace the zipper connecting the cover to the tent since the zipper is a separate component. Although our zippers are high quality, occasionally they break; so we have made them easy to repair or replace. You will not need a whole new tent.

We use YKK zippers on all doors and windows, as advertised. We use a different brand for the larger zippers as they make better quality zippers for that purpose than YKK.

Nothing should require stress or “hard effort” on our tents and related accessories. If it does, please contact us so we can help you and make sure you are operating the tent or annex correctly. If you are pulling on the zipper so hard that it snaps, it is probably a good thing the zipper broke; otherwise, you could have torn the canvas or whatever may have been jammed in the zipper.

We will continue working with you to fix the zipper problem as soon as possible. Thank you for purchasing Gordigear products.

Kind regards,

Mark
Gordigear US

 

[Dusty Grin]

I think "nightmare" might be a bit harsh. Getting two responses on Easter just a day or two after you notified them sounds like good customer service to me.
I broke zippers on my old Maggiolina twice and it was pretty frustrating so I feel your pain. Hopefully the fix is simple for you.

 

[ADVW/Liam]

Looks like the squeaky wheel gets the grease! At least they responded to you via email and on here. I applaud Gordigear USA for their quick response. Hopefully they will find a solution for you that works in your favor. I sent Bubba Rope an email about an extremely unprofessional encounter with them at a 4 wheel parts expo in Dallas last year, and have not heard anything from them. I was interested in purchasing some of their products, and was waiting to speak to a representative of their company, when that representative began to trash talk me about buying ARB products. I was standing in line with an ARB Twin air compressor, and an ARB tree saver. They basically belittled me for buying something "made in China". After reminding them that I was a potential customer, they tried to back pedal, and explain to me that their tree saver was superior to ARB's in quality and function, and that I should spend more money on theirs, and stop buying "crap made in China". I promptly walked away, and will not be spending my money with them. I know that in the grand scheme of things, my lack of business with them does not matter, but they really could have been more professional with their sales pitch, and not belittle potential customers.

 

[fireball]

Gordigear RTT nightmare

With customers like this guy, who needs enemies?!

🙄

 

[dcg141]

I have a Gordigear and its been a great tent . I have noticed that the cover zipper needs to be fully seated when you start the zipper. If its seperating on you from behind the slider that is most likely the culprit. Also the zipper slides into the tent base seperate of the tent itself if you have to replace it.

 

[jorgito]

Sorry for late response, I was busy driving the car from Kansas to Seattle and loading it to container. I don't argue about the customer service from Gordigear team here in US. It was exceptional and they were very fast to response and answer and handle all the issues. I question the quality of the tent itself, I really don't think that my problems with zipper are caused by not following the manual or suggestions. There were/are two zippers which were giving me a lot of trouble. The first is the zipper connecting the base of the tent to the tent cover. It was almost impossible to even start the zipper (i.e. to completely insert the zipper slider into the insertion pin. Seems that there is significant gap between the both zipper sides and you need to put a lot of force to have them line up. I spent probably one hour trying to zip the travel cover before the zipper slider broke loose and disconnected.

The second zipper giving me problems was the zipper connecting the tent to the annex. Again - very difficult to get the zipper started and the zipper sides don't line up too much. Putting annex was a pain and putting a lot of force to have it zipped it's only matter of time before it brakes.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to get any pictures as I was busy packing the car into the container. Gordigear is providing the new zip which connects to the tent cover.

I don't know what to say, even that we had three weeks time budget to have the tent delivered and tested we were not able to test it due to issues with delivery company. First tent came pretty damaged with a big hole in the tent base and we had to return it . The second tent came fine, little scratches here and there but not a big holes as on the first tent.

You can argue that this is only one bad tent which landed on me but honestly this argument doesn't help me. Customer support is very good but when you are away in Russia how is that gonna help me ? Probably I should have put more time to get the tent but due to the financial (financing all the trip myself) I was able to purchase the tent just three weeks before putting the car into container.

 

[SurferJacoby]

Impressive

Any vendor or company that would follow up as promptly as GordiGear has in this case would earn my business.

 

[jorgito]

Yes, I agree that the customer support from Gordigear is really good if not the best I have seen. But if you don't have time and traveling abroad with no space for failure then even the best customer support would not help you.

 

[Gordigear]

Hello Jorge,

I have been in frequent contact with our US distributor Mark regarding this matter and as far as I understand it, this is what happened so far:

- your initial tent arrived damaged, so Mark promptly sent out a replacement to you
- you snapped off the zipper handle on the travel cover, so Mark sent a replacement slider
- Mark had also tried to get a hold of you for a couple of days to talk you through how to attach the annex, but you didn't have a mobile phone with you on your trip across the US, so communication couldn't be established easily.

As far as the tent design is concerned, you will find that most major folding roof tent manufacturers use a design where the annex zips on to the tent. We have been using it for over a decade and 1000s of our customers all over the world have been happy with it. The main benefit compared to hooking the annex on at predetermined points is that you a) achieve a continuous transition (think insect-proof) and b) spread the load more evenly. If you find it difficult to start the zip, may I suggest to step onto a box or a step stool, so you can reach it more easily?

Yes, you left it late with only a couple of days prior to shipping your car to Russia, but we are determined to make this work for you and I think the effort Mark has put into sorting this out and trying to explain how everything works goes to show that. We have also an office in Europe (which amongst others serves the Russian market), so you can rest assured that we can help you with spare parts quickly should need be. Again, instead of posting a pre-conceived opinion about 'the best customer service not being able to help you abroad', you could have simply asked us first and we could have put your mind at ease.

I hope you have a great trip to Russia, and if anything comes up, please get in contact directly with us, so that we can help you.
Kind regards,

Helmut
Gordigear Australia

 

[jorgito]

Little update, we are right now in Vladivostok and got the car from customs today. As one of first things what we did was to change the zippers on the tent base for the tent cover. Unfortunately it has the same issues as the previous zipper, it is very hard to zip the tent cover. We tried to take out some stuff from the tent leaving only the sleeping bag but id does not help.

Attaching some pictures, you can see that there is a lot of tension on the zip, the second pictures shows how far are both zipper sides when putting a lot of force..

 

[jorgito]

What we will do is probably have somebody repair the zip on the tent cover here in Vladivostok, the zipper replacement came with both sides , one which attached to the tent base and second half which we will sew to the tent cover .

 

[Gordigear]

Hi Jorge,

Looking at your photos, there is nothing wrong with the zip and definitely too much tension on it. This can be caused by:
- too much items left in the tent when folding it up
- if you leave your sleeping bags or bedding in there, not spreading them out flat, but leaving them in a pile
- leaving items in the tent that can get in between the poles when closing the tent (e.g. torches)
- the travel cover not being positioned correctly
- not using the compression straps on the side of the tent

I dare say a new zip will not rectify incorrect operation of the tent. As mentioned numerous times in this thread now, we're here to help and explain if you would just contact us directly, rather than posting to the forum and waiting for us to pick up your problems here. So as it is, we'll just have to leave it at that and wish you all the best and a safe journey.

Helmut