James Baroud tent failure?

[Anthonyevans]

Coming in as an outsider on this product it still seems like OK4wd is completely passing the buck on the initial care of the warranty. If Theron said it was denied, then it was. I don't understand how he could have misinterpreted that, it seems very black and white to me.

 

[Martyn]

I agree his usage should not have anything to do with the failure that was my point just not expressed correctly

I really don't know what caused the failure and I'm not even going to speculate. My point is that expedition gear should be tough and durable. My comment is directed at the statement that the tent was "opened and closed this thing for 6 months sometimes twice a day". That to me is not excessive when you think that quality roof top tents have a life span of 20 years plus. 365 cycles of the opening mechanism is really nothing.

 

[brian90744]

Markimus. I guess I should have read your #10 post..Sorry if I got the facts wrong, just read thru the posting, (I put my foot in my mouth)-brian

 

[XVENTURE TRAILERS]

Markimus. I guess I should have read your #10 post..Sorry if I got the facts wrong, just read thru the posting, (I put my foot in my mouth)-brian

No worries. Thanks. Cheers!

 

[theron]

After weeks of waiting I finally heard back from James Baroud USA in NJ: my warranty claim was denied

It is what it is. I didn't strike anything and I felt the gel coat was starting to separate because of a manufacturing issue, but they felt otherwise, even though there is still no empirical evidence of an impact. But that is of course from my perspective. In the end I can't recommend their product even though it's still on top of my truck....it really bums me out they so boldly and proudly promote a 5 year warranty when they sell you one. I am fairly certain going forward the fellas in NJ are going to approach warranty issues and customers with more grace and respect, so that's a win for anyone else out there.

Gonna keep on keeping on! I do think their product looks good and is a decent design but if you're about to spend $3000 I def would consider other brands with better customer service

 

[rino]

We just wanted to clarify our findings and the outcome of this situation.

Ultimately the damage on the roof of the shell was deemed to be caused by the user after an internal inspection and two separate independent inspections. Admittedly this process could have gone smoother on our end and we thank Theron for his patience and understanding. This issue hasn't been seen before so it was critical that it was inspected properly in case there was a flaw in our design or in our manufacturing process. There are a countless number of our tents not only in North America but also around the globe, some in the harshest environments this planet has to offer, none of which have suffered stress fatigue or weather fatigue as claimed.

Some of our customers use their tent exclusively on weekends to get away and others (like Theron) call them home for months on end while he explores roads less traveled. Customer satisfaction is a priority for us and that's why we offer a five year warranty on our hard shell tents. However, we cannot honor the warranty when failure is deemed to be caused user error. We understand and agree that failure is unacceptable and we hold our products to the highest standard. Lastly, to be completely transparent, we paid shipping both ways (truck freight) and we offered Theron a $500 credit towards repairing his old tent. While this process took longer than we had hoped, we feel we've been more than fair accommodating Theron despite denying the warranty.

FWIW, Theron also purchased another James Baroud RTT during this process despite being offered a deal from another tent manufacture. We are glad that despite this mishap he still chose our tent for his continuing adventures.

-Rin

 

[theron]

We just wanted to clarify our findings and the outcome of this situation.

Ultimately the damage on the roof of the shell was deemed to be caused by the user after an internal inspection and two separate independent inspections. Admittedly this process could have gone smoother on our end and we thank Theron for his patience and understanding. This issue hasn't been seen before so it was critical that it was inspected properly in case there was a flaw in our design or in our manufacturing process. There are a countless number of our tents not only in North America but also around the globe, some in the harshest environments this planet has to offer, none of which have suffered stress fatigue or weather fatigue as claimed.

Some of our customers use their tent exclusively on weekends to get away and others (like Theron) call them home for months on end while he explores roads less traveled. Customer satisfaction is a priority for us and that's why we offer a five year warranty on our hard shell tents. However, we cannot honor the warranty when failure is deemed to be caused user error. We understand and agree that failure is unacceptable and we hold our products to the highest standard. Lastly, to be completely transparent, we paid shipping both ways (truck freight) and we offered Theron a $500 credit towards repairing his old tent. While this process took longer than we had hoped, we feel we've been more than fair accommodating Theron despite denying the warranty.

FWIW, Theron also purchased another James Baroud RTT during this process despite being offered a deal from another tent manufacture. We are glad that despite this mishap he still chose our tent for his continuing adventures.

-Rin

Very true, I did in fact throw down another $3000 for a James Baroud tent mostly because I was out of house for 2 months for the whole process. And I do believe JB has the best 'design' of roof top tents currently. But from the start your customer service was....far from ideal. Yet I have no doubt that it will be better for other customers in the future.


But with that said! I'd also like to note that the brand new tent I purchased STILL had the old style ladder design and it broke on me. I literally fell off my truck and mildly damaged my truck. So if they broken ladder issue was a legit concern of your brand you could have issued a recall and made sure every single new tent you were selling had a proper ladder. That's caring about the customer. Right?

So I just spent a lot of money on another new tent in 2015 and still had the old ladder and connection style.

 

[Frosty_1]

To the manufacturer: Why go through all this hassle with the posts, dealing with the customer, etc, just to deny the claim? If it were my company, I would swap the product out and send a new one to customer(problem solved), fix the damaged unit and resell as a reconditioned unit. You're out roughly the same amount of money, yet you make your company look *SO* much better in the public's eye...I deal with customer service on a daily basis, so much easier to make the customer happy, even if you eat a few bucks...

 

[bob91yj]

^^^^Yep, sometimes you have to spend money to make money.

 

[link30204]

To the manufacturer: Why go through all this hassle with the posts, dealing with the customer, etc, just to deny the claim? If it were my company, I would swap the product out and send a new one to customer(problem solved), fix the damaged unit and resell as a reconditioned unit. You're out roughly the same amount of money, yet you make your company look *SO* much better in the public's eye...I deal with customer service on a daily basis, so much easier to make the customer happy, even if you eat a few bucks...

Wish this forum had a like/thanks tag button!!

 

[MTaco]

To the manufacturer: Why go through all this hassle with the posts, dealing with the customer, etc, just to deny the claim? If it were my company, I would swap the product out and send a new one to customer(problem solved), fix the damaged unit and resell as a reconditioned unit. You're out roughly the same amount of money, yet you make your company look *SO* much better in the public's eye...I deal with customer service on a daily basis, so much easier to make the customer happy, even if you eat a few bucks...

X2 on that! I read this whole thread and have to side with the customer. Ridiculous warranty...

 

[rino]

To the manufacturer: Why go through all this hassle with the posts, dealing with the customer, etc, just to deny the claim? If it were my company, I would swap the product out and send a new one to customer(problem solved), fix the damaged unit and resell as a reconditioned unit. You're out roughly the same amount of money, yet you make your company look *SO* much better in the public's eye...I deal with customer service on a daily basis, so much easier to make the customer happy, even if you eat a few bucks...

Thanks for the input, ultimately the decision of the warranty claim is not in my control. I do however believe the decision made and the action taken was fair. When the product is damaged by the consumer and the company pays freight to inspect it for defect and after damage is found, an amount to repair it for the time taken for this process that seems reasonable to me.

Thanks,
Rin

 

[theron]

It's been a few moons since I've posted but I wanted to swing back through with another James Baroud / OK 4WD update....and I wish it was good news.

We've been to some rad places (like Big Bend below!) but back in June I submitted a warranty claim with my 2nd James Baroud roof top tent. This time the fabric is wearing out in various places on the tent....on the corners on the inside/outside as well as in the middle sections of the fabric is wearing thin. Nothing is ever closed shut inside the tent but rather the fabric simply seems to be wearing against itself and the shell.

So I submitted this warranty issue back in June and now we are into October it's still not resolved. OK 4WD did say they would take care of this but it's going to be over 5 months on them "waiting for a shipment from Portugal to arrive"....in my book that isn't a great warranty. But take it how you will!

I use my James Baroud tent a lot but I still think it's a pass on paying out $3000 for the quality and warranty responsiveness.





Outside corner of the tent experiencing wear when it's closed:




Holes forming through the fabric on the corners and middle of the tent when it's closed (at all corners/sides):

 

[fjrohrs]

How many open/close cycles do you think the presumed new tent has on it? Any issue with the bungies that are meant to hold the fabric in so it doesn't get pinched?