User Review: Mountain Hardwear Haven 2

Mountain Hardwear Haven 2
Above: The current Haven 2, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed July 3, 2009 by Bill_06776

Rating:
Design: three-season freestanding
Sleeps: 2
Ease of Setup: quick and easy
Weight: 4 lbs

The design of this tent is fabulous; but the execution (construction, quality and durability) are extremely poor.

My biggest gripe with this product concerns the "welded" (hence, unstitched) seams that adhere the zippers to the rain fly. This adhesive material softens and lets loose under even MODEST (80-90F) temperatures. Same thing for the loops on the underside of the fly that clip the fly to the poles. They're glued and not stitched, and they're very vulnerable to coming undone.

I used this tent only a very short time (pitched no more than six times in all) before it started coming apart.

Moreover, Mountain Hardwear's customer service (from the warranty department) was absolutely abysmal.

* English language skills were marginal at best. The warranty rep's emails bore an enormous and gaudy "signature" identifying himself as a "Rock Star" and linking to his myspace.com page (and that of his band). His emails consisted of copied and pasted pigeon-English that showed no comprehension, appreciation or empathy for my problem. (Verbatim example: "Your jacket must be freshly laundry."

* They insisted that I return the ENTIRE tent (including poles, stakes, all stuff sacks) and even the separately purchased footprint -- when the warranty problem concerned only the rain fly.

* They demanded 4-6 weeks to make any sort of assessment of my complaint. At 3.5 weeks when I inquired whether my tent had been looked at yet, they: a) LIED about when it arrived, claiming it arrived a full week later than the USPS tracking data indicated, and b) were very snotty (i.e., "We SAID it would take 4-6 weeks!").

* They finally admitted that this stitch-free, welded seam technology was causing them all sorts of problems on several products that used it, and that all such models had been discontinued.

* They said that they could not repair my product, and that the most nearly equivalent (current) replacement was the "SkyLedge 2.1" -- but that I would have to PAY them $80 ($30 in shipping plus $50 difference in MSRP) if I wanted them to replace my defective tent under warranty.

* But in the same breath they bragged about their "industry leading customer service" and "lifetime unlimited warranty".

* The proposed just cutting a check for what I'd paid, and letting me take my business elsewhere. I readily agreed to this suggestion. But they then rescinded this offer when I could not produce a sales receipt.

With customer service like this, I won't be buying from Mountain Hardwear again -- regardless of product quality.

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