CompactAirlite 340 Awning

caravancontentment

Dear Sir/Madam,

My husband and I are members of the Caravan Club. We attended the Caravan Show in Birmingham in February 2015 and purchased the above awning. We were told by the salesman that a limited number of awnings were reduced from £749 by £100 due to a slight imperfection where some of the dye had run. We also purchased a set of 2 large cross bars at an additional cost of £55. Total expenditure £704.

We used the awning 6 times last year and experienced rain on every holiday. From the start the awning got wet inside and appeared to leak. We contacted the company in July 2015 after one of our breaks when the awning had leaked quite badly and they suggested it was due to condensation. Though we doubted this we decided to give it another try. During our following holiday it rained heavy almost every day and the inside of the awning had puddles in it. We took photographs and again contacted the company stating that we were not satisfied and that the awning was not fit for purpose. We requested either a replacement or full refund.

The company gave a replacement which arrived in November 2015. We checked inside the bag on arrival but did not remove the awning from the bag because of the poor weather conditions. We did however notice that the additional cross bars we had purchased had not been returned to us. Again we contacted the company and they arranged for these to be sent to us. When they arrived we noticed they were brand new and not the originals.

We used the awning for the first time on the 14th March this year. When we took the awning out of the bag we noticed some dry mud on it which we wiped off (our pitch was hard standing so the mud was not from there). After inflating we noticed that the 2 large front windows were badly marked and could not be cleaned also the folding metal bars that fit flush to the caravan were missing. We assumed that these were at the bottom of the bag as were the originals. Also one of the large cross bars would not stay inflated. We do not know if the awning is waterproof as we did not have any rain.

We again contacted the company and they have asked for the awning to be returned so they can look into it. The sales manager informed us that the rolling guarantee is now out of date.

We are now totally fed up with inflatable awnings and wonder if any other club members have had any similar experiences or are we just extremely unlucky. We also cannot understand that the replacement awning also has a dye fault. If as the salesman told us there were a limited number of these slightly imperfect awnings why were they still available 6 months from the date we purchased the original.