Thumbs up to Paha Que!

[labontefan]

(Thought about putting this on the product review forum, but it's not really a review...just a comment on customer service.)

As some of you may know, I have the Paha Que Tepee. When we camp at Bristol or Charlotte, I set it up and put the Thetford potty in it. Although the campgrounds furnish plenty of portapotties and have bathhouses, it's nice to have our own private potty! The bathhouses are not close and the public portapotties sometimes get a bit "ripe" due to the number of people that use them. At Martinsville, we also use it as a shower tent, since Martinsville does not have a bathhouse. (I also purchased a Paha Que Power Shower to use with it when we use it for showers.)

I really think the Tepee is very well made and have gotten great use out of it. My only real complaint is that the "lip" of the tent under the door is rather high. I'm constantly tripping over the edge of the tent when stepping in or out. Also, the door opening is D-shaped, so the "lip" is even higher on the curved side of the opening.

We had the Tepee set up next to the camper at Bristol. A friend who was camping with us had purchased a new shirt at one of the souvenir trailers and wanted to try it on. Since most of the windows in the PU were unzipped and the neighbors were only a few feet away, she decided to use the Tepee to change in. As she was coming out, she neglected to unzip the door all the way. When she tried to step over the higher end of the opening, she tripped and fell. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but somehow, as she fell, one of the support poles for the Tepee was damaged. I don't know if she fell against the pole or what, but it splintered just below one of the metal sleeve joints. (I have the model with the fiberglass poles.) She offered to pay for a replacement so I told her I'd check and see if I could find one.

When I got home yesterday evening, I went to Paha Que's web site to see about spare parts. I didn't see the poles listed but found their e-mail address. I had just sent an e-mail explaining my predicament, when I found their toll-free number as well. Since it was during normal business hours, I decided to give them a call. I talked to a very nice young man named Chris in the Customer Service department. I explained what had happened and that I needed a new pole. I mentioned that I really liked the Tepee and also had the Power Shower.

He said normally the replacement pole was about $12 but this time they would just send me one at no charge! I was very surprised and said that I had really expected to have to purchase it. (I didn't think someone falling and breaking the pole would be something that would be covered by the warranty.) He said since I was a good customer and owned a couple of their products, they would just send me the replacement for free this time! He said it would ship by UPS Ground and probably wouldn't arrive till next week--he was apologizing for it taking so long! I told him that was fine because my next trip wasn't for almost two weeks! I thanked him quite profusely! Needless to say, I was very impressed with Paha Que's customer service when I got off the phone.

My Tepee and my Power Shower were probably more expensive than similar products from another manufacturer. However, I've already been quite pleased with the quality of the products, and now I'm even more pleased and impressed with their customer service! A big thumbs up to Paha Que!!

[forestwalker]

We like their screen rooms too!

[sandykayak]

my first thought was they were concerned about being sued because someone fell out of a lip that is too high!

 but it's a nice day (73 F) in Miami so I'll banish that evil thought

did you address that issue with them?

[labontefan]

did you address that issue with them?

I mentioned it in the e-mail. I'm assuming there's a reason that it's made that way...I just haven't figured out what it is yet.   :p

[birol]

Our friend has the same thing, and they always get caught by it. Their daughter even fell while she was coming out ..... There had better be a very good reason that it is there !

[tlhdoc]

It may be there for when the room is used as a shower house.  There is another floor that you can get that is waterproof.  There would need to be a lip to keep the water in the "shower room TP", but that is just my  guess.  I didn't get all of my tent stakes when I got my screen room from them.  They sent me some extra goodies when they sent the stakes.  

I agree that they are a great company.