Sorry can't help you with an opinion of Ali Express, I've never used them. I read a couple of times on the Forum that those people were happy with them.As an aside, I bought 2 hiking shirts from Columbia last week, I only realised that their journey originated in France when I started the tracking process.
On some of the Naturehike tents I was looking at, you can select to have them sent from the U.K. I don't think they had the colour I wanted though.
Little Foot, my wife buys quite a lot of small items for her hobby via AliExpress. She says there is usually a clear returns policy shown with each item.
They generally do not like to replace lost or damaged goods but prefer to refund. She has never had a problem in that area.
I have bought a couple of things from Ali, no more than £7 for the two items together. My main worry was just with it being a large purchase, and the length of time it takes, if it arrived faulty, it might take a long while to rectify, if replacements needed sending out.
I'm looking at getting other gear from there at the moment, like cheap light seats (can't afford the thermarest ones just yet).
I have mentioned this in previous posts, but I guess you may not have seen it.
The tent I purchased arrived exactly when promised (next day) Although listed on Ali-Express they had UK stock.
I opened up the package and assembled the tent, but couldn't work out how to fit the end of ONE pole thru the eyelet in the tab, all others fitted, but this one didn't, I tried moving the poles around to see if it was 'handed' and this 'nipple' fitted into a specific tab, but NO! it would not fit anywhere.
Emailed the company and explained the problem (sending them a photo of the 'wrong' nipple alongside a 'correct nipple'). The company said they would send me a replacement by 'Over night express'.
Next day, parcel arrives and I think that's a bit big just for a 'nipple'.
It turned out to be a COMPLETE replacement, poles / tent / flysheet / Guys / Footprint / pegs - the whole caboodle.
Emailed the company and asked them how they would like me to return the original tent to be told "very sorry for the inconvenience, please keep it free of charge with our thanks".
I sourced a bag (5 pieces) of nipples froma seller on Ebay at a cost of " a couple of pounds", 2 minute job to replace the nipple and then 2-spares in each of the 'peg-bags' (Just in case I ever need one) and I ended up with 2 complete tents for £75 + £2.
I have no hesitation in recommending Chinese companies for their service levels.
The difference between the nipples.
Wow! That is excellent service. Bet you was really please with that result! From what you say, they really do want to keep customers happy, especially with the way they seem to upgrade their tents after listening to what customers think of their products. I'll certainly consider one in future then.
Forgive me if I've got the wrong end of the stick, GWM, but i fail to see how
"Just throwing this in the mix - I looked at the Zephyros Compact as well as several similar Chinese lightweight tents before deciding on purchasing the Vango Cairngorm 200 (for slightly less than £110) ,a slight increase in weight and packsize than the Z2 compact but still within the acceptable parameters I'd set for myself. I know past performance is no indication of present or future performance but I've had Vango tents throughout my life and have never found a reason to distrust them, something that had a major bearing on my decision to purchase."
translates into "shabby Chinese knockoff" or anything disparaging against any other make of tent for that matter??
GWM wasn't referring to your post when he mentioned about the Chinese Knockoffs.
Another benefit of these tents is the accessories you can get to improve the tent.
The Tents (as supplied) is actually better than the MSR Hubba Hubba in that whilst the MSR inner tent is almost 75% mesh (and cold and draughty in the UK weather) the Chinese copy is actually something over 50% 'solid' with only the top 45% (?) being mesh.
You can also order it with a 'solid' inner (a few £s more) or you can buy a 'solid' inner tent and have a 'Winter' version and keep the 'as supplied' inner for Spring / Summer / Autumn
Full '4-season' inner tent.
Should you find you need a bit more room (Sons gets bigger) or somewhere to keep the bike, or somewhere to cook, you can buy and 'extension'.
Maybe you can tell - I am impressed by the quality and versatility of these tents.
That looks a fab tent, especially with the extra porch piece (or whatever the correct name is). The review I watched from an English guy who reviews various tents (only seen the one review) was very impressed with the quality of the Chinese ones. I've got a few days til the other one arrives so it is definitely something I can be considering.