In early 2004 I bought a Salewa Sierra Leone tent. Morag and I were going for a few overnight walks in Tasmania and then in March 2004 we were going to backpack around Europe (there are photos).
The first time we used the tent, apart from a trial run in a friends back garden, was in the Hartz Mountains National Park. We camped by Emily Tarn and had the entire place to ourselves. It was quite magical. The tent went well - it was quite quick to set up despite the stiffening of my fingers in the cold and the instant numbness after touching anything metal, and it was quite warm inside with plenty of room for our packs in the vestibule. In the morning however, we noticed quite a high degree of what I took to be condensation. I just put it down to the fact that it was very cold outside.
The pitching instructions weren't that wonderful although the tent was so easy to set up it didn't really matter. I've since noticed you can get newer (and better) instructions as PDF from the Salewa website.
Our next expedition was to Freycinet National Park. The tent again performed well and not even any condensation this time - mind you it was very hot each day, there was no rain and even drinking water was scarce. Unfortunately Morag fell on our last day and, while not injuring herself too much, broke her only pair of glasses so we did no more walking in that short trip to Tasmania.
The next time we were to use the tent was in Denmark in the spring. We were staying in proper camp grounds as we had far too heavy packs to do any proper walking. We got clear weather most of the time but when it did rain heavily things got wet inside the tent and in the vestibules. I gave the question of how the water was getting in much thought and came up with a few theories. Once we were in Finland we hit a very rainy period - heavy rain every day for around 2 weeks so I had plenty of chance to try my theories out.
We have a tarpaulin (a tough plastic groundsheet) to put under the tent to protect the floor from sharp sticks etc we may have missed clearing from under the tent, and also to provide a floor in the vestibule to keep packs out of the mud. I thought that if a corner of this was poking out from under the fly then water would run off the tent and onto the tarp putting the tent in a little sea of water. While the tent floor is meant to be waterproof I didn't expect it to actually cope with sitting in a permanent puddle. I paid careful attention to the positioning of the tarp after this but when it rained again we still got wet. It was a good idea, and probably would get you very wet if you let it poke out, but my investiagtion had to continue.
After some observation and experimentation I found a number of faults.
I was dissappointed because in every other way I really liked the tent. Easy to set up, roomy, lightweight for its size, plenty of pockets and good quality tent pegs that didn't bend easily (so good we had some stolen in Denmark). I'd seen other tents since and still preffered ours. It seemed to get nothing but good reviews on the Internet. It wasn't a cheap tent but I had thought it was good value for money and after all you don't want a dodgy tent when camping - you'll get wet.
In my annoyance I sent an email to Salewa with a list of problems and a suggestion or two for future versions. Based on previous experience with companies I rated my chances of a reply about 50%. Given a reply I would say about 80% chance of it being a "thankyou for your feedback, we value your custom". Perhaps 15% chance it would suggest we upgrade to the latest model (perhaps I've been in computing too long). The response was a bit slow but when it came I was blown away.
Bernhard Schnaus, from Salewa, went through each of the faults I listed and explained how they had been addressed in the newer model and then offered us the newer model at no cost, including free shipping to wherever we were in the world. I'm really impressed.
I'm not likely to need to buy another tent anytime soon but I know when I do I can be completely comfortable with buying a Salewa. Every product will have the odd dodgy edition, given enough time, so the real test is how well the company deal with the situation - and Salewa couldn't have done better. It would also seem that they can't have too many dodgy products or they would go broke by offering such excellent service. When our new model arrives I'll try to update this page and let you know how it goes.
Our new tent has arrived and indeed all the problems seem to have been fixed. The toggles are now fastened differently and the fly looks to be the right shape and size. Salewa told me the floor should be completely waterproof and not leak, even in a puddle. As yet we haven't put it to the test but I'm optimistic.
Apart from the problems our first tent had, described above, the Sierra Leone has performed very well (and Morag and I have slept in it for several months in several countries). Now those problems appear to be fixed I think any prospective tent purchasers should take a good look at this tent. I'm really happy with it and estatic with Salewa's customer service. I'll try to do another update after we have given the new tent a try however as we are about to experience our first British winter it may be a while before we venture outside again...