I appreciate your comments Bill.

Thing is though, it's not just a bad batch of poles. I bought this tent years ago when I was doing a photography job over in Georgia and had to back country camp over at FDR. I've always been primarily a car camper and didn't have a suitable tent. I picked the Solitaire up so as not to invest a lot of money.

It held up fine on that first outing but the very next time I used it over in Tannehill SP (Alabama), the lower tent pole folded like a pair of dueces.

I haven't used the tent since but have recently renewed my interest in backpacking and thought I'd drag it out and see if I could rejuvenate it. In doing some research on getting a fix for the pole, I'm finding that even now years later, the overwhelming complaint about the Solitaire is the poles; many people even saying that they folded up when they tried the tent out at home after buying it.

Eureka's fix for the problem seems to be selling you a new set of poles.