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#165283 - 04/25/12 01:20 AM Get BD MegaMid not GoLite Shangri La?
sandia Offline
member

Registered: 04/18/12
Posts: 68
Great designs. Wonderful (though vague) affiliation with Ray Jardine.

Purchased Hex-3 pyramid tent 6-8 years ago. Wonderful product. Great experience with this in four seasons, until recently.

The "Nest" bug net for this and the renamed and essentially identical "Shangri-La-3" is suddenly discontinued. Can't buy it.

GoLite customer service is ZERO on this problem. Basically, message is "tough luck, pal."

Had I instead purchased, long ago, the iconic and very similar (and significantly larger and lighter) Black Diamond "MegaMid" I would now be MUCH MUCH more satisfied.


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#165285 - 04/25/12 01:47 AM Re: Get BD MegaMid not GoLite Shangri La? [Re: sandia]
lori Offline
member

Registered: 01/22/08
Posts: 2801
GoLite has repackaged the Nest and the fly as a single tent - you buy them together now. I picked up the fly by itself on deep discount so I could use it for SAR.

The Nest is too heavy anyway - I am making a removable bugnet to attach around the bottom perimeter of the fly sheet.

_________________________
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few." Shunryu Suzuki

http://hikeandbackpack.com

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#165632 - 05/03/12 06:35 PM Re: Get BD MegaMid not GoLite Shangri La? [Re: lori]
sandia Offline
member

Registered: 04/18/12
Posts: 68

I've been sorely skunked on a fairly major purchase from a premium brand; "GoLite."

GoLite is by definition, an unreliable company with an unreliable product; simply disrespectful toward their customers.

Analogy is that you purchased a Ford and after a couple of years, Ford said spare parts are no longer available.
You've got to buy a new car instead. Sorry.

By purchasing its product, I mistakenly relied on GoLite, which can't be bothered with the most simple customer service of making "nest" available to those who trusted them previously.

Black Diamond's comparable, and arguably superior product, has been on the market for nearly 30 years and the company has long record of reliability in this regard.

In past few years, down-market products have appeared, that are also quite comparable in a practical sense, at far lower prices.

My GoLite purchase was a significant error. Am a fool.
Don't buy from them.

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#165713 - 05/07/12 09:21 PM Re: Get BD MegaMid not GoLite Shangri La? [Re: sandia]
CJennings Offline
member

Registered: 01/03/02
Posts: 150
Loc: Utah
Originally Posted By sandia

I've been sorely skunked on a fairly major purchase from a premium brand; "GoLite."

GoLite is by definition, an unreliable company with an unreliable product; simply disrespectful toward their customers.

By purchasing its product, I mistakenly relied on GoLite, which can't be bothered with the most simple customer service of making "nest" available to those who trusted them previously.

My GoLite purchase was a significant error. Am a fool.
Don't buy from them.


You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but publicly berating GoLite on this forum sounds harsh to me.

I recently purchased the GoLite Shangri-La 5 along with the bug nest at 50% off. A screaming deal. After setting it up and checking it out throughly, it looks like a very fine quality piece of gear to me. The details of construction look fine to me, so I do not agree that I "should not buy from them".

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#165717 - 05/07/12 11:54 PM Re: Get BD MegaMid not GoLite Shangri La? [Re: sandia]
oldranger Offline
member

Registered: 02/23/07
Posts: 1735
Loc: California (southern)
I would agree that the megamid, like so many Patagonia/Black Diamond products is quite good. I get the impression that you are unsatisfied with your GoLite purchase, but it is hard to tell what the issue is since you aren't very specific. I haven't purchased any of their stuff, but from what I have seen, your experience is atypical.

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#165718 - 05/08/12 01:10 AM Re: Get BD MegaMid not GoLite Shangri La? [Re: oldranger]
lori Offline
member

Registered: 01/22/08
Posts: 2801
There is no bad gear - just wrong gear for the user.
_________________________
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few." Shunryu Suzuki

http://hikeandbackpack.com

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#165728 - 05/08/12 11:39 AM Re: Get BD MegaMid not GoLite Shangri La? [Re: lori]
OregonMouse Offline
member

Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6799
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
Mountain Laurel Designs is another maker of excellent pyramid tents. They also make net tents to go inside. More expensive than GoLite, but definitely lighter weight, especially if you get them in cuben fiber, which will be half the weight and twice the price.... laugh

GoLite has made a number of far-reaching corporate decisions recently, of which no longer selling their outer and inner shelters separately is only one very minute part. Their major change has been to discontinue selling through retail stores such as REI and to offer their products only through their own outlets. Whether these changes will work to the benefit of the corporation, only time will tell. In the meantime, there's not a lot we can do about it, and indulging in diatribes against the corporation is an exercise in futility. Frankly, the radically lowered prices during their changeover should have been a clue that changes were coming!

As far as product changes go, GoLite's decision not to sell their shelter components separately is no more a betrayal of past customers than are the annual model changes by footwear companies, whose next year's model of the same shoe will have a completely different last so that we have to start searching all over again for a shoe that fits! Annoying, but there's not much we can do about it.

For those "left out" by the GoLite policy change, there are solutions. A number of "cottage" firms make inner net tents (Mountain Laurel Designs and Bearpaw Tents are two that make them specifically for pyramids), Black Diamond still sells their net tents separately, and there is also the used gear market. Or you can do as Lori is doing and sew a strip of netting onto the bottom of the pyramid to make it bug-proof. It isn't as though everyone has been left completely in the lurch!


Edited by OregonMouse (05/08/12 11:42 AM)
_________________________
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view--E. Abbey

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#165798 - 05/10/12 12:48 PM Re: Get BD MegaMid not GoLite Shangri La? [Re: OregonMouse]
OregonMouse Offline
member

Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6799
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
Whether or not you agree with what GoLite is doing, here's an interview with the CEO in which he explains the direction the corporation is going: Andrew Skurka interview with Demetri Coupounas.

I personally have never been a GoLite fan (I own exactly one GoLite item, a pair of Reed rain pants I was able to find just before they vanished from the market altogether), but it's interesting to see how they are radically changing their business model.
_________________________
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view--E. Abbey

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#165882 - 05/14/12 04:18 PM Re: Get BD MegaMid not GoLite Shangri La? [Re: OregonMouse]
sandia Offline
member

Registered: 04/18/12
Posts: 68
Thanks for posting the link.
Difficult to understand company's intent from the "CEO-speak." But is probably safe to assume the worst regarding business.

Orwell wisely points out that the actual meaning of propaganda, in general, is the precise opposite of its apparent meaning.

GoLite recently broke one of its longstanding commitments; that customers would have continued option of adding components to Hex/Shangri-La, a product from which they've perhaps enjoyed some very substantial sales.

This shows a very poor and uncaring attitude that is doubtless reflected in other ways.

My girlfriend has unfortunately laid down the law that it's either get a "nest" or get another tent.

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#165884 - 05/14/12 09:11 PM Re: Get BD MegaMid not GoLite Shangri La? [Re: sandia]
Rick_D Offline
member

Registered: 01/06/02
Posts: 2939
Loc: NorCal
Look at it this way. You have a product discontinued for many years and now, you can't buy a fitted accessory for it. In that regard, it's like tens, maybe hundreds of millions of other products for which one cannot buy accessories from the maker.

But there are the usual other paths, for the persistent. It's not like you can't talk somebody with an unused one into selling it.

Hard to buy the argument Golite has acted in bad faith, more like you made a bad assumption. You got out pretty cheaply, I own several cameras and one car built by companies that are now defunct. Now that's abandonment.

Cheers,
_________________________
--Rick

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#166050 - 05/21/12 03:10 PM Re: Get BD MegaMid not GoLite Shangri La? [Re: Rick_D]
sandia Offline
member

Registered: 04/18/12
Posts: 68
Perhaps you are right.
The item I am looking for was available until the end of 2011. I'd guess it was launched in about 1990.

Often, a truly great item is available for decades based on demand. Black Diamond's Megamid being one case in point, having been launched in about 1980. It's certainly nice when you can rely on a manufacturer.

I've only just realized that GoLight recently abandoned hexagonal design for its pyramid tents.

The hex design offered, relative to square 'mids, at least a theoretical advantage in shedding wind, and perhaps a bit less corner space where headroom approaches zero inches. I guess the headroom issue is because of a more steeply sloped canopy on hex (each of its six corners were closer to the centerpole than the four corners of a square plan; hence a steeper pitch). Headroom advantage may also be slightly related to shallower angle of the corners on floor plan, but am uncertain of this.

Anyway, the hex offered some advantages over a square floor plan, but apparently not enough for GoLite.

Probably also was more expensive to manufacture and it may have also resulted in a slightly heavier product than a simple square floor pattern, although I am uncertain about this.

For some years, the Shangri-La 'mids maintained the hex pattern, but apparently no more.

All that said, at present the prices from GoLight are astonishingly inexpensive.

Am considering a Shangri-La 5 as a solution to girl-friend's demands. It seems like a fine tent.

It's listed at 90 square feet. Does anybody know square-footage of its "next?"






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