BCT Outdoors Ltd
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Ever since Lord Baden Powell created the Scout movement back in 1908, BCT has been producing tents along with an unrivalled customer service for excellence. The company’s success story relies heavily on the importance given to research and development and to both listening and acting on the demands of the customer. This philosophy backed by traditional skills has enabled the company to build a large customer base both at home and abroad. Everything in our collection is manufactured at our factory in Bradford, Yorkshire. We do not import any tents. As you will discover throughout, our attention to detail, both in the selection of raw material and in every aspect of production, we still follow the stringent guidelines which Clifford Fawcett (grandfather of the present chairman) insisted upon almost 100 years ago.
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Latest Reviews
***Follow-up to previous review***BCT Outdoors have now been back in touch and given a full refund, and an apology for the delay. I'm happy with that outcome. Delay aside, they have been polite and courteous, and I want to emphasise that both the wash and the repair of the tent were fine - no problems there at all. The waterproofing issue did moot this of course, but I know that sometimes things go wrong (I went to the company on the strength of a friend's recommendation, so it's clearly not a universal problem). Just bad luck, but that's life.
On 03/07/2017 I sent my 4m bell tent to BCT Outdoors to be repaired, washed and waterproofed.When they received it, I was called by one of their staff to confirm it had arrived, and to advise me that, because the fabric was old, waterproofing would not restore the tent to pristine condition, but would only prolong its life. I would probably need to replace it in "a year or two". This was exactly what I expected, and I said I was happy for the work to proceed.I got the tent back, and all seemed well. The fabric was much cleaner, and the existing damage had been very neatly patched and repaired.However, when I took the tent camping a week later, in only moderately heavy rain, the waterproofing failed utterly. Water penetrated across the whole of the fabric, and flooded the tent completely, soaking us and our possessions.I contacted BCT Outdoor on 01/08/2017 to make them aware of the issue. I received a reply the next day to thank me for letting them know, and say they would be in touch. Since then I have sent them several more emails and a facebook message. I have not heard any more from them to date.As things stand, I consider the entire cost of £159 to be completely wasted. While the wash and repair were fine, the total failure of the waterproofing has basically destroyed the tent. Before we sent it, it was leaky but usable. Now, it's a write-off.I don't know whether the waterproofing process went wrong, or whether the assessment of the fabric was over-optimistic - both are understandable - but either way I have paid £159 for an outcome I was specifically told to expect (a "year or two" more use of the tent) and I haven't received it. Furthermore, the complete lack of any meaningful communication from BCT Outdoor is extremely disappointing.Should BCT Outdoor get in touch and help to address this, I will post a follow-up. However, for now I can only advise that sending your tent to BCT Outdoor is taking a huge gamble.
