Very frustrating experience having ordered an underblanket and top quilt in the April sale.
They took the usual and expected six weeks or so to be made and to arrive, although there were some statements that they might be early at around four weeks, but these proved to be optimistic.
The underblanket looked okay, some of the sewing was a little disappointing, and a cord lock difficult to extract from the channel where it had accidentally been sewn in, but nothing drastic.
The top quilt again was a little disappointing on some of the sewing which looked a bit rough, but a major problem for me was that the quilt just wasn't long enough and wouldn't come up even above shoulder height, let alone up to under my chin and no way would the neck baffle fasten up due to it not being at neck level but around my shoulders !
The website states the quilts as being 2m length, but measuring mine it seemed more like 1.83m usable length, but then the end footbox is a simple gathered arrangement rather than a seperate sewn in panel. What this means is that a lot of the 1.83m length is lost when using the quilt due to it going up and over the length of your feet, and pulling the neck end of the quilt down around below shoulder level.
On querying this with the supplier it seemed that the quilts were made from 2m long panels but these would shorten in effective length when sewn and stuffed. Why the website doesn't state that and misleads into thinking they are 2m finished size I don't know, and frustrating to have waited so long for delivery to find out and to have ended up with something I couldn't actually use after all that time.
Having discussed it with them I parcelled it back up and posted it back to be replaced by a new customised one a few inches longer. This took several more weeks to arrive, some more misinformation on timings and despatch along the way, but eventually turned up. Couldn't believe it when I tried it for size and had the same problem again ! Got the tape measure out and it was the same size as the original, maybe even a centimetre or two shorter.
A closer look at the replacement also showed some very poor areas of sewing, unacceptable quality, and a sizeable flaw or snag in the material, all of which would have meant it being returned anyway, even if still not the right size.
I was told that the seamstress confirmed she had made it from over-sized panels and it should be considerably bigger than before. All I can think is that my longer one may have been shipped to someone else by mistake, but who knows. Having spent a long and frustrating time on this I had lost confidence in the product, the quality, the customer service etc and asked for a refund and for the faulty quilty to be collected by courier.
In fairness there were no arguments from the supplier who agreed to arrange collection but wouldn't refund until they received it back. Several collection attempts didn't happen, probably yodels fault rather than the supplier, but why use a rubbish firm like yodel in the first place, and after a couple of weeks of more frustrating and wasted time I posted it off myself at cost of a further tenner.
The refund duly arrived, although four quid short on the postage, which I'm told should be refunded shortly. Requests for comments or feedback on the quality issues and length have so far not resulted in anything, although I understand Mat, the owner, was overseas for a while and then currently instructing on a course somewhere so probably hasn't been able to have a look at it himself.
I thought long and hard about posting up a poor review on the whole experience, having heard of a lot of satisfied folk in the past, and wanting UKhammocks to be successful as it is after all a local UK supplier in a small niche market where we aren't spoilt for choice. On the other hand I heard of a number of dissatisfied customers more recently, with stories of ridiculous delays, poor communications and some quality issues, but I was optimistic and hoped they were just odd and isolated instances and placed the order anyway. I don't know if anything has changed in the business in the last year or two to affect their previous good reputation, but based on my own recent experiences I sadly couldn't recommend them at all,
Some pics below of the material flaw and some of the sewing issues, of which there were many more.
They took the usual and expected six weeks or so to be made and to arrive, although there were some statements that they might be early at around four weeks, but these proved to be optimistic.
The underblanket looked okay, some of the sewing was a little disappointing, and a cord lock difficult to extract from the channel where it had accidentally been sewn in, but nothing drastic.
The top quilt again was a little disappointing on some of the sewing which looked a bit rough, but a major problem for me was that the quilt just wasn't long enough and wouldn't come up even above shoulder height, let alone up to under my chin and no way would the neck baffle fasten up due to it not being at neck level but around my shoulders !
The website states the quilts as being 2m length, but measuring mine it seemed more like 1.83m usable length, but then the end footbox is a simple gathered arrangement rather than a seperate sewn in panel. What this means is that a lot of the 1.83m length is lost when using the quilt due to it going up and over the length of your feet, and pulling the neck end of the quilt down around below shoulder level.
On querying this with the supplier it seemed that the quilts were made from 2m long panels but these would shorten in effective length when sewn and stuffed. Why the website doesn't state that and misleads into thinking they are 2m finished size I don't know, and frustrating to have waited so long for delivery to find out and to have ended up with something I couldn't actually use after all that time.
Having discussed it with them I parcelled it back up and posted it back to be replaced by a new customised one a few inches longer. This took several more weeks to arrive, some more misinformation on timings and despatch along the way, but eventually turned up. Couldn't believe it when I tried it for size and had the same problem again ! Got the tape measure out and it was the same size as the original, maybe even a centimetre or two shorter.
A closer look at the replacement also showed some very poor areas of sewing, unacceptable quality, and a sizeable flaw or snag in the material, all of which would have meant it being returned anyway, even if still not the right size.
I was told that the seamstress confirmed she had made it from over-sized panels and it should be considerably bigger than before. All I can think is that my longer one may have been shipped to someone else by mistake, but who knows. Having spent a long and frustrating time on this I had lost confidence in the product, the quality, the customer service etc and asked for a refund and for the faulty quilty to be collected by courier.
In fairness there were no arguments from the supplier who agreed to arrange collection but wouldn't refund until they received it back. Several collection attempts didn't happen, probably yodels fault rather than the supplier, but why use a rubbish firm like yodel in the first place, and after a couple of weeks of more frustrating and wasted time I posted it off myself at cost of a further tenner.
The refund duly arrived, although four quid short on the postage, which I'm told should be refunded shortly. Requests for comments or feedback on the quality issues and length have so far not resulted in anything, although I understand Mat, the owner, was overseas for a while and then currently instructing on a course somewhere so probably hasn't been able to have a look at it himself.
I thought long and hard about posting up a poor review on the whole experience, having heard of a lot of satisfied folk in the past, and wanting UKhammocks to be successful as it is after all a local UK supplier in a small niche market where we aren't spoilt for choice. On the other hand I heard of a number of dissatisfied customers more recently, with stories of ridiculous delays, poor communications and some quality issues, but I was optimistic and hoped they were just odd and isolated instances and placed the order anyway. I don't know if anything has changed in the business in the last year or two to affect their previous good reputation, but based on my own recent experiences I sadly couldn't recommend them at all,
Some pics below of the material flaw and some of the sewing issues, of which there were many more.
