TheSamba.com :: View topic - Anyone successfully ordered from cavevan.com recently?

Tue May 28, 2024 12:31 pm

Ordered a replacement tent fabric over 11 months ago. Card was charged during order, I still don't have the tent, and no idea when I'll receive it or get a refund....

Chronology:
Placed order on June 23rd after confirming estimated 6-8 leadtime. Good Fall project...
By October of last year, didn't receive it and requested an update.
Cole acknowledged orders were taking longer than expected and he'd follow-up.
Didn't receive by end of year and reached out via email in Nov/Dec for an update. No response
Shortly before Christmas, I texted Cole and got a response. Apologized for missing email inquiry and said he'd followup after holidays.
In January, said some tops shipped and some didn't and he was trying to understand why.
Ping'd him in February via text. No response.
Tried again in March. Replied that tops were shipping again and he's working through back-orders.
Ping'd again in April via text. Replied they are shipping and should be caught-up on back orders soon.
A week ago, reached-out via phone and text and requested a confirmed ship date or a refund. Sent a copy of my order to ensure he was tracking the correct one. No response.

Anyone else had a recent good or bad experience w/Cavevan.com orders???

Tue May 28, 2024 2:01 pm

Sorry about that situation. It looks like many issues on their end, but i think they may finally deliver for you.

I was looking for their entire floor cut option but will stay away until I hear you are whole.

Jerry

Tue May 28, 2024 5:19 pm

This is unfortunate. While I can't speak to your situation, I have heard of delays from his suppliers across the pond. No excuse for bad follow-up, but his business expanded rapidly and he may be over taxed and under supported....either by his vendors and/or finding folks to do the work.

His post's were an inspiration for me to dive into the T4.

Sat Jun 08, 2024 2:02 pm

Perhaps it was vendor issues after all. I see cavevan on IG recently posting about Reimo poptops "finally" arriving AND tents "after way too long of a wait" being installed. Still no excuse for the slow/no response, but judging by the amount of varied shop work his outfit does, a simple tent order for shipping can get sent to the back of the line. Clearly they need someone on the customer service side to help with this...

Sun Jun 09, 2024 5:25 am

I received a reply from Cole six days ago, and he mentioned that he's dealing with some heartbreaking and challenging family issues in addition to the problems with suppliers.

Sounds like a potential compounding of issues affecting with his ability to manage the business, and I hope he will recover from them soon.

In the meantime I don't yet have the product I paid-for approximately one year ago and he wrote that he's working through backlog, would prioritize, and I might see it in two weeks.

Mon Jun 10, 2024 11:34 am

One of the Reimo tops is mine.

I ordered it almost two years ago.

Cole has responded to my emails. I think most of the problem is circumstances outside of his control. The quality of his work is evident in his posts and his customer posts. It was on the basis of that impression that I first committed to buy the Reimo top through him. It is a significant financial commitment.

Enough time has passed that I have changed my mind on the Reimo top, and will keep my EVC stock. If someone is interested in buying my Reimo top, see my classified ad.

kourt

Tue Jun 11, 2024 1:38 pm

I'm here.

Honestly the last few years here have bene rough, especially with the tents.

Its such a tiny niche market that it has had some very unfortunate problems since 2020.

The supply chain, labor, and so much more.

Right now its just me and a part time helper. Before the pandemic there were way more of us here.

As an example, my local Subway sandwich shop is closed on weekends because they can't find labor here. It's an issue here at the moment.

So when I get sick or the most recent death in the family, it really slows the show down.

I currently get more emails, texts, calls than I can reply to. There just isn't enough time in the day to work on vans and answer every message at the moment. I try everyday, I actually love talking to you guys. Which creates its own issue because we end up talking for for way too long when I do get to the phone. :D . Right now if I were to spend 2 min to reply to each message I have it would be a straight 53 hours of work.

The only reason I know of the post is because someone told me.

The backlog of tents is getting filled, its just taking longer than I ever hoped. Being such a niche product we have had a hard time keeping the attention of manufactures in this environment. They all make promises, then we run into the same supply and labor issues.

I've thrown every resource I have at the issue. I've had multilple manufactures, supply issues, labor issues, I've paid far more into trying to solve the tents than the cost anyone. The backorders are catching up every week. Its just been slow.

Everything else is flowing.

I hope to get this last issue from the last few years finally solved and get back to making people happy with their vans.

Thu Jun 20, 2024 6:53 pm

1. If I order a tent now, will it ship within 2 weeks? And
2. Does the side window lower cut match/parallel the roof line? Some pictures seem to show it angling up away from the roof (which looks funky), some seem more parallel.

Mon Jul 08, 2024 8:30 am

owokie wrote: 1. If I order a tent now, will it ship within 2 weeks? And
2. Does the side window lower cut match/parallel the roof line? Some pictures seem to show it angling up away from the roof (which looks funky), some seem more parallel.

2. The new design since 2018 has a parallel lower window line on the side windows. The crooked line drove me nuts and took years to get the manufacturer to adapt my redesign.

1. We seem to still be dealing with inconsistency in shipping from the manufacturer. 🤬😡. Working everyday to solve this.

Tue Jul 09, 2024 10:08 pm

I’ve got to give a shout out to Cole. One of the Reimo tops is mine, too. Despite the *very long* delay in delivery from Germany to Colorado, Cole did what he said he would do and sent me a picture of the new top I’m pretty sure about a day after they arrived at his shop. I’m looking forward to working with him on an install one of these days!

Sat Jul 20, 2024 11:36 am

Thanks.

We did just get 2 of those Reimo tops installed so far. One more going on this week.

Tents have been shipping and getting caught up. Hopefully those will speed up here a bit soon.

Sat Jul 20, 2024 5:20 pm

Cole, what is your best point of contact for new work? Phone, website or some other way?

Thu Sep 19, 2024 1:41 pm

Sorry everyone .

I have been extra hard to get ahold of the last couple months. We had a significant death in the family and everything fell on my shoulders to take care of. Things are getting back on track here.

The last of the backordered tents are supposed to be shipping. So that last issue should be behind us soon.

Thu Dec 05, 2024 7:28 am

This took far longer than it should have, but wanted to report back that I received my tent last week.

Cole was clearly struggling with supply line and personal challenges and these are hopefully behind him now.

Too cold here in the Northeast for me to install the new tent, so I will do it in the Spring and hope the tent quality lives up to expectations.

Fri Sep 05, 2025 7:49 am

VanGeek wrote: This took far longer than it should have, but wanted to report back that I received my tent last week.

Cole was clearly struggling with supply line and personal challenges and these are hopefully behind him now.

Too cold here in the Northeast for me to install the new tent, so I will do it in the Spring and hope the tent quality lives up to expectations.

Status update? Time for a new tent here, wondering if you were satisfied with the fit and quality. Thanks!

Fri Sep 26, 2025 8:33 am

Sorry for the delay in responding -- been traveling a lot lately and am behind in checking the forum.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the quality of the cavevan tent. I'm somewhat disappointed with the fit since I had hoped for a wrinkle-free install and wasn't able to achieve it. Not horrible, but not perfectly smooth like the OEM tent was. Admittedly, this may be due to my inexperience and installation. But I've looked at the install from every angle and don't see a way to eliminate the wrinkles -- many of them seem to be associated with the stitching around the screened windows (vs how the tent was installed to the roof or pop-top). I've also observed that many other 3rd party installs have wrinkles in them across the spectrum of suppliers, and the process for making these tents overseas may include a lot of manual labor that introduces some inconsistencies. If yes, each tent may be slightly different.

My install documented here: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10377156#10377156