We bought an 11 foot Octagon Cantilever Umbrella by Treasure Garden with an O'bravia fabric. O'bravia is considered a C grade fabric, according to Treasure Garden's website.
It is such a beautiful umbrella. It's tall, has nice fabric and creates a lot of shade. And that's where the good comments stop. We bought this from a clearance center for $300. The "non-clearance" was on sale for $400, but says it retails for just over $1000. Our umbrella was returned, but we were told, "It wasn't even taken out of the package." Yeah sure, I know better now.
We got home, set up the umbrella and it wouldn't crank open. Ah, now we know why they brought the umbrella back. AND, we can't return it because we bought it in the clearance center. So, Doug and I set out to take it apart and figure out why it won't work - we figured it's already broken and worthless, so why not?
The reason: the company used a string about the size of a shoe lace, but weaker, to open and close this umbrella. The cord was broken and twisted up inside the arm. Really???? It retails at over $1000 and you can't put a decent rope/string/wire through it??? If the string breaks, the umbrella is worthless.
After working on the umbrella for a couple hours each day, for a few days, we went to Lowe's to get a galvanized wire to run through the umbrella. Guess what? It works.
For a very small amount of money we made the umbrella stronger and better than the $1000 retail version and we only paid $300. Granted it cost frustration also, but sheesh, Treasure Garden could have used something better than a weak shoe string.
Oh, and P.S., good luck trying to get parts or warranty info. Everything I searched for, on their website and others, said to go back to the store you buy it from. Really? A retail store is going to have spare parts or wants to deal with the manufacturer's warranty? No. That's why it's a MANUFACTURER'S warranty.
These umbrellas suck!
These umbrellas suck!
I haven't noticed this blog of yours but I love it. That umbrella is awesome, I'm glad you got it fixed!
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ReplyDeleteI have this same umbrella & same issue string broken....when you used galvanized wire (please clarify which dept or size you found worked) did you have any problem getting it through or later winding where the pivot meets the arm ? (top of umbrella seems to be more of a 90degree so wasn't sure if that posed a problem...thanks
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but I don't remember the size of wire we used, but we bought it at Lowe's (they have a nice selection of galvanized wire). We took the broken string with us and used wire that is about the same thickness.
ReplyDeleteWe do have some issues with the wire, so we recommend using a coated wire; ours isn't coated so it catches a little and we have to wind it back up to unwind it sometimes.
We didn't have any problems getting the wire through, but the umbrella isn't the easiest to take apart and put back together.
I hope this helps and good luck!
Reposted comment without the attempted company advertising:
ReplyDeleteHi there. Nice blog. You have shared useful information. Keep up the good work! This blog is really interesting and gives good details.
Hey we are having the same problem! Luckly we've gotten about 4 years of use out of it, but we paid $600 (on sale!!). Unfortunately the string is caught inside of it, and we can't get it out. Any suggestions? Did you have this problem? We bought galvanized wire to replace it-1/16th I believe. But its useless if we can't get the string out!
ReplyDeleteSorry you're having the same problem! Ours was quite an ordeal as I'm sure you can understand.
ReplyDeleteThe string was broken inside the long "neck"(sorry I can't think of a better word), but we were able to turn the handle back and forth and pull the string a little at a time and get it freed from inside. I hope there's a portion of the string you can reach or pull.
I'm sorry, but I can't think of a suggestion to get the string out if you can't reach any part of it - there's not really a way to open the "neck". If you can't reach any part of it, I hope you can get enough of the arm taken apart to reach the string. We had to take the ends off and take most of the arm apart to get the wire through anyways - maybe doing that will help get to the string.
If you are able to get the string out and replace it with the wire, the wire will catch a little too, but we usually pull down on the center of the umbrella (while closing it) to help the wire advance easier and we haven't had any issues.
I've been trying an online search to see if I can find some kind of manual or visual of how to take the beast of an umbrella apart - we had to learn as we took it apart and it was a struggle. The Treasure Garden site still isn't much help. I've found manuals for other variations of their umbrellas and a manual about how to use the Cantilever umbrella we have, but it doesn't show assembly. If you would like it for reference at all:
http://www.treasuregarden.com/locator/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Manual_AG28.pdf
Good luck, sorry if I wasn't much help! Let me know how it goes.
6/21/12 a reader posted a comment:
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I've removed the attempt at free advertising.
Jeane Kenneth posted a comment on 8/19/2010:
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u have a nice umbrella the decoration is so amazing. Your patio looks so inviting, like you could just sit down with a big glass of iced tea.
Comment 8/16/18, removed ad:
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