Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First, we are avid campers. We camp in rustic sites all around the world, at least half a dozen times a year. We have had four tents over the past 20 years and only get new ones as they wear out or as our family has grown in number and size. I still have a 15 year old high end backpack tent (USMC style/issued Eureka) that is too small for the whole family and our existing family tent (a well designed and manufactured Coleman tent, I know this is rare), which has lasted 6 years with a couple repairs but now needs replacement. I prefer quality products but it's tough to find a quality McMansion tent without spending a fortune. That's what I call the massive tents that my wife is looking for right now. She wants the comfort of size. She found the Teepee and it looked interesting. We read A LOT of reviews, very thoroughly. We understood the short comings. We read all about the modifications that others had made to adapt the tent (water proofing, new guy lines, new stakes, Velcro doors and windows) and ordered all the supplies to do the same. We knew this was a low budget family camping tent but for the price (with modifications) and its size, it would be worth it, for at least a couple years of use. Then the kids would be off to college and we could down size again to a better product. It was late after coming home from work but we were all excited to see that the tent had come in the mail. We set it up anyway, just too see what it looked like. We fully assembled the tent, staked it out, tightened all the guy lines, and inspected our work. We quickly noticed all the short comings but loved the idea/concept/design and were excited to take it out in a couple weeks. The tent material is low in quality, the seams could be stitched better, the guy lines are cheap, the stakes are rather small for such a large tent, and the doors and windows have Velcro tabs (enough to hold them closed but not seal them from wind and rain). Pretty much exactly as all the reviews stated. We planned to make all the modifications over the weekend, including adding guy lines to the doors as we noticed the nylon door just sits on the mesh door and clearly could not hold out the water in a heavy rain. We woke up and went to work the next morning and unfortunately it rained hard that day and the wind was blowing quite strong, maybe 20 mph gusts at most. We couldn't wait to get home and see how the tent fared. We expected a little water in the tent but did not expect what we found. 5 guy lines had snapped, the seam by a window separated and ripped the window. The tent was flooded, not just from the tear in the window, but also from the doors which we had already suspected needed additional guy lines, and the lower vents which were closed with the Velcro tabs. I might have tried to salvage it and still make the modifications if it wasn't for the ripped window, but then I thought about it again. This tent didn't even make it a full 24hours, set up in the shelter of my back yard, without anyone even sleeping in it. I can be adaptive and frugal, but this one goes back with a full review. It's a shame that the quality wasn't better because the concept is great. If this was made by a high end company I would probably buy it again, even for twice the price. In hind sight this purchase was a bad idea. Buying something cheap and trying to make it better just didn't work. We're back to buying quality even if it's a little smaller.