Garden Buildings Direct/kybotech

lovehottubs

Looked everywhere for a Summer house for a reasonable price, found garden buildings direct, the pictures on their website and the way to order was really simple. So I contacted them by phone (the man wasn't very helpful, but still) I ordered a 8x12 "summer house" was ask about flooring, what colour paint I wanted etc, so all good....A few weeks later I get an email saying someone would be calling me to ensure someone was there to accept the delivery....no call....I get home (at 11.30am) I don't work late....Low and behold on my driveway in full public view is my £900.00 "summer house"... now I know it wasn't expensive, and you get what you pay for etc...but £900.00 isn't cheap!.... I'm never brought so much crap in my life!! Nearly ALL the wood is very bowed, nothing fits, there isn't enough screws or nails, the summerhouse don't fit the base, there isn't enough felt for the roof, not that that matters as it cracks when you try to bend it into shape....and as for instructions, also the only roof tacks my husband could find were too big...and has come straight through the roof because it's so thin....can't wait till it rains!!..The "summerhouse" is 8x12 and the instructions are for a 8x8!!...I can't do anything about it now as I brought it a couple of months ago to house a hot tub and couldn't finish it until the tub was installed...so past the period of no return!!...its not a summer house it's a cheap shed!!! Wouldn't buy from them again!

pcrich

I ordered a summerhouse costing over £1000 on the 16/6/16 with a delivery date for 30th June I got an email two days before the delivery date saying the earliest delivery was 8th July. (Today). I haven not had any other emails or calls from them and taken the day off today for delivery only to find the delivery date has been changed to 18/7 this morning. You ring customer service to face a wait of over 26 minutes. The person you speak to is clearly in a foreign county and says how sorry he is but provides no answers or excuses. he just keep repeating the delivery date is the 18th July. Their customer service is dreadful I wish I hadn't ordered. search for reviews of garden building direct on the web there are hundreds of customers treated the same way. I wish I had seen them before ordering.

claird48

I have had nothing but problems with this company.
1. I ordered a metal shed but after I paid and waited a month I was told it couldnt be delivered for three months.
2. I asked for a refund but it wasnt paid. I had to ring up and remind them
3. Foolishly I ordered another shed, which arrived with missing parts and on looking at it was not suitable for purpose.
4. I asked for refund and pickup but have been stymied by the bureaucracy. They have an opaque web site and it is very difficult to use. It doesnt seem to keep a history of transactions either. I had to phone to get any service, But of course that does't leave a history
DO NOT USE

SpammyTheSpammer

claird48 wrote: »

I have had nothing but problems with this company.
1. I ordered a metal shed but after I paid and waited a month I was told it couldnt be delivered for three months.
2. I asked for a refund but it wasnt paid. I had to ring up and remind them
3. Foolishly I ordered another shed, which arrived with missing parts and on looking at it was not suitable for purpose.
4. I asked for refund and pickup but have been stymied by the bureaucracy. They have an opaque web site and it is very difficult to use. It doesnt seem to keep a history of transactions either. I had to phone to get any service, But of course that does't leave a history
DO NOT USE

that is awful. So sorry for you.

condlf

Ordered a Bella summer house and it was looks nothing like what was ordered. There are numerous holes in the wood that had to be filled with wood putty. The windows broke as they were put in as the plastic windows were seriously thin. Both of the door were the wrong size, they were to big across and too small in height. The wood is very poor quality and cheap wood. Very course and rough looking, tongue and groove was broke and didn't fit together. The floor even though opted for the more expensive was not strong and was quite thin. This summerhouse cost almost £1000 and if I had known about the standard and reviews that are also on another website that are almost every one a bad review I would not of bought from them.

I contacted the company and the only answer they gave was that's unfortunate. That was all the answer and help we got. Also because the summerhouse was now painted and the doors had to be made to fit as customer services was not willing to do anything they told us that it was now not in warranty. Which is a total joke as it needs painting to stop it rotting. Customer services were not even willing to help and stopped answering any questions. The summerhouse I would say is not worth more than £200 at the most.

The website is misleading

aaheaton

Wish you could have 0 stars, one is too good.
shocking customer services. Delivery drivers who cant read or count, x2 means 1+1=2 not 1. Customer service team are rude and unhelpful. Unable to reschedule delivery due poor website and customer service unwilling to help. On my 3rd delivery and must be nearly hour on the phone. All this before I can attempt to build the shed, lets hope it actually is a shed, wouldnt be surprised if its table, would have quicker to build it out of Lego!!!

JeanJeannie

Please don't dismiss genuine complaints from customers. We do not have a moan for nothing! This is the WORST company we have ever dealt with, and just wish we had read customer's reviews BEFORE placing an order. When the summerhouse did eventually arrive on 14 June they had sent the wrong size panels for one side of it. The builder couldn't believe how a company could make such a mistake. Perhaps 2 orders were mixed up on the delivery lorry as the driver took ages to deliver the items and he kept taking photos of the packs on the lorry. It soon became obvious that it was really messed up when he started to build. Furthermore the quality was extremely poor with warped beams, broken tongue and groove, broken and cracked panels so we immediately rejected the order as unfit for use. It took weeks before the pile of wood was collected from our garden, meanwhile it had to be covered in case of rain. They did agree to a full refund but unfortunately they insisted on refunding £1,304 directly into our builder's bank despite us warning them that we would not see this money! The builder was having financial problems and he used our money. We still have not received a penny of this refund! At least we were luckier than a lady on Facebook who paid £4,500 for a summerhouse which practically fell apart after less than 6 months, it was such poor quality! The photos she posted clearly showed panels on every side opening up! The company told her they would not refund, it was due to weather conditions, and it was too late for a refund! Compared to her we got off lightly. When we asked for a contact number for their CEO the person on the line hung up! So we did have a genuine complaint but they couldn't care less! Avoid like the plague!!!

petrat50

Bought a Billy-Oh stilted playhouse 9 months ago when we moved house. Fine during the summer months, but when the children went into it last month (February 2019), the roof was covered in mould, it was up the middle strut on back wall and the floor was absolutely saturated. Complained to GBD and they said this is just one of those things that happens and to wipe it down with a soapy cloth! What? How will a soapy cloth deal with a saturated floor? They then said we could have upgraded the floor and roof but we chose not to. No, we didn't because it clearly states that the products are 'pressure treated' to supposedly prevent these things happening. They don't! We've tried really hard to get this resolved as I think £500 for a playhouse is not a cheap product. They now tell us that it's out fault as we should have wood treated it as soon as we got it. They said the treatment they use lasts 4-6 weeks. Nowhere on their website or in our documentation is ANY of this mentioned. They are simply liars who refuse to deal with customers once they have your money! I would suggest people go elsewhere and not think you're getting something good for your money from these people unless you're prepared to pay on top to 'upgrade' everything they offer you and use your imagination on how to 'treat' your playhouse. Next they'll be telling me it isn't designed for children!!!:mad::mad:

JeanJeannie

Petrat50 Sorry to hear your awful experience with that useless company. They should not be in business as I think their products are not fit for use. I do hope people read these comments before placing an order with them. It was too late for us as we only read the negative reviews AFTER buying their summerhouse.
We were conned twice as our landscape gardener ordered the summerhouse on our behalf so the refund went into his bank. Needless to say we are still waiting for it. We then found another company and although it meant we were even more out of pocket, our new summerhouse is beautiful and we ware delighted with it! Complain to Trading Standards and good luck!

raymondo1004

I only wish I could select no stars!!
The only good point about this purchase was the driver was very good and arrived as expected. As for the rest well.........
There were bits of wood smashed and bearers that looked like they were just bent as bananas. The driver reported these back and said if I hadn't heard back to contact them direct. I reported that 1 floor panel was cracked in half, one side panel was damaged by whoever assembled it missed with the nails by a good 2 inches!, trim was snapped in half. Where was the quality control, I guess there was none.
We bought an 8 x 10 foot summerhouse with a 2 foot veranda so before we assembled it we decided to check that all the parts were correct and discovered that they had sent 4 floor panels the same size so they were 4 foot deep so any fool knows that if you put 2 x 4 foot floor panels together that makes 8 foot so by putting the veranda on the front makes it a 10 foot deep summerhouse not an 8 foot one. We phoned to try and explain this but the guy we spoke to wanted photos!! How hard is that to understand. The side panels were for an 8 foot deep unit but the floor with veranda made it 10 foot deep. In the end we gave up and decided to cut 1 floor panel in half which worked perfectly. So that's that problem now I move onto other problems. nails that were not even holding so i had to knock these out and do them properly. We had so many pieces of wood that were so bent we could not use them and had to go and buy replacements. The floor panel that was damaged was replaced and at first sight looked okay but upon closer examination one of the bearers was so rotten you could literally pull the wood apart. Some of the panels I had to cut so that the panels met properly. When we tried to fit the side glazing there was no way the glazing would stay in place as there was a piece of wood missing so I had to fit 2 x 38mm pieces of wood to hold the perspex in place otherwise it would have just fell out. The veranda side is so bent that it needs fixing and there doesn't seem to be anywhere to secure it at the top!!
My dad was a carpenter and he would turn in his grave with the lack of quality with this build.
A WORD OF WARNING TO ANYONE THINKING OF BUYING ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY PLEASE DON'T!!