Dunster House Log Cabnis, nice cabin shame about the ingrained dirt

trumpton

Get in touch with Trading Standards through Consumer Direct. Surely this product will have a years warranty at least and they should be under obligation to sort out issues. Keep detailed notes of any contact and put things in writing by registered post.

If these are made in eastern europe, where wood and labour will be cheap, I reckon the mark-up must be huge based on the prices mentioned by previous posters. More complaints here:

http://www.canyoutrustthem.com/index.php?go=quick_search&keyword=Dunster+House+Ltd

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/735535-Dunster-House-climbing-frames/AllOnOnePage

Note in the Mumsnet thread that even those who were initially happy with the product found the after-sales and customer service very poor. Sounds to me like once Dunster House have your money, they are not interested.

You wouldn't expect them to check every single piece of wood in a building, but they should take responsibility when quality control fails and you get some duff pieces.

vuvuzela

Been working for Oasiz long ?

Dieselgirl

No not very

doberryfirkin

Notwithstanding the few favorable reports, I was about to buy a cabin from DH but on reading these reports have changed my mind. Glad I found thisthread before committing. The chances of ending up with a dud isn't worth it.

jamesperrett

stevewilliams wrote: »

Thanks, do you use yours in the winter? Does it take much heating?

Thanks again

Sorry, I know I'm a year late but I've only just seen this reply to my post...

Yes, we've used it all year but we added some insulation panels under the roof as it was cooling down quite quickly in winter. We use an oil filled electric radiator set to minimum as a background heater to prevent things freezing and just turn it up an hour or two before we want to use the cabin.

James.

maninthestreet

timberheart wrote: »

Thers a couple of good products out there that should get rid of the marks for you Butinox Blue rinse should get rid of the marks and also Butinox timber white should bring your cabin back to looking as good as new.
We are just about to put these products on our website as we have found them really useful in the past. You can read about them at timberheart in the next couple of days

You can't push your own business on these boards - do you see the spam button below??? If you are a company representative, you MUST get permission from the site moderators to post on these boards.

timberheart

if any of the buildings we get have marks on them we would generally try to remove ourselves with either blue rinse or white wash and failing that sanding.This would be done free of charge as we are the supplier of the building regardless of which part of europe it comes from. They should still do this for you to maintain customer relations. As for the size of your building most of the suppliers will be able to get one made to your exact dimensions required.

JMcK_2

Dunster house

Thought I would give some feedback on Dunster House log cabin which I have just built. I ordered a Xela 250 cabin online and this started a purchase process which I can only describe as very easy, having very good communication in the form of emails and phone calls from Dunster House to confirm order, final payment time, agree delivery time and discuss any access problems.

Delivery was on a wet, windy cold day and the driver from their northern depot was polite, helpful and professional. He asked where I wanted everything placed and promptly unloaded smaller items advising to put these items in the garage and the main cabin was unloaded with a forklift and placed exactly where I wanted it on the driveway. Everything was well wrapped and covered from the elements.

You need to unwrap everything to get at the instructions, which you do need to read to understand the order of construction. Once started the build went really quickly and if the base is correctly constructed it is like assembling a large Lego kit. My son and I got this built in two days and then I took my time to finish windows, doors and floor. I have to say that I had none of the problems other people seem to have had, either with delivery, poorly machined and ill fitting joints or short logs. Everything, and I do mean everything, was extremely well made even exceeding expectations, doors and windows came assembled with locks and !hinges !fitted. All screws, nails and extra fitments came packaged and there were more than required. I have extra pieces of wood left over and as everything was listed with sizes and number of items I can see that Dunster deliberately provide extra logs and other planks in case of problems.

Anyone who has seen the cabin remarks on how good it looks, how robust it is and also think the overall quality is excellent. I live on the coast, I do mean on the coast, in the west of Scotland and the cabin has seen gales and torrential rain for three weeks without a hint of a leak or draughts. Compared to the cabin I was originally going to buy, same size and more expensive, this cabin is luxury. I am sitting in it today, in November, word processing this feedback and with the sun on it and some roof insulation it is very cozy indeed.

Would I buy another, yes, but not soon, because I think this will last for a long time, but my son is going to buy one. Overall very pleased with Dunster House purchase.

MSE_Investigator

Dear Concerned Customers

We are very sorry that some people have had a negative experience of dealing with Dunster House. We are a large company and, since the first post on this thread, we have served almost 30,000 customers. Relatively, the 6 or so negative experiences upon this forum represent the smallest proportion, but as a family run company, we are very customer service focused and we regard one negative customer experience as one too many.

We have taken many steps to make ourselves better for our customers and we are going to continue to work to improve our standards for all of our future customers. In response to feedback, in the last year alone we have done the following:-

1. Changed our Customer Service department opening times - Our post-delivery Customer Service department, which is responsible for responding to customers questions after delivery, is now open Saturdays. We understand that the weekend is the time when so many customers begin their builds and the most questions will come up. We want to make it as easy as possible for customers to get the right answers from our Customer Service department.

2. Set Response Time Targets - We closely monitor our response times to customers and we are pleased to say that 95% of customers now have their query responded to within 2 hours. The remaining 5% consist of more complicated problems that cannot be solved so easily and we want to take our time with them to ensure that we always give the correct answer. We do contact these customers to say that we have received their emails and are working on their problem.

3. Created Customer Service Feedback systems - Any customer that does have to contact our customer services will now be asked to fill in a Customer Services Feedback form so that we can better understand how we have either exceeded or missed the customer's expectations.

4. Changed Our Courier firm - In order to allow even bigger and larger replacement items be delivered quickly, we have changed our courier firm. We know how important it is when a replacement part is needed to get it out quickly.

5. Set about a review of all instructions sets to improve the quality of the information contained within.

We are the Largest UK Log Cabin Company, and we have gotten where we are by providing the best product at the lowest prices. We welcome feedback as it allows us to grow and learn. We have satisfied tens of thousands of customers over the years but it is from the small number of dissatisfied customers that we can learn the most about how to improve and how to be better still.

Sincerely,
Matthew Rickard
Manager
Dunster House Ltd.

trumpton

I know we are supposed to be nice to new posters - and I swear I try to be nice to all on MSE - but JMcK's account just doesn't read like a genuine response, more like a promo for Dunster House.

Other complaints about Dunster House on Canyoutrustthem.com:

http://www.canyoutrustthem.com/index.php?go=quick_search

I also note that Dunster House were in trouble with the Office of fair Trading for unfair terms in their contracts in 2004:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/unfair_contract_terms/oft743.pdf

I did see that there were favourable reviews of Dunster House on Prciegrabber, though strange that none of the reviewers had reviewed any other product at all. In fact it seems that 80 people joined Pricegrabber in just 6 months all just to post a review of Dunster House. Discussion about fake reviews here:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/base/thread?tid=5eafbc3c4ec0e12a&hl=en

It's good that Dunster House are taking complaints on board, but I feel that the number of dissatisfied customers amounts to more than 6 people on MSE.

I should add that I am not fully convinced by the early posts in this thread that complain about Dunster House either. It's always suspicious when people seem to appear as new posters either maoning about a company or excessively praising them - especially when they never post again as several 'newbies' in this thread haven't.