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

gnomeo2

:eek: I would of been just as upset as you about the markings! It must be pretty deeply engrained to not come out with a quick bit of elbow grease.
I got my small cabin from liverpoolcabins.co.uk the gents that put it up did a great job I had no squabble with the service at all the gents that put it up are proper lads lads and the websites not the fanciest but I honestly can't fault the outcome! feel like I lucked out after reading some comments.

Manxie65

Yes I'm a newbie!

Ordered a cabin with installation a few months ago and though there were negative reviews, there were also positive ones. I also PM'd a couple of positive reviewers to check authenticity. Both checked out fine.

However, seems to have been many more negative reviews than positive recently. I went on their website to check time of delivery (which it says you can do), but website was down...and still down, which made me do another quick check on reviews.

Apart from price which is a good wodge cheaper than others out there and paid for the installation, we were stuck with the measurements and couldn't find anywhere within 50% of the price that would give us a shed to maximise the space we have.

Too late now to change. Paid by credit card so ultimate recourse there if issues.

I'll follow up with photo's and review.

Feel free to PM me.

Manxie65

Well, they turned up, so that's a start. Space a little "tight" which I knew and had pre-explained, but OK to the installers. Cabin turned up on lorry and all unloaded fine. Had to sign delivery note which was a little incomprehensible and no way could I have checked everything off. But as they are installing I suppose it's different than if I was doing it myself.

Prepared base was within parameters for the Rapidpad base, so that went down first. Note the installer often took photo's showing spirit level. By end of first day, all walls and base of roof completed.

Manxie65

Same two installers again, one completing felt roof and the other doing doors and windows. All now done and it "looks" OK. A couple of snags...a door bolt broke and is really very poor quality for what it is supposed to do. Not expecting high security doors, but they could be better. Also, the doors had been laid on top of each other and the pre-fitted hinges seriously dented the other door. This was itemised as an issue on the completion form, so we'll see what happens.

Overall, we are pleased with what we have barring the dents in the door and the poor quality bolts, but it seems good value for what we paid. Certainly better than how we felt on Sunday night!

Manxie65

They are replacing the doors. I've also sourced stronger sliding door bolts for the door without the door handle as these were points of weakness in the design i.e. there is a nice secure door handle with multiple locks in to the other door, but a hard yank and door bolts come apart and the doors open! The obes I've sourced are moulded all in one and not clipped together.

jo2go_2

First of all I am not a 'Newbie or a TROLL! I bought a De Lux cabin and spent over £15,000 to use as a studio/garden office for my business.

I DO NOT expect after only a couple years, to have water pouring in to my studio through a Solar heating Vent , supplied and installed by them. I have now lost some expensive equipment due to water damage.

We have had a plethora of issues with the cabin fro the start, from doors we cant close to big gaps appearing in the panelling inside and out. The roofing felt has been regularly checked by us and we added extra roofing bitumen sealant around all joins and vulnerable places as we felt the original felt was poorly applied.

Thus we have again tried to get something resolved since we emailed them in October 2014, when we first noticed some drips appearing at the base of the vent box in the ceiling inside the cabin. Now the issue has now become serious, with a large bucket in situ at the mo to catch the significant water that poured in with the last rain fall, soaking the floor and causing considerable damage. Clearly the solar panel (which was a considerable 'extra ' and mis sold as a Heating unit) is letting in water.

Soon after we had the cabin the Solar Panel had stopped working and was of no use when it did try to work. It blew in HOT air on a Hot day, and did nothing at all when the sun wasn't baking hot. So basically, as useful as a chocolate Tea pot.
Please keep in mind, this was NOT a cheaper cabin from the range. As a studio I got the works, side store , loo , sink unit and the Solar Air System, Insulated floor and also roof!!.

However after emailing and calling now the water has re appeared they are refusing to do anything and have suggested we get a QUOTE from them for them to re felt the roof as its beyond a year old!!

They also suggested we did not keep the roof free of debris! However we regularly check
the roofing felt is intact and we have also sealed all overlaps and areas tacked to include the 'Heating unit and solar panels surrounds, with roofing sealing bitumen.
. We have neighbours on all sides who have seen us at this task regularly and will write statements to that effect.

The water is NOT coming in at any other place bar the solar vent box. Thus the solar box situated on the roof is clearly faulty and the seals have either been displaced or are faulty.
When we took a photo overlooking the studio you can see staining INSIDE the solar panel moving away under the perspex from the place where the surface water collects (clearly visible from the photograph I sent them), looks like has been letting in water for some time. We also noted when we were on the roof last week, that there is clear evidence of water and rust corrosion underneath the perspex inside the solar panel itself! This has nothing to do with the roofing felt as they are suggesting.
They said the pitch of the studio that we had issues with at the start may have caused structural issues, but again say we are at fault?? However we bought Rapid Pads with insulation as sold to us as the best option for uneven or sloping ground. We had not noted nor lodged any further points from then.
We have sent several emails where we told them EXACTLY where the water was coming in.
This had NOTHING to do with roofing felt being in poor repair or out of guarantee. The water is coming in via the Solar Heating Unit that THEY PROVIDED AND THEY INSTALLED. The leak when first lodged as a problem with Dunster House, was coming in from exactly the same place as it is now .So we DID provide them with the information requested they DID NOT RESPOND. Now they have the absolute front to suggest we apply for a quote to replace roofing felt that is not even damaged, or the problem as a solution.


After the 'Customer Service' I have received from them addressing my complaint of water pouring in through the Solar Vent, I am truly shocked at the appalling service and customer care demonstrated to us.

I also am contacting 'Watchdog' about them after my experience and having read many other unsatisfied customers comments about the cabins and how they have been fobbed off.

I would also add that as a successful businesswoman myself, I network with a plethora of other businesses in both Somerset and Dorset. I would think that a really good business model in this day and age, especially a so called 'Family Business' is to make sure the customer is happy and any major problem like this one, where a serious amount of water has started to come in through a Solar Panel supplied and installed by them, is dealt with promptly and is of paramount importance to them as a business selling High end Cabins/Garden Offices.

We are not asking for a new cabin. We are asking them to sort the faulty panel and stop the water coming in to protect the cabin and expensive contents. .

This is MY lively hood that is threatened by the water damage from the faulty unit that they sold to me and installed, that is now letting in water when it rains !!

You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves Dunster House!!!!!

jo2go_2

Just a side note , I have just been to trading the standards website and no surprises, there are a plethora of complaints there too, I've just finished reading them all.......
'Newbies' and 'Trolls' ? or just more people like me, who have had a very bad and costly experience, with no customer after care and a need to get some resolve to an issue where Dunster House refuses to acknowledge any responsibility. Whilst I am sure there is a glut of satisfied customers out there, that so far have not had problems, it would appear after some extensive research, that the negative experiences far outweigh the positive ones for this company and Dunster would do well to take that on board and change how they deal with complaints now and in the future. Or their house of cards will eventually collapse.

Manxie65

Dunster House turned up this morning and replaced dented door. They made a mistake and fixed it so from my experience, can't fault customer service...so far!

To be honest, if their website hadn't have been down which made me suspicious and recheck reviews online which were mostly negative, I would never have bothered to comment on this forum as my experience has been mostly positive...very poor quality of door bolts aside!

I have pictures on Facebook but forum not allowing me to post the link. PM me of you want the link.

Yellowsponges

I only wish I had read this feedback before we purchased our £7000+ garden office from Dunster House. It seems that everything is wonderful....until you have a problem with part of your order...and then they are not interested. They will not even talk to you on the phone (funny that they do when you are ordering though!) We have several badly bent/warped beams, damaged doors etc. They say that this is 'normal' and will do nothing to rectify this. We do not want special treatment of any kind, all we want is what we paid for. Terrible company for customer support.....non existent. Save yourself trouble buy elsewhere.

bacono

This thread is an eye-opener! I've been coveting a garden cabin for a couple of years, and repeatedly see Dunster House ads 'following' me around the internet. I like a few of their designs. Very wary now. I guess you have to accept some 'rough around the edges' characters when you're talking about getting a building delivered, it'll hardly be a white-glove job, but the customer service tales in this thread are pretty scary.