SM Garden Buildings log cabin no show

Paul-southampton

Hi, We thought it may be worth sharing the letter we sent to company's director, answer yet to be received. There may be more people affected by poor customer service of sm garden buildings that will join discussion. Mind you they only trading in Dec 11 and we had invoice 29 from May this year, so perhaps they have not had that many customers yet. However they did trade on ebay for a while and got two negative comments immediately after 7 sales, they then changed their name to feesaretoohigh12 and no trading on ebay since. We contacted the affected parties from ebay and we got interesting reply. We will encourage them to join this thread.

Here's the letter:

*REMOVED*

Dear Mr *******,

We are sending this letter following conversations with Catalin and Dana and today we were advised to email this address to get in touch directly with you.

Because you are a director for SM Imports Direct Ltd t/a SM Garden Buildings you are our last hope as we are getting nowhere with either Catalin or Dana so far.

We placed an order on 17 May, invoice 29 for haweswater cabin and we have not received the cabin to date. After weeks of promises the cabin was finally supposed to have been delivereed on Saturday 21 July at 9 am and when we called at 9.15, the driver named Jacob called us back at 10 after he had only arrived at the depot and he informed us about the allegedly damaged wooden logs...

We have obtained planning permission and we paid for a conrete base as per Catalin's instructions . We also moved our holidays and took days off work and now we have been asked by Catalin to wait another 5 weeks or getting refund of what we paid in May, however your prices have incased by over £300 since. You will also be aware that interest for debts currently stands at 8.5% with £70 statutory fee on top.

I would kindly ask you to review the situation at your earliest opportunity and liase with Catalin who is supposed to ring us back with a satisfactory solution by Monday 12 o'clock.

As you can appreciate we would like to avoid small claims court claim, trading standards involvment and possibly vat compliance, however if satisfactory solution is not reached by the end of next week , ie 28 July 2012 , we would have no other option but to claim full costs incurred in addition to £1230 that we paid for tha cabin, as these were incurred as the direct result of placing an order which had been paid for with your company and following Catalin's instructions regarding permission and base. These costs are in excess of £1000 and are likely to incase.

I hope you understand and you will help us here.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

marywooyeah

not much I can offer I am afraid but I would contact trading standards if I were in your position.

majturner

Hi you contacted me on ebay i fully support what you are doing , our story is different in that we won an item via the auction listing on the ebay site , withing hours of us winning and paying we recieved an email to say we would noit be recieveing the bench and table we had won as they had made a mistake about the listing after severalemails back and forth and reportoing the problem to ebay we recieved our money back , i find catalin to be very rude ! i am also wondering if this may be a company that works on a comission basis and they are only a third party if you like ? either way you need to move fats to get your money back incase they closedown operations in battersea where they operate from .

Paul-southampton

Finally today we got our money back, but only what we paid back in May, no interest, no compensation. We got standard apology from the director but when we aksed pertinent questions asking for proper explanations we simply got an email from his employee to say that our managing director asked us to refund your money. What a customer service it is? NOT

On top of that it turns out we were ill advised on how to build our concrete base and had to pay hundreds more to buy new cabin which arrives this Friday.

It comes from Dunster which so far have gone out of the way when they heard about our saga with sm garden buildings and their staff. So far so good but I will keep you posted.

I agree Catalin is rude, I wasted in excess of 2 hours on the phone with him and he still would not appreciate our problem.

Hopefully our review will be useful when potential customers stumble across this 'business' thinking of buying.

I also posted comment on their website, but guess what only good ones get moderated so it doesn't appear there.

We are no asking a compensation or we will have to proceed with small claims court and trading standards.

Lost time, lost money, lost confidence

Paul-southampton

Hi All, We thought it is worth sharing this ebay message we got from one other unhappy customer who bought from them and had problem with delivery of their product. Brendon is happy for us to post it on his behalf. Here it goes:

We bought the kennel with a winning bid of £150 and the guy was obviously unhappy at the price and put an extra £50 on the delivery charge because we live in Wales. I did explain that we are in fact just 4 miles into Wales and much nearer to him than Cornwall, Lancashire, Yorkshire and so but he would't budge. I offered to meet him over the border to save myself £50 but he would;t do that either. He very obviously wanted the extra money. Even with the additional charge it still looked a good buy so we proceeded.

When the kennel eventually arrived I cut the packing ties that held the panels to the pallet and it was like a watching a Transformer toy. All the panels buckled and twisted into hopelessly contorted shapes. The wood was of a very poor grade, obviously hadn't been allowed to dry out and the tantalising treatment wiped clean off. I did try to assemble it but the panels were just too twisted and the design was so poor that there wasn't actually any way for it to go together with nothing to screw or nail into. I left it in a big heap for a few days and when I went back the grass around it had died, I assume from the tantalising compound that had washed off in the rain.

It was obviously rubbish. I emailed him and he didn't reply so I posted negative feedback. Within minutes of doing so a very angry Catalin phoned me and told me just how cross he was with me. Several times over. In words I wouldn't repeat. I explained all of the problems that I'd had, the problem with the tantalising treatment seemed to grab his attention and he immediately offered me a refund which I obviously accepted. The money appeared in my account while I was on the phone. He then asked me to retract the negative feedback. I didn't because although I'd gotten a refund the goods he sold were still rubbish and possibly dangerous.

Sorry you got caught out, let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Thanks

Brendon

Paul-southampton

we would like to ask your opinions of the small claims court. we got some legal advice and the solicitor thinks it has strong chance of success. anyone experienced this first hand? we are asking sm garden to amicably resolve the issue and compensate some of our losses by tomorrow before we proceed with small claims court. what are your thoughts?

Dear Mr Ramage,

I can see that you are not willing to answer my queries or concerns and that you have only refunded £1230.

This does not take into account £70 plus interest £18.05.

This of course excludes the cost of amending the concrete base to fit the cabin from a new supplier if needed and to vary the planning permission, if needed, not to mention the costs in relation to days off work and further delays to put us in a position we would not have found ourselves in had it not been for your company failures. These are likely to be in a region of £500.

One other point: Catalin asked us to build a base of 272x372 cm which would suggest this was the size of the bearers. We need you to confirm whether this was right in principle, as we are now not too sure having checked some information with another company.

I would also respectfully point you to these links:

***removed links

We have now had to pay £1619.99 for a cabin arriving this Friday and as you appreciate we also need to rectify the concrete base.

Should we not receive an appropriate compensation which we value when sorted amicably by Thursday 26 July 2012 at £700, we will be persuing full compensation through small claims court and trading standards as appropriate. I attach a small claims court form filled as per costs to date which we should be filing once we know the full extent of losses suffered should we not hear from you by the close of day Thursday 26 July 2012.

rude_dog

Just thought I would add my experience to this thread.

Ordered a cabin on 08/06/2012, just shy of £2k, paid on my credit card via Google checkout. I saw that it was a relatively new company, so protected myself using the above payment methods and decided to give them a chance.

Concrete base installed (£600) so I was ready to accept the cabin after the 3-4 week estimated lead time.

I phoned to chase a couple of times and was finally told that delivery would be following week (9th - 13th July) and to expect a call from the delivery company to arrange a specific date/time. Phoned again on the Monday morning to chase up a specific time, as I'm sure most will appreciate, I needed to arrange days off, help unloading etc. Was told to expect delivery Wednesday 11th July and the delivery co would call on the day with a more specific time. Wednesday 11am, and still no call or sign of a delivery. I called and said they would look into it. Received an email back informing me that there had been a mix up and another customer's (with the same name) cabin had been loaded in error, new expected delivery time 23rd July. They offered me a refund or a £15 discount. I emailed back and said £15 was not a fair amount due to the fact I had taken holiday, and was letting down tradesmen at the last minute, however I wanted to keep the order open as I still wanted the cabin. No reply.

I did however receive a very brief email confirming my order details, as I also mentioned that I had received nothing when I originally placed the order (only the receipt from Google).

I phoned them pretty much every day since last Wednesday (16th July) to make sure the cabin had left the factory, was in transit and was told for sure that it was on it's way and would be delivered either 24th or 25th July.

So today I call again and get told that the pick-up from the factory (in Sweden I think) last week was cancelled and would be definitely loaded tomorrow, to arrive in the UK early next week. This is despite me getting told last Friday that it had left the factory.

Not sure of the man I have been speaking to (don't think it's a British accent), but I find him very difficult to have a conversation with. He just talks over me despite me being quite assertive!

When I asked how he could be sure that it would be on it's way tomorrow, he said "it has to be - other customers are also waiting for their cabins". Hardly filling me with confidence.

After the bad feedback I've read, I'm tempted to get my money back. I'll give them one more chance, as the cabin was pretty good value (may explain something!) and I've gone to the expense of getting the base and my furniture all ready. I don't mind waiting, but it would be nice to have an accurate estimation of the lead time up front.

I'd love to hear of any positive reviews about this company - surely they can't fail to deliver on every order!!

Paul-southampton

Sounds like a right horror to me.

It turnes out now that we were also ill advised on the size of the concrete base too.

I genuinely feel for you because we have been going through every option ourselves. The worst bit was their director completely ignored my further emails making me (the customer) feel as if my concerns were of no real interest to him. We did not know it was such a young company until we looked it all up in companieshouse. This director appears to have some history of disolved companies behind him, check ramage engineering ltd, only disolved in april this year.

In my experience of running a business is to be upfront with your customers. Problems do happen and nobody's perfect...but at the whelm of it all should be a genuine customer care. If one can admit the mistake and learn from it one should come out stronger. It's the lack of any real empathy with their customers that really seems to be the problem, at the end of the day if you run a business you do it for money, to fulfill your passion and to share your knowledge and expertise with your customers., certainly seems not a case with sm garden buildings yet.

There also seems to be very little product knowledge of their staff and as of yet there are no pictures on their website of completed projects at customers houses...When you look at dursten's there are hundreds of them. And yes, they too have some complaints. But there is a huge difference to have 6 complaints for 50.000 or more clients and a dozen or more for under a hundred. Our invoice from may had number 29...

Let us know how it all works out for you, and I agree it would be good to hear more comments, both good and bad.

rude_dog

It is rather irritating, as I should have been sitting in my new office by now! Instead, I'm still cluttering up the dining room and getting in the way. I also have the base ready ( I made my own mind up as to the size by adding 10cm all round to the cabin size), have spent about £200 on wood treatment and have several bits of office furniture sitting in the utility room!

I imagine SM may be getting let down by their suppliers/manufacturers who are likely to have other bigger customers who they are treating with greater priority. They need to be up front about the lead time, and maybe invest some time in establishing a better relationships through their supply chain. I forget how many times I've heard the auto-excuse "driving restrictions in Europe", even when I've never questioned the fact it takes a few days to transport a cabin by road across Europe! Unfortunately there are people out there running businesses who do not care. Shame.

Unless SM come up with the goods next week, I'm getting my money back and will be placing an order with one of a few companies local to me. I'll end up paying and extra £600-700, but at least I'll be dealing with (a) a local company that I can go and visit if need be (b) a company that has been established for more than a few months!

I'll let you know what happens next.

mysay

Hi All
Thought i would join this forum as i have had so much trouble like you all with this company, I will try and keep it short. We ordered the Essex cabin on the 21st of April 2012 and were informed it would be three weeks delivery, we had tree surgeons and builders in to complete the work in time for the delivery, but three weeks on no call no email so we emailed them nothing back,my husband called them they said there was a delay it would be another two weeks we were not happy at that stage but oh well these things happen. two weeks on guess what no call no email called them again they said there was a shortage of trees so there is a delay, I know we could not stop laughing either. My stress levels were high at this point. After sending about 7 emails to get a delivery date i got a call from Catalin stating he would give me compensation for the delay. The cabin finally arived on the 3rd of July. We had our builders put the cabin up as our son was getting married on the 14th July and we had very little time, when we got home the first day the cabin was half up but on the second day we noticed something was wrong yes you guessed it the cabin was not the one we ordered, we emailed Catalin with pictures and he told us we should have noticed it was wrong before we had it put up, i told him it was all wrapped how could we anyway after arguments over emails he told us we had breeched the T&C as our builders should had noticed it was wrong and they did paint the front because of the bad weather forcast, but I wont repeat all what he said i informed him he had sent the Rydale not the Essex and i would keep it if he gave me the difference of £500 he said he could not do that not enough profit in the cabins, he failed to relise he had made that plus more out of us by sending the cheaper cabin. Calain has said he would send someone to add the shutters and put the extra hight on the cabin when i informed him that we had gone a brought the better quailty felt as the one he sent i would not put on my dog kennel and the builder hot gunned it so i wanted it back that way he refused to do that. so by now i have had enough told him not to bother as i now it would not be done to the standard of the builders we use. I told him i was going to the trading standards but he has yet to reply,
I have contacted a builder that worked for him he also has had a lot of trouble with him and aslo told me they are not in the uk.
i have emailed Catalin tonight to say we wish to come to his office for a face to face meeting but deep down i know that wont happen.
If anyone wishes to make contact over this matter please let me know.
My Out Come.

Had a call today (30/07/12)

My self and Calalin have come to an agreement today, he has agreed to pay us the difference between the cabin sent and the one we ordered, I can only say Catalin comes aross different on emails to him as a person he was very polite and understanding, he agreed the felt was no good and has said they are changing it for future cusomers, We have never had a problem with the cabin if we had ordered the Rydale we would had been very happy as it is lovely. So i would like to say my outcome is a very happy and positive one.

Paul-southampton

Lucky you! I had no reply from their director, Mr Ramage so we will be going small claims court route. Apparently he is hardly there in the office so we would be just wasting diesel and time, I guess.

On a positive note, Dunster cabin arrived which is superb quality and very easy to built. They even called me on a Sundey to ask how I was getting on with building the cabin.

Our experience with sm garden buildings has been trully dreadful and the worst is their ignorance towards my complaint. I am so happy for you that you feel happy in the end, but just looking it from money perspective you simply got what you paid for and you wasted time, travel money and nerves in between and they kept all your money until it has been refunded. Think you paid, say two months ago where is the interest and so on on your money not to mention compensation. You simply got what you paid for which any court of law would accept without the need for hearing. On the other hand say yiu bought a merc c class and they delived a class which would have been a perfectly acceptable car it would not change the fact that it was not what you had origially ordered.

We would have been most likely much less upset if they had delivered a similar cabin on time preceeded by a quick phone call to check if it was acceptable beforehand.

This is also trading standards issue, as we ordered over the phone, paid on invoice and we never got any terms and conditions on email or indeed by letter. I did explicitly check with Dana that their t&c only apply when you buy online...we did not.

With Dunster it has been a totally different experience altogether, with invoice with t&c being sen by post, good delivery (they even located their driver by gos to tell us when to expect them), superb quality spruce (not pine) and follow up phonecall.

Btw i only experienced Catalin on the phone and he would jot let me finish a sentence.