Kybotech Ltd

sweetypi

hello I am new to the forum ( well actually posting something !), I came on looking for advice as you do on here for something completely different!!! and thought I would look up this thread a while ago this was all I ever used to look at (for kybotech)

I used to work for this company a little while ago , all I can say is that they are very unprofessional from customer service to the way the staff are treated , they are very aware of this thread , well they were at the time, I had many dealings with trading standards trying to calm the waters (I wont tell you what my job was there as they will know who I am even though I was a minion ) but it certainly did not involve dealing with trading standards in my job descriptions ( I did have a man threaten to kill me because his shed had not arrived thats when I decided to leave.... from reading the previous threads waltons does not belong to the kybotech I think it has been sold three or four times since they owned it

Charles walton is the MD,www charleswalton co uk perhaps this will get you closer contact to him ?? I see there is twitter, facebook google all sorts that its connected too (cant post a link it wont let me )

To be honest I actually cant believe that this thread is still active I find it so disgusting that the service hasn't improved and neither has the quality .....I am glad I left when I did , working in london now earning more , and even if they offered me £10000000000000,00 I would never ever ever ever return and I would never purchase anything either I unfortunately have witnessed the shoddy quality first hand I have seen the amount of spare parts and broken goods being returned and had the misfortunes of buying a shed ,a bbq ,a treadmill and a trampoline whilst working there which are all in the skip waste of money !!!

I don't mean this to be slander against them it is a true and honest opinion of the quality of products and service

Thanks

jacko7069

I wish I had seen these threads before I put an order in. I have been in the logistics business for over 15 yrs and have never seen a company run like Kybotech, on Mr walton's Linked In page it stated professional in logistics, maybe he needs to go and work in the department for a month to see how they actually perform. My story - I ordered a 7x5 shed back in June 2013, being given a delivery date of 26th June 2013, we received the email in the morning saying it was out for delivery, so we waited, then at mid-day we get a phone call saying we won't get it today as the shed was damaged and it has been re-scheduled for delivery on Monday 1st July, later that day we recieve an email stating delivery was now Wednesday 3rd July, my partner waited in all day to receive it, guess what it didn't arrive, we phoned the next morning only to be told "IT'S OUT OF STOCK", we will deliver on Monday 8th July, by this time I've had enough, phoned there delivery hotline, on hold for 20 minutes, spoke to customer service's who were very very rude, I asked for the cancellation email, which I was given, wrote to them asking them to cancel the order and refund all monies back into our accout by close of play that day, guess what, no reply, I have now put a complaint in against this company with Paypal (as thats how we paid), asking for them to refund the monies owed to us, under their buyer protection policy. We also had to pay £75.00 to two men that were putting the shed up on the 27th June, due to late cancellation. I will be speaking to the CAB about taking them to the small claims court for recovery of the monies for the workmen and all our time we have wasted waiting for the shed. I red some post's on here about problems Kybotech were having around 2007 - 2008, Mr Walton needs to wake up, because the problem's are still the same. I would ask people to avoid this company like the plague.
For Kybotech's reference my reference number is GBD525687

halfman

I ordered the Mad Dash Lollipop Junior Tower Xtra Playhouse for the kids with delivery on the 11th of March 2013,admittedly it was delivered on time, but due to the bad weather it was just over three weeks before I could erect it, I was not impressed with the workmanship from the start and had to re-enforce parts due to vastly inferior materials.
By the 6th of June the side boards had warped so bad, there was a quarter of an inch gap between some of the boards, so I e-mailed the company complaining about the bad quality of the materials.I received an e-mail from a Laura Hunt, who judging by the bad English was either the tea maker or the office "Gofor" who gave every concievable excuse how it was my fault for not treating the wood within a certain time (this is the actual wording)--As per the instructions the item needs to assembled within a month and treated within 6 – 8 weeks.
I have sent them Photo's of the useless playhouse but I might as well try talking to the the inferior wood they used in it's construction for all they care.
I am now taking legal advice and will push this as far as necessary to get something done to correct the bad quality playhouse
My ref number if Kybotech needs it is GBD478221 and you should have all my details anyway.

Baddie_Basher

If you’re thinking about buying a Duramax Durmate shed from Kybotech (Garden Buildings Direct) perhaps you should read about my experience first. The Customer Service Manager claims that when things go wrong they like to settle disputes amicably – they certainly don’t settle them fairly. Read on…

My daughter rented a damp flat for 18months. As the landlord did nothing to rectify the situation, she decided to move and we thought that a shed would be a good idea to store the majority of her belongings until she found somewhere else to live. I ordered a Duramax Duramate from Kybotech (Garden Buildings Direct) which cost £339.49 and this amount was debited from my account on 10th December 2013. I was assured by the person who took the order that this would be easy for me and her and another of my daughters to erect. So we fully expected to have it up before Christmas and even start to move in some of her belongings before then too.

The shed was delivered Wednesday 12th December. It was carried in a brown box to the side of my house by one man. Shortly after it was delivered, the weather turned wet and windy and remained that way until Sunday 15th December. The more I looked at the box, the more I became concerned that it wasn’t big enough to accommodate all of the components of a garden shed and perhaps some of the pieces were missing. My suspicions were confirmed when we opened the box - I discovered that it is sold without a floor. This certainly is not made clear on the website –in fact the picture I looked at certainly gives the impression it has a floor. I had to spend approximately a further £100 on materials to make a floor for the shed to stand on which wasted time.

Then came the erecting of the shed: this certainly was not an easy task for 3 women, despite assurances from the person who took the order that it would be. Ultimately, we had to abandon this until after Christmas when a (male) friend kindly offered to help us erect the shed on 29th December (he gave up a whole day of his holidays). We sorted out the pieces and he physically put the shed up. Although this shed is described as measuring 8’x6’, it actually measured 8’x5’.

The design of the roof is such that the roof panels have predrilled holes through which plugs and pins are inserted. Prior to insertion of the plugs, silicone seal is necessary around the holes to make them watertight and the holes through the plugs need to be silicone sealed too before insertion of the pins. A steel U shaped channel screws into the floor and runs along the back, the two sides and either side of the doors at the front (the sides of the shed stand in this). The inside of this channel has to be silicone sealed to prevent penetration of rain water.

When I looked in the shed the next day, there were several pools of water on the floor. I initially thought this was from the condensation which had formed on the roof over night. However upon closer inspection of the roof, I discovered that rainwater was coming in through various ‘plug holes’. I set about putting extra seal over all of the plugs and waited for more rain. When it came, the roof continued to leak. Furthermore, the rain didn’t run freely off the roof, it puddled.

I spoke to Citizens Advice Bureau and was advised to send a letter to Kybotech by recorded delivery citing the Sales of Goods Act and outlining my concerns. I sent a letter in the first instance by email on 8th January 2014 and in addition to the concerns I have outlined, I also pointed out that I had to make alternative arrangements for the storage of my daughter’s belongings. The only spare space I had was the bedroom of my deceased son and I was put to the awful task of clearing some of his personal effects before I felt emotionally up to this undertaking. I also I said that had I been aware of the design of the roof beforehand – roof plugs and pins - I never would have purchased this product and I requested a full refund.

Stephen Sparrow, Customer Service Manager replied and said that I could have a refund and he would arrange collection of the shed after it had been dismantled. I knew that this would not be any easy job as every one of the roof plugs would have to be removed with clipper (they expand once the pins are inserted) and I have carpal tunnel syndrome (painful hand/finger symptoms). In the light of the extra trouble I was being put to together with all of the pitfalls I had already encountered as a result of this garden shed not being fit for the purpose of storing my daughter’s personal effects, I wrote to Stephen Sparrow again asking him if he would consider supplying me with a more expensive shed at no extra cost instead of a refund. He declined to do so and arrangements were made for the shed to be collected on 16th January.

I set about dismantling the shed and wrapped duct tape around the various pieces to make it easier for the driver to carry to the van. However, the sour faced contracted driver arrived on the set date and refused to take the dismantled shed because it wasn’t on a pallet!! Apparently, it should have been delivered on one. Needless to say I was not pleased.

As I felt extremely let down by this company, I contacted the Citizens Advice Bureau again and was advised to write to Kybotech again asking them to reconsider supplying me with the more expensive shed in view of the consequential losses I had suffered, both financially and personally.

This is the final part of my letter to the Customer Care Manager:
“As a result of the unsatisfactory goods I was supplied with, I suffered the following consequential losses:
• Additional costs for flooring materials
• Costs for erection of the shed
• Emotional pain and suffering experienced caused by the need to empty my deceased son’s bedroom for my daughter’s belongings which should have been stored in the shed
• Exacerbation of my painful carpal tunnel symptoms caused by the need to dismantle the shed
• Additional stress caused by the company’s failure to remove the dismantled shed in a professional and timely fashion
• Countless hours of personal time unnecessarily wasted on this matter

I am willing to offset the substantial personal and monetary consequential losses which I have suffered, against the more expensive Keter 8’x6’ garden shed. I trust that you will reconsider this reasonable proposal.”

Stephen Sparrow’s response was to the effect that I could have another Duramax Duramate shed or a refund. Needless to say I declined his offer of a replacement Duramax Duramate shed and further arrangements were made for the dismantled shed to be collected on 23rd January by one of Kybotech’s own drivers. It is the case that I didn’t have the strength to unscrew part of the metal frame and when their own driver arrived at 5.15pm (also miserable) with a pallet, he refused to take the part of the steel frame that I was unable to dismantle (apparently it would move about in the back of his van because it wasn’t on the pallet). So I the disposal of this heap of steel (8’x5’) was left to me – yet another waste of my time. I finally got this whole experience out of my hair when I got around to taking the uncollected part of the steel frame to the local tip on 9th February.

I think very few would consider the company’s final say in this this farcical saga fair. And everything considered I am quite sure that a judge would have found in my favour if I had had the time and energy to take Kybotech to the small claims court.

[Deleted User]

I'm surprised to see so many complaints still being made about these cowboys. It truly amazes me on how unprofessional they are regarding customer service, STILL! Nice, catchy-looking websites, unfortunately same appalling service and product quality.

TechnoBadger

Was promised a refund of an un-despatched order within a few days (why this couldn't have been done straight away is beyond me.) Nearly a fortnight later I notice that the refund of several hundred pounds has not been processed. I normally don't check credit card statements well enough so could have been out of pocket. Will dispute the transaction with my credit card company if no apology and immediate refund.

Merely a technical glitch or conveniently forgetful on their part ... Hmmm

wealdroam

TechnoBadger wrote: »

Was promised a refund of an un-despatched order within a few days (why this couldn't have been done straight away is beyond me.) Nearly a fortnight later I notice that the refund of several hundred pounds has not been processed. I normally don't check credit card statements well enough so could have been out of pocket. Will dispute the transaction with my credit card company if no apology and immediate refund.

Merely a technical glitch or conveniently forgetful on their part ... Hmmm

You haven't said whether you purchased at a distance or in-store, but the Distance Selling Regulations allow them up to 30 days to do the refund.

TechnoBadger

Finally got my refund after a few more phone calls. Apparently the refund had been processed 'last week' but 'something must have gone wrong'. It was processed again.

Well, what can I say apart from if I hadn't spotted the error would Kybotech have?

Anyhows, knowing that getting a refund isn't the simplest of things here I doubt I'll use them (knowingly) in future. I bought my goods from ASDA Online in the end (no connection ...)

The motto? Double check your credit card refund has been processed, no matter who the seller is!

ngyoung240671

I made my purchase back in 2013, at first they were fantastic at communicating about the stage our shed was at but when I tried to contact them to confirm a delivery date I was unable to actually get anyone, then suddenly without prior notice it was delivered whilst we were out!!, it is now a year later & I have finally managed to put the shed together, the amount of alterations I have had to make so that I can actually call it a shed has been the reason it has taken so long to build, as well as the weather playing havoc.
The quality of the shed is nothing short of disgusting, blatantly looks like the wood has come from old pallets where they have stripped them and then planed the wood to look new, this explains the size of the panels very easily, panels that have been put together in such a shambolic way that I believe a 10 year old could have done a better job.
My biggest fault was not actually checking the height of the product and when receiving it realising that if I was smaller than 5 foot it would be perfect, so I have had to raise it by a foot so it can be used as it was meant to be. To put it in a nutshell, the panels and pieces of wood used are SO SUBSTANDARD, the panels themselves are not even balanced or made up properly with gaps in the framing and in the panelling as well. for the amount of time and extra money I have spent I would have been better asking a joiner to build me one from scratch, the alterations being made to this shed so that it can actually be solid enough to last 1 Scottish winter is becoming costly and time consuming. the lack of stability of this shed is just ridiculous, even a light breeze made the panels move, I have had to add extra stabilising struts and support struts throughout this terrible experience, I haven't even used the bag of screws and nails which they couldn't even find the time to sort out into separate bags for the customer leaving you to sift through 100's of nails and screws.
If I can give one piece of advice about this company it would be AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!

Parity

Arrrggghhhhh! Kybotech / Garden Buildings Direct are driving me mad! I put in an order for a shed on 19th July and was given an estimated delivery of within '2-3 days'. When this time had elapsed, I called their after-sales team, who told me that the shed would arrive early in the following week and to expect an email/text message no later than the Tuesday. When no email or text arrived, I again contacted customer services. They advised that the shed was en route to the local hub and I should expect a call to arrange a deliver day by the end of the week. No call (what a surprise!). So AGAIN I call them to get an update. It's at the local hub, but they won't be able to deliver it until NEXT week. I ask them to provide a delivery date (bear in mind, this is Friday afternoon and I'm asking for a date which I am told will be early next week). No....logistics cannot provide me with a delivery date. AAARRRGGGHHHH!
Monday morning (today) I get a text at 8.45am to tell me my order will arrive today. Hurrah! (would have been nice to have a little warning, rather than on the day, but at least it's coming!)
Delivery man arrives at lunchtime with 7 thick planks of wood (the base?) and nothing else. This was sent on an overnight delivery option on Friday 1st August.
Again....I phone customer services, who now appear to be utterly confused themselves. After waiting on hold for 15mins, I am told that the rest of the shed will arrive on Weds 6th August.
My guess is that it won't.
AVOID THESE NUMPTIES!