Kybotech Ltd

jedi-masta

So,

I purchased a BillyOh Shed and it should have stated "does not include doors". Soon as it turned up I semi counted the items and decided to make a start on building the thing. Quality wasn't the best but I thought "you get what you pay for"......how wrong was I.

Anyway, getting the sides up etc and it transpired that I had one too many less parts. Contacted them (or the generic call center offshore which is very apparent) to be apologized to and told that they will arrange for the missing parts to be shipped out ASAP. No "sorry but we can't or anything" but "rest assured Mr Parmar you will get an email advising on delivery times as this is urgent and we will ensure to get the missing items out ASAP. So I decided to continue building the shed.

2 days later I get an email;
"Dear Mr Parmar,

Thank you for getting in touch with us.

We are sorry to inform you that as of the moment we do not hold a stock for the spare parts for your order but we can offer you 10% partial refund off of the whole amount of your order if you are willing to keep the item.

Please let us know on how you want us to proceed.

We really appreciate your patience and understanding.

Should you need further assistance, you may access your own account by clicking the dodgy link we have below - removed.

Partial refund??? On a Barn??? If I wanted a Barn I would have bought a Barn. What I paid for was a shed!!!

So, I decided to call them and tell them what I thought of their email and the fact that it was 2 days too late to be told "sorry bud we only sell Barns and we have no doors left in stock"

I have since then been going back and forth about whether I'm going to be taking the 'Barn' down for them to collect. Will I heck.

They were very quick to point me to their T&C's about the whole collection of the item, which is purely a copy and paste template and no where does it state that I need to be taking it down for them to collect. I've told them they can arrange for the installation team to come down and dismantle and collect it themselves as I am now going to go through my Bank to arrange a refund for not purchasing a item that's 100% as per it's advert. I also think they forget that there's such a thing as a Consumer Act.

Another Pickle Slicer getting ready to slice pickles.

jedi-masta

This is the greatest last response I've had from them.....I don't think they could remind me anymore times that their driver is merely a driver....

"Dear Mr Parmar,

Thank you for your response.

We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience that this may have caused.

Regarding the collection of the order, it needs to be dismantled by yourselves because our driver will not proceed without the item ready for collection.

Once again we would like to take this opportunity to say sorry. This really is rare for us, but we take any issues with our customer's orders seriously."

I like their "really rare for us" comment too....bit like my missing doors I suppose ;-)

Exemplar

Just for information these people are literally 10 minutes from me, happy to get parts for people if interested! Also they seem to have a quite high turnover of staff as always advertising! And lastly seeing the way that some of their staff drive I'm not surprised things are missing/ damaged!

hollydays

jedi-masta wrote: »

This is the greatest last response I've had from them.....I don't think they could remind me anymore times that their driver is merely a driver....

"Dear Mr Parmar,

Thank you for your response.

We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience that this may have caused.

Regarding the collection of the order, it needs to be dismantled by yourselves because our driver will not proceed without the item ready for collection.

Once again we would like to take this opportunity to say sorry. This really is rare for us, but we take any issues with our customer's orders seriously."

I like their "really rare for us" comment too....bit like my missing doors I suppose ;-)

Do they mean it's rare for them to say sorry?

grayme-m

jedi-masta wrote: »

This is the greatest last response I've had from them.....I don't think they could remind me anymore times that their driver is merely a driver....

"Dear Mr Parmar,

Thank you for your response.

We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience that this may have caused.

Regarding the collection of the order, it needs to be dismantled by yourselves because our driver will not proceed without the item ready for collection.

Once again we would like to take this opportunity to say sorry. This really is rare for us, but we take any issues with our customer's orders seriously."

I like their "really rare for us" comment too....bit like my missing doors I suppose ;-)

How long does it take to dismantle a shed?

Certainly not advising it, but I've since it in the past in minutes, but then again I was having a bonfire.

Sometimes you have to weigh up things to be spent arguing with time just doing and in this case I think you have to suck it up that you've wasted time on building and dismantling a crock of poo, to get your money back?

JeanJeannie

Thank goodness people are waking up to this excuse for a company! Kybotech also goes under the name of Garden Building Design, and Billy Oh. As I said at the top of this thread we had the misfortune of ordering a Riley summerhouse from them. It arrived on 14 June, with incorrect panels. The quality was absolutely dreadful, broken tongue & Groove, warped panels, cracked wood, nothing would fit properly. We rejected it immediately. They finally collected the pile of wood in July and a refund of £1,304 due to us. Unfortunately because we stupidly allowed our builder Dominic Boorman (Salamander Garden and Landscape) to place the order Kybotech refused to refund this money to us! We told Kybotech that we were concerned our builder was in financial difficulties and that we may not get the refund from him. Despite all this the money went into his account on 25 July. Needless to say we are still waiting for him to put the money into our bank. Now Mr Boorman is not answering emails, phone calls or texts! I know we were stupid to allow him to order on our behalf, an expensive lesson. But Kybotech could not care less about their customers. When my husband asked for a contact number for their CEO the woman hung up on him! All calls are handled offshore. Their offices in UK do not want to know. Their CEO does not answer to customers. Avoid this company like the plague!

Exemplar

JeanJeannie wrote: »

Thank goodness people are waking up to this excuse for a company! Kybotech also goes under the name of Garden Building Design, and Billy Oh. As I said at the top of this thread we had the misfortune of ordering a Riley summerhouse from them. It arrived on 14 June, with incorrect panels. The quality was absolutely dreadful, broken tongue & Groove, warped panels, cracked wood, nothing would fit properly. We rejected it immediately. They finally collected the pile of wood in July and a refund of £1,304 due to us. Unfortunately because we stupidly allowed our builder Dominic Boorman (Salamander Garden and Landscape) to place the order Kybotech refused to refund this money to us! We told Kybotech that we were concerned our builder was in financial difficulties and that we may not get the refund from him. Despite all this the money went into his account on 25 July. Needless to say we are still waiting for him to put the money into our bank. Now Mr Boorman is not answering emails, phone calls or texts! I know we were stupid to allow him to order on our behalf, an expensive lesson. But Kybotech could not care less about their customers. When my husband asked for a contact number for their CEO the woman hung up on him! All calls are handled offshore. Their offices in UK do not want to know. Their CEO does not answer to customers. Avoid this company like the plague!

Blimey - where does one start with this post?

1) You did not buy your shed from Kybotech - you bought it from your builder
2) Kybotech have no legal/ moral obligation to either speak or deal with you
3) Your builder is Kybotech's customer - not you - he will be the only person eligible for a refund

philljp

Just wanted to add my experience in here.

Purchased a summer house with Garden Buildings Direct in 2016. Initially we noticed the quality wasn't what we were expecting. Thin, cracked wood, plastic windows, the roof didn't fit properly and the doors wouldn't close very well. Compared to the photo on the website we were disappointed. However, we stuck with it, gave the summer house a good quality exterior treatment.

That first winter the inside of the roof got extreme damp, and the sides of the walls were damp. I always made sure I left the doors open in the day when possible, and when the weather improved we wiped away the mold and treated the inside roof too. However, as the years have passed this issue has got even worse, and the roof is now rotting.

It seems to me the quality of the wood is so low, and there is a lack of ventilation built into these, as I haven't seen this issue elsewhere. I'm currently having a lot of problems with customer service wanting to take this issue seriously, as I feel like we have been duped out of nearly £900, for something I feel was worth about £300.

Also note, customer service told me they delete your online account after 1 year so you cant log back in. Which is strange since they advise you to do that for after sales service. Using the productsupport@gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk email seems pretty useless as they just give excuses, and there is no proper email trail or call logged as I've had to send the photos through multiple times, and a different rep responds as if they haven't seen your previous response.

If anyone has any recommendations with how to escalate this complaint? other contact details etc... I would be grateful.

Dekenba1

I too bought a Billyho shed. I've had multiple problems, from the pathetic 'windows' cracking - 1.2mm thick!! - to warped doors, poor framework, misaligned panels, water leaks from huge gaps between the T&G joins where the boards are not pushed together, windows too big for the panels, light pouring in through multiple holes in the very poor quality wood, poor instructions, cheap, nasty screws that come with the shed, the website showing planed wood for roof support, the actual roof support looking like it came from some well used pallets, etc.

An absolute nightmare.

Their reply - "it's your own fault, you should have checked the parts before construction" !!

Then they want absolutely nothing to do with it.

Complete charlatans.

I'm so cheesed off, I'm taking small claims court action. The advertised product bears very little resemblance to the one you get, so it's a clear breach of the Sale of Goods Act. Offering to swap out parts on an already constructed shed is a cop out. The onus is on the supplier to deliver a product of reasonable quality, especially since it's effectively non returnable once constructed.

[Deleted User]

What can I say, after all this time they still treat customers with contempt. I haven't looked on their websites since raising the initial post many moons ago, but I can pretty much guarantee that there will still be no negative reviews on their web pages and everything will be the same as it was. Directors will still be raking in lots of money with no regard to their customers. No reply will ever be received on forums such as this as they couldn't care less. As I've said before - stay well clear...……………………...