My Experience of Buying from Tuin

If you can’t be bothered to read all the guff below, in summary, my opinion is that Tuin are bloody awful, by far the worst company i have ever dealt with. My advice is to Look elsewhere to buy your log cabin. 

Tuin Log Cabin
In September 2020 when i decided a log cabin would be an easy (what a joke) and relatively cheap way of having a home office. I started my search online and came across a YouTube video of a guy building a Tuin cabin. It was exactly the type of cabin i wanted. it looked straight forward to build and a reasonable quality. So i started to research Tuin, loads of positive reviews on Trustpilot, loads of content on their site, checked the company out…all good.

Tuin had several cabins that fitted my requirements, so i called them up and discussed the various options. This was my first contact with Tuin and it wasn’t good. The guy i spoke to clearly didn’t have much knowledge about the cabins i was asking about. No biggie, their website has a lot of content where i managed to find answers to my questions.

I placed my order by phone. I was told the expected delivery was about 8 weeks (same as advertised on the Tuin website) but to be aware that things could change due to the Covid situation. To be honest with all the Covid chaos i was expecting some serious delays. So was pleasantly surprised that delivery was only a couple of months.

Order placed, i sat back and waited.

After about six weeks i called them to check the delivery dates. i was told due to the pandemic there were delays on the cabin i had ordered and they did not know when the cabin would be ready. I was asked if i wanted to change to another cabin, which i decided i would do. The delivery for the new cabin was going to be approximately 12 weeks…..a bit annoying, but hey.

To my surprise the cabin turned up 4 weeks early.

A massive delivery lorry turned up and the cabin unloaded onto my drive.

The haulage company that Tuin use are brilliant. They kept me up to date on when they were going to turn up, the driver was super friendly and a very skilled forklift driver.

Due to the weather and Covid stuff i hadn’t managed to get a builder in to level the base for the cabin. So a few months went by before i was able to unpack and start the build

Unpacking took about 3 hours, shifting all the wood from my front drive around to the back garden. One thing that was obvious towards the end of unpacking the cabin, there was no door and two windows were missing. I went through the checklist to find virtually nothing matched.

Its from this point onwards that my dealing with Tuin went south, very south

I emailed Tuin and after about 3 weeks of particularly unhelpful emails , asking for supplier & package numbers, photos, measurement etc they agreed to collect everything and supply a new cabin.  I had asked on numerous occasions to talk to someone, but this was just ignored and all communication was done by email. This meant every time i sent an email i had to wait several days for a response. One phone call could have sorted things out with in a matter of minutes. 

I had tried calling them numerous times (i would guess a total of 20 times), but got one of the following:

• A message saying the office was closed, even though it was during their office hours
• The pleasure of sitting a queue and eventually a message asking for my details and someone would call me back – No one got back to me
• If i  managed to speak to someone, they were always the wrong department. I specifically asked that that they get someone to call me back (not email) from the right department  – you guessed it, no one ever called me back
• On one occasion i got through to a guy who actually tried to help. Unfortunately the information he gave me about returning the cabin turned out to be incorrect 🙁 

The chap i got through to on the phone said it would be quicker (up to 3 months) to replace the incorrect parts than replacing the cabin (six months or longer). The problem i had with replacing the incorrect components was that there were so many incorrect components. I would have to make sure i correctly identified all the missing components and hope that someone at Tuin correctly packed all the correct bits.

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The communication i had via email said that getting a new cabin would take less than three months, which is the same amount of time the guy on the phone said replacing the incorrect components would take. This made it an easy choice of going with a new cabin. In fact when they put the order through, delivery was expected to be 1 month, but i was warned this wasn’t set in stone.

Tuin asked i repack the cabin onto the pallets………..easier said than done

Firstly, the pallets had been broken up and used to put all the cabin components on, so they weren’t sitting directly on the lawn

I asked Tuin if they could send three pallets. The cabin originally came on two separate pallets. i wanted 3 pallets as i wasn’t going to be able to pack all the cabin components as well as they were originally packed. The pallets were delivered, however, i received 1 x 15′ and 2 x 6′ pallets, i was expecting 3 x 15′ pallets, the same as the ones the cabin was delivered on. Having never packed a pallet before this raised a few questions, like, can i stack the long 20′ lengths of wood on a 6′ pallet? if i stack all the long lengths of wood on the 15′ pallet or is going to be to heavy for the forklift?

 I emailed Tuin asking how i should stack the pallets. The first response i got was to have the two 6′ pallets at either end of the long lengths of wood. Two problems here, 1) in effect i would only have two pallets and 2) would the forklift forks be wide enough to lift the pallets together. I emailed my concerns to Tuin, i got a slightly muddled reply back about the pallet placement:

‘I have heard from the hauliers and they have said that the pallets need to be in a run so either end  and oe in the middle’

Rather than emailing them again (and waiting several days for a response) to explain what they meant, i did what i thought was best. I pushed the two 6′ pallets together and loaded all the components evenly across the 15′ pallet and the 12′ pallet i had created. 

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The other issue repacking the cabin, is it wasn’t going to be a quick job, it took about 3 hours to unpack. I also had concerns about health and safety, i didn’t want to be responsible for any damage or injury due to poor packing.

I sent an email to Tuin making it clear that the mistake was there’s and they should have to repack. The reply was, that wasn’t something they would do, however they would refund £250 for me to repack. I agreed as long as they didn’t hold me responsible for any damage or injury as result of how the components were packed.

I sent them a photo of the packed pallets as they requested and a few days later the haulier collected them.

Its been about 1 month since the cabin was returned and i still haven’t received the £250 refund

One month passed and no new cabin. I emailed them asking for a delivery date date. The response was they didn’t know when they would be getting the cabin back in stock. I checked the Tuin website for the cabin i ordered and indeed it was showing as out of stock. Rather than randomly sending chasing emails, i set up an automated monitor that would alert me when the website out of stock message changed. After a few weeks i got an alert, i checked the site to see it was back in stock, with a 12 – 16 week delivery estimate. I sent an email to Tuin to check my order status, the reply was 12 – 16 weeks.

Updated 24th June 2021

I send an email chasing the refund and asking for a date when i can expect the cabin delivery. after a chaser email and a wait of over a week i get a reply, telling me i’ll get the refund in ‘due course’ and there is currently no delivery date available for my cabin. I respond saying that the email they sent hasn’t told me anything. They reply that i should get a refund by Friday, but still can’t give any indication on when i get the cabin. Interestingly, on their website for the last 3 or 4  weeks it has been showing 12 – 16 weeks estimated delivery time. 

I’ve also asked (for the 4th time) that they get a director or the company owner to contacts me.

The cabins were considerably cheaper in September 2020 when i ordered my cabin, in fact the cabin i ordered was over £3500 cheaper! I suspect because i paid so much less than current prices, i am actually bottom of the pile and not the priority order i keep being told.

To confirm my suspicion i’ve sent and email to Tuindeco, the cabin manufacturer. I’ve let them know my thoughts on Tuin and asked about the status of the cabin i’ve ordered. 

Updated 4th July 2021

I received my refund for repacking the incorrect cabin back on to the pallets. I’ve had to wait about 2 months for the refund!

In the email chasing the refund i also asked when i can expect delivery of my cabin, this has been completely ignored, so i’ve sent another email asking about delivery.

I also asked to speak to someone in a senior position at Tuin (for the 5th time) and i’ve been told a director will get in contact next week

I’ve heard bugger all from Tuindeco. I sent them an email 1.5 weeks ago and a chaser email 4 days ago

Updated 15th July 2021

I sent Tuindeco another chaser email, but this has also been ignored. 

I sent another email to Tuin asking about the expected cabin delivery date and got the usual response, that they have no idea. Even though the website is still showing 12 – 16 weeks

I got an email from from a someone at Tuin called Ben (possibly the Operational Manager). Basically he said that they didn’t know when then cabin would be available for delivery. 

 Updated 20th July 2021

I notice today on the Tuin site that the expected delivery for the cabin i’ve ordered has changed from 12 -16 weeks to 8 – 10 weeks. I’ve sent an email asking them to confirm that i will be receiving my cabin within 10 weeks

Updated 17th October 2021

I didn’t receive an a response to the email i sent 20th July, so sent an email (10/08/21) asking for a response

12th August received the following:
“I have been in contact with the suppliers and they expect a restock of the  Log Cabin within the next 3-4 weeks. When this has been confirmed, we will be able to arrange a new delivery week for you We thank you for your patience, it is much appreciated.”

3rd September 2021- Sent an email to check the delivery status

6th September 2021 – Received a reply from Tuin stating that the current estimate was now end September / Early October.

28th September 2021 – Sent an email  to get an update on delivery date

29th September 2021 – Received and email saying
“Unfortunately our suppliers do not yet have a new delivery week for your order. As soon as we gain this information we will email you. Your order is a priority order and our suppliers prioritise this.

29th September 2021 – I sent an email asking if the actually had stock of the cabin? 

30th September 2021 – Received the following response from Tuin, saying that they are still ‘operating’ on the cabin and once complete they will advise a new delivery week

I’m not sure what ‘operating’ on a cabin actually means. Does it mean they have the timber and they are in the process of creating the components? 

5th October 2021 – Sent an email asking them to explain what operating on a cabin means?

7th October 2021 – i got the following very unhelpful response ‘ Your order is not yet complete, as soon as the order is complete we will be able to advise a new delivery week for your order. They are actively working on completing your cabin. ‘

12th October 2021 – I send an email asking them to give me direct answers to the following questions:

Does the supplier have the timber required for the Torsten cabin?

Can you get a delivery date from the supplier? (If they have the timber, they must have some idea when they can supply the cabin)

When did Tuin last ship a Torsten cabin?

15th October 2021 – i got the following response from Tuin:

“Thank-you for your email. Our supplier have been struggling to source the materials they require to complete your order. As soon as your order has been completed, we will be able to advise a new delivery week. Our suppliers currently estimate your order to be ready for shipment mid to late November, this is of course an estimate and subject to change. However, as soon as we receive confirmation of completion we will then be able to give a you an accurate delivery week.”

They also said the last Torsten cabin was shipped in December 2020. The Tuin website is still showing estimated delivery of 8 to 10 weeks!

Latest Update – 23/11/2021

It’s been over a year since i placed my original order with Tuin and i’ve had enough of being strung along. It’s just crazy that a company can hold on to my money for nearly a year and not deliver my cabin.

For a while i have been concerned that Tuin might have financial problems and that i might never see my money again. I called up the bank the issued the credit card to see what protection i had. It turns out that i have very little. I can’t remember the exact details, but there’s a thing called a Section 75 that details credit card protection. I basically no longer had any protection from Visa. If Tuin were to go bust i would have to go to the bank that issued the card and go through some process to claim my money back and there was chance i wouldn’t get my money back.

Before i threw in the towel, i decided i would have a chat with a lawyer to see what options i have. In summary he said that it was going to take time and effort to get any compensation from Tuin. I really didn’t want to waste even more time or money on this joke of a company. Especially when the lawyer said it would cost about £300 for him to send a letter to Tuin!

The lawyer suggested that before any legal action, that i should:

1) Ask Tuin for an exact delivery date –  Which i did and they told me they were unable to provide any dates as the supplier didn’t know when the cabin would be available
2) Write a formal letter of complaint to Tuin – I’ve already done this
3) Make a complaint to the Retail Ombudsman – The lawyer had told me that the Retail Ombudsman has a huge back log and that complaints were taking a long time to process. He also told me that if i do complain to the Retail Ombudsman that Tuin would have to pay a fee. I decided not to go down this route as i could just see it dragging on for months and months

 Before cancelling my order, i called Tuin, pretending to be a new customer looking to order the cabin that i’ve been trying to get for nearly a year. The sales guy told me that delivery would be mid December. I quizzed him quite a bit an he was quite sure of the delivery date, the only thing that would shift the date would be due to a Covid lockdown. This contradicted the email i had received earlier that day saying they had no idea when the cabin would be available!

I’ve now cancelled my order with Tuin and received a full refund.

I’ve ordered a new cabin, which is nearly £1500 more expensive than the cabin i originally ordered from Tuin, thanks to Covid forcing timber prices up.

The new cabin is a little smaller than the Tuin Cabin, which means i’ve got to get a builder in to resize the base.

Financially I’m about £2000 worse off and i dread to think how many days of my life i’ve wasted dealing with this awful company.