Bob Green Buildings - any thoughts!?

A friend of mine equally desperate for a shed went into the shed builders office and said here's my bank card, tell me how much it is and I will pay right now. They wouldn't have it.
He eventually gave up, bought the steel himself and is making it himself. May not be CE but he can weld as good or better than anyone.
all well an good to insurance get involved. sadly in this world we now live in its all about litigation
I can't think of anything more stressful than having a business based on getting prices out of suppliers who are in turn in a similarly volatile world.

Of course even holding any kind of serious quantities of steel or anything in stock would just be totally dead money and just a PITA to even have sat there.
i would be very happy having a lot of anything in stock now made of metal, especially if i paid for in Jan 21!

the only way to do this is to get a shed builder to quote for all components, then accept his order and basically then pay for every item there and then and accept you may have to store it on site for 6 + months till its needed. You basically then just pay the builder's profit margin and labour rates as it goes along
 

Andrew1983

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Black Isle
I got a quote from Robinsons this week for a lean to, to go on a 100/50 shed….. quote was in with in 5 days of asking. Only problem is it’s costing as much for a very basic lean to as the entire shed cost 3 years ago, a good 10k more than I expected.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
Finally got my quote today. 🔜
24th of November I posted that. Quote was off Minshall Construction and was £8350 + VAT for a 3 x 15' bay lean-to, bays are about 17' deep and 12' high at the top, a lot of money for a direct copy of what they made me last year. It will be a bit extra due to the tin being a Premium colour but only the roof is clad.
Quote said availability was 4 weeks, so 10 days as of tomorrow. I have not heard a bloody thing off them and my email unanswered when asking if any progress had been made.
p!ssed off with them so they can just bugger off now, waste of time. May was when I first asked for a quote and wasn't until November they managed to give me one, at one point they said they had already done it (they hadn't), another time they were "waiting for a quote on the tin", well I rang Coverworld and got a quote there and then on the phone so what they were waiting for I don't know.
I know steel prices have been a big problem but that does not explain or forgive this shite.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
24th of November I posted that. Quote was off Minshall Construction and was £8350 + VAT for a 3 x 15' bay lean-to, bays are about 17' deep and 12' high at the top, a lot of money for a direct copy of what they made me last year. It will be a bit extra due to the tin being a Premium colour but only the roof is clad.
Quote said availability was 4 weeks, so 10 days as of tomorrow. I have not heard a bloody thing off them and my email unanswered when asking if any progress had been made.
p!ssed off with them so they can just bugger off now, waste of time. May was when I first asked for a quote and wasn't until November they managed to give me one, at one point they said they had already done it (they hadn't), another time they were "waiting for a quote on the tin", well I rang Coverworld and got a quote there and then on the phone so what they were waiting for I don't know.
I know steel prices have been a big problem but that does not explain or forgive this shite.

As a comparison - I asked Shufflebottom for a quote on Monday this week and it was in my email inbox by midday on Tuesday. (y)
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
As a comparison - I asked Shufflebottom for a quote on Monday this week and it was in my email inbox by midday on Tuesday. (y)
That is a bit exceptional. I am struggling to figure out what I did wrong, I thought I was a good customer, wasn't awkward, didn't haggle, straight forward what I wanted etc. Not impressed.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
That is a bit exceptional. I am struggling to figure out what I did wrong, I thought I was a good customer, wasn't awkward, didn't haggle, straight forward what I wanted etc. Not impressed.

It is indeed exceptional service....and so I thought deserved credit where it was due. If you haven't approached them yet they would be worth a try.

Not much point trying to figure our what you did wrong with Minshall because you probably didn't do anything at all. I'd probably put your experience down to Minshall themselves - never know what goes on behind the scenes.

Brian from Minshall left earlier this year so they could be in a different place now to they were with your last order last year. (Please Note: I'm not starting a rumour, just suggesting there could be factors at play we are unaware of e.g. staff shortages.)

 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
I get all that and would find it a lot easier if they just said we are too busy, we can't get the steel, we are all on furlough, we don't like you, we don't want to work with you, or whatever else you can come up with. Don't say we will do it and then just don't, be straight with people. Just comes across as just can't be arsed.
 
As a comparison - I asked Shufflebottom for a quote on Monday this week and it was in my email inbox by midday on Tuesday. (y)

They have always been v good with me but sadly always in the top tier of pricing.

I get all that and would find it a lot easier if they just said we are too busy, we can't get the steel, we are all on furlough, we don't like you, we don't want to work with you, or whatever else you can come up with. Don't say we will do it and then just don't, be straight with people. Just comes across as just can't be arsed.

They were second for me but about 10% more than the team we used On a like for like steels spec, which actually changed making theirs smaller.
 

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
I wouldn’t deal with Minshall ,they went bust and started up a few days later with UK added to their name,I know someone who lost out,no reason they wouldn’t do it again.
 

Suffolksucklers

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Suffolk
I'm yet to meet a building manufacturer that has delivered us a building when they said they would. Apart from that we are currently erecting one from Fowler and Gilbert, good quality and they are proving to be quite helpful with a few small issues we are having
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
George Minshall read my rant further up and got in touch with me straight away. He was a bit surprised and very disappointed that things had gone wrong with my quote and asked if I would give him the chance to put it right.
In his words, there is no point him doing all he can to build the business if there are disappointed customers out there.
He came out to see me personally and we sorted everything out regarding my shed, and I took delivery yesterday. The turnaround was fairly quick, any delays was me having other stuff to deal with rather than Minshalls. It is a shame it got to the point it did but the mark of a company is how they put things right when needed that counts.
I am happy, I have my lean-to and would have no hesitation recommending them to others. (nobody asked me to say that, or any of the above either)
Pics when it is put up. :)
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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