Devonshire Stables - difficult to deal with

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Patchworkpony

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Has anyone dealt with Devonshire Stables in Winkleigh? Nice buildings for the money but the owner David Gent seems to quote for the wrong size buildings, doesn't confirm anything doesn't reply to emails and virtually never answers his phone. I think I've got a bad feeling about this company. Any feedback would be most welcome.
 
I've just had a 6 stable american barn from Devonshire stables and it's fantastic. Big, airy, very solid. Very good build quality. Company did exactly what they said they would and the barn is as promised on their website. Everyone was very straight forward.
 
Charlotte R said:
I've just had a 6 stable american barn from Devonshire stables and it's fantastic. Big, airy, very solid. Very good build quality. Company did exactly what they said they would and the barn is as promised on their website. Everyone was very straight forward.
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How odd that this should come up now, after all this time.
 
We contacted them 3 months ago for a quoted on 3 stables. We are 10 miles away from them. The quote for mileage delivery was wrong and the wait time was 28 weeks!! I'm afraid that we decided to order from Tailored Equine in Shropshire. Lovely to deal with and delivered in 5 weeks.
 
I wanted to make others aware of the experience my wife and I have had with Devonshire. I can supply pictures or more information if required. An absoloute disaster.

A very sad state of affairs.

My wife paid good money to Devonshire Stables to build a barn. She saved up for many years to do this. TWO YEARS after the build was supposed to be finished, we still have; Leaking roof, non working clock tower, pooling gutters, both ship-lap ends leaking, exposed insulation, ugly dark brown filled knot holes, unfixed roof beams, leaking roof fixings missing caps, rusting roof sheets not treated after cutting, and many, many more.

The owner, David Gent has been back and undertaken a few repairs, but for a whole year promises to re-clad the ends of the barn, and sort the list of issues have been missed, with excuses of "wood on order", then "wood was wrongly used for another job", then "I can't come I have to work to pay a VAT bill". I've had a written apology from Jack, the son of David, but still no effort has been made to make good the job.

In summary, complete failure to make good the barn, lies about attendance, promises to come April, May, August, and September, have all come and gone. Even the agency secretary doesnt seem able to get hold of anybody, and now we are being ghosted.

You have been warned.
 
Ohh my!! I am in Devon and can't say I have heard of this company; tho' that's probably because I'm in the East of the County and Winkleigh is a little way from us.

They do not sound good! Best avoided obviously. Sorry the poster above has obviously had a bad experience with them; I'd be taking this to Trading Standards.
 
They are quite near me and when we built a new outbuilding with kennels I asked them to quote. But they won’t come out to do quotes, ‘it can all be done on line’. Well it really can’t, so we went with a company (in Bampton) who were fabulous.
I’m sorry @edo for what you are going through. Can you go to trading standards or someone?
 
That is awful @edo, I'm sorry you and your wife have had such terrible service. I don't know the ins-and-outs of it but is this something you could take to the small claims court to get some of your money back? It sounds as though the company clearly hasn't provided the service you've paid for so they would struggle to fight it, if there are still such extensive defects that haven't been rectified so long after the original build.
 
Thanks all. Yes I am considering small claims court. I have a feeling from some old posts online in 2015 they may have closed shop and started again. Looking at companies house they dont appear to my untrained eye to be in very good finanical shape. I have a feeling small claims would be chucking good money after bad. If anyone else has an accountants eye, I'd appreciate a view on Devonshire Stables here: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08063365/filing-history

Its more important to me to give people fair warning of the way they operate.

The silly thing is that they could sort all the issues out in a week with 2 people if they put their minds to it.
 
Mine are from them. They were really the only place I could afford. They do the job and to be fair they turned up the date agreed and put them together, cleared up well and were nice enough when they were here.
There were a few requests I’d made. I wanted them higher than the normal blocks, apparently they are but I was never convinced and haven’t been bothered to measure them.
There are several places that the nails have missed where it was supposed to go and so we had to pull them out or cut the points off incase the horses rubbed. (Actually a lot of this)
Also I had requested and I’m sure was built into the quote to have basic windows/slider type things at the back for air flow. The back walls were solid.
I also luckily realised just before they came out that my quote only included half walls between stables! They were find about putting full in for me though and cutting them right to the top round joists for one that had a dust allergy so I could keep his stable as clean as possible.
So good and bad. For the price I thought I can’t really complain too much and I’ve had them 9 years and they are going strong.
 
poiuytrewq said:
Mine are from them. They were really the only place I could afford. They do the job and to be fair they turned up the date agreed and put them together, cleared up well and were nice enough when they were here.
There were a few requests I’d made. I wanted them higher than the normal blocks, apparently they are but I was never convinced and haven’t been bothered to measure them.
There are several places that the nails have missed where it was supposed to go and so we had to pull them out or cut the points off incase the horses rubbed. (Actually a lot of this)
Also I had requested and I’m sure was built into the quote to have basic windows/slider type things at the back for air flow. The back walls were solid.
I also luckily realised just before they came out that my quote only included half walls between stables! They were find about putting full in for me though and cutting them right to the top round joists for one that had a dust allergy so I could keep his stable as clean as possible.
So good and bad. For the price I thought I can’t really complain too much and I’ve had them 9 years and they are going strong.
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Thanks for the balance. I think a few years back I am sure they cared more. David has clearly lost interest and I'd suggest he call it a day if he cant be bothered to finish a not inconsiderable job. We have a neighbour who had the same challenge getting their last 10% completed, who sadly we didnt speak to until after it was too late!
 
edo said:
Thanks for the balance. I think a few years back I am sure they cared more. David has clearly lost interest and I'd suggest he call it a day if he cant be bothered to finish a not inconsiderable job. We have a neighbour who had the same challenge getting their last 10% completed, who sadly we didnt speak to until after it was too late!
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That’s not good. Sad because mine are ok- minus the mentioned issues. They do me well.
That said had I been able to afford better quality i would have done so.
OH told some very wealthy friends to come and see them last year as they were looking to buy and I told them not to, to spend the extra and get better quality. I just didn’t have the option.
 
Re the financial position of the company, it's hard to tell as they only need to file unaudited micro company accounts. It's pretty much what I'd expect for a small company which doesn't need a lot of assets due to the type of work they do. There's a large loan facility with a charge over all the assets, so if they did go bust any small creditors are unlikely to get anything. The director has had two other companies, which have been dissolved. He's still got one active company which is very new, and it's a gym, so his attention may well be elsewhere.....
 
Cowpony said:
Re the financial position of the company, it's hard to tell as they only need to file unaudited micro company accounts. It's pretty much what I'd expect for a small company which doesn't need a lot of assets due to the type of work they do. There's a large loan facility with a charge over all the assets, so if they did go bust any small creditors are unlikely to get anything. The director has had two other companies, which have been dissolved. He's still got one active company which is very new, and it's a gym, so his attention may well be elsewhere.....
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Yup, big loan with the bank who as you say will get any money left first!
 
edo said:
Thanks. I think about £400 approx for up to £10k. Just sad to have to go this route after all we have paid.
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It was a long time ago and I may be out of touch, but I took someone to small claims (admittedly about 10 yrs ago) and it was a paltry sum- check it out for sure before you dismiss it as an option?

If it does turn out to be £400,
You may be able to commission a solicitors letter for less which could galvanise action.

Have you voiced your complaint loud and clear over social media? Can sometimes help.
 
I did a factual Facebook review. That got some attention, but it soon died. They have now blocked me on Facebook, so not sure if my review is still there.

I've just done a Google review. Feel free to give it a thumbs up!
 
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