Juliusbahn Reviews

A massive thank you

I would just like to say a massive thank you to all the team at Julius Bahn who have made the build experience from start to finish seamless We have been very impressed with the workmanship and attention to detail and feel very reassured by the service received Everyone who has worked on site has been friendly polite and left the site in a clean and tidy fashion at each stage of the works The orangery looks fabulous and we will enjoy it for many years to come We would not hesitate to recommend Julius Bahn to anyone who is considering have an oak framed addition to their house

We took them to court and won

The entire experience was beyond stressful and the finished product is an embarrassment Large gaps allow the outside elements in they did not take responsibility for and took no pride in the project lack of attention to detail and abysmal customer service They would not complete it until they were paid in full and then once paid they completely lost all interest We took them to court and the judge ruled overwhelmingly in our favour Do not trust their glossy ads Stay well away from this company who also trade as Prime Oak

Extreme disappointment

Extreme disappointment Glossy brochure and wording but reality couldn t be more of a contrast Endless visits over more than two years to rectify water leaks and drafts Still experiencing problems and decided to use other contractors to address ongoing issues Julius Bahn never refused to respond and would have continued to do so but sometimes you need to draw a line and move on

WE TOOK THEM TO COURT

We took them to court and wonThe entire experience was beyond stressful and the finished product is an embarrassment LARGE gaps allow the outside elements in they did not take responsibility for and took no pride in the project lack of attention to detail and abysmal customer service They would not complete it until they were paid in full and then once paid they completely lost all interest We took them to court and the judge ruled overwhelmingly in our favour Do not trust their glossy ads Stay well away from this company who also trade as Prime Oak

Rep never turned up

Rep never turned up no email no phone call nothing so we ve gone elsewhere

Nice product but do not believe any promises made on dates

So let down by the experience with Julius Bahn No financial compensation for the extensive delays to delivery of the cabin and then the joinery The product is great but be aware of likely delays in case you are ordering for a specific date All the people who worked on our project said that all their jobs were delayed and customers dissatisfied Information was either not given at all or just false - this company has taken on too much work and has a serious customer satisfaction issue Shame as the product is lovely

A grim grotesque grossly unpleasant experience Avoid at all costs

Posted here because although we engaged an entity called Prime Oak PO we also received key paperwork from the entity that trades as Julius Bahn entities which the salesperson assured us were merely a cosmetic distinction Coincidentally the documentation issued by Julius Bahn is the documentary proof that the company mis-sold the project Simply put Prime Oak PO alias Julius Bahn entangled itself in a false claim Then it tried to cover it up Then it ran away Then it tried to sue its way out of the hole it had dug itself It messed up but its solution was to make it the customer s problem PO materially and verifiably mis-sold the project It harps on about its contract but the law is clear Where mis-selling has taken place the vendor s right to enforce his contract is set aside as is the customer s obligation to be bound by it It is obvious why that should be PO misleadingly claims it settled the matter professionally and respectfully In reality it used legal threats to hang onto tens of thousands of pounds it did not earn It goes without saying that the right reasonable recommended approach to dealing with a dissatisfied customer is to engage in dialogue But PO screwed its eyes and ears tight shut and simply ran away to hide The company failed the reasonableness test at every step Letters went entirely unaddressed meetings were cancelled rudely and without apology written communication was insultingly terse and the one in- person encounter was disturbing provoking and deeply traumatic Distressingly it felt like an increasingly personal vendetta against a customer with the temerity to find the company at fault Additional points of concern Reputable businesses have established complaints resolution procedures but PO has none When asked to provide details of the recognised Trade Association to which it belongs and which Alternative Dispute Resolution ADR scheme it abides by PO flatly blanked the request so determined was it to leapfrog dialogue and jump to legal action PO seeks to claim that the problem arose from a failure by the customer to understand something that it should have understood This is wholly misleading PO is well aware that the charge against it is that its salesperson made a very specific material and explicit claim which this customer relied upon when committing to the contract a claim that turned out to be false Without the salesperson s false claim there would have been no sale PO implies that what happened at the point of sale was professional and orderly whereas in reality it was wildly chaotic disordered and stressful It seems highly probable that this chaos was deliberate and precisely the sort of practice that consumer legislation has tried to outlaw The salesperson s charming dither was almost certainly unscrupulous artifice PO s sale documentation was a Consumer Protection nightmare evidently presented so as to be confusing misleading and hard to parse in a hurry and under stress both of which conditions the salesperson had succeeding in manufacturing Consumer legislation has rightly outlawed the use of forms with pre-ticked boxes for items that involve additional cost but just such a form was a key component of the sale documentation Even more concerning is that this entire form which should have been completed in the customer s hand was filled in by the salesperson Indeed this form disappeared somewhere for a few days and another forms in retrospect a hugely inappropriate document went permanently missing The salesperson who mis-sold the project and who unilaterally appointed herself its Project Manager proposed in concert with her builder a tawdry scheme to defraud HM Revenue Customs of the VAT that would be payable to her builder Utterly unacceptable There is more Much more But no more space for it here This is a very dangerous company to get involved with In the end PO did achieve its sought-for outcome but not in the way it suggests The prospect of further protracted engagement with such people was too hateful to be endured Ultimately it was worth paying any price to escape the company s toxic orbit

Never again

We thought we were going with one of the best in the oak frame business The marketing materials were slick and their buildings looked beautiful in the brochures and on the website We were investing in a large 4 bay garage over 100k excluding the base works So here we go The base which was built by a builder Julius Bahn s sales rep recommended to us It was built too short for the timber frame it was unlevel and the stone work is crumbling in places On completion of the oak frame build Building Control did a site visit and insisted that we had to engage a structural engineer to advise on structural soundness of the building as it was overhanging the base at one end The base was not Julius Bahn s responsibility BUT they did come to site and signed it off as suitable before commencing the erection of their oak frame So if you re thinking of embarking on a oak frame build with JB 1 READ THE CONTRACT VERY CAREFULLY BEFORE SIGNING once your 14 day cooling off period is up there is NO GOING BACK even if they haven t started manufacture or work 2 Get your own architects builders drawings and get your building designed and built to those drawings It may cost extra but its worth every penny You are then in control Julius Bahn changed the building shown in our mock ups between signing the contract and signing off the final mock ups these are builders drawings The first mock up showed the frame sitting on dwarf walls These walls had been removed on the mock up we signed off Check everything carefully Even JB s fitters putting the frame together said it was wrong 3 I ve learned that an oak frame building should never sit directly on a concrete pad unless the pad is raised all around and has no open garage bays - regardless of what Building Control says is ok Oak frames should sit on raised walls Our garage doesn t inside the open bays and the oak beams sits directly on the pad and in pools of water when it rains which blows into the bay As a result we have water ingress from the open garage bay into one of the attached rooms Note JB warranty excludes water ingress Their warranty excludes quite a lot of things please read the T Cs and Warranty before signing any contract 3 Ensure that you get your own builder to build the base and go to see some of their work When the base is complete make sure the dimensions are accurate to the builders drawings yourself and that the base is level using a laser level There is a fall to allow water drainage from the concrete pad in any open bays which there isn t in ours and wasn t in the drawings 4 If I was doing this again I would definitely get prices from other companies not Prime Oak as they are the same owners - Whitlock and Lowe We cancelled the roof their price 20k as we wanted solar panels fitting Despite the fact we d flagged that we might want to do this we had to pay a cancellation fee of c 6k even though we were two months off build and nothing had been manufactured It felt very wrong given the cost of the overall build but it was all contracted So it was our mistake When we objected to the 6k fee one of JB s senior management David Handley said that we d easily get the roof done for 10k I said to him So you admit you re ripping off your customers That ll look good in my online review I could go on and on But time is precious We try to move on and not think about it but are reminded constantly as our building team work to correct weaknesses and issues they find with building every day today it was badly fitted insect mesh It s hard to admit you ve made a mistake especially a big financial one But if we could could start from scratch we definitely wouldn t use Julius Bahn Prime Oak or any Whitlock and Lowe company I ve learned a lot from the process and I won t make the same mistakes again Fortunately we know it will be ok in the end as we have a great team finding solutions to the problems they encounter Do your research carefully Have your own drawings Use your own builder Look for true craftsmen Read online reviews Ask to speak to customers

Terrible experience with these guys

Terrible experience with these guys I would have taken them to court but by the end of it we were so stressed and dealing with a lot of anxiety I would strongly advise you avoid them My oak framed building experience was a nightmare they can t measure they changed the conditions after we d agreed to purchase and had given them a 15k non refundable deposit and then they will not respond to your queries Half way through our process they told us we need to insert steel beams into our house We eventually had to employ our builder to install the building The total cost was 28k and it was so unsatisfactory don t listen to their brochure blurb please please just choose one of the many other companies that do this I wish I could share photos of the gaps in our building we told them they d measured wrong our builders told them but they wouldn t listen and then tried to blame everybody else There is a commercial director that may get involved I would love to share his emails that s if he replies to you