Green Studios

WARNING: Craig Riley and Libby Guess are now directors of a new garden buildings company which was set up as soon as Green Studios failed. They are now trading as Vertis Buildings. I bought a garden studio from them which has been a nightmare and is still unusable and has left me with a large bill to put right. Please beware of using them as my experience has been very costly in terms of money, time and stress.

I employed Green Studios to build a Garden Room for me. Without warning, half way through the build Craig Riley emailed me to say they had ceased trading and would not be doing any more work on the project. They've taken my money and left me with a half finished product. Apparently it's not the first time Craig has done this - please be aware and beware of his name.

It’s very rare for me to leave a negative review (this would be zero stars if it could be!) . However, my recent experience with garden office studio ‘specialist’, Green Studios (http://bit.ly/GreenStudios), part of the Stillwater Group, has been so unreal, that I feel that I really need to put pen to paper. Things seemed to be going to plan but then two weeks before work was due to start on the install I got a call from Green Studios (6/7/18) and was advised that following a board meeting they had decided that they had too much work going through their factory and that they were cancelling my contract! The good news was that they would refund me my deposit which they had held since May 2nd! I was told that they hadn’t been able to deliver the right level of service to customers (perhaps an understatement on this occasion!?) and that they had also decided that they weren’t going to work in my area because it was ‘too complex’!!! Now I’m pretty sure my house has stood in the same place for the last 120 years. This means that when I asked the sales rep. if Green Studios had worked in Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire, given that they’re based close to Watford and he said ‘yes – all the time’ and that it ‘wouldn’t be a problem’, I’m pretty certain that weren’t talking at cross purposes. We were also standing in my garden at the time! Having said that, I was willing to push back my build to September, my time is so important and I didn’t want to start all over again! However, I was told by that it was still a no go. I took this up with Craig Riley, Managing Director Green Studios, who to his credit called and apologised, he reiterated Green Studios ‘defence’ about being busy and argued contrary to the previous communication that this was not about geographical location. I was surprised by this as the letter that he sent me dated 6/6/18 stated: "We can no longer offer an adequate level of supervision for a project which is over 2.5 hours from our base in Bedfordshire". Fundamentally, however, apologies in this case don’t really help. I have lost four months of my time! I appreciate that this is a ‘first-world problem’ but I cannot accept that any of this is acceptable business conduct. It is worth noting that in addition to Green Studios, the StillWater Group also includes Green Modular, a company specialising in modular builds for the education sector. I have been told by Green Studios that both are manufactured through the same facility. If that is the case it clearly makes business sense to prioritise those projects where you may secure repeat business at the expense of one-off sales to single end-users. By definition, as Green Modular handles the larger commercial contracts, these are also likely to be smaller individual retail customers - which perhaps suggests where the group’s priorities lie? Having taken legal advice, I would also note that while as a customer, there are multiple clauses in their contract which tie-you in as the buyer, there is nothing which commits Green Studios to actually deliver what they are saying they’re going to. This can only lead me to one conclusion that this is a business that you need to think very carefully about using as there is clearly no guarantee on delivery. *In answer to Green Studios thread response [below] is 2weeks from breaking ground an 'acceptable level of notice' after holding my deposit for three months?!!!

We had Green Studios build garden room for us which we use now as a home gym. It is exceedingly well built, you can really feel that this is a proper building rather than a shed - it's warm all year round due to the insulation, it's lovely and light and airy and we love it!

Green Studios recently built our Garden Office. They gave us a very personal and friendly service. The quoting was clear and detailed with room for changes to fit our budget. The built was done very quickly within the timescales agreed. Site was kept as clean and clear as possible. Great result, really finishes our garden and it's a lovely workspace. Feels really solid and bright. It's the best way to add space to your house and makes total financial sense. We would (and have) recommend green studios to anyone. Great company to work with!