Humpty Doo resident Danielle Crosby has been waiting since last September for a shed she ordered
from The Shed Warehouse. Her family has been forced to live in a caravan while the costly affair is resolved.
http://www.ntnews.com.au
A DARWIN couple is among scores of angry customers who have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Gold Coast company for sheds that have not been delivered.
Danielle Crosby and her husband Matthew are still waiting for a 14m x 9m shed they ordered last September.
The couple has paid $18,600 - the full cost - to The Shed Warehouse and are paying another $6157 still owed to the sub-contractor to get the job finished.
Mrs Crosby said they ordered the shed to live in while building a home in Darwin, but they had had to stay in a cramped caravan with their two teenage children for months.
"The living conditions and the financial stress puts a lot of pressure on a family," she said.
The rent at a caravan park and storage for their buildings has cost them about $1000 a month.
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The Queensland Office of Fair Trading is understood to be investigating more than 50 complaints from people who have handed over money to The Shed Warehouse.
The Shed Warehouse Customer Experience Group on Facebook
Company owner Joshua Purtell said the firm got into some problems, but was now "in the throes of a takeover" by a large manufacturer and everyone would have their sheds within weeks.
Mr Purtell, who owns 90 percent of the shares, said the firm was hit by a downturn in business and a big rise in steel prices late last year.
"There's been some poor management - and we are not backing away there."
Staff numbers were cut from 15 to five and the Queensland office closed in January.
The company's website gives a post office box address at Oxenford on the Gold Coast, but phone calls go through to an administrative office in South Australia.
"I'm very confident that in the next couple of weeks, this will be resolved," said Mr Purtell.
Queensland Fair Trading Minister Peter Lawlor said: "If it's thought a business has breached the law, the OFT will investigate the matter."
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