We purchased two Rion Sunroom Greenhouse from Backyard Living Source in May of 2010. These rooms were warranted for 7 years. We have had continual problems with both rooms, but did what we needed to in order to use them. Backyard Living Source was very helpful when we first received the kits, shipping us replacement parts for broken pieces and helping when we had a window pop through, a vented roof panel leak like crazy and a door that never did seal properly and let cold air in all winter. But that's where they stopped being helpful.
We built a very sturdy, very level deck to house the largest sunroom greenhouse, which was used to house our iPool exercise pool as well as sunroom furniture. We built it exactly as directed. The cost of that sunroom was around $4000.
They are advertised as a "snap" to put together. They are anything but that.. They are incredibly hard to get together, espcially to get the windows in place, but after a couple of weeks of very hard labor, we did manage to get the 20' one done.
Fast forward 3 1/2 years, our sunroom collapsed during the night on January 31, 2014. We contacted Backyard Living Source on the first business day (Feb.3) after the collapse, sent them a bunch of pictures and a description of what had happened.. It appears the frame just simply shattered at key points, allowing the entire roof to collapse, crushing our iPool and other personal contents. We were not asking them to cover the cost of our personal items, but rather, to cover the 3 1/2 years left on our 7 year warranty.
I had to contact them a couple of times before I received a reply. Tim or backyard living told me he had turned our claim over to the manager who was deciding what to do with it.. After not hearing from them again for a couple of weeks, I contacted him again. He replied that he had turned it over to Jeanette of Backyard Living Source. I contacted her and was told she had sent a claim to Palram, who is the manufacturer of the kits.. She stated someone there would be in contact with me soon..
Months later, after no one contacted us by phone or email, I emailed her again.. She sent me a letter basically stating they had done what they were suppose to do and were washing their hands of the situation. She gave me the name of a contact person from Palram, Tina Bachman. I've never heard a word from this person. I've since written Jeanette, Tim and Tina many times, but no one will reply.. I found a website for Palram, so I contacted them through the websites contact page..
There wasn't much space to write, so I simply stated how angry we were that a claim had been made 6 months ago, but no one had contacted us or done anything to make this right.. I received a short email stating "your issue is not covered by our warranty".. That person's name was Chris, who also attached a copy of their warranty, which amazingly, lists a whole bunch of reasons they are not responsible for problems, which basically covered every single thing that could possibly happen to anything.. The warranty was written to protect the company, not to protect the customer in any way, shape or form.
First problem, we didn't buy these kits from Palram, we purchased them from Backyard Living Source. We were never given a copy of this so called warranty, only told they were warranted for 7 years.. Their warranty is a joke.
We feel Backyard Living Source should be responsible to reimburse us for the 3 1/2 years left on our warranted sunroom, which is now gone (we had to tear it down. There was no way to fix it).. We have personal property that was damaged. It's ridiculous that a company can sell something, calling it a warranted product, and then just pass a customer off with the excuse that the manufacturer needs to cover the warranty. As far as we're concerned, Backyard Living Source should pay us for the remaining warranty, and then they can go after Palram for the money.. Why should we be expected to absorb this loss because Backyard Living Source purchases products from a manufacturer who doesn't honor warranties..
By the way, Palram is a company out of Israel, not the United States.. When we purchased these sunrooms, there was no information about this anywhere on their website. They also have glowing feedback, which I have sense realized is either fictional, or they only choose to post the good feedback.. I have tried to post truthful feedback a number of times on their websites, giving them a 3 star or less, but they will not post my feedback.. But when you dig further, you discover a lot of unhappy customers who have had nothing but problems with the Rion brand greenhouses..
We have now filed a complaint with the BBB in the hopes of receiving some sort of compensation for a $4000 product that was built to crash..
We eventually did put up the 2nd kit, which is a 10' one, used as a greenhouse. The roof on that one is sagging and one of the vented windows popped through in the winter (even though it was covered with a tarp), and is now being held up with a pole because it won't go back in place.. The greenhouse is really kind of useless, as it's just too hot inside because of poor circulation. These kits truly are just a waste on ones money..
Backyard Living Source, Inc Reviews
We purchased two Rion Sunroom Greenhouse from Backyard Living Source in May of 2010. These rooms were warranted for 7 years. We have had continual problems with both rooms, but did what we needed to in order to use them. Backyard Living Source was very helpful when we first received the kits, shipping us replacement parts for broken pieces and helping when we had a window pop through, a vented roof panel leak like crazy and a door that never did seal properly and let cold air in all winter. But that's where they stopped being helpful.
We built a very sturdy, very level deck to house the largest sunroom greenhouse, which was used to house our iPool exercise pool as well as sunroom furniture. We built it exactly as directed. The cost of that sunroom was around $4000.
They are advertised as a "snap" to put together. They are anything but that.. They are incredibly hard to get together, espcially to get the windows in place, but after a couple of weeks of very hard labor, we did manage to get the 20' one done.
Fast forward 3 1/2 years, our sunroom collapsed during the night on January 31, 2014. We contacted Backyard Living Source on the first business day (Feb.3) after the collapse, sent them a bunch of pictures and a description of what had happened.. It appears the frame just simply shattered at key points, allowing the entire roof to collapse, crushing our iPool and other personal contents. We were not asking them to cover the cost of our personal items, but rather, to cover the 3 1/2 years left on our 7 year warranty.
I had to contact them a couple of times before I received a reply. Tim or backyard living told me he had turned our claim over to the manager who was deciding what to do with it.. After not hearing from them again for a couple of weeks, I contacted him again. He replied that he had turned it over to Jeanette of Backyard Living Source. I contacted her and was told she had sent a claim to Palram, who is the manufacturer of the kits.. She stated someone there would be in contact with me soon..
Months later, after no one contacted us by phone or email, I emailed her again.. She sent me a letter basically stating they had done what they were suppose to do and were washing their hands of the situation. She gave me the name of a contact person from Palram, Tina Bachman. I've never heard a word from this person. I've since written Jeanette, Tim and Tina many times, but no one will reply.. I found a website for Palram, so I contacted them through the websites contact page..
There wasn't much space to write, so I simply stated how angry we were that a claim had been made 6 months ago, but no one had contacted us or done anything to make this right.. I received a short email stating "your issue is not covered by our warranty".. That person's name was Chris, who also attached a copy of their warranty, which amazingly, lists a whole bunch of reasons they are not responsible for problems, which basically covered every single thing that could possibly happen to anything.. The warranty was written to protect the company, not to protect the customer in any way, shape or form.
First problem, we didn't buy these kits from Palram, we purchased them from Backyard Living Source. We were never given a copy of this so called warranty, only told they were warranted for 7 years.. Their warranty is a joke.
We feel Backyard Living Source should be responsible to reimburse us for the 3 1/2 years left on our warranted sunroom, which is now gone (we had to tear it down. There was no way to fix it).. We have personal property that was damaged. It's ridiculous that a company can sell something, calling it a warranted product, and then just pass a customer off with the excuse that the manufacturer needs to cover the warranty. As far as we're concerned, Backyard Living Source should pay us for the remaining warranty, and then they can go after Palram for the money.. Why should we be expected to absorb this loss because Backyard Living Source purchases products from a manufacturer who doesn't honor warranties..
By the way, Palram is a company out of Israel, not the United States.. When we purchased these sunrooms, there was no information about this anywhere on their website. They also have glowing feedback, which I have sense realized is either fictional, or they only choose to post the good feedback.. I have tried to post truthful feedback a number of times on their websites, giving them a 3 star or less, but they will not post my feedback.. But when you dig further, you discover a lot of unhappy customers who have had nothing but problems with the Rion brand greenhouses..
We have now filed a complaint with the BBB in the hopes of receiving some sort of compensation for a $4000 product that was built to crash..
We eventually did put up the 2nd kit, which is a 10' one, used as a greenhouse. The roof on that one is sagging and one of the vented windows popped through in the winter (even though it was covered with a tarp), and is now being held up with a pole because it won't go back in place.. The greenhouse is really kind of useless, as it's just too hot inside because of poor circulation. These kits truly are just a waste on ones money..