Australian Outdoor Living

As a single female homeowner, I recently reached out to this company for a quote to upgrade my deck to composite decking and add a pergola to my small courtyard. Initially, they seemed pleasant over the phone when scheduling the appointment, although I found it odd when they inquired about my partner's name, which felt irrelevant to the service I was seeking. Nonetheless, I provided all necessary details, including the size of my courtyard.

However, my experience quickly turned sour when they left a cryptic message the day before the scheduled appointment, offering no clarity. Upon returning their call, I was informed that they couldn't provide a quote because I didn't hold the title to the land, which caught me off guard as I could easily prove otherwise. Despite this assurance, they abruptly dismissed me, citing that they don't work on apartments, despite my prior disclosure of my unit address during booking.

The lack of communication and professionalism displayed was appalling. It's disappointing to encounter such disregard for potential customers, leading me to question whether they have an issue with serving single females or simply prioritize more lucrative projects. Overall, their behaviour felt dismissive and borderline misogynistic. Needless to say, I'll be taking my business elsewhere where it's appreciated.

Australia Outdoor Living claim to give you a free measure and quote, but they dont - I just spoke with a manager to follow up after someone cane out, and was informed its their "policy" NOT to give you any details around measurements, supplies, products or even their suggested designs! they just give yo a figure and expect you to signe with them before they will inform you of what they are quoting on. It's insane - what a huge waste of time!

i ordered decking and outdoor blinds last Dec 2022 and a down payment was made since then am waiting for them to install them but after about 3 months of waiting for no show-up and their reason due to a shortage of workers after almost 3 months no show-up That's time i cancel the decking and retain the outdoor blinds. until now they haven't done anything and now trying to cancel the job and ask for a refund they are keeping me waiting and till now i haven't received the refund.

F rom our initial phone call to Australian Outdoor Living (AOL), we were greeted in a pleasant and courtesy way.

L ooking forward to a simple and concise quotation detailing our options for Zip-Track outdoor blinds, we were met by the sales consultant who was on time and pleasant to deal with initially.

O verall, we thought everything was going smoothly until we inquired to the validity of the quotes for the blinds. It was revealed that the quote he worked out was immediate and we had to make a decision right then and there!
As soon as we announced that it was something we needed to discuss and consider our options, things went sour rapidly!

G athering up his calculator, notepad and sample items, and stuffing them into his bag, the consultant acted like a spoilt brat, and made a very hasty retreat from our property without any further explanation. The pressure tactics of AOL is something to consider IF you want to deal with them. If we could give NO STARS or even ½ a star, it would be warranted!
As a result of this, we have take our business somewhere else that has CUSTOMER SERVICE.

We are only giving one star because we can't give zero. They came measured our custom made outdoor blinds for our deck. We were informed there would be a small gap in the corner where two of the blinds meet and they would put an insert in. There idea of a small gap is seven inches. We thought a small gap of one to two inches not seven. When we tried to get an explanation on why it was like that no one replied. Also the small gap should have been on the side blind not the main feature blind. After telling them we would not go ahead with the other job we were having them do we were contacted by three different people all telling us different reasons to why it was like that. The rep came back out and said they are not right and we worked out a solution. We weren't that happy with it but it would have been better than it is. Next day the rep rings and completely changes his story and says he told us there would be a small gap after the insert was installed. That was completely untrue. If we didn't mind what it looked like we would have bought blinds from Bunnings. These are supposed to be custom made to fit our deck. We found it very difficult to deal with this company they just spin everything and expect you to accept there poor workmanship. We would strongly advise anyone thinking of using Australian Outdoor Living to have a real good think about it. We have since cancelled the carport we were having them build. We don't want that sort of workmanship at the front of our house. Also Titan are $10,000 cheaper for our carport. This was the Loganholme branch in QLD

Approximate cost: $5000

Please ignore review, it was meant for a different location -- it has since been amended.

If only negative reviews were possible.
Beautiful blinds - absolute terrible service. Was supposed to take 2-3 weeks but it's currently 3 months and still the blinds aren't installed properly. I wish I could share a photo of the concrete pad they installed. Absolutely terrible.

Approximate cost: $7000

Now, i am back to write my review
My swimming pool is still not handover, because the pool manager not coming again, and plus this is the second time he did this one for me. The first time was half month ago (08/06/2021), he was not coming on time and after i call him so many times he just gave me a message said he is on the way back from langhorne creek and he totally forgot the appointment. After that i didn't hear any new schedule regarding my handover. And after one week later should be the 15 of June i got a phone call from the AOL and they just let me know the handover time is 17 of June ( but for that day we cannot be met due to the huge storm in adelaide ) so we made another appointment should be on 3:30pm on today , but unfortunately he still not coming and didn't give us any notice or phone call. And after nearly one hour waiting i have to give him a call to find out whether he will be coming or not, but he just hang up my phone and then send me a email said i am so rude and he will not coming and some other people will do the hand over job . I really want to know which party is rude? And i just show the time line regarding my swimming pool
CONTRACT DATE 16/12/2020 PRICE :4****
COUNCIL APPROVAL DATE 10/02/2021
INSTALLATION DATE 08/04/2021
COPPING DATE 23/04/2021
MY FINAL PAYMENT ALREADY DONE ON 29/04/2021
STILL WAITING FOR THE HAND OVER ON 21/06/2021.
And i really want you guys confirm one thing as following:
AOL will not take any responsibility due to your sub construction delay or change hand?
Please DO NOT pass the buck , and you guys know i still deal with your artificial lawn team and they can do the nice job for my backyard (200m2) in 2 days and there is no troubles between us at all.

According to my experience do not pay for full amount of money to AOL till they done the final jobs .

Australian Outdoor Living installed some outside blinds/awnings in our outdoor entertaining area.
Wow, didn't realise ours looks so tired & old until they installed the news ones. They look so beautiful. Look really classy & have dressed up the area so well. We had the wind flaps added to them as well so th rubbish doesn't blow underneath. It works so well.
Some of the installation perhaps wasn't the absolute best but overall it was really good. My hubby & I are a bit of perfectionists so that's why we see every little detail.
It was very costly, we were surprised at first by the original cost but they came down in their quote quite a lot because of a Show special. (Well that's what they said)
We have since price checked other retailers & they too were costly so overall we are happy we went with them. We have also got a price for one more blind but it seemed over the top in price considering we are already a customer & also the size of the blind is on the smaller size. So that won't be done.

Approximate cost: $5800

CUSTOMER REVIEW SUBMITTED BY BUSINESS

'19th May 2014

Dear staff at Outdoor Living We would like to let you know how happy we are with our Bella Vista blinds. They have added character to our house along with style. They provide privacy which is what we were looking for along with the ability for us to see out. They also provide some protection from the weather which was another requirement that we were looking for when choosing blinds for that area. We have had a number of complements from others in the community who can see them from a distance and from our friends and family. We were kept well informed of the progress by you and the tradesman who installed them was quick, efficient and turned up on the day that was planned. It was a pleasure doing business with you.'

Submitted on behalf of G & J Olsen on 21st May 2014.

Good morning all, whilst this is not a testimonial I felt I needed to give you some feedback on the great customer service I've had in my dealings with your company. From my initial call (with Sarah I think it was), to Andy the sales representative, including the Manager Dave, it's obvious that you have a culture of making your customers feel special. A rare occurrence these days!!! You all made a stressful experience relatively easy & even pleasurable! Thank you for all your help. I've obviously had a number of sales people in my home over the years and have to say that I've never felt more comfortable with anyone as I did with Andy! I could go on but it might just start to sound ‘over the top'!!!!!! Suffice to say……good job Australian Outdoor Living, keep up the good work, word of mouth is your best form of advertising & I have a big mouth!!! :)!

Kind regards

Jan

quick fast and installed straight away. makes a big difference in the look, which looks great. Now its easy to look after.

Approximate cost: $6017

Good afternoon,

Today we have had 5 outdoor bella vista blinds installed under our pergola. Wow, wow, wow!! We are truly blown away with how amazing these look, and the quality of the blinds are just brilliant.
From start to finish, the whole process was easy and professional. Each and every team member from AOL that we have dealt with during this process new exactly what they were talking about. They have certainly delivered the goods.

We will certainly be recommending AOL to family and friends.

Dear Sir/Madam,

My husband and I are writing to express our thanks, to you and your organization for the professional and high quality work that was undertaken and delivered by Australian Outdoor Living.

Vinod, the consultant was officious and efficient in the manner he discussed costing and outcomes. The installers Tim and Dennis were pleasant, courteous and professional, at all times responding in an intelligent manner to questions we had.
Utmost care and attention to detail was paid while doing the installation.

We have some friends who would like to be contacted for possible work they may choose to be undertaken at their homes. They live on this side of town. Their details are attached in this email.

With warmest regards,

Dear AOL,

The reason why we used AOL was the quality & attentional to detail that was given when we purchased blinds from you 2 years ago.

When we decided to buy a pool recently, at no time were we left wondering as to any of the processes that were about to happen.

Our experience with AOL has been excellent and we have both been recommending your company, both for the shade blinds and the swimming pool.

Throughout the transaction, the staff demonstrated high quality of workmanship, excellent communication and very competitive pricing. The workers were happy, friendly & very neat - they even tidied up the side indicating to us your professional service & quality workmanship.

The pool has no defects and we are still happy that we made the decision to use AOL.

Dear David.

This is just a short note to tell you how thrilled we are with our new roller blinds.

Andrew installed them this afternoon. He never stopped working to get the job done as efficiently as he could.

I'm sure that other residents in this village will be impressed at how good they make our house look. The bay window already looked good, now it looks like a million dollars!

Thanks again Andrew for a great job and Australian Outdoor Living for excellent customer service.

Regards,

Jan and Ross Johnson

Hi Dave - great to speak with you this morning.
I have liked you on Facebook and added a comment there as well :) It is important to acknowledge the level of service provided by Tim and Dennis. It is easy to say that they are just doing what they are paid to do - but they are way beyond that mentality. From the time they contacted me to do the confirmation measurements, they were reliable, on time and contacted me exactly when they said they would. The day they did the installation was Tuesday this week - an incredibly hot day as you will remember - but they worked tirelessly without complaint, rang me when they were finished, and then returned later to get me to sign off on the job having been to Murray Bridge. When they left, they still had another job to measure up. They clearly work long hours but they give absolutely no impression that anything is too hard.
The quality of their workmanship is exceptional and they left no mess and everything they had needed to move was put back - this is very rarely the case with tradesmen and I appreciate the additional attention to detail.
To me it is always about the service and attitude - Tim and Dennis should be commended for going that extra mile, for their polite and considerate manner, for taking into account that customers have to work too and can't just sit around waiting, for their problem-solving ability and precision work. I could go on - but I am sure you have the idea, Dave :) I should mention too that Ryan also was very good at his job when he came to quote - your recruitment processes are obviously spot on.
I am very happy with the shutters and very pleased that I have made the decision to have them installed. I will certainly look at additional products in the future.
Best regards
Helen Hutton

We purchased a Bella Vista outdoor blind in January 2013 and we are very pleased with it and would recommend these blinds to everyone. All the staff we dealt with at Australian Outdoor Living were very friendly and professional.

After winning a competition on face book run by Australian Outdoor Living, we had our artificial lawn installed last week in our front yard , and wow what a huge difference it has made. I try only to buy Australian made wherever i can and knowing that this product is 100% Australian made was a bonus.
The lawn looks and feels like real grass and it has made a huge difference to the whole look of our house.
AOL was very professional from start to finish and the installer did an excellent job.
It might not be the cheapest product around but you pay for what you get and this lawn is top quality .
Thanks again AOL, Kathy

I would like to pass on my thanks to the AOL team that planned, organised, built and painted my new decking and pergola. I have been so impressed with the whole experience. The sales person, Andrew was great to deal with. My build looks just like I imagined. I am very happy. The whole process has been with out any trouble. I wanted to pass on that the carpenters were especially good even with having the run up and down my stairs and deal with the heat. Their work is amazing. David, the project manager was so friendly and helpful And the painters gave me excellent advice and have done an exceptional job. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the back ground doing their bit too so everything just happens.

I would recommend AOL to anyone and would happily use AOL again.

Thank you so much.

I had artifical lawn put in my backyard a few months ago and at the time i needed it done by a certain date as i was having a birthday bash at my house and this was the final piece to be done...I was a bit schocked on how $$$ it is for artifical lawn but when you think of the water saved and no maintaince other then pick up doggie presents and the few leaves you may get daily..Anyway i had a two week time frame i needed it done, on the monday of week one it was due to be done all in that day anyways i had a phone call 2 hours after the time they were ment to be there to say the main guy had done his back in that morning and need to go to doctors, so they will be there tomorow and it will be done. Tuesday came and i think they were and hour late and only did half a day and said they would be back thursday to finish...starting to get a little fustrated with there lack of care factor i said ok fair enought...thursday came and it was raining so it got cancelled i then was told they were coming friday i said i was unable to be there on friday is monday better any way Friday comes and they ring me saying we at your house but your gate is locked i was really upset and angry at this point due to lack of communication...i think i got it finished on the wed or thursday and there was so many off cuts i asked to keep them all as i had payed for them and thought i could use some out the frount...i also had way too much dolomite that is still sitting in my frount yard so i also payed for wasted product i didnt need....I will never use these guys again due to my very stressful time. I really wish i had gone with the other guys i got a quote from..

Approximate cost: $4000

Had australian outdoor living out to install our outdoor shade blinds and we are very happy with the end result. The company was one of the more expensive quotes but I can't complain about my experience with them and would recommend. Very happy.