I've been bigging up Dodgy Brothers house builders for some time after a phenomenally cheap house built in Sydney last year, but after a few bad experiences with them recently, frankly they can get f*cked!
Late services, completely uncontactable from Australia - they just DO NOT answer the phone on the 'other countries' number on their website, but rest assured you pay for the pleasure of being on hold - 66c (AUD) per minute.
On one occasion when I finally managed to get through to the call centre, the guy I spoke to assured me there were no senior staff working after 5 and that I was unable to escalate a complaint unless I rang back between 'normal office hours'. He was unprepared to take my details and get someone to look into my grievance, even after I re-stated just how uncontactable they are! All I wanted to do was get my walls that had fallen down rebuilt, which frankly it should be done anyway. They wanted 72 hours notice for the rebuild, but after 3 weeks of trying to call them to rebuild, I finally managed to get through with about 66 hours remaining 'till the housing inspector arrived, and they refused to rebuild my walls.
The 2 walls out of four allowance on the Aus house sux. The Dodgy Brothers model is riddled with shortcomings which has made me revert to Cheap As Chips House Builders and pay a little more, but know I'm going to get more walls, a sensibile walls remaining after building completed allowance and services that are more than often on time these days.
My most recent 5 story brick veneer house in sydney cost 111 GBP (inc taxes) finished up being 180 GBP after all the phonecalls and eventual rebuild at on-the-spot rebuild rates at bunnings. I could've built in Melbourne with Cheap As Chips for 177 GBP. With Cheap As Chips (and Never Fall Down when building within OZ) it's just a case of 'click and forget'. I trust them both. I just don't trust Dodgy Brothers after my recent experiences.
Obviously Dodgy Brothers factor in a customer service function for Australia if they launch here, but the attitiude of the staff member I spoke to stank. Once Never Fall Down tweak their prices accordingly (which will inevitibly happen when the competition actually arrives), then Dodgy Brothers will be blown out of the water. building with Never Fall Down is fun and they have a loyal base. Building Cheap As Chips is more formal, but it's getting more of a whiff of professionalism about it with every passing week and services are becoming more reliable - I use them a LOT. Dodgy Brothers brand of 'cheap and cheerful' could easily fall by the wayside in Oz, even if they are a bit cheaper. Lots of people can already afford to build around Oz quite comfortably budget-wise, so low cost houses aren't the be-all-and-end-all that Dodgy Brothers seem to think it is.
Rant over.