The Google review and owner replies

After the way Tim Austin berated and frightened my 60-year-old mum while pressuring her to make an almost $70k payment early, I would never give Affordable Modular Buildings my money.

Mum’s modular home was purchased through Expandify. After more than a year of delays, Expandify brought AMB directly into the project, and I dealt personally with Tim Austin from AMB during their involvement.

AMB may build perfectly good homes. They withdrew before Mum’s installation, so I can’t comment on that.

This review is for anyone who thinks the ethics, judgement and conduct of the people they’re handing their money to matters just as much as the finished product.

On an early call, Tim positioned himself as my “friend” while telling me that if I continued down the legal path he’d have to stop what he was doing, that “nothing’s going to get done” and things would “get real ugly”.

I took that pretty plainly: back off the lawyer and QBCC process, or Mum’s house doesn’t move forward.

But I’m not going to be intimidated into giving up legal rights because Tim says so.

On 10 August, Tim sent Mum a $67,200.91 invoice before the payment was contractually due.

The invoice was payable to Expandify, with Tim saying the money would then be transferred to AMB under his oversight.

I gave Tim the contract terms, explained why we weren’t paying early and asked for the invoice to be withdrawn.

In the same correspondence I told him Mum was not to be contacted because she was undergoing cardiac investigations following significant stress associated with the project.

He called Mum anyway.

He spent more than ten minutes pressuring her to pay early and talking over her while she cried.

Mum says he told her Expandify couldn’t afford the port costs without the money, that she might not get her house, Expandify could go under and she could lose everything she’d already paid. He complained that customers with lawyers were “kicking up a stink” and raised that he could “pull the plug”.

He initially told Mum he was calling to get my number and would call me straight away.

Which rather begs the question of why getting my phone number turned into more than ten minutes of pressuring a crying woman about a payment that wasn’t even due yet.

When I spoke to Tim the next day, he told me he’d called because he needed to find out why the payment wasn’t going to be made.

He also claimed he had called and texted me. I have no record of either, and I’m still waiting for him to produce the call and text log he said existed.

From my perspective, the sequence looked like an attempt to bypass the authorised representative saying no and take the pressure directly to the more vulnerable person instead.

That conversation also revealed Tim seemed to have some pretty big feelings about customers asking questions he apparently thought they should just trust him on.

He talked repeatedly about his experience, how people needed to trust him, and said being questioned felt like “an instant slap in the face”.

We were asking basic questions: where was almost $70k going, why was it being demanded early, and what was the plan for Mum’s house?

When I tried to explain that trust isn’t built by spending most of a call talking at people about why they should trust you, Tim told me he didn’t need the feedback because he was out of the project anyway.

I suggested it might still be useful for his future customers.

Apparently not. He told me his future customers were fine and everything was going well in his business.

Fair enough. Future customers can decide for themselves whether this experience is relevant.

Good reviews when everything goes smoothly are one thing. How someone behaves when a customer asks basic, relevant questions or just wants straight answers tells me considerably more.

I just want people to be conscious of where they put their money, and please get a solicitor to review your building contracts before you sign. We wouldn’t be in this mess if we had.

Thank you for sharing these detailed concerns, and I am very sorry to hear about the distress your mother experienced. We take allegations of unprofessional or intimidating behaviour extremely seriously and will be investigating this matter thoroughly while reviewing our communication procedures. Your feedback about pressure, lack of clear answers, and contract handling is important and will be used to improve staff training and oversight. We regret that your experience fell far short of the standard we strive for and appreciate you bringing it to our attention.

Alex,

You have now received cease and desist letter , as we consider the statements being made about myself and our company AMB to be false and defamatory.

For clarity, anyone reading this.

The facts from our position are straightforward.

We were engaged by Expandify to carry out installation works because they were having difficulty securing contractors to complete installations in this market and we are well established and have delivered over 1200+ jobs in 6 years.

Your dispute and previous experience were with Expandify was not great. This is why AMB agreed to help Expandiy Customers.

Before we had the opportunity to install your building, you engaged solicitors in relation to the matter against Expandify. Not AMB

At that stage, a progress payment was also due under advice from Expandify. This progress payment was to pay for a portion of installation.

As a result, Expandify was not in a position to pay us for the installation works.

We therefore withdrew our services from your project. I gave you fair warning that this would happen in advance and on the day of cancellation.

We sub contracted to the main contractor Expandify

We cannot reasonably be expected to carry out installation works where payment for those works cannot be made by main contractor.

We have also not been paid monies owed to us by Expandify for other install support we offered and are separately seeking advice regarding that matter.

We strongly reject any suggestion that we are responsible for the circumstances surrounding your dealings with Expandify.

Publicly shaming my personal name and my company is unprofessional. Your a business owner and a marketer. You know better then this.

Given the public statements now being made concerning me and my company, on multiple platforms this is called malicious and wilful harm.

Another Important fact. I think should be mentioned.

We actually have a 4.5 star rating.

Every project in 6 years delivered 800+ building approvals 75 full time staff 4-5 turnkey installations a week

Every construction company has delays. It’s a hard industry and business to operate. Especially in this market. While other builders close we are still open and there is good reason for that, Innovating, working hard.

So I encourage everyone reading through this to read between the lines.

My team works extremely hard and so do I.

This is an overexagerated situation that started off as good intentions to help finalise your project that Expandify couldn’t install.

You didn’t pay their claim, they couldn’t pay us. You engaged solicitors after AMB successfully helped you get a building approval and proved our worth.

You also left out the part where when your mum got upset and started crying I apologised for upsetting her.

I was merely trying to explain the severity of us not being able to do the install now that solicitors where engaged and payment wasn’t being made because you emailed AMB stating that!

Tim Austin Affordable Modular Buildings