Anyone know anything or had experiences (good or bad) with Spirit Mountain.

Yes, and if you go to the Better Business Bureau, you can see why I would never buy one from them again.

[www.bbbsw.org]

I am currently waiting to hear back from them since April of 2007 about missing parts they said would be shipped in a few days. I since have moved out of my home as it is uninhabitable due to mold and leaking windowsand walls etc.. It gets worse than that, but in short, try pacific, more $, but you get what you pay for. I also hear their custermer service is great, I have had to use them for my own problems since Nalina, doesnt return calls or emails.Although she was extremely helpfull before the sale. I see that anyone who has had a complaint is told they are exagerating or not telling the truth. Sometimes she doesnt ever respond to the BBB. good luck to you.

jenxvann,

thanks for your input. Good to hear from an actual customer.

I also find it strange that their (Spirit Mountain) web site has poor photos to really see the yurt details. Also very few interior shots.

Would also like to see color swatches and sample purchase agreement on the site. Did you get a purchase contract?

Thanks again for comments and input on Pacific as well.

We ordered a 30' yurt from Spirit Mountain Yurts in December of 2005. It was promised to arrive on our farm in February 2006. It arrived in April 2006. We ordered a deck (which they do not claim to make but said they would give it a try) and then they sent us 4x4s, 2x6's and subflooring. The reason for asking them to BUILD A DECK for us is because we did not want to do it ourselves. They went to the local Home Depot or something like it and then shipped us the materials with the rest of the parts to our yurt. WOW....the arrogance. There was no discussion or admission that they could not build a deck...just materials and a big fat shipping bill. We could have picked all the MOC's up at Home Depot ourselves...I guess she thought we didn't know how to do that...like I said...the unmitigated arrogance. Further, the directions they sent are incomplete and poorly written, so much so that you are left wondering if they ever really built a yurt themselves. In contrast, we live in a house, but we could not build it ourselves and that does not qualify us as experts. She claims to have lived in a yurt in Montana for seven years.....but is she knowledgeable about yurt construction??...allow me to elaborate.

When we finally built our own deck...piece by piece...and set upon erecting the yurt she promised that someone would be available by phone all day to assist in the construction. Guess What? She, Nalina, did not answer the phone...except one time and then did not return any messages...we flew on our own. I can't tell you how frustrating and arrogant that was. By the way, that particular phone conversation is a story in istelf. We wound up feeling as though she was incompetent to impart advice on the construction and that explains not being available. Further, she is generally unresponsive in e-mails, phone messaging etc. and seems to not even read her e-mail except once every few days. She was great at getting back to you when she wanted to secure the deal..and receive her $17,000 +. That all ended when the work began.

Another very interesting point is that 2 of our family members traveled to Arizona (she has since moved to Santa Fe...without explanation...we thought she loved it in AZ...or so she said) in February and called her for several days to visit with her and perhaps see our yurt being built. She would not answer phone messages or e-mails so that an appointment could be made. Our family members tracked down the address (you knoww the one on the website and return address on envelopes) and found that it was simply a mailbox in a mailstore... She conveniently answered the e-mails after our family members had returned to NJ and said that they only take visitors on Tuesday evenings between 4-6PM. Our family was in AZ on Wed-Sat, of which she was fully aware, so it sounds as though she wanted no visitors, and was afraid to host them.

We are extremely disatisfied with Spirit Mountain Yurts and regret ever having purchased a yurt. It has ruined our fun and made us feel swindled and foolish.

We have a 30' yurt stored in the garage and a deck built in the backyard that our township now tells us must be built on footings below frostline. The yurt (after it was finally constructed...and it was beautiful) fell apart because she neglected to point out in the directions that the canvas roof, liner and insulation must be immediately fastened to the rafters and yurt sides before you break for the day. The slightest of winds collapsed the roof by lifting the rafters right off the airplane cable....and I do mean slight. We planned to secure all early the next morning but alas there was nothing in the directions about waiting. And that is just some of the nightmare. There is so much more but my fingers are tired.

We hope that someone out there can give us a ray of hope that all will eventually be well. That Nalina Uhlein will send replacements for the damaged parts, that the township here in southern NJ will finally see the light and agree that such an eco-friendly, portable tent need not be built upon non eco-friendly footings sunk to frostline (they won't say, but we believe that to be a deliberate attempt to avoid agreeing to this structure because they cannot collect property tax on it without permanent footings).

So do not buy form Spirit Mountain Yurts (we wish with all our might we had purchased from Pacific Yurts) and if any one could take the time to give us a vote of confidence that all will be well we would sure appreciate it. And by the way, if anyone out there has any knowledge about yurt building permits etc. in NJ please drop us a line! We sure would love to hear from you!

bob, contact me any time
jenxvann@yahoo.com

Hello MB,
So sorry about all your troubles! Yes, I think it will all work out in the end and you will have a beautiful yurt to enjoy.

Drop me a line through the website and I might be able to help with the footings issue. And good luck!

becky kemery
Author of "YURTS: Living in the Round"
becky@yurtinfo.org

I'm sorry to hear about your difficulties with Spirit Mountain Yurts. I just want to thank you both SO much for sharing your experiences because I was tentatively planning to purchase a 30-foot yurt from them later this year! Now because of your comments I certainly will not, and I will go with a company with a well-established reputation instead.

Ditto - thanks so much for heads up. I, too, will avoid these people. Shame on them, they lost a lot of business from us newbies by not providing decent customer service. Best of luck to those of you with troubles!

Did it all work out for you? I too was considering them for their lower
prices...I will not, now, so thanks...

Hi
It seems incredulous that Spirit Mountain Yurts is still in business if these experiences are typical!

I have been dealing with Spirit Mountain for abut a years and they have been nothing but helpful. Our yurt is shipping to New Zealand currently and (fingers crossed) will be complete and all I have ever dreamed it to be.

Blaming Spirit Mountain for deck problems seems strange. Foundations are totally site specific. I expect they were asked to do something and then
did their best - somewhere there must have been a breakdown in communicationn.

There are a number of yurt manufacturers and they fall into a number of
strategic groupings. Rainer, Colorado, Pacific all spend lots of marketing
dollars and have professional factory produced yurts. Other outfits make
yurts by hand. Lot sof factors to consider. At the end of the day it
depends what you want.

I chose Spirit Mountain for my current project because my heart said that
they were the best fit for my needs and that of the land it will sit on.

Apples are not pears and pears are not apples

Let's fill the world with love and positive energy wherever it can be found.

Aroha

Michael

Purchasing from Spirit Mountain Yurts has been an unmitigated disaster. Since my last posting I have been eating every hat that I own.
The problems include:
- late delivery by over a month
- incorrect coloured roof
- inadequate crating (we are in New Zealand)
- shipping without commercial invoices (twice)
- tacky coloursteel doors not wood
- wrong sized rain diverter and fly screen
- wall liner with no windows cut in it
- no roof liner shipped (which renders roof insulation useless)
- incomplete dome opening assembly
- rediculously inadequate and contradictory instructions
- seams leak especially around windows
- non matching door fittings which did not fit the doors
- no relationship between the door frames and the doors - one too small and the other too big by about 5 inches!
- the roof was covered in silver that has rubbed off the roof lining
- totally unresponsive during raising of yurt to answer urgent problems

This is a taste of the problems we are having. I am currently looking for an attorney in New Mexico to recover my losses wit this outfit. I am claiming back the money paid for the roof insulation and lining (because I can not use them) and the doors (because they are not wood which is what I ordered and want). Currently Spirit Mountain yurts have taken over 4 weeks to send me a box containing the smaller items they left out of the original shipment. I am minded to sue them for the full value of the yurt plus shipping charges and what I have spent on decking.

I do not know how or why Spirit Mountain Yurts are in business. They are a terrible advert for yurts in general and and terrible example of a US manufacturer (that is if any of the components of the yurt we were shipped were actually made in the US that is!).

If you would like any other info about my experience then please contact me on michaeltccox@hotmail.com

Thanks for the input! Now I have another added to my list of "do not order from!" I believe customer service is almost as important as the product. Therefore, before I order next month, I will continue to do all the research I can. If I have issues, I sure don't want to be stuck in the situation above, as my platform is nearing completion and I can't imagine the disappointment of a faulty product/order after the wait and funds involved. Ed

DO NOT BUY A YURT FROM SPIRIT MOUNTAIN YURTS!!! I too have had similar awful experience with them after buying a 16 ft yurt last year. It was delivered two months after promised (in the middle of a snowstorm in December) so I could not put it up until April. The directions were horrendous, no phone support, no pictures, missing hardware, etc.etc. The dome cracked upon installation and refusal to replace it. Door was crooked. Roof vinyl did not fit completely over the top, windows crooked. I hope you get the point not to buy from this company! Nalina is very nice, personable and responsive when you are thinking of buying from her but forget trying to get any support afterward or any acknowledgement that what she is selling is faulty. I'd like to initiate a class action suit against this company but have no idea how to start. Anyone else interested, contact me at cathy@heartofshamanism.com.

thank you thank you was thinking about getting a yurt from them it would be my frist. I have talked to her before Nalina what a scammer. This is the kind of place a newbi needs to be thank you

Thank God for this website. We were about to purchase from SMY and after reading all this we will definitely not. I want to thank everyone who posted to this forum and for saving me headache and money.

I would be glad to join or support you in some kind of action Cathy. Our latest development is that we have been waiting 3 months to receive a refund of items that were faulty, not to spec, useless to us, or not shipped at all. I have received emails telling us that the cheque is in the post but nothing has arrived as yet.
A good place to start might be the State Bar of New Mexico - through their Bridge to Justice Referral Program:
[www.nmbar.org]
This would cost only $30 to start with

I hope that Spirit Mountain can turn things around eventually.

Michael

sorry guys I take back my comments about spiritmountainyurts, she always was very nice on the phone.WoW I wont recumend her any more! Sorry for doing that Ron Cueto. Maybe Ill start my own yurt company making these and have better customer sevice and products and low prices.
God Bless You All!

The good news is that I've been living in my SMY 24' yurt for two years. The bad news is that everyone's description of their problems are all too familiar. I so wish I had been able to find reviews before I ordered mine. It took months for us to get all the parts -- our roof lining and wall linings were sent 3 months after the fact. We have installed them, but they don't fit properly and so we went from living in a huge "jiffy pop" to a drapey wrinkled tent. SIGH

We have a crack in our dome and I don't even want to contact them to start the frustration since I know they won't help Still, it's only 2 yrs old and I need to stop the leaking. Any suggestions? kelly.marston@gmail.com

When I am next in the US Nalina can be sure that I will go pay them a visit.
They owe me about $2000 in refunds and took 6 months to send about $500.
I presented the case to the BBB but they closed the case after Spirit Mountain Yurts failed to respond to them.
I suppose the bottom line is that Spirit Mountain Yurts are giving yurts a bad name and breaking people's hearts who have dared to invest in a dream. That is a real shame.
Aroha nui
Michael

We ordered a 24' yurt from Spirit Mountain Yurts in the beginning of October 2007. We were told at the time that it would be ready by October 29th. The yurt was delivered on Friday, November 14th and it was missing the roof fabric as well as many, many other pieces of hardware (most available from our local hardware store). As mentioned above, the directions (which were not shipped in the carton; we received them via email) were woefully inadequate. They were not clear and did not provide a clear set of steps for erecting the yurt.

The directions, but not the sales information, said that phone support would be available only M-F during the day. When I talked to Nalena on the evening of Monday, November 17th, she said that she only returns phone calls at most twice a day: once at lunchtime and once in the evening. This means that you cannot get any direct support while you are erecting your yurt.

Nalina indicated in this conversation that they would make a new roof and send it when it was finished. She did not indicate at that time that there would be any conditions on sending out the roof. Now that the roof has been completed for a couple of days and we are anxiously getting ready to move in, she says that she will not ship the roof that we paid for until we pay again for the replacement roof.

As many have mentioned, the struggles and the incompetency are hard things to deal with, but we have found that the hardest things to deal with are the poor communication: changed dates with no communication, demands for payment with no warning, etc. As Cathy said above:

DO NOT BUY A YURT FROM SPIRIT MOUNTAIN YURTS!!!

Does anyone have a physical address for SMY?

How can they try and charge you for a replacement roof when you never got the original. Sounds like you need to document your packing list. Notify them of what you are missing and let them know you are ready to go to small claims court. They are in violation of a contract.

I really wanted to disregard this discussion board when I was forwarded the link after I purchased my 24' diameter yurt. I was praying (as were other people for this yurt to be "right" all along while we were racing the Western NY climate to finish the deck so we could put the yurt up before winter (to protect the deck & floor insulation if anything). I don't like to belittle or assume negative things. However, the bad experiences I've had with SPY so far were compounded the first WEEK (1-2 days? it's supposed to be fast and easy to put up a yurt, right?) of November struggling to erect it (a gracious gift of a whole week of PERFECT weather in November in NY is unheard of).

There are too many complaints, and I'm so exhausted by the process to list them now. But needless to say, something needs to happen. Presently I requested from Nalina to replace the dome. I told her I am willing to overlook all the other issues. The dome was shipped with paper adhered to it that doesn't come off. You can't scrape it; it's plexiglass and would scratch. The dome was also stuck to the center ring and had to be cut off. This ruined the gasket, and so the dome is leaking water. As sly as a politician Nalina attempted to project all the blame back on me and attests it is out of her hands once it's shipped. She's now "checking with a lawyer to see if this is their responsibility."

What's the status on a class action suit? I don't even really know what that entails.

THanks for all your information sharing and input...too bad I wasn't aware until after sinking the money, hope, energy, time, and resources, eh?

We would like to buy a 30 foot yurt, and live in the corner of upstate NY where it connects with VT/MA.

Any recommendations on a good northeast company that sells insulated yurts? We would like to visit the company in person.

We found one in NH and are considering them.

Thank you so much!

Jules

My partner and I also had a horrible experience with Spirit Mountain Yurts. Many of the same issues listed here. HORRIBLE DIRECTIONS, LATE SHIPPING, WALL FABRIC MISSING, NO RETURNED CALLS, NO RETURNED E-MAILS,DOME CRACKED, NO LINER AT ALL, LEAKY WINDOWS AND DOME, We ordered the stove pipe flashing insert which she described should go through the wall, it ended up being roof flashing and was useless. Her materials obviously came from the local LOWES or HOME DEPOT as it still had price tags on it.
At one point we weren't sure if we were going to get the thing at all. We were homeless for more than a month because of her unwillingness to cooperate and communicate. And once we expressed our frustrations, she flipped it around and began blaming us for what she called "verbal abuse." I didn't know saying "we are really disappointed" could be defined as verbal abuse... Luckily we made some of our own improvements are living in it now. BUT DON'T BUY FROM SPIRIT MOUNTAIN

Hi folks,
I'll be taking SMY off the Companies page on the site and in the next edition of my book. Too many sad stories. I'm so sorry for all or your hardships and frustration. It shouldn't be that way.

I had hoped Nalina could turn things around. She has the same issues that Great American Yurts, now called "Yurts of America", has had since their inception: not delivering on time, missing parts, very poor customer service and blaming the customer for company issues.

A few years ago five parties took Great American Yurts to court and won a class action suit. You might try tracking down that info online and seeing what transpired and how they did it.

I don't wish any yurt company ill, but as some of you have said, the combination of an inadequate product, inept instructions and poor customer service only give yurts a bad name, and cause heartache and hardship for their customers.

I've tried to figure out the source of these problems. I think what happens is that someone builds a yurt for themselves, enjoys the process, and decides to produce more for sale. However, they may or may not have the management and business skills required for running a company, providing homes for people (a VERY BIG project), and shipping product all over the country and planet. They also think they are doing customers a favor by keeping their prices low, but what they wind up doing to keep costs low only hurts the customer (and the yurt industry) in the end.

Both Naline (SMY) and Kenneth Lawrence (Yurts of America) have strong sales skills. They are friendly and well meaning people, trying to do a good thing and make a living at the same time. Both of them seem to have strengths in innovation and product development. What they don't do is include in their prices the cost of a warehouse and shipping person who will manage quality control, make sure that all the parts are there, and ship the product out in well designed crating and in a timely manner. The other factor that isn't included in their pricing is the cost of paying someone to do follow-up and customer service. I suspect a tendency with both Nalina and Kenneth to try to do it all themselves (sales, managing production and shipping, and customer service)--too much for one person to handle, or even a couple of people.

I recently decided to offer one hour of free consulting to every new yurt company. When I was working on my book I interviewed most of the yurt companies in North America, those that have succeeded and those that haven't, so I know a bit of what they're up against and what's worked for the successful companies. My advice to anyone starting off would be to build into the price of each yurt: research and development (including a great instruction manual), marketing, production and warehouse oversight, and customer service. Customer service is ESPECIALLY important with yurts because they are an unusual structure that we're not used to living in, so everyone has questions. Customer service support is vital to making yurt living (and a yurt raising) a positive experience.

My way of dealing with the less than proficient companies (and I have my own almost-horror story) has been to write a section in the book on "Buying a yurt" that I hoped would help people avoid bad situations, When we updated the site last spring I added the "How to Buy a Yurt" section to the site. Hopefully it has helped a lot of people make better yurt purchasing decisions. If you are considering buying a yurt and haven't read it, please do.

The other piece is this forum. Thank you all of you for sharing your stories so that we all are better informed.

Again, it makes me sad to hear your stories and I hope each of you winds up in the end with a beautiful yurt that you have been able to make your own and enjoy living in.

All the best,

becky kemery
Author of "YURTS: Living in the Round"
www.yurtinfo.org
www.livingintheround.net

Hi Jules! I just checked in with this forum and saw your question about building a yurt in Upstate NY. I'm in southwestern NY (snowbelt region), and I am at the point where I'm giving up on my yurt. It's been ripped apart and useless by the high winds we had Christmas weekend...not to mention the snow. I haven't even lived in it yet! An aweful discouraging saga...

Anyway, obviously you know not to deal with Spirit Mt. Yurts by now. Mark from Rainier Yurts has been supremely helpful and kind, and I didn't even buy from them (REALLY wish I had).

I hope you have a GOOD experience your yurt!

God's blessings in this new year!
sarah

Anyone have any suggestions about a fast, cheap, simple, STURDY structure to build on a round platform? I'm thinking about using scrap wood I have (and buying what I need) to build a 24-sided home on my platform, but I don't know codes for structural requirements on something like that or where to find that info.

The walls would be about 3 feet apart...could I use 2 2x4's together as wall studs at that kind of interval? And I'd like to try to reuse the rafters (24) from my ruined yurt.

Thanks!
sarah
southwestern nys

thank you to all who have participated with this forum- we were only weeks away from purchasing a spirit mountain yurt when i decided to look further into this forum. i am sorry for each of your experiences and hope the best for the class action!
blessings,
cassie