Buildology Architectural Design - Parnell

Really disappointed after engaging Buildology to create some concept plans. Often you would read about times where architects would work with clients in a collaborative way to create something special. After taking a brief of what I wanted (and I estimate that the brief was 5 minutes), there was radio silence for 12 weeks. I emailed asking what they were thinking - the reply said this wasnt the time to show you what we were thinking. Oh well so much for collaboration At the end of the 12 weeks I was shown an initial design. The initial design was amatuer at best. No common toilet on a ground floor - when you have all your living here, this is inexcusable, and laughable - i picked this up within 2 minutes of seeing the plans for the first time. Their excuse? We wanted to save you money. Seriously, this is what they said... Of course they didn't save money when embellishing the outside of the house with additional boards that simply served to make things pretty. Why dont just own up and say you had an intern doing this, and nobody reviewed the work! Very poor! They provided incorrect advice of a design element based on their lack of research of the unitary plan. I had to show them and correct them on this. There excuse - it hasn't been out for long.. I kid you not... At the point I knew they were just full of excuses and I could absolutely not trust them. The unitary plan has been out for over 3 years at time I engaged them. When they did their first revision, there was still no communication. I rang 4 times in a 2 week period to understand what was going on, I couldn't get hold of anyone, and no phone calls were returned - so disappointing! What they are good at: Telling you how excited you must about your new plans. The amount of times I heard this, but really all I wanted was someone to phone me or tell me the truth! They are good at writing really long emails. REALLY Long. Im sure I'll get a large response to this. They have some flash 3d software. Pretty cool really. But really Id prefer they had 1) Communicated their design intentions. 2) Didnt employ amatuers/interns and charge me full rates 3) Knew the unitary plan 4) Didnt make excuses 5) Returned Calls I now have hired another architect, in doing so been made aware of Buildologys hit and miss approach to clients. Im sure they do good work. they didnt with me. Hope this helps provide some perspective on them.