Advice on Warm Front

kevandkeira

I have someone coming around tomorrow from warm front, but after reading this thread I wish I never bothered.

markelock

warm front should insulate your loft for free? it doesn't matter whether you are on benefits or not.

wisecobandit

Only found this after doing a warmfront search after having probs with them.The bbc one show has 400 complaints on there website about warmfront btw!

My other half is disabled and having an old back boiler central heating system that packed we applied for the warm front grant and in august we where visited and told we where eligible and would qualify for a central heating system (5 rads) and loft/wall/cavity insulation.
We recieved a letter a few weeks later saying we would have to pay £650 to iguana for the work to be carried out which we did.
Shortly after i recieved 4 energy saving lights bulbs which cost £8 odd (homebase have 5 for a quid at the mo) which where totally useless to us as we have all screw in fittings not bayonet type.I rung warmfront to say they wherent needed as they where no use only to be told "not our problem as its the government that insist we give them to you"
So going back to the money we paid we where quoted on there letter that "work would be completed within 28 days on payment" - that was some 3 months ago and still nothing!
I have rung both iguana and warmfront up on a weekly basis since payment to atleast get a date for installation but it seems banging your head against a brick wall would get you nearer to achiveing something!
Since ive been ringing ive now be told we no longer qualify for and wall/loft/cavity insulation as the government has changed its views on the subject???
Then alongside that fact we where told by iguana that an electrician is now required to run 1 wire from the fusebox to the bathroom at a cost of £200 to ourselves! I then told them politely where to put there services as i wasnt going to pay a further £200 when upto now a) i had recieved no service from them despite them having £650 of mine, b) i hadnt even had an installation date 3 months on c)they where making a mockery of me and i wasnt the only one.I then rang warmfront and "politely let off steam" to which the lady on the phone rang iguana on another phone and after a 3 way convo iguana agreed to foot the £200 bill of the electrician.Iguana also agreed to ring me by the end of today with an installation date-have they rung??? NO!
What have i done?-well ive rung my credit card company and opened a dispute and they have said without fail i will get my money back due to the fact ive got a letter stating it would be done within 28 days.
Have i let iguana and warmfront know ive cancelled??-nope they havent made 1 phonecall to us yet so maybe it may "drive" them into ringing me for once instead of me waiting 15 minutes for an answer each time i ring them and have to listen to some music in there queueing system!

I wouldnt recommend my worst enemy to go to warmfront or iguana!

kevandkeira

Well a man from eaga came yesterday, he was 30 mins late but due to the weather we have had I was expecting this.
As soon as he came in (before even looking at our heating system) he said warm front would not help with heating as ours is a private rental!!!
After having a look around he told us we qualify for a new jacket for the hot water tank, draught proofing around back door, energy saving bulbs & cavity wall insulation. Our landlord has already told us he will refuse the cavity wall installation, as he has it in 2 other properties & has caused damp in both.
So we achieved something but we really wanted help with the heating as downstairs is freezing.

MadamMim2013

The whole grant system is flawed.
My mum was guaranteed a grant for loft and cavity wall insulation. I double checked this with our local council's energy advisor reminding him that my mother had a steel framed bungalow. All was checked and agreed.
Great said mum as it was very cold due to lack of insulation all round!
The loft insulation was carried out (abet a little slap happy) but things were looking up.
Little was I to know what was about to occur....
The gentleman (caveman more like) arrived un-announced from the cavity insulation company at 7.45am in the morning. He proceeded to start shouting at my mum that he was a "busy man" and didn't have the time to be messed around (mum is suffering from various lung probs and CANNOT do things at speed) when she enquired as to what he meant he got very cross and told her that they cannot do steel framed buildings as they could implode and all her walls would fall in!!!!!!!!!!!
He then said he could do it if she sighed a waiver stating if anything did go wrong it was tough (this would also render her buildings & contents cover invalid!!!!!!!!!)
After he stomped off in a huff, no thank you or anything....oh and he left dirty foot marks all through the bungalow too, my mum rang me obviously distressed at the whole episode.
I contacted the company and made a complaint...got fobbed off..
In the end I contacted a small local company to enquire about the information mum was told, he was gobsmacked to say the least but said he's heard lots of similar storys. Sadly mum had to pay for the job to be done in the end but it was done to a supurb standard and they even paint matched my mums walls so they could cover where they had infilled with the insulation!!!!
We have a certificate to guarantee the work and it's made a huge difference in the quality of life my mum has now she's physically disabled.
I dread to think the quality the other company would have supplied with a manager like the "caveman".... you've been warned!
Check, check and double check any information you're given and don't accept shoddy service!

spider125

we applied for a grant as hubby disabled and the only heating we had was a gas wall heater in front room! we got full central heating boiler and work completed in 4 days last Jan to a very high standard we are very happy with the system and are now nice and warm! I cant praise them enough perhaphs we were lucky in our area, after reading horror story's it can work we have since been inundated with light bulbs thinking of selling them on ebay!

123joe

kevandkeira wrote: »

Well a man from eaga came yesterday, he was 30 mins late but due to the weather we have had I was expecting this.
As soon as he came in (before even looking at our heating system) he said warm front would not help with heating as ours is a private rental!!!
After having a look around he told us we qualify for a new jacket for the hot water tank, draught proofing around back door, energy saving bulbs & cavity wall insulation. Our landlord has already told us he will refuse the cavity wall installation, as he has it in 2 other properties & has caused damp in both.
So we achieved something but we really wanted help with the heating as downstairs is freezing.

in reference to damp above, i have a developer friend who was complaing about this six months ago or to be more precise, condensation, in his opinion cavity walls are there for a reason, to let the walls breathe, i personally wouldn't have cavity wall insulation, having read a few posts on this thread saying it's good, has anyone had condensation/damp problems that weren't there before cavity insulation?