Anyone used Miller Pattison

wily-coyote_2

I just had the loft and cavity walls done by Miller Pattison. The wall guys were really good and did a good job. Only thing is, when i checked the dimensions of my house they have over charged me by nearly 40 SqM!!!!! That's £144 in money terms so i'm writing to let them know the error of their ways. Oh, and the loft guys broke my toilet which took me 30mins to fix! :mad:

N1ckR

Just had someone round.
They said the grant info would arrive 7-10 days time. Conviently after the 7 day cooling off period.
I was only prepared to pay if I could get some amount of grant.
Said that everyone, myself included would get a grant.
Could not provide any info, literature on the grant scheme.
No indication it was what I consider a real grant from a publically funded source.
Said I had to sign that day.
My local council have confirmed that the energy supplier who MP claimed would offer the grant to us is not the supplier for our area via any of their schemes.
I have checked my energy supplier (the same one MP claimed could offer a grant to us) and their non grant standard price is almost half what MP quoted for roof and cavity, I was unable to get an answer if they would offer a grant to myself, mentioning to use energy trust to find out. Wrong department etc....
According to the Energy saving trust we are not eligable for any grant.
According to the Engery saving trust website there are 5 firms offering non-grant prices at same price as our energy supplier and 1 supplier that comes in at a 1/3 of the price.
In fairness there were 3 firms at similar prices to MP.
MP, or the company "SIG Energy Management" (as on the contract) were not mention in this list of non-grant firms.

Spilbo

I would suggest avoiding Miller Pattison like the plague. I have attempted to get them to do our walls on three occassions. I think the price quoted was £240 for a 4 bed house, including the grant that is now apparently available to homeowners as well.

Attempt 1: I rang on the morning and was told that they would arrive in the afternoon. At 15.45 I rang again and was told that the fitter was off sick so they would have to rebook the appointment. They said that they would have rung me but did not have my number, even though I had left landline and mobile numbers on the voicemail the previous day.
Attempt 2: I was called at 11.45 on the day of the fitting to be told that the fitter was off sick. They said that they had tried to call earlier but I had not answered (even though I was in the house, within earshot of the phone all morning). I was starting to get exasperated by this stage and the bookings person was incredibly unhelpful. Their one concession was that they would book to come first thing in the morning on the next occassion.
Attempt 3: I called the day before to confirm the arrangements and went straight through to voicemail (as usual) I left my details and stated clearly that my partner would be staying in to meet the installers but that she had to go to work at lunch time so if they did not arrive early my partner would not be there for the duration of the fitting (as required by them). We heard nothing from them, and on the day of fitting my partner rang the bookings desk at 11.45 only to be told that the fitters had just finished their first job and were returning to the depot to reload the van. Which by my calculation would mean that the job would not be finished until mid/late afternoon way after my partner would have to be back at work.

My partner and I have had to take a total of 2 and a half days off work as a result of this. Needless to say we won't give Miller Pattison a fourth chance, I have no faith that they can deliver. I am looking to start the process with a new company so I would be very interested to hear how other people have got on with their contractors. This was the Plymouth depot.

Mangoose

Hello all,

Had Miller Pattison cold call me 2 days ago, they said that the normal cost is £1000 but 80% of it would be on 'the utility companies' meaning we pay £199.

We signed up to it because it seemed like a good deal at the time, but now we're not sure if that actually is a good price for loft insulation.

Having a look on the British Gas website, it says that they offer free insulation to all existing BG customers. Is this any different (other than it's free?) Otherwise we'll just cancel and go with BG.

Also, the woman from MP said that the insulation is all 'hypo-allergenic'. I had the feeling she only said this because we have a young toddler in the house, but was hoping whether anyone could confirm if this is a pack of lies!

many thanks

mccavity

I have now been able to check the technical guide issued by the british board of Agrement to permit the use of rockwool for cavity insulation
THEY HAVE NOT COMPLIED
recorde letter to chief exec ellicited nil responce its now coming up for 6 years of irritation and stress
DONT TOUCH THEM

Cattcuss

I had my loft and cavity insulation done last month, through Eon, by Miller Pattison, so we didn't have a say in who installed it. Didn't have any problems with installation and no problems so far (though it is early days still _pale_)

Dmiller

Had a terrible and frightening experience with Miller Pattison and their parent SIG or EIG - it's a web of deceit to know who you are actually dealing with.

The insulation they used was not for domestic use - it wasn't fire retardant so beware that they are actually installing a death trap in your loft. We've had it all removed and refitted with proper stuff from the local B&Q.

We even had to get the Police involved due to the behaviour of the installers who stole from us while they were in the house. DO NOT LET THESE PEOPLE INTO YOUR HOME!!

mccavity

6 years ago millar pattison stated they had installed cavity insulation at my home on exposing the cavity there was a lack of insulation they came back and refilled this happened three times I contacted the British Board of Agreement who licence the procedure and the product for use in cavity walls they had the fourth fill of insulation supervised by a non miller pattison cavity wall instalation expert
the supervised installation the fourth by Miller pattison resulted in 11 more bags of insulation being inserted
the supervisor stated he would have expected in the order of twenty or so bags to fill my house at the first attempt yet at the fourth and supervised visit 11 bags were still required for a complete fill of the cavity
I ADVISE DONT TOUCH THEM

sconv

Recently moved into 4 bed detached property built in the the early 80's. Survey report that we had done prior to purchase recommended improving loft insulation and installing cavity wall insulation. SIG Energy Surveyor contacted me via the Energy Savings Trust website and a survey was carried out. Total cost £426 including £90 extra for tower due to access near detached garage. Letter from HO quoted higher price, however, when queried they agreed to lower price agreed with surveyor. Both loft and CWI installed Friday. Two separate teams, both excellent, both from Great Yeldham branch. CWI team admitted that even with tower would not be able to reach top of house so had to inject last of insulation through holes drilled into walls in loft area. No problem as access was through open window up through loft hatch. Saved £90 as tower not required !! Even needed more bags of insulation due to size of house. This was not an issue as additional bags delivered in less than 15 mins. Have noted a big improvement in overall warmth of the house!! All for less than £350. Still early days but would highly recommend on experience so far.

Keith_FP

Hi Everyone
I work in this business as a surveyor i.e. I assess the technical suitability of lofts and walls for insulation including presence of tanks in the roof, headroom, existing insulation thickness, access arrangements, cavity condition, cavity width, present and future risks of damp problems and advise the occupants of their eligibility for the different levels of subsidy.
Some of my work comes from leads supplied by a canvassing (cold calling) company and some from recommendations from previous customers or their contacts.
Insulation is usually marketed with a 'government grant' type phrase bandied about. This is partially true; government has set carbon emission reduction targets (CERT) for the major utility companies with the threat of a levy on turnover if they are not achieved. These companies offer installers a payment for work done on eligible (partly or un-insulated properties). The utilities can then claim a reduction in demand as a result of the insulation improvement and thus a reduction in their CO2 emissions, helping them achieve the government imposed target.
The subsidy is 100% for priority groups (employment, low income, disability benefits and all age 70+). The only condition is that one qualifying person is a permanent resident in the property. All others are deemed 'able to pay' and are expected to contribute approx 25% of the commercial cost. This payment is set by the installers and many are now trimming this margin to achieve more business, especially now that the heating season is coming to an end. The companies that I work for have ATP prices ranging from £149 to £0. You then have to make a judgement about the quality of their work which is where the comments above are helpful BUT bear in mind that the every company does bad work at some time and for a large national company 0.5% complaints is quite a large number. My feeling is that the main defect in the system is inappropriate marketing methods and poor quality surveys. All the eager beavers had their houses insulated long ago and the marketing is now targeting the reluctant and over cautious home owners. My advice is to check out the experience of neighbours with similar house types who have had their property insulated (look for signs of cement filled drill holes, about 1" dia, three rows of bricks below window openings) and find out their experience and who their installer was and make contact with that company yourself and perhaps enquire prices from other too. In some areas local authorities have their own schemes in operation.
Finally - act now; the CERT scheme is likely to end in Dec with last orders in Sept. In Oct a new scheme The Green Deal will take over and instead of a subsidy there will be a loan for the full commercial price of the work. If you are able then DIY - the cheap prices mentioned above are also due to CERT subsidy so they will not be here much longer. If you have read all this - thank you - I hope it has helped.