Anyone used the Mark Group?

Mergic

The Mark Group have been cold calling offering HTT Insulation to anyone, regardless of income/benefits. It's not in a designated postcode area. But having initially been told by my local council backed scheme that there isn't funding available, I sent them an email to double and they have come back to say there is some funding to treat Hard To Treat walls. They're coming out to survey this week, so we'll see if it can be done. I'd rather that, than let some Mark Group salesman with a drill start attacking my house.

Slinky_Selina

Had the Mark Group come around, they were here a bit longer than I would have liked however we decided to have 'hard to fill' wall insulation done, came, they did the job in no time at all, we were quite impressed so sent them to a couple of other houses that we own to have the same thing done.

And now I sound like I work for them.....:D

martin_p

The scheme is free. Qualifying is dependent on a number of factors to do with the house itself, hence the drilling of walls and looking in the loft. The Marc group are genuine and contracted by the government who get the money back from the energy companies. When they knock on yr door, the pitch sounds to good to be true and so the skeptics will close the door on them. Its well worth the hassle if your property qualifies as mine does. I have found the Marc Group very disorganized and frustrating and do cancel appointments without telling you. Fortunately the young guy who did the survey on my house first, has helped as he gets commission only if the job gets done, not by doing the survey. So he has an incentive to get things resolved. So yes it sounds to good to be true, but yes its free and WILL DEFINITELY save you money in the long run and the house will be warm. .

mercuryf

martin_p wrote: »

The scheme is free. Qualifying is dependent on a number of factors to do with the house itself, hence the drilling of walls and looking in the loft. The Marc group are genuine and contracted by the government who get the money back from the energy companies. When they knock on yr door, the pitch sounds to good to be true and so the skeptics will close the door on them. Its well worth the hassle if your property qualifies as mine does. I have found the Marc Group very disorganized and frustrating and do cancel appointments without telling you. Fortunately the young guy who did the survey on my house first, has helped as he gets commission only if the job gets done, not by doing the survey. So he has an incentive to get things resolved. So yes it sounds to good to be true, but yes its free and WILL DEFINITELY save you money in the long run and the house will be warm. .

The Mark Group were supposed to come to my house today to install a new boiler they don't give a specific time just between 8am and 12.30pm so today a man comes to my door and says he is the electrician from Mark Group this is at 11am he goes on to ask if the plumbers have been my hubby replies no the man says "I new they would not make it here today as the job they were doing yesterday wasn't finished" he then tells my hubby I will come back when they are here probably tomorrow and leaves. At 12.00pm I phoned to ask if the plumbers were coming today or would it be tomorrow the lady on the phone asked me to hold while she contacted the plumbers after 5-6 minutes she came back to say they cannot make it today I said will it be tomorrow then she says no I have a new date for you the 18th Feb but we have had a joiner lift laminate flooring, floor boards, skirting off in the living-room and kitchen moved the freezer out of the kitchen and cleared everything out of the kitchen that would have been in the way and they expect us either to sit like this for four weeks or get the joiner back again. Well I just told her to cancel it. Surely these people can't get away with mucking folk about like this I will be writing to their head office to complain. There was a false wall they wanted us to open up as well if the pipes were not visible under the floorboards. A JOKE.

johnycarrera

After getting messed around for three months now with one lie after another, I cancelled my free cavalry wall insulation and they are coming to repair all the holes they drilled in my walls way at the beginning...
It's not hard to tell when someone's telling blatant lies to you and this was dragging on forever.
They were quite rude on the phone when I called them on it and wouldn't allow me to have any details of who to contact to confirm why they were cancelling on me for the 3rd month in a row.

Hopefully they will turn up to fix the mess they made drilling the holes and I can be done with them.

A very poor experience, don't go near them- January 2014

Caveat

Hello all

Really keen to get an updated word of warning out to MSE users contemplating using this company.

Mark Group did cavity wall insulation on our house under a subsidised local authority scheme in 2010. It seemed a very good money saving idea at the time, but regrettably we have had problems on and off ever since then - this includes a suspicion their initial suitability assessment was not carried out properly, we were not warned of the potential damp risks installation could pose at the time of the 'sale,' and also the installation itself seemed poorly done. I think the OFT may be interested to hear more about this conduct under TFC guidelines.

As other MSE forum comments mention, Mark Group seem very keen to chase new business but not quite so forthcoming when it comes to decent after sales service or customer care.

We now have a chronic damp problem in a house occupied by our severely disabled young son and so are very concerned about health implications for him from mould spores etc. Our sense of urgency to remedy this situation is seemingly not shared by the Mark Group.

To top it all, Mark Group now denies any liablity for an estimated £3k damage to our house, although have the cheek to admit their insulation product has basically failed due to the 'extreme weather.' Given that extreme weather is now becoming the norm, it starts to sound like a massive product recall might be in order.

Just hope I can save other MSE owner/occupiers the distress and inconvenience of dealing with this company, not to mention £3k we now need to magic up to fix the the damage caused!

Do a Google search with the terms 'BBC X-Ray and cavity wall' to find an article on further examples of the sort of dubious practices by the Mark Group in Wales.

MrsSC

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS

The Mark Group lie to their customers and do not care about issues.

The communication is disgraceful and they do not care about complaints.

We had to do £170 remedial work to our home before the insulation was to be done - we did this following their advice then they cancelled the day before the work was due to be carried out.

We were imposed on during unannounced visits.

They do not care we have been messed about and have lost out financially.

IF THEY KNOCK ON YOUR DOOR PLEASE DON'T GIVE THEM A CHANCE LIKE I DID WITH HINDSIGHT I HAVE BEEN VERY NAIVE - SEND THEM PACKING!

MrsSC

In addition to above can anyone advise me where to complain to regarding this company/who the regulatory bodies are etc - we have paperwork with written instructions to alter out home etc and want a full refund from them

Caveat

MrsSC

Unfortunately you are not alone. The more I research this company, the more I find a worrying pattern of unacceptable behaviour. Not forgetting a lot of this is taxpayer funded work.

Do a Google search using the terms "Review Centre Mark Group" and the horror stories there starts to reveal the scale of how bad they are. A lot of these people are vulnerable households, which further compounds this scandal.

I have reported Mark Group to my local Trading Standards office, and also to the British Board of Agrement (but this probably isn't relevant to you yet as it deals with problems relating to the actual instal).

Next step is to see if the OFT will investigate them for not complying with Treating Customer Fairly provisions, a bit like your example demonstrates.

I have also contacted BBC Watchdog (perhaps if others did the same they might consider this story worth airing??) and am planning to contact my local MP as well.

Mark Group seem to rely on delaying tactics to exhaust customers they can't be bothered to help!

MrsSC

Thank you Caveat.

I have put everything in writing to them, have obtained advice from the energy ombudsmen and copied letter to OFT.

If the company do not refund the work I am taking it all the way as it is disgusting and most definitely exploiting vulnerable families.

I will forward all communication to the OFT and I think your advice on contacting local MP is good as our local MP is very hands on and they have clearly done cold calling throughout our local area.

It is awful and they do not care.

I suspect they are able to charge for the surveys etc!