Mark Group/Goverment funded loft insulation

samtaylor1986

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Hi There, just had a caller at the house reporting to be a surveyor checking on loft insulation, and the government funded free loft insulation. He checked the loft and reported that the loft is barely insulated, and that under government funding/grant I would be entitled to free loft insulation, provided by Mark Group limited. Any ideas on whether this is legit or whether it is a scam? said it would be free and wrote on all copies that it would be 'free' - but can something be too good to be true?

chanz4

so you let anyone in?

macman

The free insulation scheme has now ended as the funding is no more. Unless this is maybe a locally funded scheme. Did you ask to see his ID?
Any reputable firm will not cold call like this.
Do you not know what loft insulation you actually have Th efree/subsidised scheme ran for several years and was widely promoted.

sjlou

I have had loft insulation and cavity wall insulation fitted by the Mark Group after one of these cold calls. All foc.
Had a good experience, nothing to complain about. Was back in August though, so might be worth checking that the funding it still available in your area.
Have seen some negative reports about them on here though. Mainly about their pressure selling.

Urizen75

I had a very pleasant young man call about a month ago from the Mark Group. The are a legitimate, national company. He spent about an hour measuring, etc. and said I would have to completely clear the loft. My wife and I did so (we are both 63 and the loft was filled with 20 years of junk). I was told I would hear from them in the next few days and, receiving no communication, called them after a week. I was told to try again in a week or two. I did and was told that the contract was cancelled as I was not in a qualifying are. The salesman cold called on me, told me I was in a qualifying area and I told him that I did not receive benefits of any kind. I had to call them to find out the contract was cancelled. You might have a good experience, but don't hold your breath.

Caveat

Hello all

Have already posted about the Mark Group on MSE, but then saw this more recent forum thread. Repeating my earlier message:

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.

matelodave

Most installations are guaranteed for 25 years by CIGA so if you can't get any satisfaction from the installer you should contact CIGA with your installation certificate number. If you haven't got a certificate then you should be able to get info from CGA. See their website.


Any claim under the Guarantee must be notified to CIGA within 25 years of the installation date.

• All problems relating to the installation must be reported to the installer as soon as practicable and CIGA must be informed if the matter is not resolved satisfactorily within 2 months.

• The guarantee is not valid if the insulation has been altered or disturbed.

• Your statutory rights are not affected by the guarantee.

• The guarantee remains valid for subsequent owners or occupiers of the property.

• The maximum value of rectification work is £15,000u should contact GIGA

As a post script, I had CWI done by Mark Group in my previous place (20 years ago), my Mum (2003 and so did my MIL (2003). They did the loft insulation in this house (2010) and all installations were done properly, cleanly and professionally and none of us have had any subsequent problems.

MrsSC

Unfortunately my experience of the Mark Group is not a good one at all! I see this is a more recent thread to the one I had been posting on.

I have lost out on money because of this incompetent unprofessional company. They do not care about their customers or respond to complaints I advise to avoid at all costs!!!

sootyalbatross

The Mark Group are the worst, most unprofessional company that I have had the misfortune of ever dealing with either personally or professionally, and I would strongly anyone else to avoid having any dealings with them whatsoever.

Initially the offer by the Mark Group to insulate our early 1980s home to modern standards via a Government initiative seemed like an offer too good to miss. However our experiences with them have been appalling: Whilst I accept that things go wrong for all organisations from time to time, in my experience, when an error or issue is made clear the situation is dealt with promptly, an apology is made and, if applicable, reparation.

In the case of the Mark Group there has been a catalogue of issues at both an individual and company level that they have failed to address and most disturbingly they seem to have a company-wide lack of even the most elementary notion of customer care, instead displaying a seemingly institutionalised lack of professionalism and customer service.

I would urge other people to seek an alternative supplier of home insulation and cavity insulation as the Mark Group should be avoided!

Following our initial contact following up on some literature offering us a free installation of loft and cavity insulation, Mark Group surveyors missed two out of four appointments to survey our property, and at one stage we had two separate surveyors simultaneously trying to make appointments to visit our property as our details had been duplicated internally.

31.03.14: Wall & Loft insulation installation booked for between 8am & 12pm.

Loft team: Arrived 8.30am – finished within 1 hour

Wall team: Did not arrive as booked. Chased at 1pm: Passed around Mark Group – advised that local depot would call back with an eta, but no call received. Chased at 4pm & advised that due to breakdown no one would be coming out that day: Invited to rearrange installation. No apology given.

Got home to find the toilet/bathroom door broken

01.14.14: Rang Mark Group and spoke to a young, inexperienced lad in Customer Services: He emailed local Field Manager to contact me to arrange appointment to inspect broken door that day. No call received: Chased the young, inexperienced lad in Customer Services at 4.45pm – he sent chase up email to get Field Manager to contact me within 48 hours. No call received.

04.04.14: Chased the young, inexperienced lad in Customer Services again: Emailed local depot to call me by end of day. No call received.

07.04.14: Chased the young, inexperienced lad in Customer Services yet again but as he was on holiday, I spoke to a different, equally young, equally inexperienced lad in Customer Services: He emailed local depot to call me by end of day. No call received.

08.04.14: After holding for 12.55 mins to speak to a Manager, I spoke to the Customer Services Manager: Appointment arranged for Field Manager to visit on 10.04.14 between 8am and 8.30am.
10.04.14: Field Manager arrived late at 8.45am. No apology given. Took pictures and notes to be sent to Head Office. He had to use the toilet with the door open due to the damage caused by the Mark Group installers.

08.05.14: As we had heard nothing I tried to speak to the Customer Services Manager but she was “not available”.

12.05.14: Having still not heard from the Mark Group I chased the Customer Services Manager again and having been on hold for over 5 minutes I got to speak to her. She was puzzled that I had not heard from them and promised that I would hear back the same day.

Two hours later: The same young, inexperienced lad in Customer Services that I had spoken to originally called me to advise that they were taking the position that they had not caused the damage and that they were not going to take the matter any further. I responded by parking the situation whilst I take legal advice.

12.05.14: I left some reviews online about the Mark Group’s appalling service (along with literally hundreds of other dissatisfied people), on various websites.
14.04.14: The Mark Group contacted me via one of them with the following: Hello. This has clearly been a long-running issue and we would be keen to discuss your concerns with you. We have sent you a direct message in relation to this. We hope to hear from you.

15.05.14: I responded with my personal details so that they could investigate further. (AS OF 24.05.14 THEY HAVE NOT RESPONDED FURTHER TO THIS - YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THEIR SHOCKING INCOMPETENCE).

23.05.14: Received a letter from the Mark Group (dated 21.05.14) as follows: Firstly I would like to apologise for having to contact us after the loft insulation was installed at your property on 31.03.14. Following your call to our office on 01.05.14 (INCORRECT: IT WAS 01.04.14) an inspection was arranged at your property with a Field Manager on 10.05.14 (INCORRECT: IT WAS 10.04.14) to inspect the damages reported by yourself to the bathroom door. I have now received the report following the investigation and the manager has advised that the Mark Group are not responsible for the damage to the bathroom door.
There was more to the letter but the substance of it was that despite the fact that their staff were working alone by the door that got broken it was not down to their staff.

Of course there was no mention in their letter of the multiple phone calls that I had to make to them to get a Field Manager to inspect the damage in the first place, no apology for the Field Manager being late, no apology for me having to chase them regarding the outcome of the Field Manager’s visit over a month after he carried out his site visit and no apology for their written opinion on the damage caused by their staff and the Field Manager’s visit being written to me over 2 months later!

Apart from the writer of the letter that they sent to me clearly having a poor grasp of grammar the letter is factually incorrect yet again displaying the lack of professionalism within this organisation – they cannot even compose a letter factually correctly let alone write it in proper English!

Of course all organisations get things wrong from time to time, and most people will have heard of and / or experienced issues with utility companies, government departments etc, but broadly these are eventually resolved and are usually down to an error or misunderstanding on one side of the other, and are usually isolated incidents that are dealt with reasonably and professionally by the organisation involved.

That Mark Group are altogether different: They display institutionalised incompetence, complete ignorance of the fundamental precepts of customer service and a lack of professionalism clearly runs throughout the Mark Group.
Sadly I note that our experiences are not unusual, and a search online for reviews about the Mark Group quickly uncovers literally hundreds of dissatisfied customers, and you are in fact hard pressed to find any positive reviews. What is disturbing is that they seem to be getting away with this and are paid from public funds.

We have no expectation of resolving this matter any further: We have not remade an appointment for the wall insulation to be carried out but based on our experiences to date we have, understandably, decided to not let the Mark Group near our property again. (BTW: When the Field Manager visited he commented that the installation of the wall insulation sometimes causes householders to experience issues with damp that they had not had previously – be warned).

Cavitywallfiasco1

Email Ed Davey and see your local MP. CIGA is worthless as they are funded by the industry. They have caused significant damp. £10000 worth of damage
Mark Group need to be exposed.

Cavitywallfiasco1

If you can look at page 13 Life section Sunday Telegraph 25/05/14