ECO 4 heating system grant

Dangermouse82

Hello MSE friends

I guess I’m looking for people with similar experiences and/or how and if it was resolved rather than blind advice but if you think you can add anything that would also be much appreciated.

I hope you read on but I’ll do a short and long version 

Short version 

We applied for an eco grant based on health issues to replace our oil heating system and we were awarded an air source heat pump, new radiators, new hot water tank, solar panels and some loft insulation. Great so far until instillation time. Installers were great but everything else from head office and communication was and is a complete shambles. The job has not gone to plan and was put on hold. I am now being completely ghosted. We’ve been left high, dry and cold. We have no idea where we stand and are worse off than when we started.

Long version. (It’s long sorry but gives context and gives me a chance to get it off my chest).

We applied for the grant some time ago (can’t recall when) through a company called Ecoflex Solutions who accepted our application. I knew of a couple of people who had it done. They said it can be a bit messy but worth it in the end and I’m a decorator so was happy to make good afterwards. My brother was also in the process. He had his own problems but has almost managed to limp it over the line.
Ecoflex assigned the job to a company called LMF Energy Services Ltd who eventually conducted a survey. Each process takes a while but we didn’t know how long these things should normally take. The first problems started when a worker turned up unannounced to drill air vents. As it turned out my wife was home and it was convenient so we let him carry on. However they also wanted to start the rest of the job the following week. I called the office to say that’s not acceptable to us. My wife works at home as a therapist and regardless you can’t just turn up unannounced. They were unable to come back in the new year as funding would be withdrawn. So we negotiated a set date for one company rather than different contractors to do all the work which would be completed within one week in November.  Happy days although my wife had to move a bunch of clients. That’s when the problems really started.

The Monday morning they were due to start all of the kit arrived except for the solar panels. So far so good although the poor guy had to unload it himself so I gave him a hand. Not sure how he would have managed it if I wasn’t there to help. We assumed the installer was to follow shortly but no one turned up. I called the office and was informed he was held up on a job but obviously no one told us. I explained I have a load of expensive materials on my drive. They diverted an installer from a different job to help me move it. All of the copper and smaller items went into our kitchen but the radiators, hot water tank, air source heat pump etc are on full view as an advertisement for thieves to help themselves in a rural area. Again no one turned up Tuesday and Wednesday. At this point me and my wife have lost 6 days work between us and we are self employed so not getting that back. After calling each day I was promised the scaffolders at least would arrive on Wednesday. The manager I spoke to this time needs to learn to hang up the phone properly before slagging off the customer to his colleague. He was claiming I was texting him all night where as in reality I was sporadic and succinct with my texts and the last text was 4pm. I’ve not spoken to him since. I didn’t complain about this as I felt like it would be like criticising a chef. What will he do to your soup. At this stage I just wanted a solution. The scaffolders turned up 7am Thursday morning after a text at 6am. I read the text at 655 am so plenty of notice 🙄. I decided I had to go back to work as this was ridiculous. Unfortunately my wife didn’t have that option as she had already moved all of her clients. As soon as I got to work 50 minutes away I got a call off a different manager who apologised and said all of the right things and was sending everyone to get it done so I turned straight around back home.

The heating installers were great but said the job was too big and would run into Wednesday. After exploring and finding no other options my wife had to then move further clients but at least it was now getting done. The installers only had time to plan the job, take off all of our old radiators and put the news ones in the rooms ready on the Thursday. The Solar panel fitters (it was clear to me this was not one company as promised) arrived late on the Thursday to do their thing. So not much time. They informed me at the end of the day after the heating installers had left they weren’t happy with the slates on my room and wouldn’t be returning. The heating installers turned up Friday morning looking a bit embarrassed. It was clear that I hadn’t been informed that the job had been put on hold and they were to put the old radiators back on.

I’m getting pretty frustrated at this point and I’ve called the project manager again who says they still want to go ahead with the job and he was having a meeting with the design team and would call me back in the afternoon. He did not. I called the office Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Each day a promise to be called back to no avail. With no more soul to give I called the original company Ecoflex to see if they could get me some answers. They’ve promise to call me back Thursday and Friday. I’ll give them another chance on Monday but will otherwise have to consider other options. I didn’t want to go down a complaints procedure and just wanted a solution or an idea of what is happening but have given them plenty of chances to make right at a cost to us and have been completely fobbed off.

We are worse off than we had started with 13 days wages lost. All we have to show for it is some new extraction fans, a house turned upside down covered in scaffolding, expensive kit on our drive, some copper pipes to trip over, some scratched up radiators, no clue where we stand and to top it all off I timed our oil perfectly to run out the day after the job was due to finish having spent all of our heating oil money at the most expensive time of the year on taking time off for something that hasn’t happened.

Thank you for taking the time to read

Regards 

Bob