"Simplee Solar" / Energy Watch

Wig

I agree with last post.

As I understand it you have a 7 day cooling off period if the initial contact was not at your request, this can be a leaflet through the door, a phonecall, or a doorstep visit. The fact that the contract said boldly no cooling off period would be an avenue of defence on unfair contract.

The law here is rediculously shabby and the cooling off period should be increased to at least 2 weeks, for ALL contracts whether or not the first contact was requested or not. And in addition It should be illegal to take a cheque or cash as a deposit until the 2 weeks is up.

Yes this might delay genuine people wanting things done, but IMO the benefit to society would be overall beneficial.

And regarding the sittingathomeinwwii user above, the amount is less than 5000 so I hope your solicitors have taken things through the small claims court. No doubt the other company is trying to take it onto the civil court?

pog1

thanks for warning - i just filled n my card requesting a visit, but it had the air of double glazing about it, combined with a v dodgy name, so did a quick google and found you lot! card is being chewed by dog as i write!

richfly

I've just had an S-S gentleman caller this morning, so it was interesting to watch him in action, then come here and read all of the above. He was not overly aggressive (I had an appalling experience with Zenith some years ago, and it wasn't like that) - but it was clear that he was using standard d-g tactics ("special discount", " by 2010 all new homes will be required to have solar panels").

I had to insist on taking time to work out budgeting requirements, which he tried to offset by saying "if you're not really interested..." (implying I had wasted his time).

So that was less than impressive (also the £7315 price, which for a small 2-up-2-down like mine seemed excessive, even at "special discount"), and was what prompted me to go Net surfing. I frankly didn't believe the 2010 legislation thing he threw out, and as far as I can find out, it's untrue.

Good luck, Paddy JC, on cancelling the contract. I don't belive the "No cooling-off period" is legal either, but Trading Stds Authority should be able to confirm that.

Also, unless they're a member of The Solar Trade Association, I won't touch them with a barge-pole from now on.

Skiduck

richfly wrote:

I've just had an S-S gentleman caller this morning, so it was interesting to watch him in action, then come here and read all of the above. He was not overly aggressive (I had an appalling experience with Zenith some years ago, and it wasn't like that) - but it was clear that he was using standard d-g tactics ("special discount", " by 2010 all new homes will be required to have solar panels").

I had to insist on taking time to work out budgeting requirements, which he tried to offset by saying "if you're not really interested..." (implying I had wasted his time).

So that was less than impressive (also the £7315 price, which for a small 2-up-2-down like mine seemed excessive, even at "special discount"), and was what prompted me to go Net surfing. I frankly didn't believe the 2010 legislation thing he threw out, and as far as I can find out, it's untrue.

Good luck, Paddy JC, on cancelling the contract. I don't belive the "No cooling-off period" is legal either, but Trading Stds Authority should be able to confirm that.

Also, unless they're a member of The Solar Trade Association, I won't touch them with a barge-pole from now on.

£7315!!!!!!!

here's a simple break down to stop people getting ripped off:

Cost of panels, cylinder and controls, lets say you go for the more expensive evacuated tubes: £1800 VAT @ 5%
Labour, 2 engineers £50 an hour, 2 days: £1600 @ 17.5% VAT
total of £3400 plus VAT, less a grant of £400.
so around about £3000 plus VAT

Simplee Solar are getting an extra £4000 on top of a normal profit.
You will probably get a phone call offering the same installation for about £5000 - it's a tactic the use, pretending it is a different company when people say "no"

Try your local heating installer, even if they are not registered, but they are interested in doing solar, ask them if they would pay the £400 grant. Most will be happy to if they are just starting installing solar, as they need 2 installations to be accredited, so it would be like them paying £800 to be accredited.

The installations are simple for any heating engineer. A lot of engineers have already been on a solar course run by one of the boiler manufacturers.

penrhyn

Please be aware that if you are installing solar water heating with the intention of saving money on Hot water/heating costs. STOP.

These systems will never ever pay for themselves.(personal view)

If you are installing them for environmental reasons, go ahead, but avoid the cowboys as per previous posts.

sconhead

cornwall trading standards are already on to them

http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1062

trisontana

Here is an article from today's Money Mail :-

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=411879&in_page_id=2&ito=1565

redballoon_2

Thank you for this thread, i had a letter from them as well and it looked good but thought the tone of the letter was a bit suss, glad i havent contacted them. thanks and good luck with trying to get your money back. have you tried to contact somebody like watchdog?

boxster107

I thought I would post regarding Simplee Solar.

My mother had a salesman round a couple of weeks ago. The salesman was selling a solar system costing £7,000.

My mother is 80 and was after 2.5 hours pressurised into signing for a system. The salesman would not take a cheque(surprise surprise), but wanted it debited out of a current account.

My mother phoned my sister while he was there, naturally my sister requested that she have a couple of days to think it over because she thought she didnt know what she was buying. The salesman said 'no' quoting this 'no cooling off period' and as the money had effectively been paid that was that. The salesman left as soon as he knew my sister was on the way round

Several calls to the company yielded nothing. They would not accept that the order was cancelled and they were sending round an engineer to measure up.

Of course when he arrived he was refused entry. A letter to S.S. advised them that the order was cancelled and requesting the money back and advising them tthat any work was now at their own expense.

In the mean time I was getting concerned at the reputation of their sales team, high pressure selling and complete lies from what I have read on several forums on the internet. What would you expect from the management who appear to have used the same techniques selling double glazing.

Well the outcome was a letter offering to return the money less 10% which we accepted and wrote off the rest to experience.

Last weekend the Mail on Sunday ran an article featuring them and how poor they were.

Just a warning, if you invite them into your home as opposed to cold calling THERE IS NO COOLING OFF PERIOD !! so beware.

Also if you are pressurised into signing something, do not sign a credit agreement, do not use your debit card. Use a cheque which allows you to re-consider and cancel later.

I hope this helps others out there. Its all too easy for older people to be taken in with this type of sales tactic.

My advice is DO NOT TOUCH THEM WITH A BARGE POLE....!

solarfoiler

Successfully got deposit back,despite "no cooling off period" after citing Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 demanding strict proof of companys alleged "costs and loss of profit".....they settled out of court.Would love to share how I did it with any aggrieved party;it was a long struggle,but helping anyone else would make it even more worthwhile.
Intending to go more public once I have got the OK from my legal advisors