You know how the government are always banging on about saving energy... and the grants you can get to help insulate your home? Well we were sucked in by an advert telling us we could get cavity wall insulation for as little as £100. We applied for a grant and were told no money was left. We tried again in April and were told we could get a grant. Marks Insulations came to our house to conduct a survey, got no complaints about them, they were here on time, pleasant and friendly and after a quick drilling of our walls told us we didn't have enough space in our cavity to fill it with foam (i'm sure there must be another whinge in there about builders not making cavities wide enough but thats a different story). Anyway, the friendly chap from Marks gave us the name of an alternative company, Domestic and General Insulation Ltd. So we contacted them. And 4 weeks later they conducted a survey on our property. And we were told they could install the beading. So we went through the figures to check the grant availability and get this - from £385 worth of work we were entitled to a grant of the grand sum of.... £16.24. What a joke we thought. But we still wanted the work done so we could do our bit for energy saving and save us a few pounds. We agreed to having the work done and were told we would be contacted within 3 weeks to arrange an appointment for the installation. That was on 12th July. By the 14th August we thought maybe they had forgotten about us. Tried to call but office only open 9-5 (when most people are at work). So we e-mailed: 'To Whom it May Concern, We initially contacted you several weeks ago concerning a desire for cavity wall insulation to be installed at our property. Subsequently, a representative (Tim O'Donoghue) came to our house on 12th July to conduct a survey. This all went well and we agreed to having the works done, we were informed that further contact would be made within 3 weeks to confirm an installation date. As this was now over 4 weeks ago I am writing as we have received no further contact. Unfortunately your offices are only open between 9-5 when it is not possible for either myself or my wife to call, hence the contact by e-mail. We are still keen to get the work done and would therefore appreciate it if you could contact us on one of the numbers given below or preferably by return of e-mail. Thank you in advance for your help.' Quite polite i thought. Then, in all fairness, we had a reply back 2 days later: 'Thank you for your e-mail which I have forwarded onto Jessica Payne in our Data Processing department. Jessica or a member of her team will contact you shortly. Thank you Julie Powell Personal Assistant to Managing Director Domestic & General Insulation Ltd Address = Domestic & General Insulation Ltd, Energy House, Magnis Works, Roman Road, Hereford, HR4 9QR. Telephone = 0870 122 0059, Extension 214 Fax = 01432 268 680 E-mail = j.powell@dgi.org.uk Web Site = www.dgi.org.uk' Hmmmm, bit blunt and uninformative but at least we were heading somewhere. One week later, we felt we had write to them again: 'Still nothing and yet another week gone....' We got a pretty promt reply to this one: 'JESS Please see urgent e-mail below. Can you please arrange a response via e-mail to Mr Berry today and forward me a copy. Many thanks Julie Powell Personal Assistant to Managing Director' And 2 hours later had this reply too: 'JESS - Thank you. PAUL - Can you please make sure you forward me a copy of your e-mail to Mr Berry. Thank you Julie Powell Personal Assistant to Managing Director Domestic & General Insulation Ltd Address = Domestic & General Insulation Ltd, Energy House, Magnis Works, Roman Road, Hereford, HR4 9QR. Telephone = 0870 122 0059, Extension 214 Fax = 01432 268 680 E-mail = j.powell@dgi.org.uk Web Site = www.dgi.org.uk' ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jess Payne Sent: 22 August 2006 09:06 To: Julie Powell Subject: RE: Cavity Wall Insulation GL2 4XL Hi Julie I have forwarded this onto Paul Adams again as he is the one who is dealing with this query. I will make sure he contacts the client today Thank You Regards Jess' Mr Adams must have been having a busy day because despite this e-mail being sent to him at 9.52hrs on 22.08.06, it took him 24 hours to compose his reply: 'Firstly i must apologise for the slow response in returning your call.This matter has now been passed to myself and i can see that a survey was carried out in july on your property.Unfortunatley between ourselfs and the grant authorising board your contract has been mis-placed.This leaves us with no option but to revisit your property and carry out another survey.This can be done asap and at a convienent time to yourself.Once this has been completed i will have it returned to myself and process the contract imediatley and ensure no time is lost in completing the work. Please contact myself on 0870 1220059 ext 322 or 07920 802487 to arrange the survey. Again i apologise for all the inconvience caused by this and hope we can conclude this matter for you without delay. Regards Paul Adams Domestic and General Insulation LTD' AAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH, it'll be winter soon! I'm fed up with the hassle of all this now. And try finding anyone else that can install beading for cavity walls, nightmare! So that's my moan over with.