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“ Do not use!!!”

written by Cullenb1983 on 18/07/2015

I used the Mark Group to have my cavity wall insulation installed for free. A nice chap came round to "survey" the property - drilling a couple of holes to check the cavities were OK and doing an energy performance certificate for the house. Due to cladding on the outside of part of the property, a hole had to be drilled from the inside. Somewhat bizarrely he claimed he "wasn't insured" to drill a hole inside the property, so I had to do that one... Anyway, didn't think too much of it and arranged a date for a fitter to come round.

The fitter turned up late (45 mins after the end of the agreed 4 hour slot) then told me as he didn't have a colleague with him he would only be able to do part of the house and would have to come back another time. I did offer him the chance to reschedule the appointment to another date when he was accompanied and more prepared, but he insisted he did half now and finish it off a couple of weeks later.

The fitter also installed an air vent in the living room due to the open fire. I asked the surveyor if that was due to buildings regs although he didn't seem to know the answer, however I checked with my trusty chimney sweep who informed me that was the case. The surveyor also told me the vent would be "one way" so wouldn't let the draft in. Once the installation was complete it was clear this was not the case - the vent is not baffled and you can see right through it to the outside - goodness knows how draft it will be in winter. The vent fitting itself is also cheap/of poor quality.

A few days after the fitter had been back to finish off the work, I was sitting in the garden and noticed one of the holes he'd drilled in the outside wall hadn't been filled up! Astonishing how such a basic mistake could have been made. In the interests of making it watertight etc as soon as possible I rushed to Wickes to pick up some mortar and filled it in.

I wrote to Mark Group detailing the complaints above. I received a phone call saying they understood I wasn't completely happy with the "remedial work" so I asked them to refer to my letter, which they didn't have on system. They said they would look into it. The next day I received a letter essentially telling me to stop moaning! They refused to pay to have a baffled vent fitted on the grounds it was "cosmetic" and refused to pay for the mortar for fixing the hole as I "hadn't raised the issue with them so they could come and resolve it". Frankly when I have a 2 inch diameter hole in my wall, my instinct is to fill it in as soon as possible, not try and arrange a half day slot for someone to come and fix it, meaning I'd have to take another day off work.

Based on my experience and reading the other reviews on here,  I would urge you to avoid using them.