Pushy Sales Approach
Cold-call from Better Insulation Solutions Ltd, asking if I had the yellow, woolly stuff in my loft which I do. Said I'd had several companies look, who said I need nothing more but recall one quoting about £4k. Still, I agreed to a surveyor looking.
Bloke on 'phone asked "How do you spell your name again?" Me thinking "You didn't ask it. Just ask me for my name rather than trying to 'trick' me." Even funnier when I said "B.E.S.T" (me thinking - you'd have to be stupid to ask me once, let alone twice"). He also asked "Do you have your own loft ladders and light?" Me. "No"
About half an hour later, a lady called from another part of the company to book the surveyor for the next day. She said "You have your own loft ladders and light?" Me: "No". Me thinking: "First sales-y person and this one clearly don't tick-tack with each other much.
Next day, nice chap called Tom visited. Said he wasn't a sales person so that means he is really - part of the selling process. Showed me SuperFoil samples and that they're fitted to the inside of the roof. Nothing to do with replacing the yellow, fluffy stuff then. That's still there. He went into loft, took some photos. then showed me them. Said the white on the beams is the first sign of rot and when black sets in, it's an expensive job to replace them. Said the damp in the beams should be between 1%-5% then showed me a photo. of the reading in one of the beams as 12%. He said "It really needs doing." I wasn't sent any of the photos.
Said I'd been quoted about £4k before. Tried to call my brother who's a buildings surveyor - unfortunately, he was at an appointment and didn't answer (twice). I sat and Googled white on wooden/oak beams. Said all sorts from condensation to lime to previous treatments, one said mould. He said "It really needs doing". Was told it was guaranteed for 25 years.
I asked why after 400 years, would they suddenly be rotting? He said "Central heating". (under pressure, I thought this was feasible) and "It really needs doing." He said if I have it done the next week, then there'd be a discount as "..all the installers are in the area already." Then he rang some bloke who was driving. He told the bloke about the old beams in my loft. Bloke said "It's like my house. If they needed replacing it would cost a fortune." Tom said to me "This is my boss." Didn't see that one coming. Not.
I wavered. He asked 'boss' (who I think was Stuart, the Director) if any discount as installers were up here (from the south). 'Boss' said could do £750 discount. I looked up "Does SuperFoil add value to your home." An AI overview came back ‘yes’. Retrospectively, I don't much trust AI reviews as they seem to grab bits of all sorts off internet. Anyway, agreed to the work for following Wednesday, 30 April, at a cost of £3483 for 58.8 sq meters of roof surface. Had to pay a 25% deposit there and then. No pressure.
Was meant to be half hour visit (said lady who called) but was 1.5 hours.
Received a text from Stuart day before installation saying the boys would be with me between 10am-11am and there'd be three of them and gave their names. Just after 9am, one of the guys arrived and asked about best place to unload stuff and he'd go and tell his Dad. I never saw 'Dad' but he and his colleague did the work and they were really pleasant and hard-working guys. Work took about five hours. Came with a guarantee which said "...workmanship warranted to be free from defects for a period of 12 months from date of completion." I saw nothing about 25 years in the warranty so I asked – was told it’s over x4 A4 pages and that it's in my folder but I replied that in the folder is literally, my pink copy of the order form and the Workmanship Warranty. I’ve since received it by post.
No idea if I've been duped, tbh. I’ve doubts but will see if it saves me money on my energy usage. And hope I don't find out that it should've cost less. Having only four clear days from booking the appointment to the installation, I had no time to research the company due to a family crisis and work. There are no reviews on Trustpilot that I can find, so I added the business - there are many companies with similar names but not Better Insulation Solutions Ltd. There are none on their website, and I see the Facebook page for Better Insulation Solutions Ltd has only a few photos. and no reviews, although it says the team have over 20 years of domestic insulation experience. It may be 'cause according to Companies House, it's a new company, only appointed 29 October last year/2024.
Hope my doubts are wrong and that the company is honest and if so, successful but they need to review their approach and ditch the pressured, old-hat "I'll call my boss" / "discount as they're in the area" / "deposit must be now", immediate decision tactics.
Given three stars as I don't know the savings yet and I didn't like the very pushy, sales approach.
25 April 2025
Unprompted review