Energy Saving Trust Scotland - Edinburgh

Ted

It’s not often I will give a 1 star review, but on this occasion the EST fully deserve it. The person on the phone would not listen to me. It was such a robotic response I had to ask if I was actually speaking to a human!

Martin L.

I would not recommend The Energy Saving Trust Limited for funding of certain energy efficiency measures.
I was enticed to use them as they offered 40% cashback and an interest free loan to get someone in to do the loft insulation.
When it came to claiming the funding, and after we had paid out nearly £750 to suppliers to get the work done and inspected, the lender was very slow to process the claim payment for which we provided all documentation requested. Note that the claim had already been approved prior to the work being done. So to my mind the pay-out should have been much quicker. Thus we were saddled with credit card debt which had to be paid off by other means to avoid hefty interest charges while we waited what I would describe as an excessive period of time for the funds.

When I queried this delay, I was told that they had many more applications than they usually process. I asked why they were accepting so many if they are not able to process them within a reasonable time frame. I was then told that they had a shortage of staff and were trying to train up new recruits.
Had I been made aware of this beforehand, I would not have taken out the loan and instead bought the insulation and fitted it myself. I would have spent less time doing that than chasing this firm for the funds and it would have been cheaper, even with the 40% cashback.

If you do decide to use The Energy Saving Trust Ltd for funding, I would advise you to get them to include in the agreement the maximum period of time it will take to process your funds once you supply all requested paperwork correctly completed. If they take longer, you can then make a complaint and escalate it to the Financial Ombudsman if necessary. To be honest I was going to do that anyway, had things taken any longer, and I advised them of this. Miraculously, things started to happen after I mentioned the Financial Conduct Authority.

I think I read somewhere that you don't need to pay your supplier/fitter until you receive the funds. But I ask you, how many suppliers do you know that will fit and wait for the amount of time that this crowd take to pay out? None to my mind. In fact the supplier wanted paid prior to the works being scheduled in and the EPC, also a requirement for the loan, needed paid upfront too.

I also spoke to a third-party energy assessor who informs me that many firms are refusing work that they need to wait for funding from The Energy Saving Trust, due to the amount of time they take to pay out. I cannot say that I blame them. However, it is disappointing that the delays are affecting relatively 'small' claims which could be low income households that will struggle in these circumstances.

Alexander R.

the worst people to contact for advice never call back or email pass the buck

Cha D.

Very helpful staff

Gábor R.