Mark Group

Audit was as described. Good info. Delivered as promised. No problems at all. Estimate on remediation was pricy. I opted to go with another contractor to do the work.

The review was comprehensive, but some of the pricing for the suggested improvements outweighed the savings that I would be able to achieve over a 15 year period.

The short version: I would definitely NOT recommend MarkGroup!! There was constant miscommunication from day one. I should have followed my instincts and not used them after the inspection. Phone calls were not returned at various times throughout this process. And this 'process' took over 6 months!!! Horrible communication from many different people with many different titles. Many of the savings that were promised were not followed through on, and they even admitted that they tried to cover their mistake in the quote by lying to the auditor at the ENERGY STAR program. Seriously. I winded up paying thousands more than the orginal quote. I missed several days of work at different times, due to people not showing up, only half the crew showing up, etc. The main reason I picked them is because of there stellar reputation... the work was poor at best, and they needed to come back several times to fix things. Different auditors would give differing opinions. The only constant was that I was guaranteed to hear something different from each person I talked to. I truly feel bad for the guys doing the dirty work, they all seemed like really nice people. But consistent lack of communication at all levels made this a truly spine shivering endeavor. Keep in mind this is the short version...as I have a paper trail I mile long to go with dozens of headaches. I remained respectful throughout this process, but here I get to be completely honest. Do not use them for anything, or you will ultimately regret it.

The technician was nice and professional. They just gave me a verbal summary of their findings, although I was hoping to get more "green" solutions. He did give me the idea of a wood stove insert. They were probably a bit pricey, but again, they were professional and nice.

Steve & Beau took the time to explain everything they were doing. They supplied before & after photos. They were polite, professional and cleaned all around the work area. Overall an excellent experience.

On time – Excellent installation.

First a technician spent almost three hours inspecting my big old house for energy inefficiencies. He did a blower door test to depressurizes the whole house and climbed into several nasty crawl spaces to access the insulation. They tested the efficiency of appliances and the HVAC systems. A second representative came out a week later and spent 1.5 hours. He gave me detailed analysis and recommendations. I paid in advance through Angie's List Big Deal and got a terrific deal. Both technicians knew their stuff and spent over four hours explaining it all to me. (I then got some other estimates for doing the same insulation work and they were very similar.)

Mark Group was on time and performed services as they said they would.

Person who visited was very polite and noted that what I purchased was likely not something that would meet my expectations. I wanted an energy audit, how my systems could be improved in home, lighting, heating, insulation and air conditioners. What I got was a list of things they could work on and the price to do that work. The work list in no way was considered an energy audit, rather it was a punch list of things I could do based on their visual inspection. I did not have a comparison of work and benefit/savings calculation. There was no checklist of inefficiencies and how that translated into energy losses. For example, multiple hi hat lights in house, they spoke about boxing and insulating a few, less than 10, when I have almost 90 in house. Overall I was disappointed, the tech who came said the offering needed to be better presented prior to start of work.

They were phenomenal as the technicians made a few changes on site and they did not charge extra for that. They were done in the time that they said they would be. We were very pleased and we can already see a difference with the utility consumption in the house.

It worked out great. They did exactly what they said they would. They were on time and they gave a good assessment of what needed to be done.

Everyone was polite and friendly. They were on time, I made them wait because I was late but they didn't complain.

It was fine. Scheduling was simple. They gave me a list of recommendations of what to do. We did not have them do the work as their costs weren’t competitive to do the work.

that needed to be performed, as well as a cost and time estimate to install these improvements. I appreciated being able to ask questions and have a positive and informed discussion about the issues. Dan is a very pleasant and knowledgeable "gentleman" who works very hard at explaining the tasks that needed to be performed. Dan is the one who made me believe in the Mark Group and it's ability to make these changes translate into energy savings. When the work was scheduled to be performed, the installers were knowledgeable professionals, who showed up on time and worked long hours to get the work complete within the two date estimate. The work was done with respect for my property and without undue interruptions. The installers were also very pleasant and informative. Dave Condin was the final person who came to do quality control. He is an amazing and talented person. He is fun to talk with and seems to be the ultimate problem solver. A week after the installation we are now facing a heat wave, and I can already see the benefits of this program. My house does not heat up because of the attic. The air conditioning runs less frequently, and the house seem far more comfortable. The best part is that PEPCO agrees to a rebate off the cost of the installation. This makes the process and unbelievable bargain.

They did a good job. They were on time and professional. They’re compartmentalized, which caused some issues, but were quickly resolved. They got the job done within a day.

Showed up on time. Delivered promised service and conducted themselves professionally.

I was very happy with them. They followed up with me a lot and were very persistent. They got the job done in a couple of hours. The scheduling was perfectly convenient.

Pat was great with the estimate I received it quickly. Once I made the decision the date was set quickly. The entire crew was prompt courteous and did an excellent job.

First, a global test was done to determine where there was energy leakage. Then, the repairs and insulation were made. Finally, another global test was done to determine improvements.

Went well. Arrived a little late, 1st day only, b/c of traffic but impressively called to let me know. Kept me informed. Asked my preferences when appropriate. Cleaned up well. Very nice to work with. Lovely- like the job and done very well. They even did test after they were done to be sure.

It went very smoothly and the service went as planned. I am satisfied with audit.

I bought an ?Energy Audit? at a reduced (Angie's List) price of $75 (50% off). The technicians who performed the audit were prompt, knowledgeable, thorough and courteous; and took pains to show me conditions they discovered which they would put in their report. I received a detailed hand written report with the "raw findings" when they left. I was told that I would receive a formal report with analysis and specific recommendations for any deficient areas within a few weeks. So far so good. As background, I had told the individual who scheduled the audit, and the technicians who did the audit that I was already planning to include a conversion from oil to a natural gas heating & hot water system in my prospective project, and that they needed to take that into consideration when presenting recommendations. I also told them that I was considering doing the project within NJ'S CLEAN ENERGY PROGRAM, if I qualified. The specific program which the state of NJ offers is called "Home Performance with ENERGY STAR" and focuses on upgrades to existing homes vs. new construction. The program itself has some specific requirements that must be met n order to qualify to receive the grant and low interest loan. So I was expecting an audit report that would indicate which of the recommendations would best meet those guidelines. [Partly my fault for not being explicit nor taking the initiative to communicate it more effectively] Surprisingly, I received the written formal report via email, without any prior contact (after the audit, but prior to receiving the document) from the analyst preparing the formal report, asking for input, insights, goals, or budget to guide their recommendations. I did, however, get a phone call asking to set up a time to review the report in person with a "Home Performance Adviser". OK - a little odd, but OK. But what I received was not a ?report? of the results of the energy audit, but rather a proposal for the recommendations that they made. And the ?Adviser? was more of a sales person; he did not create the report, and was unable to explain the links between recommendations and the findings in the energy audit results. Nor did the report make any attempt to prioritize the recommendations e.g. which proposed actions would make the biggest impact on energy reduction. And despite the fact that they claimed to be able to ?do everything? ? the proposal for a new air conditioning system (which I had indicated as being part of the complete project), was missing. Most disturbing however was that the proposal for the oil to gas conversion ( over 65% of the total cost) ? only had two lines listing the proposed equipment (just the manufacturer and model number) and prices ? without any explanation (or even assumptions used) for the selection/sizing and the impact on the requirements to qualify for State?s energy program. They missed correcting a safety finding that was explicitly noted in the raw report. They included a so-called safety requirement (related to the heating system) ? which I questioned and turned out to be incorrect. They also included recommendations they claimed were ?required? by the NJ program, but subsequently were removed as unnecessary. It appeared to me that the technicians had a better understanding of the requirements of the program than the individual who wrote the formal report. After I explained the problems with the report, they did offer to rewrite the report (including my requests/additions/ corrections). I accepted the offer, and they came back to me within a few weeks with a new report. Unfortunately they were still unable to answer some basic concerns e.g. which recommendations (outside of the oil to gas conversion which was a ?given?) provided the biggest bang for the buck. During this second proposal review they disclosed that they were using 3rd parties (subcontractors) to provide input regarding the heating/cooling systems and didn?t receive much more information than was in the proposal. So it was not surprising I suppose that they were unable to answer basic questions regarding the most expensive portion of the total project. Conclusion: I believe the challenge of working with this particular (regional - Southern NJ) office - is that it was established relatively recently; overly reflected the company "roots" and their desire to quickly expand into areas where their expertise and consulting/sales approaches was insufficient and didn't match my needs. Specifically - the company's primary experience offered insulation and air sealing services, but within their "formal" recommendations report, represented themselves as being capable of doing the entire project - including the fuel conversion. I believed that they over-reached their capabilities in their proposal, and under-performed in providing a useful analysis of the energy audit. I thought the audit itself was well done from the ?raw report? I received from the technicians. Had they made an attempt to provide a ?Findings report? of the energy audit, and limited their recommendation to what they knew (insulation and air sealing), and I would have been more likely to utilize those services. Most energy contractors will often do a ?free? energy audit ? acknowledging that it is being used as a promotion vehicle for the resulting recommendations. I had endured a couple of those ?free audits? previous to this one. In hindsight, I made the mistake of assuming the stated value of the audit (?normally $150?) would result in a more thorough report than what you would get for free. I was wrong. p.s. The contractor who subsequently installed the heating/cooling systems portion of my project (excellent - I?ve reviewed for Angie?s list) was surprised to hear of my issues. He had been a subcontractor for Mark Group on a number of projects: and told me that the other Mark Group?s office in NJ had been established for many years and typically got very good reviews. He was the individual who told me that the Southern NJ Office was relatively new, and suggested that it might explain some of the problems. Hopefully they learned something from my experience and will prove to help earn better reviews in the future.

Experience went very well. Everyone was very professional.

They arrived on time. Explained what would be done; price was already established when home energy audit was done. They were very professional.

This was a significnat project as we added insulation to the floor or our finished attic and also the ceiling of our garage. The insulation was blown in by cutting holes in the attic flor and garage ceiling. Overall, we were very pleased wih the job. After the initial installation, we found that a few areas had been mised - we used a thermal camera to see those areas. The Mark Group was incredibly responsive and came back and remedied the areas that were missed. There were no addiitonal charges for this work either. We notice and immediate improvement in the warmth of the house. I would highly recommend them for any considering a project like this.