HOME ENERGY PARTNERS

Our initial phone conversation with Home Energy Partners (HEP) was on October 31, 2011. We talked to Ryan about what we needed. The band joist, aka rim joist area of our house, which was built in 2001, had not been insulated properly when built, so that cold air was entering the house through this area in winter. We had read that spray foam insulation would be the best way to seal the air leaks and insulate the area. Ryan agreed that this would be the way to go. He said it was a small job, and HEP?s minimum is $1500, so it could be done for $1500. That price would assume that we had already cut away the sheetrock from the basement ceiling to expose the rim joist area. (Our basement is finished.) We asked if he didn?t need to actually come out and look at it to give a firm bid. We also suggested that he might get more information by looking at the photos on file at HEP from the Home Energy Audit they did on our house (12/10/10) Ryan answered that he had the Home Energy Audit and that he did not need to come out before the work was done. We asked him how much lead time they?d need for doing the work. He said two weeks. We then discussed our options with each other. We had to decide if we were willing to cut out all that sheetrock. We decided that for $1500 we would commit to this. We called Ryan back and told him of our decision to go ahead. He said he?d put us down for the job to be done 12/13/11. Ryan told us we needed to remove an 18? band of sheetrock from the ceiling. In a later phone call, Ryan said he just learned that the amount of sheetrock to remove was dependent on the height of the trusses. If they were 18? or over, we would need to remove 18? of sheetrock. If they were not that tall, we could get by be removing only 12? of sheetrock. It seemed odd that Ryan had not known this when we talked to him the first time. Although Ryan had said that he did not need to come out, we really felt that he did need to so that we would know for sure where to cut away the sheetrock, so that the area would be completely ready for the work to be done on 12/13. We called and communicated this to him. He said he?d do his best to come out on 11/29 around noon. But that day or the day before he left a message saying that he had to go to another job, and that he couldn?t come out on 11/29. Since he had cancelled that appointment, we expected he would call back to suggest a new date and time, but he did not. After a week of waiting, we called HEP. Ryan called back and said he would come out 12/9/11 at 11 a.m. On 12/9 he came out. We had removed most of the sheetrock already. He looked at where we had removed sheetrock, and reviewed our plan for removing the rest. He said that there were a few places where we needed to remove more because of soffits. He told us what more to remove. As he left he indicated that he would email the contract. No further discussion of price took place. That afternoon he emailed a contract to us for $1,650, citing ?difficult areas? as the reason for the increased amount. That was a Friday. We decided to work the entire weekend getting all the sheetrock and batt insulation away from the area so that there would be no unknowns or obstacles for the HEP work. We were still thinking that the job would be done on the 13th, Tuesday. On Monday morning we e-mailed Ryan, saying that since we had removed all the sheetrock that he?d told us to remove, as well as the fiberglass batts, we were sure HEP could do the job for the original price, $1,500, and that we were ready to go. When Ryan got the e-mail on Monday, 12/12, he said he?d come out with the Project Manager on 12/13 at 11 a.m. Ryan and Tom came out on 12/13. We walked the perimeter of the basement, and we pointed out all the areas where we or Ryan had had questions. Tom said he had all the access he needed expect for one place in the bay window, where he said we needed to remove one more 18? x 18? piece of sheetrock. We assured him we would do that right away. We asked when HEP would do the work, since we were going out of town on Wednesday, 12/21, as we had told Ryan previously. Tom said he could do it next week. We said that we had to have time to clean up after they did the work, because we had to leave the furnace running while we were gone for the week, and we couldn?t do that if there was sheetrock dust all over the basement. Tom said he would try to do it Saturday, and if he couldn?t, then Monday or Tuesday. Ryan handed us two copies of the contract, again priced at $1650. He said that it would cost more because of the height of the trusses. This was the first time that the height of the trusses were mentioned as affecting the cost. Before he had said that the unknowns and batt insulation were the reasons for the additional cost. We had taken care of them, and expected the cost to go back to $1500, but instead, the price was $1650. We told Ryan that we would need to discuss it and would get back to him before the end of the day. An hour after Ryan and Tom left, Ryan called and said we should tear up the contract, ?HEP declines to work with you??that?s a direct quote?because the relationship between Ryan and us had been difficult or unsatisfactory, or something like that. We told him we would call HEP and speak to his supervisor. We called HEP and asked to speak to the president, Isaac Savage. The office assistant said that he was out of town, but what was the problem. We told her that Ryan said HEP declined to work with us. She said she would pass it on to Dick Olson, the COO. We told her we hoped to hear by today; we had appointments tomorrow a.m., but would be home by noon if Dick couldn?t call this afternoon. Mr. Olson did not return our call. We called again, but Mr. Olson never called back. After Christmas we called Isaac Savage, the CEO of HEP, who by then was back at work. We told him exactly what had happened in our dealings with Ryan. He said he would talk with Ryan and get back to us. He called back within an hour and said that HEP would not be working with us. He did not have an answer for our question of how it made sense that the party who had made things difficult would then, instead of trying to repair the relationship and improve his behavior, would instead decline to work with the other party. We informed Mr. Savage that we would be reporting this incident on Angies List. The following day we told a neighbor about this. She said she?d hired HEP to spray foam insulation at her house as it was constructed and that they had used the wrong temperature setting and that the foam had shrunk away from the studs. She said that her contractor had told her he would never use them again. The following day we got two names of more reputable firms from him. We called R-Pro Select. All personnel at R-Pro Select were pleasant and professional. They did a beautiful job for us with no issues whatsoever. In summary, when dealing with Home Energy Partners, we acted as partners in good faith, going out of our way to prepare the area for the foam insulation of the rim joist, and doing so in a very timely manner. We asked questions when in doubt about the best way to provide access (e.g., soffits and corners). In contrast, Ryan, representing HEP, gave us a quote and indicated that he did not need to make a site visit, dragged his feet and caused unnecessary delays, then when he did come out at our urging, increased the price without discussing it, then later when we?d addressed those issues changed the reason for the increase. Furthermore, Ryan was slow to return initial phone calls, broke our 11/29 appointment and made no attempt to reschedule, and made no effort to keep the 12/13 work date. After all of that, rather than working to restore our confidence, Ryan and HEP declined to work with us. The COO of HEP did not have the courtesy to return our calls. The CEO, Mr. Savage, refused to remedy his employee?s reckless judgment. We found HEP to be highly unprofessional in their approach to pricing the job, lacking in responsiveness, and confused and conflicted in their communications. We are most happy that we did not end up doing business with this company.

Missed 4 appointments total, 2 no call no show. Other 2 they were 2+ hours late. Good upfront service but bad install and no follow through.

I had been impressed by reading the company's literature and had talked with the owner earlier over the phone. He had recommended web sites to go to for DIY things I could do to improve the "tightness" of our house, insulation and ductwork. They normally work in a 45-mile radius and our house was 90+ miles away. So, we had to pay additionally for mileage which I understood from the outset. Cicily, one of the people who came, originally gave me an estimate of $910. But since they didn't do the infrared scanning, she reduced this to $760. I was disappointed that they didn't use smoke-sticks or incense or something to find air leaks.The report was OK but not worth $760 by any means. The estimates they gave for removing insulation in the attic, air-sealing there and installing R-38 blown cellulose would cost us $2,200. Icynene would be around $4,000. Unfortunately they would not return e-mails. I think our attic would be too difficult to work in but they wouldn't come right out and say.