Foametix Insulation

Please see below for our response to this consumers complaint.

As Mr. even states in his email, the rebate amount is an estimation and was based on our preliminary site-estimate without opening inaccessible areas. In fact, a notation was even made on Mr. estimate that certain areas needed to achieve certain target insulation values in order to receive a rebate, as dictated by Manitoba Hydro.

Any rebate claim (paid directly to homeowner from Manitoba Hydro) also requires pre-approval by Manitoba Hydro prior to any and all work commencing, this is indicated in multiple areas of our estimate which Mr. signed and returned on July 31 2019.

Prior to being contracted to do the work, Mr. was asked to provide us a copy of a recent Manitoba Hydro bill to so we could compile key pieces of information required to submit the rebate pre-approval to Manitoba Hydro, which was being applied for Mr. as a convenience to him by Foametix.

The signed estimate was returned to our office by Mr. with various Hydro account information handwritten at the bottom of the estimate, even though we requested a hydro bill copy for the rebate application.

We forwarded all the information to Manitoba Hydro that Mr. had provided to us, and Manitoba Hydro rejected the application as the information was incomplete.

In writing, our project Manager followed up and again requested a copy of the actual Hydro bill on the following dates:
August 22, 2019
August 26, 2019

Furthermore, Mr. dictated that his work needed to commence on or about August 26 as we would be working alongside Mr. roofing contractor who would be re-roofing his house in sections as we completed our work, as well as his tenants were to be away during the work period.

On September 4 2019 Mr. finally provided us the Manitoba Hydro bills at which point the application was accepted by Manitoba Hydro for pre-approval processing, but upon their attendance for verification the work was deemed completed without pre-approval, thus Manitoba Hydro ultimately denied Mr. rebate payment.

As a goodwill gesture to Mr., Foametix issued him full payment at our expense in the amount of $833.56, the final rebate that would have been issued by Manitoba Hydro for the work completed, should Mr. have supplied the requested Manitoba Hydro bills for his initial rebate application. This amount was paid to Mr. on November 14, 2019. Unfortunately Mr. was not satisfied with this and immediately demanded a further payment from Foametix of aprox $540.00 which represented the vaulted roof areas that were inaccessible at the time of our estimate achieving a targeted value of R28.
We have on several occasions attempted to communicate this to Mr. but he continues to demand further payment from us.

There were no cost savings to Foametix on labour nor materials as in all work areas (including vaulted areas) all existing insulation was completely removed and replaced. As a matter of fact we upgraded several major areas using additional spray foam insulation as opposed to much cheaper fiberglass blown insulation. This was done at no cost to the Mr..

At no point in time did Foametix insinuate that any error was made by us, and Mr. statement to that effect is false.

We have performed all work following proper procedures and best practices, on Mr. timeline, and as Mr. states the work performed was satisfactory to him. Furthermore, we have gone above and beyond by compensating him accurately for his denied rebate, at our cost, even though we had no interest in the rebate other than completing the paperwork as an added service to Mr..

We appreciate Mr. business however it is unfortunate that Mr. has a misunderstanding of many key facts related to this complaint. We are not able to do any more for him in this matter. We would encourage Mr. to contact Manitoba Hydro directly and discuss their rebate policies and requirements with them should our response not be satisfactory to him.
***
Thanks,

Joel ***
***
Foametix Insulation.
Spray-Foam Insulation, Blown-In Insulation, Insulation Removal
www.insulatewinnipeg.ca

Please see response from Andy *** in our office, outlined in blue text below.

I find Mr***'s third party account of this matter totally unacceptable. It was Mr *** that was in my attic, Mr *** that provided the estimate and Mr *** with whom I communicated for most of the time. Mr*** was not involved until further into the project when there were problems with the Manitoba Hydro rebate. Mr*** was in fact involved but works within our office, and did not directly deal with Mr ***.

In discussing and accepting the estimate with Mr *** on July 30th he requested that I provide him with the appropriate Manitoba Hydro account number which has been acknowledged as being written on the contract. He did not ask for a copy of the Hydro Bill! It was requested multiple times that Mr *** send Foametix a copy of his Manitoba Hydro bill, first this was requested verbally then subsequently twice more via email/ text. In this reply Mr *** states again "written on the contract" not providing the Manitoba Hydro bills with all of the correct information needed for the application process.

Foametix then proceeded to start the work without Hydro approval (***) and without any notification to the owner of same. It was only then on Aug 22nd (3 weeks after the information was provided) that the same information was requested again! It was stated by Mr *** that the work must commence during a specific period (in which the appropriate Hydro information had been requested, but not yet provided) to cause less interruption for tenants in his building and to work simultaneously with his roofing contractor. Foametix requests and requires actual Hydro bill copies of tenants and homeowners with billing addresses and information to eliminate miss-communication and confusion. In this case the house address where the work was completed (and the hydro bill had a different address than what was initially provided by homeowner.
In a text message to Mr *** (also on Aug 22nd) I asked if he had found the Hydro account info or did he actually need a copy of the Bill!
It was not until Aug 26th that I heard back from Mr *** at which time he requested a copy of the registered owners Hydro Bill which was provided and I took to be Supporting documentation as it is not the Gas account that was originally provided.

I was not until Sept 4th that Mr*** actually requested the correct information!

Foametix was clearly remiss in submitting the requisite Pre-Approval, started the work prior to approval and without any notification to the owner of same.

This is not an 'Added service' it is a Hydro requirement as work has to be performed by a contractor. Foametix Insulation offers to apply for the hydro rebate on behalf of the owner as an added service only. The rebate itself is between the property owner and Manitoba Hydro. The homeowner is free to apply for the rebate and install their own insulation themselves, there is no requirement that a contractor does the work for the homeowner. Hydro's rebate amount is determined by the increase in insulation R-value, subject to certain restrictions, up to a maximum value of the material cost purchased.

Mr *** allowed for R28 in his estimate but only achieved R12. The cost savings to Foametix for this amount of of insulation far out-ways any potential credit and a rebate should be provided to the owner. Foametix was unable to access these specific areas indicated and used the same existing R-value as another similar area to estimate the rebate amount. Upon Mr. roofing contractor opening up the area at time of work commencing, the existing R-value was higher then estimated. Foametix increased the R-value in this area by R12 thus final R-value of R24 (not meeting Manitoba Hydro final requirements of R28) the amount of work to achieve this result was the same.

In addition, in a conversation with Mr*** he clearly indicated that they had submitted the rebate application retroactively, that it was refused and that a credit in the full amount of the rebate was forthcoming.

Foametix has never attempted to communicate with me to resolve this matter which as a result has led to this Revdex.com complaint. Foametix did communicate and issued a transfer of funds detailed on the last line. Unfortunately, the Mr. remained dissatisfied with our goodwill gesture.
Foametix never indicated to me that they upgraded several areas, never provided the blown insulation that was also included in their estimate and despite several requests has never provided any Hydro or their own report. Foametix increased the R-Value in the upper attic portion to R50 with spray foam (Much better/more expensive product) to prevent possible mess while the roof was open awaiting Mr. roofing contractor to close up. Had blown in insulation been installed it is likely that it may have been disturbed by the weather and scattered away by wind.

I have never demanded $540 but have respectfully requested the full amount of the Hydro rebate and /or credit for products mot supplied under the contract.

In conclusion, it is obvious that Foametix failed in it's responsibility to their customer, *** Foametix had out of good faith issued a transfer of funds to Mr *** for the amount in which Manitoba Hydro would have revised the rebate to. We still remain puzzled how Mr. feels we have benefitted from this situation.

Thank you Brad for your kind words and review. It was our pleasure to work with you on your project!!!