麻豆社

Residents of a street in the Swansea Valley feared they had been left hundreds of pounds out of pocket after signing up to a home insulation scheme.

Five people from a street in Lower Cwmtwrch were leafleted by a Swansea-based company which told them they could get free external wall insulation under the Green Deal.

They each paid 拢295 to a company called Socialpig Ltd, run by Swansea businessman Brett Keenan.

Resident Marilyn Jones told X-Ray: 鈥淭hey were going insulate the house all round - board it dash it. They kept on saying it wouldn't cost us a penny.鈥�

Five residents signed up with the scheme and were told the work would be done in six weeks. They paid money to a surveyor who did energy efficiency assessments of the houses.

But the work was never done. They were eventually put in touch with a Devon-based company - U Need Energy 鈥� and were given brochures for the company by Brett Keenan. But even when they contacted U Need Energy they got no further.

Mrs Jones said: 鈥淭hey were just pushing us from pillar to post."

And neighbour Diane Price said: 鈥淭hey were treating us like fools."

It turns out that U Need Energy was a trading name for Neil Pittam Electrical Installations Ltd 鈥� a registered Green Deal Provider. But they were also dealing with a company called Enhanced Carbon Savings Ltd 鈥� also a registered Green Deal company.

U Need Energy blame the UK Government for the delays. The work on the houses was relying on a 拢6,000 cashback under the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund but that was closed without notice in July. The company had only applied for cashbacks for two of the five customers by the time the scheme closed.

However, this was two months after the surveys had been completed and the residents had been promised the work would be done in six weeks.

Brett Keenan, whose company took the money, says he was a middleman who passed the work onto the Devon-based Green Deal companies.

He says he does not know why they failed to meet the deadline. He has paid back 拢150 of the money he took from the customers as a gesture of goodwill.

After X-Ray got in touch with U Need Energy, they sent documents to two of the residents offering to do the work and confirming that they had cashback vouchers worth 拢6,000. They say the other residents will get offers under a new Green Deal cashback scheme.

Imagine buying a new outfit for your office Christmas party - only to discover a colleague is wearing exactly same dress, shoes and bag. And then you discover that she paid less!

That鈥檚 what happened to X-Ray's Lucy when she bought a sequin-embellished dress, satin slingback shoes and a black embroidered bag from Grattan. She paid a total of 拢243.

X-Ray reporter Rachel also went shopping, buying the exact same outfit from the Kaleidoscope website, but she paid 拢35 less for the sequin dress, saved 拢10 on the satin shoes, and the black bag was 拢9 cheaper. Overall Rachel paid 拢54 less than Lucy.

Of course, you might expect to pay different prices for the same products when they鈥檙e being sold by different companies, but Grattan and Kaleidoscope are both owned by the same parent company, Freemans Grattan Holdings.

Marketing expert Dr Elizabeth Lloyd-Parkes says companies are trying to maximise sales by charging different prices for different groups of people.

She says it鈥檚 up to the consumer to be savvy, and to do their research to get the best deal and to avoid being taken advantage of.

We asked Grattan and Kaleidoscope why their prices for the same products were different.聽 The parent company, Freemans Grattan Holdings, told us that the prices vary because they offer customers different options, such as flexible payments or free delivery.

So Lucy paid the price of not shopping around.