Smart Group (Scotland) Ltd

This company is not so Smart, and I wouldn’t recommend them. They don’t always adhere to the agreement, and don’t communicate very well. They took an initial deposit of 25% of the contract price, as per the agreement, but they took a whopping 65% when they installed the solar panels, meaning that they had taken a total of 90% of the contract value. This breached both their own contract conditions and that of their governing body (the RECC), which both state that the maximum which the customer should pay is 60% of the total contract price, which includes the 25% deposit. Therefore we overpaid them by 30% of the total contract price. In addition to this they took instructions from the builder despite our very specific request not to do so, leaving us significantly out of pocket. The governing body (the RECC) have no teeth and appeared unable / unwilling to take any action against their member despite the blatant breach of their regulations, which they have now admitted. We took the company to the Arbitrator, who awarded us some of our money back and an apology by a specific date. They couldn’t even stick to the date provided and we had to chase them for the money and the apology, which wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. Use this company at your own risk with our warnings, but we certainly wouldn’t recommend them, and would have given them no stars if that was an option. Avoid at all costs, otherwise it will cost you. We lost thousands of pounds because of them.

Brilliant experience from start to finish. I had full confidence in the advice and recommendations I received - the team are clearly well informed and up-to-date. Installing the (12) PV panels was done by midday with the wiring taking a bit longer. All the work carried to to a high standard and I'm absolutely delighted. Highly recommended.

We have a timber frame, 4-bed house built 1981, and we changed our gas boiler to an Air Source Heat Pump. We are delighted with it. The house is cosy and radiators are just as hot as they were before. The system is easy to control and responsive. The Smart Group staff were helpful at every stage and the Installation team did a great job. There was less upheaval than we expected, and they were patient in answering all our questions. Smart Group was the cheapest of the quotes we got. Our RHI application was straightforward. One tip: if you are going to replace an old gas boiler with a Heat Pump, don't wait till the boiler has died. Smart Group could install very quickly, but they had to wait for permission from the District Network Operator, to confirm that you have enough power to connect. This took 6 weeks for us. So you don't want to be left without heating for weeks. As soon as permission was granted, Smart Group installed within a week.

The work was done quickly and efficiently and with no hassle. All the bird mess was cleared. I am happy to recomend.

I contacted Smart group and was most impressed by the speed at which they visited the house and provided an estimate. Following acceptance of this, the work - which had to be done to beat the Feed in tariff deadline - was carried out very promptly, with no mess and minimal fuss. All the personnel I dealt with at the Smart Group were excellent and very patient with my queries over the FiT application form. The panels are working well and look good. I would thoroughly recommend this company.

I would like to say thank you to the teams who installed my solar PV and air source heat pump, from the beginning we were informed of all the steps in the process and found it easy to follow. On the two separate installation days the guys turned up did their job and respected my home and possessions. I now have reduced energy monthly direct debits and I am also benefiting from the incentive payments on a quarterly basis.

Cannot recommend. Many promises made when quoting simply not kept. Job to take 3 weeks ran on for 12 weeks when I had to agree settlement with them to leave the site. During stripping we had 4 weeks of leaks causing extensive damage to internal decoration. A substantial length of cast iron guttering was broken and brackets bent. A cheaper ridge system was fitted than specified on the contract. The mess created was extensive. Over three hundred nails have been recovered from the gravel drive. The sales manager promised close effective supervision and a clean site. This did not happen. His manager visited the site to speak to me towards the end of the contract and told me he thought it reasonable to leave a section of soaking loft insulation to dry out on its own!