Doreen Watson with her financial adviser Bill Dahlberg. Watson was quoted $ 6461 to have her home insulated by the Comfortmaster Company but paid a local company $3556 to have the job done. She is warning others about Comfortmaster's marketing practices and prices.

An elderly Nelson woman wants to warn others after she was pushed into buying insulation for her home by a cold-caller at twice the price of other insulators.

Doreen Watson, 78, was rung by a Comfortmaster salesman who offered her a quote for her home to get under floor insulation, ceiling insulation and the removal of rubbish from the work.

The salesman offered Watson a discounted price, promoted as an Eco Home discount, that would reduce her $8370 bill by $1909 to make it $6461.

MARTIN DE RUYTER Doreen Watson was quoted $6500 for a discounted home insulation job which would usually cost around $3000.

Watson said her daughters had told her she should get insulation installed but had no idea about what a good rate for the service was.



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She tried to ask the salesman if she could go and look for a second quote but he said if she wanted the discount then she could not get another quote.

"He made it quite plain that I would not get the subsidy, as he called it, if I didn't book now," she said.

Watson paid the $979 deposit and then called her financial advisor and friend Bill Dahlberg to make more finances available.

"I rang Bill to ask if I could get some money to pay for the insulation because he looks after my finances and he commented that the quote seemed extraordinarily high," she said.

Dahlberg is also the chair of the Warmer Healthier Homes Nelson Tasman project so was aware of what an average insulation cost was like.

"Six thousand five hundred seemed very high when we were averaging about just over $3000," he said.

"They're taking advantage of an elderly person in her home with pressure sales."

Dahlberg recommended if others found themselves in a similar situation to get a second quote.

Watson said she mistakenly thought that the Eco Home discounted price was actually a Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (ECCA) discounted price, which is a government subsidised insulation service.

Beth Rose from ECCA communications and marketing said some people were eligible for insulation funding which was done by only one company in Nelson, Absolute Energy.

"We encourage people to adhere to standards that we set out and anybody can do that," she said.

In regards to companies calling about insulation jobs she said the organisation always urged caution.

Comfortmaster South Island Manager Nick Vertue said he had looked into the incident and was surprised to hear about the complaint.

"This is the first complaint of its kind in my managed area of the South Island."

Vertue said the rep concerned was "very professional" and "one of the least pushy people you'd ever meet".

"He did offer this customer an incentive if she accepted the quote, but that's normal practice. It's designed as an incentive and most companies use incentives to attract customers."

Age Concern Nelson/Tasman manager Sue Tilby said older people feeling pressured to buy from cold callers was a recurring issue.

She was unaware of other complaints about Comfortmaster but said elderly people being pressured salespeople was an on-going issue.

"They sort of come in clusters and people will often let us know about them which is really good because we can warn others," she said.

"We've had quite a few calls recently about people being pressured into double-glazing."

Tilby said older people were more vulnerable to those calls.

"A lot of older people are quite trusting and they are quite open to suggestion and don't like to be rude to people," she said.

"We also have had people who have been quite scared after they have made appointments with these people and have rung us because they don't know what to do."

Her advice for anyone who was in a similar position was to do their homework.

"I encourage people to never book anything over the phone for a start to make sure it's legitimate because it often won't be and take a phone number to ring back," she said.

Dahlberg got in touch with Comfortmaster to ask for the job to be stopped and Watson's deposit of $979 to be returned to her.

The company obliged and Watson was awaiting the cheque in the mail on Monday.

"As soon as this customer cancelled the order, which she is very much entitled to do, we immediately refunded her deposit quite happily," Vertue said.

"Having said that, if this customer feels uncomfortable we are more than happy to apologise to her."

Dahlberg is also happy with the outcome.

"We've got the cheque back from the deposit and now we've got some good guys doing it for $3500," he said.

Vertue said Comfortmaster welcomed feedback and could be contacted on 0800 000 798.