Hugh’s Energy

I could not be more disappointed with Hugh’s Energy and I would STRONGLY advise anyone looking for insulation services to LOOK ELSEWHERE.
I participated in the Mass Save program to get insulation for my house built in 1953 (before insulation was really part of the norm). I needed insulation in the eaves and attic of my cape style home, as well as blown insulation throughout the house.
Mass Save has a great program that heavily discounts insulation services and they usually assign a contractor to you (the prices are set, there’s no point in trying to shop around). if you have a house with any weird quirks — I have an attic /​crawl space that is quite small and not all companies may be equipped to access it — you need to select a company from the approved list and have them come out to view your home to make sure they can do the job.
I called Hugh’s Energy because their Dedham location is mere minutes from my house. And to their credit, the owner Tom came out quickly to confirm that they could do the job in 2 days. However, scheduling the actual work was a whole other story.
The process of going through Mass Save is rather laborious and I stayed on top of Mass Save so I could get the job scheduled quickly (I had siding being installed that needed to happen right after blown insulation). I came to find out that nearly a week after mass save approved the job, Hugh’s still hadn’t accepted the contract. I called and emailed the company and Tom several times, to no avail. I finally got a manager on the phone — Shawn (or Sean?) — who was very helpful and scheduled the job. Shawn said the job would be 3 days — he confirmed the first two days of the job but someone would call me back to confirm the 3^rd day.
Three weeks went by and no one called to confirm the 3^rd day. I called back and got Tom on the phone, who insisted the job would be only 2 days and said we did not need a 3^rd day. I think, ok great.
On the first day of the job, the crew did show up — not punctually, despite being located close to my house. I wound up being late for work. In talking to the crew (and Adam and the other crew members were very nice), I was told the job would DEFINITELY be 3 days. Since this was contrary to what I heard from the owner, I called back. He yelled at me that the crew was wrong and it would be done in 2 days.
On the second day, the crew confirmed they would need a third day. I called the owner Tom again, who yelled at me and insisted they would finish that day. I also noticed a huge crack in my wall from the blown insulation that I was told would be fixed immediately (it took several days to be done, though to Adam’s credit they did a great job fixing it — poor workmanship from prior owner was the real culprit there).
At the conclusion of the second day, I arrive home and they tell me they will not finish that day but they will be back the following Monday ABSOLUTELY to finish the job. I in fact saw Shawn on site (delivering drywall to fix the wall) who also confirmed Monday morning to finish the work. Because I have animals in the house and had a second crew starting work on Monday, I really needed to have everything coordinated perfectly (had to put animals in a certain room of the house, etc.). I called Tom to confirm Monday, he did not answer his cell phone and did not return several emails or calls I made to his office.
Monday morning rolls around and… no crew. When I call Tom to find out why they are late, he insists they were never going to come monday, and it would be Tuesday. When I said I had absolutely confirmed monday, he told me that I was simply wrong. And that, in fact, the only reason his crew did not finish on Friday was because I did not provide them access to a bedroom where they needed to complete work. That was the most nonsensical thing I had ever heard and told him so, and he proceeded to scream at me that I was lying and that’s what I told him. He then hung up on me. I finally reached Shawn later that day who confirmed Tuesday and was unbelievably apologetic.
When the crew arrived on Tuesday (with Tom), they apologized — the crew actually told me they had told Tom they needed to come back Monday and he said no. They actually asked NOT to return on Tuesday because they knew how furious I would be! It was very clear that everyone was on the same page EXCEPT Tom. The work did finally get finished on Tuesday, except that they did forget to install weather stripping on the doors and Shawn did return this week to fix that work.
The work was generally done well except I still found insulation all over my house, both inside and outside. The crew did not do a good job cleaning the insulation, and even left a bag of blown insulation remains on my front lawn. I wasn’t thrilled with the company overall, but the work was fine. The communication with the owner Tom, however, was probably the worst customer service I have ever experienced. STAY AWAY.