Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Freetricity - free solar panels
This morning I had a long email in my inbox which seemed rather odd. It was from a chap called Ben Way ( I gather from the mail he was on Secret Millionaire). The content claims to be an update on a whole series of social innovation ventures.
I was going to add a post about one of them - Freetricity - which appears to offer to fit free solar panels to your house. You apparently benefit from some free electricity in return for allowing the excess to be fed into the national grid. Sounded interesting. However a quick Google returns too may scam related posts.
I'm now assuming the whole mail is a scam. I don't normally repost scams, but this is a new one and almost had me. So I'm sharing the whole mail. Do let me know if I have got it wrong.
It has been a few years since I last did an update email and as many of you know it has been a very busy few years for us; however it has not all been work and after the Secret Millionaire I have continued my philanthropic activities as well as hopefully securing an appearance on a TV series in the near future so watch this space!
The big news is we have just completed our funding round for Freetricity PLC http://www.freetricity.net/ raising over £12m to put free solar panels on houses across the UK, this takes advantage of the new government FIT scheme and basically allows you to get £15,000 worth of solar panels on your roof for free and then get the electricity it generates for free; we only have a thousand installations but friends and family come first so go here http://tinyurl.com/freetricity if you want to sign up your house! We should also be completing a much bigger round of funding for commercial installations in the very near future so if you know a company who wants to go green for free and has a roof contact me.
The last few years have been challenging for everybody, and while we are very sad to have lost a few of our companies over this time, however overall we find ourselves in a good position with interests in over thirty companies spread over three continents. Since my last update we have heavily expanded into the USA with about 25% of our portfolio now in the USA and we now specialize in taking US companies into the Europe and vice-versa, as well as continuing our more traditional incubator activities taking early stage ideas to market.
We have continued our work in the green sector including involvement in Green Mile couriers http://www.greenmilecouriers.co.uk/, mobile phone recyclers SellMyMobile.com http://www.sellmymobile.com/ as well as developing renewable battery systems and inventing a number of green technologies that we hope will make it to market in the next few years.
Our internet companies are doing well, BoostCTR http://www.boostctr.com/the adwords optimization company recently received significant funding to expand their operations and TrafficSpaces http://trafficspaces.com/ the SAS plug in advertising system is generating good revenue and is about to raise capital for growth. GoDine http://www.godine.co.uk/ our ultra local version of Top Table is going from strength to strength with doubling of year on year of revenue growth and SendSocial http://sendsocial.com/ continues to make progress with the imminent integration with Big Wardrobe http://www.bigwardrobe.com/ and we hope to continue to lead on physical social sending.
BraveNewTalent http://www.bravenewtalent.com/ the graduate social recruitment tool is growing rapidly as well as Smata http://www.smarta.com/ which is continuing to help entrepreneurs everywhere. FuelMyBlog http://www.fuelmyblog.com/continues to provide an exceptional resource for public relations product reviews for SME, and Truevoo http://www.truevoo.com/beta/the app search optimization engine is one company that really frustrates me with big potential but we just can’t find the right management for! Also keep a look out for ChargePlay http://chargeplay.com/ which a very good friend of mine has developed just about to revolutionize the way paid for video works on the web. Talking of video my amazing sister goes from strength to strength with NewsPepper http://newspepper.com/as well as entering the US market with a splash, she is the girl to know in San Fran!
But it has not been all technology and environmental, we have diversified into everything from Shoes to Milk Shake http://makeashake.com/ companies and our alcoholic drinks company YQ Vending http://www.celldrinks.co.uk/ is aiming to dominate the UK and US market with their unique pouch drink ‘cell’ having already appeared in venues across the country. You will be glad to know that we continue our medical device heritage and we are working on a top secret medical compliance device that should hit the market next year. We also have been working with a leading linen manufacturer in the US to develop SoftTracking http://softracking.com/sales/default.aspxhttp://kck.st/hiXsnQ!
We always believe in collaboration over competition so if you have any ideas or can help any of our companies I would love to hear from you or if you are a HNW individual or VC and are interested in early stage or growth stage companies, we are always open to new funding partners.
Apart from that if you’re wondering why you have received this email, my system extracts all the email address I have ever been in contact with, in some cases we may have been on the same distribution list, if that is the case I am very sorry, this is a private list and does not get distributed to anybody.
Hope you enjoyed the update and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours Sincerely
Ben Way
CEO
USA East Coast Office:
The Rainmakers Inc.
101 NE Third Avenue, Suite 1500
Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida
33301
USA
T : +001(415) 230-0265
European Office:
Rainmakers Ltd
HMS President
Victoria Embankment,
London EC4Y 0HJ
UK
T : + 44 (0)207 558 8334
E :ben@rainmakersglobal.com
W :www.rainmakersglobal.com http://www.rainmakersglobal.com/
Tags for Forum Posts: solar, solar panels, solar power
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Martin Bleazard on
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Hi
This is not a scam; the email from Ben is 100% genuine. I am one of the directors with Ben at Freetricity. Unfortunately, there was a US company which got a LOT of bad internet coverage, which was also called Freetricity. That company is no longer trading - and hasn't been for a while. The UK company IS IN NO WAY related to the US one.
Freetricity is backed by Lombard (part of the RBS Group) to the tune of £10m. Believe me, their lawyers do A LOT of checks before investing that sum of money.
To clarify the Freetricity offer - we fund the purchase, installation and ongoing maintenance of Solar PV Panels. The homeowner enters a 25 year lease - whereby we rent their roof. The homeowner has full use of the generated electricity. Freetricity claim the Government's Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) - which enables us to pay for the capital investment (typically taking about 12 years to repay).
I hope this helps. More available at www.freetricity.net
Martin Bleazard
Chief Operating Officer
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Hi Michelle. There are a few reputable companies out there that have similar 'Free Solar' offers but their criteria varies. If you would like me to find you a company that would be likely to make you an offer then please email me. alan @ecovironment.org.
Thanks Alan.
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Hi Martin. I just want to re-inforce what Martin has said above. Ben Way and Freetricity are completely legitimate and in my view very good people to do business with. I run a Renewable Energy Consultancy and can assure you that Freetricity's 'Free Solar Offer' is completely legitimate and I deal with many companies that offer similar services, with many happy customers enjoying the free electricity they get from the panels. I always recommend though that people check out more than one offer as they all vary slightly and some offers suit some people more than others. If you or anybody else you know wants further information by all means email me alan@ecovironment.org. Cheers Alan.
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Wow! Thank you Alan - we haven't spoken and don't know each other, but it is great to have an independant endorsement. Our Head Office is in Wandsworth, and just a couple of weeks ago had Trading Standards knock on our door! They wanted to check out that we were 'legit' - and they went away very happy that we were a bone-fide company.
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My friend in nottingham has been offered this amazing deal by the council for solar panels for his roof. http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=14586
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Hi James.
I'd suggest your friend snaps it up while it's available! Council properties can be difficult to arrange a free install privately, depending on the council, so I'd commend the scheme. For many people though, I suggest that a private deal can work better. One of the important elements I stress to my clients is the ability to 'buy back' or purchase the system from the installer in the future. The reason I say this is that nobody knows what the future holds, they may come into some spare money or the Green Deal may provide worthwhile low interest loans, for example, which can then allow the homeowner to receive the Feed In Tariff payments themselves. It's a much better return than you can get from the banks averaging 8% to 10%.
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You're welcome Martin. BTW I just noticed that I started my earlier remarks addressed to 'Martin' when it should have been 'Hugh', so I apologise Hugh!
Re: Trading Standards. I bet they were as embarrassed as you were! Still it shows they're doing their job. As we know, our industry does have it's sharks and unethical traders, as with many other industries. I think it's important though to make sure they are weeded out as they can do a great deal of harm to the great businesses we also have in our industry.
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Permalink Reply by Paul on
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We've recently had solar PV installed on our roof on the ladder - 2.05 KW of pure joy. Generating around £80 a month and the subsequent reduction in our electricity bills. Currently producing around 1.4KW Hrs as I type this...
Should be circa 9-10% ROI.
The free offers are worth considering but the payback is estimated to be in the region of £200 a year in reduced bills (the energy company assumes you export 50% of what you generate) - with some smart additional kit you can ensure you maximise your free electricity - putting washing on delayed start until noon for example.
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I note this response is from Martin Bleazard who I believe is one of the directors of a despicable company called Freetricity.
This is one company to avoid at all costs...deal with these people at your peril !!!
I had solar panels fitted to my house by Freetricity. They caused extensive and serious damage to my house in the process. My roof was damaged so extensively that the safety of the roof is in jeopardy, and the wiring they did left a very real and imminent fire hazard.
IT IS NOW 21 MONTHS SINCE THEY FITTED THE PANELS AND DAMAGED MY HOME YET NOT ONE SINGLE REPAIR HAS BEEN DONE TO RECTIFY THE DAMAGE THEY CAUSED, DESPITE THE DAMAGE BEING SERIOUS AND DANGEROUS.
Throughout my entire dealings with Freetricity UK I have been met with incompetence and dishonesty, and they have not met even the basic standards of decency or customer service. Whenever I ask Martin Bleazard or his assistant Terence Franka when they will repair the damage they caused to my property I am met with personal insults, lies and false and malicious accusations.
AVOID THE COMPANY CALLING ITSELF FREETRICITY - IN FACT AVOID ANY COMPANY WHICH HAS MARTIN BLEAZARD AT ITS HELM.
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Dear 'Wen'
Please email me at martin.bleazard@freetricityplc.com and I will look into why we have failed you.
Kind regards
Martin
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Dear MARTIN BLEAZARD
I Have persistently e mailed you personally about repairing the damage you and your cohorts caused to my property.In fact I have e maiedl you three times in the last week, the last time being on 26th October 2013. Your response was to make a false and malicious accusation suggesting I had obstructed access for repairs to be done.....the last in a long line of insulting false accusations I have been subjected to by you and your sidekick Terence Franka when all I have done is made a reasonable request that you undertake your legal and moral duty to repair th damage you caused.
.....The fact is that my roof is unsafe and you have been made aware of this for some months yet still not one repair has even begun.
Furthermore - I HAVE WAITED 21 MONTHS FOR YOU TO FULFIL YOUR LEGAL OBLIGATION.... AND IT APPEARS I AM STILL WAITING
I would have thought you would recognise which customer I am from the facts given here....so perhaps YOU would care to e mail ME with a firm and definitive date for when the damage you caused to my home will be rectified.........................however if you are not able to recognise which customer I am in order to e mail me...please respond here and I am sure anyone viewing these posts will understand the inference that you have so many dissatisfied customers that it would be impossible to recognise anyone from the facts of their case.
I look forward to hearing from you...if only to receive more of the usual personal insults and vague promises.....
FOR THE REST OF YOU FOLKS READING THIS I SHALL UPDATE YOU AS TO WHETHER MARTIN BLEAZARD WHO IS THE DIRECTOR OF FREETRICITY CONTACTS ME TO GIVE A FIRM UNDERTAKING TO FULFIL HIS MORAL AND LEGAL OBLIGATION..............
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