NBC10 Boston Responds Resolves the Rebate Runaround

Last summer, Jeff Dominick installed three high-energy ductless HVAC units in his home.

“They are very energy efficient,” Dominick said. “They use about a quarter of the energy that a typical window unit would use."

Dominick says the units qualified for rebates from his electrical provider and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, and he was counting on them.

“These units are not cheap, it was about $14,000 for three of them,” Dominick said.

“The rebates are pretty significant. Between the two different kinds of rebates it was about $800.00 per unit.”

Dominick says he got the rebate from his electrical provider quickly, but he was waiting on the Mass Clean Energy Center Rebate.

“They said four to six weeks. About four weeks later, I checked the status and it hadn’t changed,” Dominick said.

“It said submitted pending approval. A couple weeks after that I checked again at about the six-week point, which is when I thought I should be getting the check. It still hadn’t changed, so I called them.”

Dominick says he was asked to resubmit his energy bill, which he did. And he waited.

He says he checked the website again a couple weeks later and his account wasn’t there.

Eventually, Dominick talked to a supervisor and says he was told his rebate would be expedited, but the check never arrived.

“I don’t regret making the decision to buy the units,” Dominick said. ”I just don’t get why it takes five months for a simple process to happen.”

Dominick reached out to NBC10 Boston Responds for help and we asked the agency about the status of the rebate.

“A guy from MassCEC Called me later that same day, and then miraculously within forty-eight hours it was resolved,” he said.

A MassCEC spokesperson tells us MassCEC is committed to working with residents and business across the Commonwealth to increase the adoption of clean energy and will continue to work to ensure consumers across the state have access to the benefits, including improved efficiency and lower energy bills, these technologies provide.

Dominick received a rebate check for $1,875.00, and he’s happy he contacted us.

“I appreciate the fact that a media resource like that can be used on behalf of normal everyday people like me. That’s a big deal," Dominick said. “You see stuff on the news every day that makes you shudder, and this is one of those things that kind of shows the other side of that.”