Did this happen to you?
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2009/power_of_persuasion/main.html
On Thursday, July 2, Summitt Energy sent an agent to my house in Parkdale who said his company was my current energy provider and he wanted to see my electricity bill.
I asked him specifically if this company was private or was run by the province. By the province he said and all he wanted to do was check my bill to tell me about energy rate savings.
I showed him my Enbridge gas bill instead and he said that I needed to sign a form in order to get information about energy rate changes.
I signed based on this information and later read the fine print to find that everything this agent claimed was a lie.
The form I had signed is an agreement to a five year contract with Summit Energy, a private retail energy company, for BOTH my gas and electricity at a higher rate than
we are currently paying today. And Summitt Energy is NOT my current energy provider for either electricity or gas.
After discussing this with my partner, we went straight to the provincial Consumer Protection branch website to find out how to cancel this contract.
Ontario law provides consumers with a 10 day "cool down" period where you can cancel any contract signed for goods and services.
After reading this, I called Summitt Energy. I told the phone agent I wanted to cancel this contract immediately. He instructed me to wait 10 days and to call after this period to cancel the agreement.
I promptly wrote a cancellation letter based on examples provided on the consumer protection branch website
http://www.gov.on.ca/mgs/en/ConsProt/STEL02_167849.html
and sent the letter to an email address on the Summitt Energy contract form while cc'ing my member of provincial parliament, Cheri Di Novo.
The following Monday morning at about 10 am I called the Ontario Consumer Protection branch about my complaint against Summitt Energy. They advised me to call the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) that handles complaints in the energy industry.
I called them and they transferred me to a consumer service agent.
I explained the situation to the agent and he said that what I signed with Summitt Energy was not a contract at all. The agent expressed frustration with me at having to repeat that what I signed was NOT a legally binding contract and it would become legal ONLY if I reaffirmed this agreement by phone when Summitt Energy calls after 10 days.
The OEB agent said this reaffirmation phone call is in place to protect consumers from whatever happened at the door. He said that if I do not want to reaffirm to simply say, "no, I am not interested" and they cannot legally put me in their plan.
I asked him if there was any regulation against door-to-door solicitation of these companies who are getting signed agreements based on false statements.
He said there are clear stipulations against making false statements but that unless I had a recording of the false statements made by the agent, it is the company's word against mine.
And in terms of door-to-door solicitation of these companies, the OEB said that's their business and the OEB does not have any regulations against that.
On Tuesday, July 7, Summitt Energy emailed me with a cancellation of contract confirmation "with no penalty".
Welcome to the "Free Market".
http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/568546
http://www.buildinghomes.ca/community/forums/showthread.php?t=2974
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=671535
