Natural Gas?

[Gerritt]

Well I got my Gas bill....I was surprised how much gas I used last month... I just installed a new furnace as well..... We have kept the house @ a constant 21c just because of my boy...

 

 

So I decided to compare my bill to my buddies... He is with direct energy, and wow was I shocked at the Price difference between the two companies!

 

I am being billed 31.9c per cubic meter... minus a 7.07c rate reduction per Cubic Meter...

 

for a total of 24.83c a CM

 

his Bill with Direct Energy..... 44c a cubic meter!! his bill was alot higher then mine and he keeps his house @ 63f

 

 

I couldnt believe it!!

 

 

I hope no OFC'rs are locked into this 5 year contract with Direct Energy!! Wow... Gas Prices have fallen over the last year and a half.. and Direct Energy has kept their pricing the same, with no reduction in their prices...

 

He is going to talk to a lawyer to see if there is a way out of the contract.... cant say I blame him really....

 

 

Gerritt.

[Fisherman]

Sure there's a way out, it's called the nitwit clause for signing up to something outrageous and he should get a smack upside the head with a frozen carp. You have an early cancellation penalty clause, if you don't read it before you sign, then maybe you shouldn't have signing authority. Companies don't try and recruit potential customers because they're nice companies, they want to make money at your expense.

[Terry]

hey my last oil bill was 89.9 per L...that's furnace oil not diesel..........and they don't need a gun or a mask

[Fishandchips]

Gerritt,you are absolutely right about Direct Energy,not to change the topic of your thread, but DE and other companies try to also set you up with their Maintenance Contract on your gas appliances.One of the first things they do is inspect your furnace,and if its around 10 yrs old or so they will condemn it and tell you need a new one (scam). This happened to a friend of mine who signed upfor this wonderful package,another friend is a Class 1 gasfitter, he inspected his furnace found nothing wrong,got in contact with DE and they had to come and turn the gas back on to the furnace and remove the tag they had put on it.This family had small children and De didn't seem to care much they just shut down the furnace and tagged it out. Hope this helps someone avoid being ripped off ,Brian

[Gerritt]

I agree... it was a bonehead move on his part for sure... but I have had these knobends at my door before claiming everything except the end of the world... Prices are going up up up.. only the ultra wealthy will be able to heat their homes etc.. these guys use scare tactics as the canvas door-to-door... it is comical actually.. they got my batter half claiming it was "Marketing Research" I snapped when I got home and called Direct Energy and lost it... needless to say the contract was cancelled.

 

Gerritt.

 

 

Sure there's a way out, it's called the nitwit clause for signing up to something outrageous and he should get a smack upside the head with a frozen carp. You have an early cancellation penalty clause, if you don't read it before you sign, then maybe you shouldn't have signing authority. Companies don't try and recruit potential customers because they're nice companies, they want to make money at your expense.

[Garyv]

From the beginning of utility marketers being on the scene I have followed the pricing. When they first started many years ago I locked in @ 10.87 cents a m3 for 5 years and as gas prices increased I can't tell you how many times they tried to get me to sign or modify my contracts as they were loosing lots of dollars. At the end of the term I did not renew as I figured the companies that were still around had learned a lesson and since they were in business to make money, not help you, I would closely follow the local utility price ( in our case Union Gas ) vs the marketer price. In all honesty I can say that over the years and up to right now I have save lots of dollars by staying with Union Gas. Since we own income buildings that are heated by gas hot water high efficiency low pressure boilers following the pricing is the only way to go to make sure you are paying as little as possible.

 

 

When a marketer shows you a contract make sure you look at the delivery cost, it is always 1 to 3 cent a M3 more than your utility and has to be figured into the total cost. If interested you can go to http://www.energyshop.com/ to do all comparisons.

 

Now when it comes to Ford trucks thats a different story....LOL

Edited March 6, 2007 by Garyv

[Deano]

That scare tactic sales worked so well years back, now will be the Global Warming scare tactic. To keep it fishing related, there catching alot of fishes again.

[irishfield]

Gerritt...how the H do you think a company that is nothing but "paper" (ie doesn't mfg anything) can afford to put their name on the National Trade Center. Fellas like your buddy are part of what's driving up pricing in Ontario.

 

I hear yah Terry got oil last week 84.9...and I take about 500 litres every 18 days right now. Thinking of selling a kid or something...

[tonyb]

Direct energy is a very shady business.

 

I had some lady come to the door with a very low cut shirt and bubbly smile trying the smoke and mirrors thing to get me to switch. I couldn't believe how much of a smooth talker she was, I was almost convinced at one point until I read the fine print and got all the details.

 

Their rate was a few cents/m3 higher than what I was currently paying, but she promised gas prices would continue to rise and eventually I would have a better deal!

 

Needless to say, I got rid of her pretty quick.

 

I can only imagine all the elderly folks or new immigrants that would be fooled by the flashy smooth talking employees at that company.

 

Also, who the heck goes door-to-door selling Natural gas!?

 

Too much!

Tony

[pikehunter]

Gerritt,

 

My parents, both 80+ years, somehow managed to have a contract with them a couple of years ago. Both of them swear up and down that they did not sign a contract with Direct Energy. My mother searched through all her files to no avail and they had no clue whatsoever that they had one until they received a notice to re-sign. They were paying a higher price per m3 than I was with union gas.

 

I called Union Gas and told them, they told me to ask Direct for a copy of a contract as they have to comply. Guess what? Yep they could not produce a copy of a signed contract. Even so we still had to put it in writing to completely cancel the it, even though the contract had expired! If it was not in writing then they have the right to continue on as the supplier, without a contract and at a much higher price than Union Gas.

 

I wish that we still had the old system of just one supplier. Just my opinion but I don't trust the second or third party providers, never have and I am even more suspicious now.

 

I hope that if any OFC'rs are employed by Direct Energy I haven't offended you, but this is not a good deal.

[ryanheritage]

If anyone has any questions on how to deal with D.E. contact me I can help. Please don't ask me how I know what to do but I can help. I know the in's and out's and know what you can do to go back on a market rate. I even know how to go back to get your orginal price for a 5 year agreement that wasn't honered by a "resign" The whole fact is that it was never meant to be a scam it was meant as a way to "regulate" unfortunately what happened was alot of alternate ways of energy so the "blocks" of energy that were purchased were bought without thought of a future with alternitive energy. Its the same as hydro there are alot of transmission charges that make up your bill. The cost for gas delivery is anywhere from 11c to 15c a m3. I am fully aware of a deregulated energy market. so if you want answers I can get them for you or help you with a bill. But remember to go to energyshop.com and see if you have saved money in the last couple years on your program first. Sometimes depending on demand for energy with a a program you are paying alot less.

[ryanheritage]

I wish that we still had the old system of just one supplier. Just my opinion but I don't trust the second or third party providers, never have and I am even more suspicious now.

 

 

you always had multiple suppliers it was set up that consumer's or union (you local distribution centre) chose them for you. They purchased three month blocks of energy at a time so they were whatever the demand (market) dictated. sometimes good sometimes bad.

[steve_paul]

These companies are not in it to lose money - think carefully before locking in with one of them.

 

Had a customer in yesterday with his gas bill - $957 for one month. Sat down with him and went over it. His locked in price cost him almost $400 more in one month than if he had stayed with Union Gas.

[hawkeye]

I usually tell them to get lost just as fast as I do the door to door religion sellers. However I have not encountered the low cut shirt, yet. Heaven help you if you actually show them a utility bill they will copy or memorize your account number and switch you without your knowledge, and then you have to do all the work to get switched back.

 

Give me the ole days with a 12 gage above the door and me saying “well we shoot every third salesperson and the second one just left”

[Joey]

I had a guy show up at my door and say he was from Enbridge (my current provider) and he asked if I got my discount on my last bill. I said I don't think I did, but all my paperwork was in a file at my office. He said "Well you probably didn't as most people I have talked to on your street have not." He showed me an Enbridge Gas bill and pointed to a spot on it that should have shown where I would have gotten my discount. He said "Did your bill look like this right here" pointing a certain spot out with his finger. I said I don't believe it did and thinking about it I don't believe I got the discount. He said okay, well just sign right here and we'll put the discount on your next bill. I signed a piece of paper with Enbridge as a header.

 

Then I get a call from Direct Energy wanting to discuss my new contract about 3 weeks later. I had no idea what they were talking about and told them so, and they said I had signed a contract. I asked her to mail me a copy of this so called contract. A week later, I got the contract, which was what I signed, but now no longer sporting the Enbridge Gas header and wording was changed. I was fuming. I called Direct Energy and blasted them and threatened them with charges and they backed down and said they were sorry and it was all a misunderstanding.

 

Pretty sad. So be careful what you sign. It may look legit, but if Enbridge was going to give you a discount, I guess they would know if they did or not wouldn't they

 

Joey

[Headhunter]

Somewhat related to the topic... two years ago I got a phone call from an insurance company asking me about purchasing life insurance. They seemed to know an aweful lot about me so I asked them where they got my personal information from? The told me they had a business relationship with Direct Energy and had all of D/E's customer info! I freaked!!!!!

I called the Privacy Commisioner in Ottawa, who in turn, asked me to document the situation and they would follow up. I did and about 6 months later, I received a letter from them stating the following;

Direct Energy had put a "flyer" in my bill envelope which indicated that they were going to do this and if I didn't want my information shared with another company, I WOULD HAVE TO SEND BACK A COMPLETED FORM to them, to stop the swapping of info!

Apparently, like Ted Rogers negative billing scam, it's incumbant upon the customer to say no! Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I can't remember the last time I looked at all the junk mail that comes with so many of my bills!!!??

Anyway, as a result of my letter and the ensuing investigation, my name has been removed from the list, but I don't think that there have been any changes to the way D/E does business!

Privacy is a huge concern these days, be sure you know what and who you are signing up for and always look at the junk in the evelopes. You could be signing up for something by not responding!

HH

[Bly]

Joey...

 

Had a similar encounter awhile back. This person had asked if we were receiving the discount etc and asked to see my bill. I explain to him that I had neither the time nor the desire to go looking for it and that if he wanted to leave some written information that would be fine. He went on and on about this and that and calling me at a later date. Here is the kicker...in order to call me back, he not only requested billing name, address, phone number AND account number but said that I had to sign the form for them to call me...ummmm I Don't think so! After I told him that I was not signing anything he gave me his little speach again about how it was just permission to call me etc....funny, these companies have never needed my permission to call and bother me during dinner etc. Anyway, he wouldn't give up and I ended up having to just shut the door. After reading your post, I am even more glad that I did not sign that form!

 

I have a standard response now to anyone that comes to my door or calls me on the phone........

 

"Due to the high occurence of identity theft, I do not conduct personal business via (insert phone or door to door here) unless I initiate contact, have a nice day and remove me from your list."

 

 

bly

Edited March 7, 2007 by bly

[Big Cliff]

When I first moved into this place I wanted to install central air because of Sue's health problems. DE had a special advertised so I contacted them and a sales person came out to see us.

 

He quoted us on a system and as a bonus, we were going to get Airmiles too and we didn't even have to pay for a year (no additional cost). (Oh ya, and after we signed up , we found out that the air miles program had expired so we didn't qualify)

 

The system was installed in July and it worked fine. In the fall, we had an inspection done by the company that supplied our propane, turned out the central air system was installed within 5' of the propane tanks (apparantly a real no no). So I tried to contact DE. I went to their office on no less than 5 occasions ( it was about 200' from my office) the service manager was never available, and he never did return any of my phone calle.

 

I called their customer service on numerous occasions, couldn't get anywhere there either.

 

Finally called their billling Dept.. It was by then almost time to pay the bill. I explained the situation and told them I wouldn't be paying until the situation was corrected. I got a very polite letter from a young lady there telling me that "they were sorry for the inconvenience and would give me one free maintainance inspection for my trouble".

 

By then I was really unhappy (ticked off) and told them to come and get the system, they declined but sent me a letter offering their "solution", no return address! so I called them back and explained to the lady on the phone that I had received a very nice letter from[wahtever her name was] and wanted to send a letter of thanks and copy here supervisor because she had been so helpful. I got a return address To which I promptly forwarded a notice to remove their equipment or I would have it removed at their expense and notify (can't remember the name of the regulatory board) of their infraction.

 

Their equipment got removed two days before the deadline and I had the exact same model installed by a local contractor the next day for $700.00 less and done to code.

 

me and DE=

[ryanheritage]

It is so horrible what these "sales" people do. It's unfortunate beacuse what they get paid is 7 dollars for a electric deal and 14-30 for a gas deal. Its amazing that people will lie and cheat for this. I do feel bad for these people though cause they are the ones that are being paid commision to go door to door 50+ hours a week for a check that comes to around 150 dollars if they are lucky. I know they are scamming and that its infuriating I just feel kinda bad for them. And I know I am the only one defending these poor people but thats because I used to (5+) years ago was one of the bigger fish in the deregulated energy market marketing campaigns. I know I know I apologize I am sorry but I did leave because of the ethics that were involved. I am not a good liar or thief. I can though now if you want any help give it. Hope noone hates me now lol.

[Big Cliff]

Use what you have learned to help others! Nothing wrong with that!

 

By the way; the only people that don't make mistakes are the ones that don't do anything!

[Garyv]

Nothing ever changes and everything old is new again when dealing with companies like DE. While in university ( 44 years ago ) I had the opportunity to work selling the then most popular encyclopedia on the market ( remember this was prior to the internet...hell almost prior to television ) While at the training seminar there were three points they continually drove home.

 

1. Make sure the husband and wife are both home

 

2. Make sure you get into the house to make your presentation.

 

3. You never hear the word NO nor the phrase MAYBE LATER

 

Sounds like the same thing is still being done today.

 

After the session I walked out and took a job in a shipping department of the Meyercord company shipping Mylar decals around the world. A friend, that stayed with the encyclopedia company, at the end of summer asked me how much I made and when I told him, he was so mad at himself for staying and making next to nothing that to make him feel better I treated him to a few beers.

Edited March 8, 2007 by Garyv

[Canuck2fan]

I had a run in with DE too about electricity. This woman who had to be in her 70's showed up one Sunday afternoon at the door. She used the line about have you received your "rebate" yet. I was extremely busy at the time and she hardly spoke english, but kept saying hydro rebate and pointed at this sheet.... So I signed the forum and she left, at the time I thought myself lucky she hadn't fallen down on the walk out she was so old and feeble... So later that night after supper I finally got around to reading what I had signed. It quickly became apparent that the only thing feeble was my mind for signing it. I got the whole thing stopped the next morning though and registered a complaint with the board.

 

So about a week later I am over at my grandmother's and there is a knock at the door. I jump up and answer it I recognize the car on the street but instead of it being the older lady it is a young guy this time. Before he says a word I step out on the porch with him and let the door close because I don't talk like I was going to talk to this clown in front of my grandma.... I explained to him how I had been rooked by his company and that it wasn't going to happen here. He said I didn't have any right to stop him from talking to the owner of the house. I explained to him that rights and lefts tend to go together when I get as upset as I was. I also explained to him that the people on either side weren't going to be bothered by him that day either. He started mouthing off a bit until I explained that the neighbour on the left side is a part time clerk at the county court house, and the judges here in town really really like how he does his job! The son of the woman on the other side is a lawyer who will probably defend me for free after I help you into your car if don't leave the area now..... Unfortunately he left and I didn't get to help him to his car, which would have made my whole day. The interesting thing is he hit every other house on that street except for the 3 I told him to stay away from in the next day or two. I wonder why he didn't want to offer his services to the court clerk or the lawyers mother?

 

What really got to me though is that my great aunt and my grandmother, asked what happened when I went back inside because they thought they heard me yelling LOL. I said yes I had been because of what the guy was trying to pull, and so I told them what happened to me. I said I was sorry for upsetting them but that it was a good thing I was there because of how deceitful and sly some of these "salespeople" can be. My great aunt who was no pushover even though she was 88 at the time went on to explain how times had changed. Sure there were door knocking scams back in her childhood too on the farm. However, they were raised up to be polite and helpful to everyone. I spent the rest of the afternoon hearing about how during the depression hobo's would come to the door at the farm and no matter how little the family had it was impressed upon them, that as good christians that they had to offer something to anyone who asked. Sometimes it was just a sandwich or even a couple of apples from the orchard, but any of the hobo's who came up and asked for hospitality always left with a bite to eat, even if it meant the family went without.... It is no wonder older folks have such a hard time with these thieves today, when they had that type of upbringing.