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By: Energy Complaints | posted in Complaints, Reviews |
Date: March 10th, 2010
I’ll keep writing a new post each time I get a new visitor from National Home Services or from one of their other companies. I’ll stop writing about National Home Services and these door to door energy sale when they start following these rules:
- Requires all sales solicitations to clearly disclose the prices, terms and conditions of all products and services
- Prohibits suppliers from misrepresenting their affiliation with a gas utility, governmental body or consumer group
- Provides consumers with a right to cancel within 10 – 60 days without any fees
- Limits early termination fees to $50 and requires any agreement containing an early termination clause to disclose the total cancellation fee
If National Home Services want people to use greener appliances like their hot water tank, then stop forcing it down my throat by coming into my home. If we need something, we will call you.
National Home Services First, Second and Third Visits
The first time they came, National Home Services got my signature without telling me about their long term contract and all the string attach with their “Energy Star Rated” hot water heater. Once I found out about the long term contract and other string attached, I canceled the installation.
Read about my first visit by National Home Services here.
The second and third time National Home Services visited my home, I would told them the homeowner doesn’t live here, but the sale guy asked for the home owner’s phone number, I was like WTF? Get lost!
National Home Services Fourth Visit
About a week after the third visits by National Home Services, someone from Universal Energy came knocking. I let him in because when I was about to shut my door on him, he said, “I’m not here to sell you anything…”, so I let him in, knowing that Universal Energy was the same company as National Home Services.
I went down stairs with The Universal Energy person and to keep the story short. He showed me a print-out supposedly from the Government, according to him it was a mandate to replace my venting pipes on my water heater. So I thought if it was a mandate by the Government, why doesn’t my current provider come to replace it? Then the Universal Energy sale person said he’ll book me an appointment to have someone over to replace the venting pipe and the water heater.
He didn’t even tell me how much was the price for his water heater. He just wanted to replace my water heater and install his product.
Not selling me anything? Those were his words, I can’t trust these energy sale guys. I turn off the light and lead him to the door.
National Home Services Fifth Visit
This fifth visit by National Home Services was all within 8 months. That’s almost one visit every month and a half. How annoying is that? Next time If I see one of these guys, I’ll get them in my house, punch them in the face and call the police and have them arrested for trespassing. No I won’t do that but seriously… it is getting to that point.
The fifth visit from National Home Services was yesterday. I was upstairs and didn’t hear the door bell. My aunt opened the door and let him in. I heard them talking in the hall wall downstairs so I went down to see who it was and there he was. My beloved company of the whole world, National Home Services also known as Just Energy and Universal Energy.
The National Home Services sale man was smiling as he opened our furnace door revealing our water heater. When I looked at his face, he looked like he hit jackpot as he smiled. He tried to be friendly with my aunt, giggling his way to get our trust. It was SO WEIRD and creepy! Here was a man we just meet for the first time in our life only one minute ago and now he was acting like our best friends. (I would be smiling too if I was him trying to get someone to sign a contract and get a $75 dollars commission for about 10 min of work).
Here is what I recall, when he saw our water heater he started laughing and the National Home Services sale man said, “You guys have the old one.”
I said, “It is 7 years old about 50% of its life span.”
National Home Services, “I’ll have someone install you the new star rated water heater for FREE, with 2 first month FREE. New venting pipe FREE. You will save $10 per months because of the star rated water heater.”
I said, “We don’t need it, there is nothing wrong with our water heater.”
National Home Services, “You’ll need a new venting pipe (the black plastic pipe at the top of our water heater), we install it for FREE, call your current provider they will charge you $400 for a replacement.”
I said, “I don’t want a new venting pipe, why should I call? There is nothing wrong with what we already have.”
National Home Services, “If you move you will have to pay for it.”
I said, “What? Why? We don’t need it. We don’t want it. We’re happy with what we have. What about your contract, how much we have to pay if we break the contract or move and the new home owner doesn’t want to carry the contract over?”
National Home Services, “….If you buy a new home why would you not want a water heater?”
I asked him again, “How much for the canceling fee if the new home owner doesn’t want to carry it over?”
National Home Services, “I think it’s $400…”
He thinks it is $400 dollars? Doesn’t he knows what he is selling? He’s not even sure about his own contract and these Energy companies are telling us, the consumers to ask questions if we don’t understand, but when I asked a simple question their own agent doesn’t seem to know the answer.
So I said, “Most people might not care, but I would never sign over a water heater contract if I buy a new home, especially from National.”
National Home Services look at my aunt then pause for a sec and asked, “…who is this guy?”
My aunt didn’t say anything.
I was thinking to myself I’m the freaking home owner now get the F*** out of my house. Instead of saying that, I shut the furnace door and turn off the lights.
While I turn off the basement lights and walk him to my front door he was still mentioning the Free installation, Free 2 months, but I wanted to know more about the contract and all the strings attach. He never mention anything about the contract, he would just keep on talking about how great his tank was. The more he talked the more my blood pressure increased.
First, how does he know we’ll save $10 per month? In addition, it is not 2 months Free and it is not Free installation. If you add up the price, we will pay for the next 15 years until the contract from National Home Services end. We will be paying a combine total of more than $4500 dollars. Check out other new water heater in the market, they do not nearly cost half of that including installation.
Even if this was a good deal, I would never ever support a company like National Home Services because it is the same company as Universal Energy and Just Energy. Read about Universal Energy here.
There are some companies that I don’t like, there are many companies I like, and there are companies I hate. The companies I hate the most has to go to the door-to-door energy sale companies. I can’t stand them.
Here are my reasons why I would never buy from National Home Services
- My tank is 7 years old. 50% of its life span. They lied to me saying it was out dated, might blow up, contain dirty water and need to replace my pipes. When there is nothing wrong with my tank.
- I don’t like long-term contracts and I don’t like people misleading me to sign something and I do not like people not telling me anything about their contract.
- I don’t like people dressing up pretending to be my friend or pretending to work for the Government, or pretending to work for my current provider so they can come inside my home to check for my water heater and then try to get me sign something I don’t need or want.
- I understand National Home Services tank is “Energy Star Rated”, which is great but don’t send me your energy sale people to my home trying to get my signature without mentioning your contract. There are other ways to sell products without deceptions and using fear tactics.
- There is nothing wrong with my tank. Nothing!
- National home Services is the same company as Universal Energy and Just Energy. Read and watch this hidden camera by CBS on Universal Energy and read about Just Energy here. After you watch the video and read about them, ask yourself if you would still support these companies with their deceptive sale practice? I know I won’t.
Related posts:
- National Home Services and Adsense Check out the image above, notice that when you type in “National Home Services Scam”, there is a link that goes straight to National...
- National Home Services is back in the news…again On August 10, 2010, CBC News published an article about angry homeowners with National Home Services sales tactics. In that article: “This is what...
- National Home Services (water heater division) The power of high-pressure sales: From CBC aired on March 20, 2009 on CBC-TV FYI: Universal Energy are the same people from National Home...
- Newton Home Comfort L.P Newton Home Comfort is part of Universal Energy and National Home Services. Now Universal Energy been acquired by Just Energy in July 2009. Read about...
- Just Energy and National Home Services are hiring Read about working at Just Energy here. See if this is the kind of job you’re looking for. I just ran into this job posting...
- Universal Energy lies I got another energy sale guy knocking at my door again this evening. But this time it was a sale guy from Universal Energy. I...
- Hoping to get a Tankless Hot Water Heater The average house hold in Canada can expect to spend up to 15% of their household energy budget on how to heat their water. Add...
- Just Energy new telemarketing strategies It looks like my beloved company Just Energy is coming up with some new strategies to get new customers to sign up for their long-term...
- Save energy, reduce gas emission, save money: tankless water heaters Here is a new great way to save money on your power bills. It is a new way to heat water that doesn’t use...
- Why people knocking my door asking to see my (Enbridge) bills? Why people going door-to-door asking to see you utility bills, or Enbridge bills, or gas and electricity bills? Do you wonder why there are people...
Tags: appliances, deceptions, energy sales, hot water heater, hot water tank, solicitations, universal energy
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Yes…I agree…
We just got visited by a National Home Services guy who told us exactly the same thing without knowing anything about the product he was selling…He (and the call back person!) both told us that the Navien was made in Canada! Wrong…South Korea….
What? Does don’t these guys think people check the internet for this type of stuff…and more!!?
We told him while we did want a tankless hot-water heater (have ever since we lived in Europe 10 years ago!), that we did not want to rent one….He said fine….We would get 2 months free plus free installation and then we could ‘buy it outright’….Wrong! The call back person (because I wouldn’t sign on the spot for something I didn’t get much info on…who would!!), said he was wrong on this…In fact, we would have to pay for one year’s rent ($600+ plus the 2 free months) before we could buy the unit!
Case closed….Not interested…Real scam…Stay away!
But the Navien is an interesting product and we will certainly consider it over the coming year as we check into tankless hot water heaters again!
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Your company Direct Energy is not as innocent either. Look up Direct Energy at BBB, they have well over 400+ complaints and a lot of other forums and websites had written negatively about your company DE.
http://www.bbb.org/kitchener/business-reviews/natural-gas-companies/direct-energy-marketing-limited-in-north-york-on-1088307
The fact is, Direct Energy used to do the same thing. They stopped doing it, stopped charging the canceling fee for removing hot water heater, not because Direct Energy wanted to do it for free. It was because the government made them. There were the same misleading sales with Direct and a lot of regulations were in place because complaints to DE. So this is not about National Home Services vs Direct Energy or any other companies.
The best way to save money is to buy your own water heater. Unless you can’t afford $2000 dollars out the pocket, then rent it. But, remember when you go with National Home Services you are lock in a long term contract, they will say you are not lock in because you can pay it off right away. However, it will cost you over $4000 dollars, it is a waste of money.
And if you want to save energy or save the world, get a tankless water heater, or get a solar water heater. Most of China been using solar water heater for many years but it is hard to find one here.
The problem I have with National Home Services is not the pricing. It is the misleading sale tactics and fear tactics use by NHS sale men. They won’t tell you all the terms and conditions. Most don’t even want you to know about the contract and most don’t even know anything about NHS contract. These sale people are independent contractors, they don’t work for NHS and they don’t get pay by the hour. They only care about getting your signature so they can get their commission. They get a day of training then they get the jam into a van and drop off in some unknown location to go door to door.
I just want people to know about these door-to-door sale so they can make the right decision and understand what they are getting themself into. Would you buy your microwave or fridge with a long term contract? I think not.
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Ya I work for one ot the other nine hot water heater providers in Ontario and I see alot of gas bills everyday You want to know what’s really heartbreaking and atrocious? I’ll tell you it’s funny how the home owner is aware whenever they have signed up for fixed rate energy contracts with one of the many providers, but in most cases have no idea when I make them aware that they are paying huge amounts because they are on contract with DE. My point is DE employee you should be the last people making acusations of scams your are notorious for preying on the publics trust and ignorance to your company simply because they are so used to seeing you on thier gas bill most people think you’re endbridge for god sakes So please blow smoke up someone else’s a…… !
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Here in Wondsor, we dont ride the gas bill… we dont even ask to see it, and your right. How does it feel to know your company takes thousands from old ladies, single parents, familys, every year. You gas marketers make me sick
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I happen to work for National home services and I plan on doing a bit of clarification on all of these statements. Were not a racket,were not out to scam you. We are hard working Canadian citizens trying to make a living. Were all young students, parents, supporting members of households, everyday normal people doing our job.
As for not knowing our product, Those of us that have had enough training, we know that product inside and out. Newer agents cant answere all those questions, because they dont know it yet.We know alot of information that takes time to learn and implement. Did you know all the nuances when you all started jobs? NO! You have to learn same as we do.
YES! It is a long-term contract, so is RELIANCE! our main competitor in my area. YES! There are cencellation fees for ripping out our tank prematurely. There are cancellation fees for breaking EVERY contract early. What happens when you pay off your mortgage early? YOU PAY FEES! You R.S.P.s are the sameway, you spend that money early you pay fees. Marriage is another example. Thats not an unknown fact.
I realise that the Energy Star tanks have only been available since January 2009, and an experienced agent tells you this, but competators wont take the tank out untill you call and say its broken. I have knowlege and personal experience that RELIANCE wont change your old tank out for an ENERGY STAR tank free of charge because “your old tank is energy efficient” DIRECT ENERGY says the same thing.
You say the printout is “supposedly government mandated” LOOK IT UP! ENERGY STAR IS RATED BY THE GOVERNMENT! THE GUARUNTEE IS FROM THEM THAT YOULL SEE SAVINGS NOT US!!!
The PVC PIPING upgrade is because building code changed as of 2007. Building code was changed because ABS piping (Black) has a tendancy to crack and leak carbon monoxide into the homes, resulting in headaches and nausia when running the hot water.
The “claim” on dirty water is also true. Think about it from a basic standpoint. Your tank is metal lined inside and out. You can usually see lime deposite on the copper piping. Why? because metal corrodes it. the same thing happens to your metal tank. It corrodes and breaks down and where is all that sediment going? To the bottom of your tank! Your pilot light is at the bottom of your tank, MEANING you burn more gas to heat your water as your metal tank ages because you have to heat the sediment as well as the water.Its basic people, SIMPLE SCIENCE! WATER ERODES METAL!
Your tank is seven Years old? YOUR TANK IS OUTDATED! Yes your piping is out of date. Are you required to change it with the tank you have? NO! But to install a new tank, whether now with National, or when it breaks with Reliance or DE, you WILL need to be brought up to building code. Same with the Chimney Liners for those of you with CV units.
Think about it. Your car is 7 years old, is it as fuel efficient as the new fusion hybrid? NO!!!! Does the government force you to cahnge to the fusion though? NO! Its optional, so is the EnergyStar program. Try reading some of the info we leave you when you sign.
As for the tanks that are taken out, We return the tanks to the current supplier, Be it Reliance or DE. It gets sent to the warehouse (Reliance is 3 warehouses over). Reliance puts the newer tanks in peoples homes for replacement. The owned tanks are recycled to make the new tanks.
We are a green company, for every 5,000 people in our E-Billing program we reduce over 3,000 lbs of our carbon footprint per annum. We are also only installing Energy Star products, which also reduce the carbon footprint.
You use less gas, whether you save $4 or $12 per month, your still saving money, and the environment. How many people went hybrid with their cars in order to save money on gas, as well as helping the environment by reducing emmissions… Our city busses did the same thing.
As for people getting the Reliance call, THEY ARE OUR MAIN COMPETATOR! Does pepsi tell you not to drink coke? What happens when Rogers calls a Bell customer and offers a better deal? You switch companies! We are a Canadian company, try to give people an Energy Star tank, for the SAME PRICE (We pricematch Reliances prices), two months rent free, a $50 mastercard, we cover the cancellation fee, the tank removal and return, offer preventative maintenance (whens the last time someone came to bring your tank back to manufacturers standards?). WERE JUST THE CANADIAN COMPETATOR WITH WITH A BETTER PROGRAM, BRINGING MONEY BACK FROM AN AMERICAN HEDGE-FUND!
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I appreciate your comment, but try telling your long term lease, cancelling fee, transfer free and other terms and conditions next time you’re with a potential customer.
If all of you National Home Services agents do your job right by telling people what they are signing up to. You would never see a page like this and come here to explain yourself.
As for the guy I wrote above, he was no rookie; he was very smooth and calculated. He hesitated when I asked about the canceling fee and he tried to avoid it.
No matter how you say it, I still think National Home Services and their other companies are sleazy.
Here are more questions I have for the door-to-door sales.
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“Think about it. Your car is 7 years old, is it as fuel efficient as the new fusion hybrid? NO!!!! Does the government force you to cahnge to the fusion though? NO! Its optional, so is the EnergyStar program. Try reading some of the info we leave you when you sign.”
NO, YOU think about it! Here’s another thing. Stop telling me what to do. Maybe you and your other friends at National need to stop knocking on people’s door.
You talk about a 7 years old car not being fuel efficient with today’s cars. Thats fair enough. But do you see any car dealers knocking on your door during dinner time and tells you that your 2003 Honda is not fuel efficient and you need a new one?
Also, does the car dealers try to get people to sign a brand new car at their door steps with a more fuel efficient car without telling the buyer its a 10-15 years lease? NO.
It’s all about being inform, if I want to keep my 7 years old tank or my 7 years old car, thats my problem. I don’t need you or anyone popping up at my door pretending to come from my current provider lying to me I needed to replace my water heater when there is nothing wrong with it.
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If water heaters are so horribly outdated after only 7 years, why are you trying to scam people into signing contracts for 15 years for the next one? By that logic, your own heaters will be obsolete halfway through the contract.
As others have said, it’s not even the fact that you’re trying to push such a crappy deal onto us. It’s that we have to go to the internet to find the truth about what you’re offering because your salespeople flat out deceive and pressure homeowners to try to hide what is actually being signed up for.
Quick, rip out their heaters and put in a new one to lock them in before they get the chance to research what they signed up for…
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OK.
Please don’t judge me.
But they were here a few days ago and I fell for it.
I’m ashamed to admit it.
And the 10 day period has passed and they’ve already done the work.
The old tank was 13 years old. They said each and every thing that was listed above.
What do I do?
Am I screwed completely?
Help.
I feel so sick and stupid. I thought I was smarter than this.
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You’re gonna be ok buddy. DE is one of the most deceptive misleading companies going maybe you should inquire about how many people they put on fix gas contracts simply with telephone solicitation
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I can completely agree, youll be fine. Your supporting a Canadian company, and you were already on a rental anyways Im assuming. You have a new tank, your getting a better quality service, and if you dont want to rent long term, buy the contract out at 5 years when the tank is brought back to peak efficiency, but has depriciated in value due to the rental fees. Keep in mind though, it costs between $200-700 to fix a personally owned tank, and a glass-lined energy star tank is between $800-$1200 to buy and install
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Thanks so much to the person who indicated there is a 15 year agreement with National Home Services. I was able to cancel my appointment, even though they came to my door on July 22 and were to install on July 26. I also noticed on the agreement that the fee is $20.70 plus tax. I didn’t realize the rate didn’t include tax, until the read the contract. I agree that Direct Energy also charges a lot, but at least there is no contract and penalty if I want to buy my own heater.
Windsor, Ontario
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So my story is pretty much along the same lines as the ones alread mentioned. It was on Thursday August 19, 2010 around 2:30pm in the afternoon. I hear my doorbell, so I decide to open the door. BIG MISTAKE!! It was a sales person from National Home Services. Since I didn’t do any research he just simply said that he is here today to check my water tank so I let him in. He goes dwon the basement and he writes the facts about my water tank on his paper and he said we need to replace our black pipe to a white pipe because it was government mandated.
He had me sold in the beginning but when me and my started asking questions about the if there is a contract and about the cancellation fee, he couldn’t anser the questions. His answer was it was “His First Day”, Are u kidding me? Its your first day and your trying to sell me somthing and you don’t anything. Thats pretty sad. All he said was how we save money and our piping would be cleaner and if we signed with National Home Services we will recieve two months free and we will save around $4 to $10 on every bill. He also said that National Home Services will increase the prices only from 0-3.5% in the next ten years whereas other companies have increased it to 10% in three years. Sounds good right? Worng. It gets much better.
Since the sales person couldn’t answer any of my dad’s questions, he said we can talk to his supervisor who was close by. So his supervisor shows up with a student and he said that the student was in training. The supervisor didn’t help at all. He barely answered any of my dad’s questions.
So finally my dad decided to do something. He said to the supervisor why dont you leave me your contract with me and I will show it to my lawyer and then I will sign it. The supervisor was like I can’t do that because what happens if you change something on the contract and then sign it an pull a scam on National Home Services. So the supervisor said no unless my dad signed the contract he would get a copy. So I asked the supervisor if my dad was sing the contract whats the assurance that you won’t do the same by changing the contract after you have recieved my dad’s signature. The supervisor was shut down. He had nothing after this comment. Me and my dad thanked and told them to leave because my dad had an appoinment around 3:30pm that day.
The most interesting thing is at one point the supervisor was talking about consumer protections act, I personally think he needs to read the act himself before he tries t sell anything ever again. What a waste of time and what a bunch of fucking idiots. Who uses the excuse “its my first day” and you know nothing but you want to sell something to me. For people who are getting visits from National Home Services, make sure you ask alot of questions and I assure they won’t have the answer to any of your questions.
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Some additional info in relation to the information provided in the post.
My salesman was actually a neighbor who used the old “You can trust me, I live in the neighborhood line”. What’s interesting is that we’ve lived here for 20+ years and this is the first time I meet him!
Also, the 3.5% increase is per year, not for the first 5 so that’s an increase of 17.5% in the first five. If it’s a 15 year lease, your rate will increase 52.5% over the term of the lease. Not bad considering they will also be making double what the tank actually costs them over this time.
They bascially offered the same as what I have now, including price matching and an updated tank(extra insultation, some programmable gadget on the burner and a $50.00 gift certificate). If that’s it, why the incentive to switch? While I don’t bedrudge them tryign to capture market share and Reliance et al have enjoyed a mini monopoly in this area, why the uninvited, deceptive, high pressure sales tactics-at my front door! That’s where you lost me, and probably many other people.
The final straw was the recent promotional literature featuring Tie Dummi on the cover as their company representative. When I think hot water tanks, I think Tie Dummi as an expert on the subject.- NOT!
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Just had these scammers at my door trying to get in to my house and “check my water heater”. They kept insisting that they were checking all the water heaters to ensure that they meet the governments new green water heater policy, they were very pushy too. As soon as I said something about “I’ve heard about your type of company” they left pretty quickly.
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i just had three men come to my door @ 9pm they said that they where from just energy. i did not let them in just be aware of this.
b.dill
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