Energy Scam?

[Ormarr]

Has anybody else received a visit from Summit Energy "claiming" to see your energy bill and help you "save" on energy?

We had a woman come to our door in October saying she represented the "supplier of my home natural gas" asking to see our gas Bill. She claimed that she needed to see it in order to help save us money. As my fiancee asked questions she changed her story a bit to say she was with Summit Energy and offering a price protection plan. She was very deceptive and evasive with her responses. She gave us a booklet to read with an application form inside. She was trying very hard to see our bill. She virtually forced us to sign a form confirming she had explained to us that energy costs were going up and we had to choose between 2 alternatives. (Not signing a contract, signing to confirm she had been here to explain the situation). Sounding relatively harmless, my fiancee signed the form. A few weeks later, they called again to ask if we wanted to sign up (very vaguely, very misleading). My fiancee got a bit unnerved and repeatedly said no and hung up. Well, it turns out now that for some reason, they interpreted that as us signing up and our energy bill is now TWICE as much as it used to be.

As soon as we found this out, we called to immediately cancel this plan we never agreed to sign up for in the first place. Now, they keep giving us the run around, claim they need to review our case and will call us back in 7-10 days. On top of that, the cancelling fee is $600+!!!

Has anybody else been a victim of these "savings"??
Is there any way to get out of this, short of pursuing legal action?

BAH!

[GregS]

This has been discussed a thousand times.

NEVER EVER show ANYONE your bills. EVER.

If you do, you will find yourself in the situation you are now in.

Contact whoever your utility is and tell them the story. They will have a canned response telling you what to do because they probably get several dozen calls about this a day.

[canabiz]

I have had a few visits of this sort after we moved in last summer and my response has always been *the homeowner responsible for the bill payment is not home and I don't live here or I don't know where the bill is*, things of that nature.

White lie but an effective one because they leave right after I say that.

I would suggest you contacting the Better Business Bureau if you have exhausted other avenues.

Good luck!

[dbleber]

I just tell them the truth, I don't do business at my front door and I don't care what they are selling. This will sound really bad but I don't care if its charity, energy or girl guides. I hate being solicited at my home, this is my private residence and it should be illegal when my right to privacy violated. That goes for the telemarketing industry, how I loath them.........

If I want to donate to charity I will contact them. If I want to sign up for energy plans, I will contact them. If I want cookies, chocolate bars etc I'll go to walmart or Lablaws and buy from the kids in the lobby.

So there you go my rant and it felt good!

[bmcnally]

Originally Posted by dbleber

I just tell them the truth, I don't do business at my front door and I don't care what they are selling. This will sound really bad but I don't care if its charity, energy or girl guides. I hate being solicited at my home, this is my private residence and it should be illegal when my right to privacy violated. That goes for the telemarketing industry, how I loath them.........

If I want to donate to charity I will contact them. If I want to sign up for energy plans, I will contact them. If I want cookies, chocolate bars etc I'll go to walmart or Lablaws and buy from the kids in the lobby.

So there you go my rant and it felt good!

hehe Good one and I agree 100% ...except for the Girl Guide cookies. I like them enough to save myself a trip to the store. Especially if I know they are neighbours kids.

[Nanners]

Originally Posted by GregS

This has been discussed a thousand times.

There's a great discussion about this from this thread: http://www.buildinghomes.ca/communit...ghlight=summit

[mart242]

"virtually forced us to sign" ?

Signing was your big mistake.. well not yours but you know who to blame..

[Ormarr]

Well, forced to sign to confirm they had stopped by. We thought we were doing this person a favor by acknowledging their visit. She is not to blame, what they told us and what they did were 2 completely different things!

[TMA28]

Originally Posted by dbleber

I just tell them the truth, I don't do business at my front door and I don't care what they are selling. This will sound really bad but I don't care if its charity, energy or girl guides. I hate being solicited at my home, this is my private residence and it should be illegal when my right to privacy violated. That goes for the telemarketing industry, how I loath them.........

If I want to donate to charity I will contact them. If I want to sign up for energy plans, I will contact them. If I want cookies, chocolate bars etc I'll go to walmart or Lablaws and buy from the kids in the lobby.

So there you go my rant and it felt good!

I agree with you 100%. Although I don't mind soo much if it were the neighbours kids that are looking to raise some cash for whatever...but other than that...Never do business at the door when you don't request.

[dbleber]

I use to be of the same opinion until my last house. One neighbor must have had there daughter in everything known to man. Our door bell would ring a few times a week and it would be the same kid and her father selling something. Got so bad we just stopped answering the door. Sounds awful but some people take advantage of the fact that you feel bad saying no to a kid.