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In 2001 I signed a five year natural gas contract with Direct Energy. The contract was due to expire in August 2006. Around May of 2006 I received in the mail a large envelope with a contract renewal form. Direct Energy was offering me another five year contract for 44 cents a cubic meter. The price of gas through Enbridge at the time was around 34 cents, so I decided to put the contract aside for a while and watch what gas prices were doing. (Prices are approximate. I am operating from memory.)
Well, prices went down. One article I read said there was a temporary oversupply, and further price reductions were a possibility. (At the time of this post, February 2007, the price through Enbridge is 31.5 cents.) I decided not to renew.
Around November of 2006 I happened to notice my gas bill was unusually high. When I looked at it closely, I was surprised to see that not only was I still paying to Direct Energy, but the rate was a staggering 49.9 cents a cubic meter. I had not thrown out any of the contract renewal papers, so I went through them carefully. Surprise! If you want to discontinue your contract you have to sign a form and mail it to them. I signed and dated the form and sent it to them via registered mail.
When my January bill came I was surprised once again. I was still paying to Direct Energy. After more checking, I discovered I was too late. I could only withdraw from the contract within 35 days of my first bill, which would have made the deadline some time in October. I am stuck paying this rip off rate until August 2007.
I have two complaints with this company. First, the entire practice of negative option contract renewals is a scam. A contract should be something you sign to get into, not something you have to sign to get out of. Second, their rate of 49.9 cents, when the going price is 31.5 cents, is an outrageous rip off.
No doubt, Direct Energy would say this is my fault for not reading the contract renewal in its entirety when I first received it. Perhaps. But I would prefer to do business with a company that isn't hovering like a vulture waiting for me to make a mistake so they can pick the flesh from my bones.
My advice to anyone dealing with this company - Don't expect them to be honorable or honest. Go over everything you get from them with a fine tooth comb, preferably with a lawyer present.
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With regards to the water heater from direct energy, I regret to inform that we have been without water heating since Thursday evening (3 days and counting).
The repairman showed up at 18:30 of Friday (may 9th) and informed me that a spare part had to be shipped in order for him to proceed with the repair. He assured me that the part would be delivered until 3 pm of Saturday. Only upon arrival of the part, I would be able to schedule the repair. No parts arrived on Saturday, however.
I called direct energy's emergency phone Saturday still and after a one hour phone call, I was promised by their customer service supervisor that a part would be expedited to my house Sunday. Sunday came and went and no parts arrived whatsoever. I called the emergency line again (another hour on the phone) and the customer service supervisor advised me to heat the water on the stove so we could shower if we needed hot water so badly!
I asked them if they could replace the heater altogether for a newer model that they might have in inventory. Thus I could have the heater functioning Sunday still. All I got was laughs. The supervisor (Chuck) even said that he could not give me any estimated date for repair and that if I wanted to follow up to speed the repair up it would be up to me to call them and follow up with the status of the part shipping.
Anyway, my family just spent mother's day weekend taking showers at friends' houses and even though I understand hot water is not the most necessary of home utilities, I find this situation outrageous and humiliating. After all I understand that I'm paying for this service and direct energy showed no consideration for my situation. The service provided by direct energy has proven to be below standards.
The protocol number for my repair call is [protected].
The biggest liars that I have ever encountered, with a yellow streak down their back. No customer service in Calgary, no matter how many times I have requested for a physical address for a customer service discussion face to face .no answer. Any call you make to them is answered in a foreign country by people who cannot have the command of the English language. In Calgary Alberta Canada all Direct energy calls are all answered in a foreign country. This brain dead mentality is unbelievable, you have an emergency you phone, the call goes to a foreign country then the person who answered the phone has to assess the problem then try to connect to the right branch in Canada. Now fathom this, the cost of your cell phone call to a foreign country. And what the HELL is our government doing about it absolutley nothing, cause they do not want to lose the financial contributions to their re election funding. There is only one way to describe the two CEO's of Direct Energy, the white one, and the black one, is Corporate Financial Pedophiles, they will screw you out of every cent they can
I signed up for direct energy three years ago and when i decided to move out of my apartment i was very optimistic that they will refund my $200 deposit. they also told me it will be refunded to me after one month. I did not recieve my money and they won't refund it to me. Can any one help me please.
Thank you very much
A young woman came to my door with a Comed bill attached to a clipboard stating that she was checking with Comed customers to make sure they were aware of charges incurred which were not legitimate. Although she never stated she was from Comed, she certainly insinuated it, prompting me to ask if she had been sent by Comed.
She never answered me directly, just kept restating her purpose was to rid me of the erroneous charges once I signed up giving her authorization to do so. I quickly told her I was not interested and although persistent, she was eventually on her way.
I don't have an issue with new companies trying to offer energy alternatives, however, I do have a problem with deceptive peddling.
It appears that this is a company that doesn't recognize Canada's Thankgiving. My latest billing had a due date of Oct 8th (Thanksgiving) when Canadian banks were closed. I paid the bill through online banking on Oct 5th (Friday) but because of the weekend and Thanksgiving this was not noted as received until Oct 9th. (It shows as paid on Oct 5th) I was charged a late penalty (the bill shows payment received on the 9th). Calling the 888 number had this corrected (or it will be on the next bill hopefully).
How many others were also charged a penalty due to a Canadian-based misunderstanding?
I have a Maytag washer that has now been broken for weeks I have had 4 appointments for service 2 calls were missed and twice they sent a Whirlpool service person that does not work on Maytag! I am on the phone with them as I write this and have been for the last 43.52 minutes, they not only expect me to take another day off work (that would be 5 days of vacation for NOTHING) and will not come for another week. I have asked them to escalate this and was put on hold while being transferred…..can you believe they transferred me to WHIRLPOOL!
The Direct Energy Home Services plan has not only cost me 1 week of vacation time but has given the WORST service I have ever encountered. BYER BE WARE!
My 90 year old neighbour came to me in tears about 4 years ago, "I can't afford to keep my home."
Se showed me her Direct Energy (door-to-door energy reseller) bill for over $1000 for one month of natural gas! The rate was 45 cents/M3; going rate with Enbridge (owner of the infrastructure was about 18 cents/M3.
They were using "negative option contracts", if you don't object to the new rate (after the fixed period was over), you got the new rate. For close to 7 years her rate increased. She was ESL and didn't understand the legalese used in the notices and simply filed them. [someone else with the same problem. Direct Energy — Negative option contract renewal! ]
On her behave, my conversation with the VP's office was basically around the question, "How they could morally take advantage of seniors this way" and that I wondered if my cousin, who worked for W5, would think this would be a good story? Then suggested that she should probably be getting some money back.
I got her out of the contract immediately, the agent I spoke to commented, "I've never seen a contract cancelled so fast, normally it takes a month or two, " and money back, apparently, "A lot of money" back.
About a month later, Market Place did actually do a story on this practice and I believe negative option contracts have since been banned.
When the smoke cleared, she admitted to me that she also had also signed contracts with Direct Energy for her Electricity and boiler maintenance! They inspected her boiler and tagged it [a very common practice!], saying it could not be fixed under the contract. I made other arrangements for it to be replaced. The Electrical was still in the "fixed price phase".
Direct Energy, after the bad press, changed their name to Enercare. Such a nice name...