Reliance Home Comfort review: service / repairs 26

Funny that, I'm going through something similar at the very moment with a rental heater. It's been over 16 hours waiting for the service people to call me back. All their frontline staff on the phones seem to be able to do is to take my information down and "page" them.

Reliance Home Comfort is not providing comfort service. Anyone knows any better companies with hot water service?

This company is the worst customer service I have ever had in my life! EVER...and, I deal with Rogers too! They never ever call when they tell you they will. They didn't even call to tell me after waiting for 4 hours for their service tech to come that they weren't even coming, they were too busy! I called them after no one showed up! Then, I spoke to a manager who promised to call back...and, even he didn't! THE SINGLE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!

I had an awful experience with this company wasting me about 6 months time. I was a painful and tedious experience to talk with them.

Finally, I paid the money to let them move away water heating tank and hence the headache.

The customer relation service is the worst I have ever seen in this world.

We purchased a new home in 2004 and the builder installed a rental 60 gallon water heater from Reliance Home Comfort. We have been paying $77 every 3 months to rent it and we finally decided to purchase a tankless water heater to replace the rented unit. As Reliance was going to charge $65 to pick up their water heater, I decided to deliver it back to their warehouse in Cambridge...approximately 30 minutes away. When I arrived, I was informed that I was missing an "Overflow Tube", and that I would be charged $99.00 for the missing part. I drove home and contacted the contractor that took out the water heater and installed our new tankless unit, and he stated that he installed the overflow tube from the rental water heater on our new tankless system, as the tankless system did not come with that part. I then stopped into our local Home Depot and talked with the sales associate in plumbing explaining that I was being charged $99.00 for a missing "Overflow Tube". The wonderful sales associate handed me an "overflow Tube", priced at $5.99 + tax and told me to purchase it and take it to Reliance Home Comfort. That is exactly what I did and the Reliance Home Comfort employee stated that I just saved myself $95 dollars! (ie $99.00 less the price of the Overflow Tube at Home Depot). I am very disillusioned with Reliance Home Comfort given that they are charging customers almost 15 times the value of the missing part! Why didn't the Reliance Employee tell me to go to Home Depot and buy the part when I dropped off the tank initially...saving me the $99 charge and a second trip to Cambridge (my time and gas). It should also be noted that I am still being charged a $40 fee to "close the rental account"! Given my experience above, I would have thought that the $40 fee would be waived to compensate me for my tim, gas and frustration, however when I called Reliance customer relations, the representative stated that she had no idea they were charging so much for missing parts and thanked me for my call...but there was no good will offer to waive the account closing fee.

Hi Heather 513,

I just read your recent post on the complaints board website and I am currently investigating the situation. Once I have received responses to my investigation inquiries I will respond to you on the website as well as via email.

Thank you for taking the time to let me know about this situation. We do take customer feedback/complaints seriously and I hope to be able to come up with a mutually acceptable resolution.

Sincerely,

Kim Allen

Further to my Reliance Complaint regarding the return of our rented water heater, below is the response that I received from Reliance (Kim Allen) on 2009/12/10:

"When a tank is returned to Reliance, it is inspected to ensure that the tank is returned with all of the parts and in good working order (no dents causing malfunction, etc). If there are parts missing, then the customer is billed for those missing parts. I understand that you were able to purchase this part at home depot at a cost much less that would have been applied to your account. Our straightforward pricing for overflow tubes, dip tubes, T & P valves etc includes the time and labour to replace the part. It is set at a standard fee of $99.00. Customer's do have the option to purchase the part and include it with the returned tank should something be missing or broken by another contractor or themselves.

With respect to the account closure fee, it is stated in our Rental Water Heater Agreement what the fees are for terminating the rental agreement. It is $40.00 as stated in that Agreement. Due to the fact that you drove twice to our warehouse to drop off the tank and were not informed of the option to pick up the part to avoid the $99.00, I will credit your account 1/2 of the fee ($20.00) as a goodwill gesture. I have applied this credit to your account and requested the refund cheque be sent out immediately."

In conclusion, if you are returning a rented tank to Reliance and they advise you that a part is missing, you may want to consider purchasing the part from a third party vendor (ie Home Depot) and providing it to Reliance. In our particular situation, Reliance did not advise us of this option that would have saved us $95...and despite the comments above that the $99.00 fee includes time and labour to replace the part, it should be noted that the $5.99 overflow tube that was missing on our tank would take less than 30 seconds to install. This was a learning experience for us, and hopefully by posting these comments, it will save other people some money, time and frustration!

Geez, I wish somebody would help me .I had my water heater break app 2 months ago. I have tries to pay them but they will NOT take the money to fix my water heater! I have been talking to them, with them, about them..My son has cerebral palsy & I am having back surgery in a month or so. I have to carry upstairs to the bath tub HOT water & I fear my leg will give out & I will end up falling down the stairs w/ the very hot water on top of me...MY son needs special care...I think they really enjoy this..There were sparks coming from the heater.The fire dept came & the senior capt who was here looked at it & told me IF they do not come by & fix the problem, to call them back & the fire dept would take care of it, not me ..The maintance showed up, talked to his boss & his boss said "DON'T FIX IT!" Totally exshusted I gave up & went to bed..Do u know they won't fix my water heater..because I owe them money.Now, they won't take the money because...? They have not given me a bill in 6 SIX years...I thought it went back to union gas.As when u don't get a bill in 6 yrs. that is what u think...
So, today, I am still trying to get them to take my money! To get the totla of exactly how much it is...they have to send all of the paper work that they don't have, to Ottawa to have them manually get how much I owe.Now, my guess is that they didn't do that either.The cost to do this would cost close to $60.oo! OK! DO IT ALREADY!
To any body out there that are having second thoughts about Reliance, it's because they are a horrible company who would rather see ppl suffer than take their money! Finda different company.They are like demona from hell!

My whole experiance with Reliance has been a NIGHTMARE. I bought a new furnace in November, they subcontracted the job out to a local company. They installed the furnace improperly and as a result our basement flooded and caused thousands of dollars damage. The Reliance worker came to our house (December 17, 2009)and assessed the damage and said that someone will call us or will be at our home within 24 hours. He cut the line on our furnace because this was causing the problem and put the line in a pail (which we had to empty ever time it filled up). No one from Reliance called and we could not get a response from the company until the new year. I had to go through Christmas with a damaged floor which could have mold growing underneath it and had a caused my basement to have a foul smell coming from it. It wasn't until the second week in the new year before we got a response or any service. The local company that first installed the furnase came to fix the problem but Reliance had to come back the next day to fix it properly. At this time the manager from our local reliance office Stan came to see the damage at our house. We were told to gather up the data of damage and get an estimate for the floor. We did this. We were told again to get more estimates for the floor and again did this x2. We waited as weeks went by with NO RESPONSE from Reliance. Then when got a call from the legal department from London Ont. explaining to us the we should claim the damage on our house insurance. WHAT WHY SHOULD WE CLAIM THIS ON OUR HOUSE INSURANCE AND HAVE A CLAIM AGAINST US FOR DAMAGE THAT WAS CAUSED FROM A FURNACE BEING INSTALLED. Plus our house insurance is high enough right now we cannot afford it to go up (We have three children). I called my insurance company who also advised againt this decicion. Our house was fine until we had our new furnace installed. Plus we just bought the house three years ago and all the flooring was brand new. Reliance then set their insurance person to our house along with Strone last week and assessed the damage. The gentleman said he would have the report in by Friday of last week. We again waited and waited for a response. The Insurance gentleman locally (David K) that was sent said he has not gotten the report from strone yet. I find it hard to beleive that it takes more than 11 days to do a report I may be wrong but that insurance guy (David .K) said he would have it in three days. We had to call the insurance man in Toronto (Bruce Johnson- Representing Reliance) to see if he had received the report and he was very rude, short and talked down to my spouse. I thought the customer was right and what about customer service we only seem to be getting the run around. Who do we get help from. Its been three months. Now how would you feel if this was your house? You buy a new furnace and as a result damages you laminate flooring, along with area rugs, computer desk and ceiling tiles that were stored in the furnace room. We had to go through X-mas with out of town house guests with a water damaged basement. It smells and mold could be growing underneath the floor and two of our children sleep in the basement. PLEASE HELP! Shannon.P. Thunder Bay, ONT

Dear Shannon Prystanski,

I just read your recent post on the complaints board website and I am currently investigating the situation. Thank you for taking the time to speak to me about this issue personally last week. Once I have received responses to my investigation inquiries I will respond to you on the website as well as via email as soon as possible. I appreciate your patience while I work to resolve this issue.

We do take customer feedback/complaints seriously, and I hope to be able to come up with a mutually acceptable resolution.

Sincerely,

Kim Allen
Supervisor, Customer Relations

Dear Donna Chapman,

I would like to apologize on behalf of Reliance Home Comfort for the delay in responding; we just became aware of your post. I'm the Customer Relations Supervisor and I want to ensure that the issue has been resolved to your complete satisfaction. Please contact me by telephone at [protected] or by email at kallen@reliancecomfort.com if I can be of any help.
Kim

I have paid a monthly "service" fee to this company for years. Today I called about our AC and was told by their rep in the Philippines that someone could be at my house the next day somewhere between 1PM and 5PM... that means 5PM. I am expected to not only to pay these crooks a monthly fee but then also take time off work at my expense so it is more convenient to Reliance.
I told the rep I have to work for a living and can't afford to take time off to suit them. The rep said its all they can do. I asked her to have a supervisor call me... that was about 6 hours ago and NO CALL.
The Reliance call centre is on the other side of the world and I am here in Cambridge Ontario. This company has no clue as to what customer service is. Their interpretation of customer service is that the customer serve them !
This is a disgusting, almost criminal way of doing business... just take the money and run.

mkdavis13@hotmail.com

how's the head of reliance

My fiancée moved into her rental unit in Feb of this year. Within 1mth her HWTank exploded from old age. Reliance came in 2 times (once was to inspect the "brown bomber" and ensure she wasnt lying about it blowing up at 1am and waking the entire **household, then the following day to replace the "brown bomber" with what we now find out is a faulty unit). The replacement unit is VERY FAULTY to the point she has called repeatedly over the same issues, and all they tell her to do is "reset" the unit. It gets old real quick having to do it sometimes 3 times a day!

Now my fiancée just got told that she is expected to have her pay bill paid in full in order for them to come fix their faulty product. The weird thing is that the bill isnt even past due yet ($83.84). If this is how Reliance expects to do business, I will be reporting them to the BBB as well as the many municipal, provincial, and federal agencies I can in regards to their fraudulent business practices.

Giving a mother of 4 a broken piece of equipment and having half a dozen guys come and not fix the problem... and still expecting that mother of 4 to pay for a broken item... SHAME ON YOU RELIANCE HOME COMFORT!

** household consists of my fiancée, 9.5yr old daughter, 4.5yr old daughter, 2.5yr old daughter, 1yr old son

2009 - New home, new water heater (John Woods - 6g50nvh-fv-02) supplied by Reliance Home Comfort.
2010 - no hot water, unit wont reset, high temp fault. Placed call into Reliance for service. Could not get here for two days. When service tech arrived he confirmed high temp fault and had to replace the main control module. Told me this is a common problem with this type of water heater as it has a cheap Mexican circuit board. Unit started working.
Next morning no hot water again, placed call for service, explained service tech was just here. There was an opening in afternoon came home early from work again to meet technician. Once again confirmed high temp fault and had to replace main control module for a second time. Told me they were 600 dollars each, lucky I'm renting it.
[protected] - have had to unplug and reset this unit a dozen times to make it work, no flame fault. Once it decides to start again it would run well for a month or so.
2013 - wont reset, can see igniter glow and gas valve open, flame on for 5 seconds then shut down. Will do this three times then locks it self out for an hour. Place service call cant make it for two days appointment set for between 4 and 8 pm. Left my cell number to call before coming as I work out of town and can't predict traffic. Arrive home at 4:20 note on door from service tech stating he arrived at 3:50pm and left at 4:10pm no call to cell made. Must re-schedule. Try to reset again and now decides to start working again.
3 weeks later - no hot water again, reset reset reset, place service call, can't make it for two days. When I first called spoke to a man who took all my information, sounded like he didn't know what he was doing ... After 5 mins told me that his co-worker would now speak to me. She began by stating she believes my wife and I could be using to much hot water. I asked what the relevance of this has to do with no hot water and my service call. She became very rude and then confirmed the tech could not be here for two days but could be available for Friday between 8am and 12pm.
Friday - waited until 11:50 am and then called to confirm appointment, woman looked on system and said yes today, but they are 39 calls behind. The tech will call very soon.
2pm - made second call as to where service tech was, same story. I was still in the system for today, service tech will call.
3:50pm - third call made, now being told system shows for Saturday between 8am - 12pm. I explained the chain of events and calls made to confirm. Sorry sir nothing I can do. I asked for a manager, all gone home, was given someone else to speak to. Told the same thing, nothing available today. Asked this woman what the procedure was to have water heater removed from house. She did not know and had to go look it up. I waited. Came back and said it was the retention department that does this and she could not give me their direct number and that forms would have to be filled out. She said she could forward me to their office. I agreed and waited.
Finally spoke to the retention department, was asked why I no longer wanted reliance equipment in my home, I explained once again what my experience had been to date. She told me the costs of 175 for them to come and remove it, or 65 for them to just pick it up on main floor or free if I drop it off at one of there locations. But there will be a 40 dollar account cancelation charge on all options. She was very apologetic and wanted to get the service manager involved in hopes to keep my account. I explained that I have been requesting a new water heater of a different make for the last two years without any resolve. She said the service manager can make that happen. So she convinced me for now to keep the tech appointment for Saturday morning (today) and took my both phone numbers, and email address to give to the service manager ( she didn't know his name) for a follow up.
For those keeping track it is now 9am on Saturday and no service tech or call from Reliance yet.
On another note at my old home 17 years never had one issue with my water heater, the only thing they did was change the tank due to age once. This was through Reliance.

Correction ... Last statement should say was not through Reliance

Well I wasted another half day on Saturday waiting for Reliance service tech to show, my wife and I were out front all morning doing yard work and no one showed up. I called Reliance to hear the story for today and the nice woman on the phone said that the system shows that he came and had no answer at the door. I asked her to verify my address in the system and it was correct. So all I can say is the tech is dishonest as we were there, I asked her what is the protocol for when they do not get an answer, she said they call the contact number (no call made) and then he or she puts a reliance card on the door stating they were here and left with a number to re book a time. No card!
Oh course not, they did not show up and lied about it.
So goodbye Reliance I'm on my way out to purchase a new water heater, so you can come and pick your piece of junk up very soon ... If you can handle that. Never to see a dime from us again.

Waited all morning for service tech on Saturday, wife and I were out front of the house from 10am till 1pm gardening. Called reliance at 12:30 on hold for 15 mins. Finally spoke to someone, who looked in the system and showed service tech came at 11:45am and no one home. I asked to confirm my address, it was correct. Did I mention we were out front all morning, oh yes I did.
I asked if she could have the service tech call me, she said no. I asked what the protocol was for a service tech when no one answers door, she said they call and then attach a card to the front door stating they were at the house and I would have to reschedule. NO CALL, NO CARD... Did I mention I was out front all morning.
So goodbye Reliance! Your equipment is coming out of my home, never to pay you a cent again. Your company is a joke, and service techs are liars. I will place your water heater on my front lawn with a nice sign for all to see, it will be there for weeks as I'm sure you will not come on the day you tell me to have it picked up. Good riddance !

I bought my home in February of last year and moved in in May. The water heater was a Home Reliance rental which I took over. The house was built in 1910, so it has an old chimney which now contains the vent pipe for both my gas furnace (owned) and my gas water heater (rental). Because the house is old, there is a small access door in my basement wall that was once used for cleaning out the chimney. It was patched over with concrete but there was evidence that a very small amount of water was seeping down the wall during freeze-thaw cycles from just below this door. Unfinished basement, only caused a damp spot on the floor, not a problem. This Monday January 6, I went to take a shower and there was no hot water. I checked the water heater and the pilot light had gone out. I tried to restart it and it would light but not stay lit. Called Home Reliance and they had a technician come out the next day. To make a long story longer, he spotted the moisture and cracked plaster under the vent and decided that my chimney was "deteriorating from the inside and outside, chimney liner has water in it, chimney must be repaired" and he shut off the gas to my water heater. Then he shut off the gas to my furnace and proceeded to tell me that I could die in the night from from CO poisoning if my chimney collapsed and blocked the vent. He made a Violation report to Union Gas so I couldn't turn the gas back on until the problem was repaired. Outside temperature -20 with windchill -35 to -40. Record breaking cold. Then he called a mason friend of his ( even though he's not supposed to refer people as he said) and conveniently that guy couldn't come out that day because of the cold, but he could tell me it would be about $2000 to fix the chimney...or...I could rent a furnace from RHC and get free installation and they would vent it directly outside and I could leave the chimney alone. Oh and upgrade my water heater too. He didn't even check the water heater to see if there was a problem with the thermocouple or gas valve. So I called two masons, who came right away and both agreed that my chimney was sound, one of them even pulled off the clean out door and chipped away some plaster in the area to confirm there was no standing water (or ice) and the vent pipe itself was stable and intact and venting correctly. One of them called RHC to try to talk to the technician who had turned off the gas and get my gas turned turned on at least to the furnace. The other just turned the furnace back on, as I called Union Gas directly and they said he could do so if he found it to be safe. Here's what he wrote on the Gas Violation Form "the pipe is not in a compromised state. The structure around it is solid. There is no need to turn a furnace off on the coldest day of the year by the ###s at Reliance". Needless to say I don't appreciate the attempt to blackmail me into renting a furnace. I'll be giving them back their water heater and buying my own.

July 2013, 15 year old Reliance hot water rental tank decides to leak all over my basement. Call and get replacement without any hassles or problems and was done in a timely matter.

March 2014, My owned boiled dies and I'm replacing the entire unit with a combination boiler and domestic hot water unit through a local well known company. Reliance informs me that I will be charged approx. $200 ($160 install recovery fee + $40 drop off fee) due to not having the rental tank for over a year since it was installed.

I never signed any lease agreement when Reliance replaced their broken product, and its not my fault that Reliance wasn't able to be competitively priced with an equivalent combination system.

An article named Lien on me: Furnace rental contracts can be registered against your home which unveiled Reliance’s immoral behaviors was posted on the news paper The Hamilton Spectator. The writer Al MacRury asked anyone who has had a consumer problem to contact him. Call [protected] or email him at amacrury@thespec.com 

In the article, it said: The Ministry of Consumer Services says it's watching the marketplace and will respond if there's any sign of trouble. So let’s all shout it out and let our voices be heard. We need to work together and put them out of business.

You can read the article by opening the link below:
https://www.thespec.com/news-story/5616616-action-line-lien-on-me-furnace-rental-contracts-can-be-registered-against-your-home/

There are some other authoritative figures we can use to let our voice be heard
1. CBC marketplace
Email: marketplace@cbc.ca
Mailing Address:
CBC News: Marketplace
P.O.Box500
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1E6
Fax: [protected]

2.Office of consumer affair
This is the place you must go. The link of its home page is:
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/oca-bc.nsf/eng/home

I have been renting a furnace from you since May 2007. I am trying to refinance my mortgage only to find out that their is a lien on my property for $7199. My refinance is being jeopardized by this. Your assistance in resolving this would be greatly appreciated. I would say that 10 years of paying for this would absolve the lien. Please respond.

Account [protected] Ian Trott. We moved on April 25th and the amount owing was settled by our lawyer in FULL.
Your system did not shut off the email notifications so I am continuing to receive the monthly emails to rallyborders@gmail.com.
I owe zero dollars so please shut off the emails

Hi
I'm Natali Jordan, 2 weeks ago I installed new system in my property. The installer guys were so kindly and professional they installed me so quickly and after that they vacuum all the house so I'm so satisfied . I found there phone number in my new furnace it was [protected] .
I'm so appreciated for quick and clean job .
Thanks

Emergency. Senior citizens. Sick husband. Can not come out for 2 days to check hot water tank. NO HOT WATER. Please need service ASAP

I have removed the rental furnace for more than 2 weeks and i have called the company to come and take it and remove the lien from my property, no one is helping me . I have called more than 100 times and this is not acceptable. I want you to remove your furnace and take off the lien . Please consider this complaint as serious as possible .