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Ontario is considering the outlawing of door-to-door sales of home-service products after receiving thousands of complaints about expensive, locked-in contracts signed under questionable circumstances.
The Putting Consumers First Act has been passed by the Ontario legislature and is now awaiting detailed regulations that could ban the sale of furnaces, air conditioners, water-heating and water-softening systems at the door.
The bill already has a powerful enabling section that says suppliers cannot enter into contracts with homeowners for the “supply of prescribed goods or services” unless the consumer has initiated the contact. In other words, door-to-door sales agents couldn’t legally talk their way into the homes of vulnerable customers and sell them items they don’t need, under terms they don’t fully understand.
The Citizen is regularly contacted with complaints from homeowners who signed up for long-term rental agreements from agents they believed were from a government department doing mandatory “updates” or from an Enbridge affiliate installing upgrades. Some have had unexpected liens placed on their homes or faced massive payouts to fulfill 120-month agreements.
The Ministry of Government and Consumer Services has been bombarded with complaints and enquiries about door-to-door tactics, in excess of 2,400 in 2016.
“Our efforts in finalizing the regulations to implement Bill 59, Putting Consumers First Act, have been done with an extra focus on protecting vulnerable consumers. This includes considerations of restricting the door-to-door sales of certain products,” reads a statement from Consumer Services Minister Tracy MacCharles to the Citizen.
The “certain products” refers to an array of so-called “home-service” equipment. Ontario already has a 10-day cooling-off period for deals made at the door and a provision to cancel some contracts if the terms were fraudulent. But the new bill goes much further.
If only Janet Smith, 67, of Roseview Avenue, could have taken advantage of these out-clauses.
We met in the office of her lawyer, Paul Francis, who is trying to extricate her from most of the nine contracts she signed with door-to-door salesmen who persuaded her she needed a raft of air and water-filtering equipment and a new air conditioner.
“It’s a complete horror show,” said Francis. “She could lose her house over this.”
If she were to pay out her financial obligations on the agreements, most of them for 10 years, it would cost about $54,000. “I mean, look at this,” says Francis, sliding a sheet of paper across the desk. “They sold her two water softeners a month apart.”
Indeed, Smith signed a deal with one company for a water softener in February 2016 and signed a deal with a different company in March, for a total of $130 a month, plus tax, for 120 months. There are other contracts for what appear to be two air-cleaning systems, for $120 a month plus tax and another for a “drinking water system.”
“Why would she need two water softeners, two HVACs, plus, plus, plus?” asked Francis.
For her part, Smith says she felt as though she was bullied by the salesmen and was confused about whether they worked for Enbridge, her gas supplier, or a government agency.
“They get quite pushy,” said Smith, who lives with her son, surviving on a pension. She said the truth didn’t sink in until she saw her Enbridge bill — the gas company acts as a third-party biller — grow and grow until she was in arrears $3,500.
As we spoke, Francis went to check on an online database that keeps track of liens on title. Sure enough, there were five, four of them placed by lending company Home Trust Co., of Toronto, for a total exceeding $15,000, as security against the rental payments.
“Those liens discourage me,” said Francis. “That’s escalating things to a whole different level.”
Francis believes there needs to be stronger regulations protecting vulnerable consumers. “The province has to step in. It’s the only thing that can stop this.”
Several complaints to the Citizen reveal a pattern in how the sales agents operate. Often working in pairs, they wear official-looking badges or vests and claim to be “working with” Enbridge to update equipment. (Enbridge, for its part, does not recommend or endorse any third-party billers and says it is legally required to offer the billing service for smaller companies in the energy sector.)
The agents sometimes use a phony test that shows the homeowner’s water is discoloured and full of contaminants, though Ottawa’s pipe system contains some of the cleanest, softest water in North America. There are sometimes claims the proposed product will actually save the homeowner money because it will replace the need to ever buy bottled water.
The systems are often installed almost immediately and many customers don’t realize they have 10 days to cancel the deal for any reason. Among the cases brought to the Citizen was a west-end woman with dementia who racked up $700 monthly Enbridge bills, largely due to third parties. Another blew her daughter’s inheritance when she signed up for three new furnaces and two air conditioners in six years.
There is a section of Bill 59, which has received royal assent, that should give consumers hope:
“No supplier shall, while at a consumer’s dwelling or at any other prescribed place, solicit the consumer to enter into a direct agreement for the supply of prescribed goods or services or enter into such an agreement unless the consumer has initiated contact with the supplier and has specifically requested that the supplier attend at the consumer’s dwelling or the other prescribed place for the purpose of entering into such an agreement.”
There is a follow-up clause, however, that says the section does not apply to “such other activities that are prescribed” — and it is these exceptions that are being worked on now.
Ministry staff say regulations normally come into effect on Jan. 1 or July 1 but could not commit to the earlier time frame.
“I don’t want to lose my house,” said Smith. “I’ve been there 35 years. It’s a home.”
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
The Putting Consumers First Act has been passed by the Ontario legislature and is now awaiting detailed regulations that could ban the sale of furnaces, air conditioners, water-heating and water-softening systems at the door.
The bill already has a powerful enabling section that says suppliers cannot enter into contracts with homeowners for the “supply of prescribed goods or services” unless the consumer has initiated the contact. In other words, door-to-door sales agents couldn’t legally talk their way into the homes of vulnerable customers and sell them items they don’t need, under terms they don’t fully understand.
The Citizen is regularly contacted with complaints from homeowners who signed up for long-term rental agreements from agents they believed were from a government department doing mandatory “updates” or from an Enbridge affiliate installing upgrades. Some have had unexpected liens placed on their homes or faced massive payouts to fulfill 120-month agreements.
The Ministry of Government and Consumer Services has been bombarded with complaints and enquiries about door-to-door tactics, in excess of 2,400 in 2016.
“Our efforts in finalizing the regulations to implement Bill 59, Putting Consumers First Act, have been done with an extra focus on protecting vulnerable consumers. This includes considerations of restricting the door-to-door sales of certain products,” reads a statement from Consumer Services Minister Tracy MacCharles to the Citizen.
The “certain products” refers to an array of so-called “home-service” equipment. Ontario already has a 10-day cooling-off period for deals made at the door and a provision to cancel some contracts if the terms were fraudulent. But the new bill goes much further.
If only Janet Smith, 67, of Roseview Avenue, could have taken advantage of these out-clauses.
We met in the office of her lawyer, Paul Francis, who is trying to extricate her from most of the nine contracts she signed with door-to-door salesmen who persuaded her she needed a raft of air and water-filtering equipment and a new air conditioner.
“It’s a complete horror show,” said Francis. “She could lose her house over this.”
If she were to pay out her financial obligations on the agreements, most of them for 10 years, it would cost about $54,000. “I mean, look at this,” says Francis, sliding a sheet of paper across the desk. “They sold her two water softeners a month apart.”
Indeed, Smith signed a deal with one company for a water softener in February 2016 and signed a deal with a different company in March, for a total of $130 a month, plus tax, for 120 months. There are other contracts for what appear to be two air-cleaning systems, for $120 a month plus tax and another for a “drinking water system.”
“Why would she need two water softeners, two HVACs, plus, plus, plus?” asked Francis.
For her part, Smith says she felt as though she was bullied by the salesmen and was confused about whether they worked for Enbridge, her gas supplier, or a government agency.
“They get quite pushy,” said Smith, who lives with her son, surviving on a pension. She said the truth didn’t sink in until she saw her Enbridge bill — the gas company acts as a third-party biller — grow and grow until she was in arrears $3,500.
As we spoke, Francis went to check on an online database that keeps track of liens on title. Sure enough, there were five, four of them placed by lending company Home Trust Co., of Toronto, for a total exceeding $15,000, as security against the rental payments.
“Those liens discourage me,” said Francis. “That’s escalating things to a whole different level.”
Francis believes there needs to be stronger regulations protecting vulnerable consumers. “The province has to step in. It’s the only thing that can stop this.”
Several complaints to the Citizen reveal a pattern in how the sales agents operate. Often working in pairs, they wear official-looking badges or vests and claim to be “working with” Enbridge to update equipment. (Enbridge, for its part, does not recommend or endorse any third-party billers and says it is legally required to offer the billing service for smaller companies in the energy sector.)
The agents sometimes use a phony test that shows the homeowner’s water is discoloured and full of contaminants, though Ottawa’s pipe system contains some of the cleanest, softest water in North America. There are sometimes claims the proposed product will actually save the homeowner money because it will replace the need to ever buy bottled water.
The systems are often installed almost immediately and many customers don’t realize they have 10 days to cancel the deal for any reason. Among the cases brought to the Citizen was a west-end woman with dementia who racked up $700 monthly Enbridge bills, largely due to third parties. Another blew her daughter’s inheritance when she signed up for three new furnaces and two air conditioners in six years.
There is a section of Bill 59, which has received royal assent, that should give consumers hope:
“No supplier shall, while at a consumer’s dwelling or at any other prescribed place, solicit the consumer to enter into a direct agreement for the supply of prescribed goods or services or enter into such an agreement unless the consumer has initiated contact with the supplier and has specifically requested that the supplier attend at the consumer’s dwelling or the other prescribed place for the purpose of entering into such an agreement.”
There is a follow-up clause, however, that says the section does not apply to “such other activities that are prescribed” — and it is these exceptions that are being worked on now.
Ministry staff say regulations normally come into effect on Jan. 1 or July 1 but could not commit to the earlier time frame.
“I don’t want to lose my house,” said Smith. “I’ve been there 35 years. It’s a home.”
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
