In 2017/18 I had purchased the annual Enercare Heating and Cooling Maintenance Plan from an Enercare sales person over the phone which covered one heating and one cooling related visit. Over the course of the year I only used the one visit for the heating plan and did not make use of the one for cooling, so it was my intention not to renew the plan for 2018/19.
I received my Enbridge bill this past month (Enercare bills through Enbridge) only to see that my bill was $250 higher than it should be due to service charges from Enercare. I did not think this was a problem; and figured I could just give them a call to understand the charges and fix the incorrect billing. Turns out that the maintenance plan auto-renewed, but did not appear on my Enbridge bill until the following billing cycle month. Enercare has a 45 day window to allow for cancellation of the service, but the time starts when the contract renews NOT when the service is actually billed or when I receive the bill (and does not account for any delay in the Enbridge billing cycle). This meant that by the time I saw the charges, investigated and called Enercare that I was 3 days past the 45 day cancelation window.
Enercare contracts and customer retention departments insisted that they were unable to cancel the contract since I was past the 45 day cancellation period. I was transferred to various reps until interestingly enough reached another customer retention specialist who said he could discount the $250 to $200 by "cancelling my current current contract" and signing me up for a new discounted one. What the @#$%?! So they can cancel it after all?
Enercare insists that an email notifying me that the service would be auto-renewed was sent. There was a strange, almost mysterious lack of communication specific to the auto-renew, yet I do seem to get all of the promotional offers through quite clearly. Enercare also claims they don't need your consent to renew. Quite simply I shouldn't have to pay for a service I didn't want and haven't used.