I suggest you get a cup of coffee or tea and a cookie to enjoy while reading this review. 29 December 2021
The amount of $1400 was per year
For two to three years, I had all the maintenance and service contracts that Enercare offer: electric, plumbing, gas fire, air con, water tank (including monthly rental fee) you get the picture.
On June 14 2021 I contacted Enercare to inform them I would be renting out my house from August 1 2021. The tenant would be responsible for the gas. I as the owner would keep all the maintenance and service contracts and I would be responsible for those payments. The Enercare employee recorded my request and said it would be done. As I would be far from my house from August 1 2021, I called Enercare at a later date to check that my request was properly recorded. Over the next few weeks, I contacted Enercare many times. Each occasion I called I was told different information: “It’s taken care of”; “There’s no record of your request”; “We can’t do that”; “We’ll escalate the matter”. On a later occasion an Enercare employee laughed and said that this situation had happened a few times previously when new employees take the call, they don’t know what to do. He said that he understood what needs to be done and he had now taken care of it. Still not convinced, I contacted Enercare a couple of days before moving. I spoke to an employee that told me she couldn’t see my request and that she would look into the next day and call me if anything was wrong. I asked her to call me either way as I was leaving the area and I needed to be sure. The employee said she would call me the next day; she did not call.
After leaving my house I continued trying to resolve the above situation. Now, when I phoned Enercare I tried to talk to “Supervisors.” I spoke to many “Supervisors” when calling Enercare, but each time I had to first talk to regular staff. On each call I had to give my name, address, best phone number to be reached on, second number I could be reached on, email address, and probably other details that I cannot now recall. Whenever I got transferred to a different person I had to go through the whole previously mentioned routine.
Below are some of the answers I was given by Enercare Supervisors:
1. Enbridge closed your account, because there cannot be two accounts at the same address.
2. I cancelled my maintenance and service contracts so I was billed out at $611.
3. I am sorry if you weren’t informed that cancelling accounts would result in a billing out cost, but that’s the way it is.
4. I am in charge of three relevant departments. I will get them together and sort this out for you.
5. I will escalate this issue.
Regarding the above five points:
1. Correct, there cannot be two gas accounts at the same service address, but there can be two accounts with different numbers at the same service address. One for gas and another for the service and maintenance contracts. NB When I told Enbridge that Enercare told me I could not have the maintenance contracts, the customer service person was “Very concerned” that Enercare had given me wrong information.
2. I NEVER cancelled any maintenance and service contracts.
3. Sorry, but that’s the way it is. What can of an answer is this?
4. “Supervisor” in charge of the three relevant departments NEVER sorted anything out. When I asked her to call me to let me know if it had been resolved. The “Supervisor” said no one will call me; I had to call them in about five days. On an almost comical note, this “Supervisor” tried to sell me duct cleaning!!!
5. The Escalate this issue “Supervisor”. Nothing happened and I never heard anything.
During the period 14 June 2021 to 14 December 2021 (six months) I asked for the maintenance and service contracts to be reactivated as I never cancelled them. Enercare would not do so. I asked for the $611 billing out fee to be cancelled, as again, I never cancelled the plans. Enercare insisted I pay the full amount.
Enercare “Supervisors” asked me what I wanted the outcome to be. At one point I said that I never wanted to deal with Enercare for anything. Enercare “Supervisors” made notes, but never got back to me with any answers. I kept seeing the $611 as outstanding on my account. I was feeling extremely frustrated and stressed on top of having to pack and move out of my home.
More recently I received an email from an Enercare employee whose name I won’t mention. There was a total of 54 emails between me and this Enercare employee. Naturally, she had to communicate to me the Enercare “policy”, but she was empathetic and professional. It was explained to me that I would get six months credit on a new one-year maintenance and service contract. Suddenly, Enercare could allow me to have the contracts. Later in the email chain I was told that I did not have to start a new one-year contract, and I was credited with almost the full amount that Enercare had claimed I owed them.
Towards the end of the email chain, I received an email from the above Enercare employee saying, “I have sent this request to the Office of the President to have someone call you or email you… I understand your frustration…”
I received an email from the Office of the President on December 15 2021 in part saying:
“The customer care team reached out to Office of the President and advised us about the recent complaint you made.
We have reviewed your account, please note that when a Tenant moves into a property Enbridge will not allow 2 active gas sites for the same address. Once the tenant move was completed Enbridge informed Enercare and it initiated a cancelation of your protection plans and the rental water heater was transferred to the Tenants account. The billing team have now corrected the billing issues as requested.
Furthermore, as a gesture of goodwill, the Office of the President have gone ahead and issued a 3-month rental water heater credit on your account.”
My comments re the letter from the Office of the President
1. From my review above you will see that this was not a recent complaint, but a six-month long complaint that was treated terribly by Enercare.
2. I never suggested two gas accounts at the same address, only maintenance and service contracts.
3. The tenant should never have been charged for the rental heater.
4. Three-months rental water heater credit on your account” is a reflection of how little Enercare value their customers.
Many times, I asked Enercare to review the very many recorded phone calls and emails, but I firmly believe that they were never reviewed, perhaps because it wasn’t in their best interests.
Sometimes Enercare sent contractors, not Enercare employees. During the period I used Enercare I had some good tradesmen. However, I experienced one tradesperson that didn’t turn up; another one that installed a new water heater but left the tap turned off and Enercare took three days to come and turn the tap on, meaning we had almost no water for three days; one appointment that was put back four times on the same day, meaning I lost a day of work, etc.
I expect Enercare will now write some explanation of how I didn’t understand, and that Enercare did all they could.
You, the reader, can decide.
Personally, I will now use professional tradespeople that are established and that provide real customer service.
Please excuse any typos
