I had a 5 year contract for Electricity with Alberta Energy which was passed on to Just energy approximately 12 - 18 months ago. The contract was set to expire In November 2012 at which time I assumed it would become a month to month contract. At the time my contract expired I was in the process of investigating my options for electricity as I was not happy with Just Energy and was frustrated with their aggressive door to door campaign and pushy telephone customer service reps (We had just moved to our new house in June of 2012 and they had visited the house approximately 6 times and were very pushy with both my wife and my daughter each time. I had also called them many times and each time had to deal with a CSR trying to either lock me in or get me to switch my gas to them as well). I do not appreciate that business model and do not want to deal with a company that operates in such a manner.
I received a letter in the mail on December 4, 2012 "Welcoming" me to the Just energy family? Upon reviewing the letter I noticed that Just Energy had automatically renewed my contract for an additional year. I was quite angry with this and called customer service to inquire. When I did so, I was told that they sent a letter stating I had 30 days to respond to it or they would renew the contract. I do not recall receiving such a letter and informed the Customer Service person of that and was basically told too bad, it was sent and since I didn't respond I'm locked in. If I do not want the contract I was informed I will have to pay a $75 termination fee to which I stated I will not pay a termination fee for a contract that I did not agree to or sign for. They stated that because they sent a letter and got no response that I had no choice! I asked how it is that Just Energy can assume that by stating a letter was sent in the mail without any confirmation and then expect it to be binding without a signature, a phone call, or any direct communication or confirmation with the customer. All the Customer Service lady on the other end kept repeating is that they sent a letter in the mail and I did not respond. She stated she can resend it to which my reply was I don't need it as I DO NOT have a contract with Just Energy any longer. She once again reiterated that there would be a $75 termination fee to which I once again reiterated that I will not be paying. She stated that they also called me several times so I asked when as I had not received a phone call from them at all. She was unable to give me a date or time and said only that it was sometime in September and October. The conversation went back and forth like this for approximately 15 minutes. She even offered me a discounted rate for the "inconvenience", to which I refused. I stated they could give it to me for free and at this point I would not take it as I refuse to do business with an operation such as this. I was getting nowhere with this lady so I asked to speak with a Supervisor. She stated that the Supervisor was going to tell me the same thing and I still insisted. She finally stated that a Supervisor would call me back. I proceeded to terminate my service with Just Energy and immediately called and made arrangements with another provider to provide my Electricity. To date, I have still not heard back from a Just Energy Supervisor. I feel this process is an unfair business practice, not to mention morally and ethically wrong.
0 comments