November 2009 I had a man come to my door telling me he was contracted by the goverment to replace old water heaters with new energy efficient models. He showed me a copy of his 'government' id and had me call a number to confirm that he was legitimate. After looking at my current water heater he told me that it was probably 15 years old and that I could save some money by having a new one installed. He also indicated that the current PVC exhaust pipe would have to be changed because it is no longer legal, but that they would do that at no charge. Sounded great! They had their contracted company remove my old tank and install the new one, with no problem, everything done that needed to be done, right? A couple months went by and I still hadn't received a bill for the rental. I had previously been with Reliance who bill quarterly, so I thought that I would wait a little longer to see if that was also the case with morEnergy. Around the middle of April 2010 I still hadn't received a bill so I called morEnergy and spoke with a service rep. I was told that they are a 'green' company and do not provide bills unless you are with a natural gas supplier who they have partnered with, and it will show up on their bill. I am with Union Gas who of course they did not partner with, so my only option was automatic withdrawal. Fine, I gave them my information, faxing a voided cheque so that they could start withdrawing the monthly fees. Two more months go by and still no bill (obviously!) and still nothing has been withdrawn from my account. Again I contact morEnergy and they don't have my banking information on file. I again fax a copy of a voided cheque. The end of August comes and still no withdrawals from my account. Another phone call and surprise, no banking information on file. I again provide the information. Late November 2010 I receive a letter in the mail from Bond Street Collections about my morEnergy account. I am seriously in arrears and without immediate action my file would be sent to the Credit Bureau. I had never been once contact directly by morEnergy about my account and had made several attempts myself to have the issue rectified. I was furious and wanted nothing more to do with this company. I sent a cheque and a letter indicating I would be terminating my services by courier so that I knew they would arrive. A couple weeks later, I receive a invoice from morEnergy with a charge of $3, 071.42 indicating a water heater buyout. I had not asked for a buyout but simply wanted to terminate my water heater rental agreement. I call morEnergy and apparently I had signed a 10 year contract and my only option out of the contract was a buy out. It was not disclosed to me at time of agreement that it was a 10 year contract - I would never have agreed to that. I had been give absolutely no paper work when the heater was installed (they're a 'green' company you know). I asked for a copy of the agreement which has been provided to me along with a Tank Replacement Acknowledgement Checklist. This checklist had my initials indicating that I acknowledge that any ceiling cuts made to gain access to venting would be repaired at my expense. In the meantime I had Reliance come in and replace the morEnergy water heater with one of theirs. The contractors hired by Reliance to install the new heater indicate that the old PVC exhaust pipe was still there, the morEnergy contracted company hadn't replaced it as they were supposed to do. The Reliance contractor was completely astonished and explained to me that if he did that he could lose his license. I took photographs of the old exhaust pipe for proof on his suggestion. Upon replacing the tank he also had to replace the copper gas line as the previous contractor had kinked the line during installation. Extremely dangerous! Thankfully the Reliance contract did all of the work and I am now sure that my home is safe. Another week goes by and I again receive a letter from Bond Street Collections dated Dec 10, 2010 (received Dec 22nd?) indcating I had 15 days to make payment or they will instruct their client to take legal action. I call morEnergy again. I know that the cheque I sent had been cashed so I wanted to make sure that it was actually applied to my account. The service rep indicated that payment had been received and applied to my account and that there were collection letters sent out in 'error' and to just ignore it. Call me crazy but I didn't exactly take her word for it so I called the collection agency for verification and am still waiting for a response. So I'm stuck with a morEnergy water heater that they refuse to take back from the Reliance contractor and I have a $3, 000 bill as my only way to terminate the rental contract with this company.
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