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Summit Energy

Dilla

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I had one of the guys from this company knock on my door last week and presented me with a 5 year cotnract on electricity where the rates for smart meter electricy would be slightly lower than the governments are now, and would not increase for the duration of the contract. As their rates are lower than than Toronto Hydro's current ones, and since rates are set to go up significantly, I figured maybe it wouldn't be a bad deal. I also knew they had to call back in 10 days to confirm, so I'd do some research and see what's up - I'm also not a total tool, and I know somewhere in the order of 100% of these door to door guys are selling scams.

Well, the research I did came up with a lot of complaints about their sales force misrepresenting themselves (most from a couple of years ago). There wasn't a whole lot of complaints about paying huge bills (although there were some)

At any rate, I just got the call and when I asked how much it would cost to cancel the contract the caller on the other end said "why would you want to do that?". I replied maybe I'd be unhappy and want to, just tell me what it would cost. He then gave a hopelessly vague answer. I said I'm not 100% comfortable with this situation, and he then told me he needed a decision. Well, that was it. I know when I'm being pressured into a sale, and that means it's time to get the hell out of dodge. I said "no, then". He asked if I thought I was making an informed decision, to which I replied "yes". This wasn't true, but I didn't want to give him an in to pressure me more.

Between the old "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" and the pressure tactics of the man on the phone, I think I probably just got out of a 5 year headache. However, as hydro prices are set to go up 46% in the next 5 years, and there didn't seem to be any hidden charges, could I have missed out on a deal?
 
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I would just like to point out that you absolutely did the right thing. I had done alot of research about this in the past and you would not believe the horror stories that people have had to go through and the rediculous bills (and even worse penalties) that they had to pay to get rid of these artists.

I realize this is a bit of an old thread but thought I'd post anyways to warn anyone who is reading this from the summit energy scam.
 
Years ago, my roommate signed on with one of these companies. As I was going through the documents, I realized that the salesperson had lied about the rate so I canceled. Although I have heard stories of people signing on with such companies 25 years ago and now they have eight cent power bills.
 
Noticed that recently Directy energy have been running ads on the radio saying that they don't send door-to-door salespeople. I think its because they've been loosing business to these companies like summit that try to trick people into signing long term contracts and even try switching water heater rental contracts. In general, I would say that signing anything at the door is not a good idea. A legitimate company will not use such practice to get business
 
I don't visit this board often so missed this one. I agree that you never make any deals with door-to-door sales people and don't ever let them in your house to see your water heater, furnace or anything else. Someone may be able to confirm this but I think there's a 10-day cooling off grace period on such contracts and it should be stated on the contract.
 
For info on Summit Energy, I recommend you head on over to RedFlagDeals and search Summit Energy in the homes section. It's alarming the number of people they've conned into signing up at much higher rates. There's also good info there on how to get out of the contracts.
 
Had a job interview with these guys a few years back. After doing some research, I didn't accept. BTW it is "Summitt Energy" just to make it easier to throw you off.

My understanding with these energy programs (and I could be wrong) is that while you may pay more, you also pay a more predictable rate. For example, imagine if you could lock into a gas price for cars for 5 years at $1.75 per liter. Obviously right now you are not saving any money, but you might save in the long run if the markets play to your favour. More importantly, you know how much it will cost to fuel up and don't have to play the daily gas game as to whether it is best to fill up now or try and hold off a couple of days. However, portraying their service accurately isn't sexy enough for the short term big sales, so they just go on the "$$$ SIGN UP NOW AND SAVE BIG $$$" angle.

The CBC has done a number of exposes on these energy companies over the years. I'm sure you can find them on YouTube, if not directly on their site.
 
I had one of the guys from this company knock on my door last week and presented me with a 5 year cotnract on electricity where the rates for smart meter electricy would be slightly lower than the governments are now, and would not increase for the duration of the contract. As their rates are lower than than Toronto Hydro's current ones, and since rates are set to go up significantly, I figured maybe it wouldn't be a bad deal. I also knew they had to call back in 10 days to confirm, so I'd do some research and see what's up - I'm also not a total tool, and I know somewhere in the order of 100% of these door to door guys are selling scams.

Well, the research I did came up with a lot of complaints about their sales force misrepresenting themselves (most from a couple of years ago). There wasn't a whole lot of complaints about paying huge bills (although there were some)

At any rate, I just got the call and when I asked how much it would cost to cancel the contract the caller on the other end said "why would you want to do that?". I replied maybe I'd be unhappy and want to, just tell me what it would cost. He then gave a hopelessly vague answer. I said I'm not 100% comfortable with this situation, and he then told me he needed a decision. Well, that was it. I know when I'm being pressured into a sale, and that means it's time to get the hell out of dodge. I said "no, then". He asked if I thought I was making an informed decision, to which I replied "yes". This wasn't true, but I didn't want to give him an in to pressure me more.

Between the old "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" and the pressure tactics of the man on the phone, I think I probably just got out of a 5 year headache. However, as hydro prices are set to go up 46% in the next 5 years, and there didn't seem to be any hidden charges, could I have missed out on a deal?

I also think so.
 
Not energy related, but I had a fellow from Roger's come to my door about 4 years ago selling me on all of the wonderful things about having Roger's Home Phone. Now I'm no fan of Roger's, I have everything through Bell except cable and only because I don't want to sign onto a 2 year contract for ExpressVu then possibly discover that they have sub-standard HD reception. So I signed up and within minutes of it being installed a few days later the whole ordeal became a nightmare of epic proportions. I clearly asked both the sales guy and the installer if it would affect my Sympatico high speed, they said it wouldn't. Well of course it did. Turns out I had to install a "dry loop" at my cost which didn't work so I was on dial-up for over two weeks, the phone reception was poor and if the power goes off there's no use of the phone, and the story goes on and on. At the end of my rope I finally phoned Bell, got someone really cool and told them what a horrible mistake I had made and I wanted to come back to Bell home phone. They had me all fixed up, Internet restored, a credit on the cost of the dry loop, no cost to come back and Roger's out the door in two days. The only thing I had to do was return the modem to a Roger's store.
As stated above, the moral of the story is avoid people who come to your door to sell you a service or product.
 

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