Enercare Home Services

Like many other Torontonians, I have been forced to buy my hot water heater from Direct Energy in the wake of the recent floods. Despite having paid $25 a month for this tank for the past 7 years...and having paid for the tank at least twice over, Direct Energy is still charging me $775 to buy it out. I don't mind buying it out. That seems reasonable. It is their property and it was destroyed. However, you can buy a brand new hot water heater for $400-$900. They are charging me the cost of a brand new hot water heater (though of course they deny that!). Their treatment of me has been appalling. I believe Direct Energy is just using the floods as a way to cash in on their rapidly decreasing market share. Be very very careful. This company will take you for whatever they can.

Next day service is a joke. I have to wait almost a week for service. Nothing but excuses. why pay for the additonal protection plan? I will be looking for alternatives to direct energy in the coming days. They also stated there is no guarantee it will be fix on the visit that am waiting for. This is a complete joke and watse of my time and money. Thanks for nothing.

Our A/C was not working during the July heat wave. Having spoken to another technician over the phone, it was obvious there was a leak in the unit as we could see ice buildup on the pipe. I called Direct Energy and asked what kind of cost I was looking at to get the leak repaired. He started to sell me on the home protection plan of $8.99 / month for A/C or $29.99 for A/C, furnace and drains. So I asked him how much it would be to fix the current problem. He said for a pre-existing condition, I needed to pay $179.99 and it included all parts and labour. I asked again whether this included all parts and refrigerant if there was a leak. He said yes. I asked if I joined the home protection plan, is there anything that is not covered. He said only the pre-existing issue. I confirmed again that the $179 will take care of the pre-existing issue. The technician came as scheduled that same day and told us that he is only doing a diagnosis, and that there is a leak and the coil likely needs replacement. At first he did not give us an estimate of costs to repair it, but later told us that it would be up to 5 hours to do the leak test to identify where the leak is (at $129 per hour), and that the coil would be expensive to replace, maybe looking at $1000 total. Also the leak test will need to be scheduled for a different day. We asked him about the $179 quoted on the phone. He said that if we joined the home protection plan, then we pay $179, and it will cover up to $500 of repair. However we need to pay anything beyond $500. We were left with a bill of $99 to pay for him coming to my house to tell me that there is a leak on my unit. I called Direct Energy later and questioned why I was told that I only needed to pay $179 to have it repaired but got a completely different cost from the technician. I was told that the first guy I talked to should have explained the home protection plan in detail and that if the pre-existing issue cost over $500, then I am not eligible for the $179 deal i.e. I will have to pay for the total cost of the repair. I questioned him on this as this was yet again different from what the technician told me. He explained that it is up to the discretion of the technician - he can offer me the $179 repair cost. I am very disappointed that 1) they were not honest about the cost; 2) they seemed to be only interested in selling me the home protection plan; 3) I get different answers/different costs on the 3 occasions I talked to them (all in the same day), and 4) billing me $99 when nothing was done, only to tell me that there was a possible leak, which I already knew before I called them. This is a very deceptive sales tactic.

The staff in the call centre were very efficient and friendly. They dealt with my request promptly. The service staff were outstanding. Both of the technicians were friendly and knowledgable. They completed their tasks very quickly with little disruption to us.

Just purchased the AC protection plan at the end of June. The AC doesn't work during this mid July heatwave. I called Direct Energy and they send out a technician the next day. The technician made some initial diagnosis for 20 minutes and think the refrigerant is low and said he has no time for a leak test to fully diagnose any leakage from the AC. The leak test needs to be reschedule to 2 days later. Also, was informed most likely if the leakage is the external unit, most likely a new AC is needed cause direct energy only covers up to a cap that is labour amount but the part is almost the AC cost. I applaud the tech for being candid (that's why is 1 star).
However, Direct Energy first of all should allocate enough time to get all testing done in the first visit. Why does a customer need to wait and suffer for a few more days of heatwave because DE hasn't allocated enough testing time? I can imagine after the 2nd testing is done, there will be more down time due to parts ordering.
Second, when DE sold me the plan, it emphasized on the savings and the timeliness of the service. It failed on the timeliness of the service and it didn't give a true picture to customers of how much they will most likely fork out for a replacement of a covered part. By informing us the cap of coverage without the replacement cost doesn't really give us a true picture of whether one should replace the whole unit vs repairing when they agree to buy the plan.
Anyways, I couldn't wait even for the leak test to be done in this heat wave (and who knows how long will I have to wait to get the parts or another test afterwards.....). I am going to have somebody install a brand new AC unit tomorrow.

We purchase brand new furnace from Direct Energy 5 years ago with 20 years labour and parts warranty. First service call was made last year for buring smell and no hot air coming from vents even furnace is running. Technician came in and decided to order blower but it didn't get installed as the second technician decided to just change capacitor instead of the blower. After that, we had another few appointments as the furnace either stopped working or buring smell came back again. Anyway, we survived during winter.
This June, when we turned on A/C, no cold air came out so had to call service again. Technician told us that inside of furnace there was a switch and it was turned to the wrong setting by last technician and he set it back. A/C worked again. Shortly after he left we detected buring smell again. We had to call service. Then we had at least 5 appointments. Furnace blower, fan wheels and another capacitor got all changed. After last appointment we found the fan can't be turn off after tenicinian changed fan wheel! It seems like the technician connect wrong wire to the motherborad when he intalled new fan wheel. As when we set themersat fan setting to "ON", fan could be off . But when we set fan to "Auto", it just keeps going. Also furnace is very loud now when fan is on. We have to book another appointment to fix it.

Long story short -- 5 years old furnace with new blower, new fan wheel and new capacitor installed and still experience problems. We had at least 10 appointments within one year for the furnace repairs. Now I'm tired for the time I put in each appointments. Can these technician be trusted? They don't test before they leave. Or should we claim a new furnace from Direct Energy? 5 years old furnace should not be that bad!

I cannot believe Direct Energy is still in business after the way they have treated me and the other horror stories I have read. In my case, I bought a house that had been previously renting a water heater from Direct Energy. I bought out the water heater about 15 days later. First, Direct energy said they couldn't process my request due to a system error, however they said they would let me know when they could process the buyout and would reverse any rental fees incurred between the date I contacted them to buyout the water heater and the date that the water heater buyout could be processed. Then, when my next bill came, I was charged $240 + HST for the buyout and also continued to be billed $24.99 for the rental of the water heater while being credited $19.99 to offset this rental fee (leaving me an inexplicable $5 net charge for renting a water heater that I now owned). Then, on my next bill, the same happened as I was charged $24.99 for the water heater with a credit of only $19.99 in addition to a suspicious "Account Settlement Rentals" fee of $52.47 + HST which I received a letter for indicating that I was being charged rental fees on the water heater from March 1/2013 to May 4/2013 when I took over ownership of the house on March 28/2013 and bought out the water heater on April 10/2013 after $12.50 for the rental fee during the period I actually rented it. Customer care and myself have tried numerous times to have Direct Energy's back office reverse all of the rental charges except for the $12.50 which was correctly charged. The back office at Direct Energy has issued only a $24.99 credit and is refusing to fully reverse all rental charges that were charged in error. It seems to me like the back office does whatever they want and there is internal fighting between Direct Energy's back office and the customer care department. Furthermore, I do not want to deal with Direct Energy anymore and I am being forced to keep a heating protection plan that I haven't used and have been on a free promotion for 3 months now. I indicated within 30 days of starting this plan that I do not want to keep it if Direct Energy cannot bill me fairly. I do not recommend Direct Energy's ways of doing business to anyone and I am moving closer and closer to reporting Direct Energy to CTV news and also to the Better Business Bureau. Enough is Enough.

@Scott in Port Credit
We have gone through EXACTLY the same thing. 3 days ago they came by and charged us $99 for the 5 min it took to say it needed to be replaced and when we called today it was never recorded. Have been waiting for the call back but nothing.

(The approximate cost is calculated by the years of paid monthly charges)

I urge everyone with valuable time to stay far away from Direct Energy.

Unfortunately, like thousands of people in the Toronto GTA, my wife and I were affected by the severe thunderstorm on July 8th. Like thousands, our journey home was a long struggle to arrive to a flood in our basement that was impossible to bail with two buckets in the dark due to the power failure and, like many, we are still cleaning up.

We called DE the following day because our pilot light was out in our water heater this has meant no hot water at all. We were told that a technician would be sent on the same day to re-light it within a 4 hour window — between 11am and 3pm. I dutifully took time off work and waited. I followed up with customer service at approximately 2:30. The tech was running behind due to the mess left by the storm. It was explained to me that an error was made by a new customer service rep and, after taking a day off work, that the appointment was actually booked for July 11 (two more days to go without a proper shower)— though within 24 hours is usually the standard. Customer service made little effort to apologize, but given the scale of the storm the previous night, it was understandable that same-day service was unavailable and to err is human. So more time off work was needed for DE. The technician did come out on July 11 (hence the 2 star rating) and discovered a possible faulty part, he suggested just replacing the water heater. He assured that it would be all taken care of within 24hrs. No further action was needed from me so I signed on the dotted line and spent another day off work. When early afternoon came along and there was little sign of them, I called customer service to ask for an ETA. Unbelievably, I was told again that nothing was ever booked, but with apologies, they would have someone call me within the next 3 hours. Again, allowing that the delay was easily due to the storm, I hung up with my reference number in my hands. 4 hours went by and nothing. I called back “customer service” (note the quote marks now), after being transferred at least twice within the 30-40 minutes spent between agents and being on hold (recordings of “…your time is valuable to us”), I again reached the same supervisor who, without any empathy, told me a technician would now be out on Monday. Making it seven days without access to hot water.

In short, DE shamefully used the storm as an excuse for their incompetence. Why mislead customers by setting appointments that they knowingly couldn’t keep "due to the storm"? Not once, but three times — and given the odds — it’s yet to be seen whether the commitment to the fourth appointment is kept. As the supervisor nonchalantly said, “I guess we’ll have to deal with that then”. She also said that it wasn’t her fault that the other reps gave us false dates — she could only speak for herself. As a rep of DE, when you answer a customer call, I assume you are the voice of the company. When asked if there was someone more senior I could speak to, she told me to look it up on the website myself. This incident is not her fault —most customer service centres train by script — but it was like DE giving a big shrug over the phone. this only added further insult to injury as we continue to mop up around a dead water heater and then shower in nothing but cold water.

First world problems? Yes. But we pay first world service fees, which are hard earned. Why not expect first world standards from the companies that takes our money? Unlike, the executives at DE (surely bathing in hot water), it’s impossible to take this much time off work without taking a loss. When will large companies be held accountable?

Companies that practice integrity and commitment to customer service are well worth what is owed to them. Direct Energy is NOT that company. Avoid them at all cost.

I would not recommend Direct Energy Home Service to anyone. I had issues with coil drain line, I explained the problem to the customer service rep on the phone but he sold me the expensive plan. The technician came to the house open the drain pipe and unclogged it and I still had to pay $179+ taxes. I am so disappointed that they will do this to the customer.I am going to be cancelling the plan as I don't trust the company