Deml

We have had difficulties with our furnace since we moved into our house 5 years ago. We have bought the Heating Protection Plan and have used it every year! Recently we had a problem with the computer board and we really appreciated not having to pay the bill!

Over all the job done was well, however, we didn't like the fact that he insisted on replacing the entire toliet and we had to go and purchase it and bring it back home so he could install it. We were not counting on spending so much money.

It's very stressful when you don't have hot water. After a hot water tank had been installed in 2007, it took 5 home visits to hear that the hot water tank had to be replaced. The frustrating part was to hear that the entire ventillation system had to be replaced to meet the new code restrictions. Interesting thought considering the finished basement ceiling was finished, covering the ventillation system needing replacing. Although the tank is rented, the cost of the new system had to be paid by the owner of the house.

It didn't seem to matter that the tank installed in 2007 was obviously a dud.

We had requested a regular service call for our furnace/boiler. 1 minute after his arrival on site, the service person for Direct Energy shut our entire heating/boiler system down (middle of January on the coldest night of the winter) and said we had "dangerously high Carbon Monoxide readings" at/inside the boiler and in our basement family room down the hall. According to his readings the CO levels were initially 1,000 ppm and then 6oo ppm. We had 2 working (one brand new) Carbon Monoxide detectors in the hall just outside the furnace room and they did not go off. The fellow said "you bought these at Home Depot and they do not work...ever"
A reading over 100 is dangerous and certainly levels of 600-1000 would be lethal. In several hours our entire family would die. He did not suggest we vacate the premises nor did he open windows or vent the area in any way. He spoke very little English so his explanations were of little help. When Direct Energy's consultant came later that evening he suggested we needed a new boiler (priced at $9,000.00) our boiler is old and does need to be updated. We were not disputing this...the issue was levels of CO that were recorded only by his hand held apparatus and the fact that they shut our heating off late at night on a bitterly cold winter night. The next problem was they could only promise installation 5 days later; we were not prepared to wait such a ridiculous amount of time. The best part of the story is we called the Toronto Fire Department in early the next morning just to make sure our house was safe to stay in...all four of us were still alive and breathing at this point and they arrived in about 3 minutes. Their equipment measured absolutely no Carbon Monoxide at all anywhere in the house and all tests came with a reading of "0".
If there had been levels at 600-1000 the night before there would be a high reading the next morning as the area had not been vented.
The fire department left a report saying it was safe to stay in our home (we knew this already but wanted peace of mind) and were shocked they were not called by Direct Energy to report lethal levels recorded. We have since phoned customer service and did not receive a call back and have also sent a 2 page letter via email. It is now 4 days and have not heard from anyone at Direct Energy.
Clearly this is a horrifying combination of fraud and incompetence.
We called another company and had a new boiler installed for $4,000. We are still waiting to hear from someone at Direct Energy
even though there cannot be a reasonable explanation for any of this disasterous service.

Got a call from a collections company today saying that I broke a contract with Direct Energy for my electricity service at my former house. Apparently I moved and didn’t sign back up with them. Back in May of 2007 (so I’m told today by DE’s customer service) DE called me to sign up for their Energy Saving Program and I agreed verbally and that was fine. I was told on the phone that the electricity rates would be going up and by locking in now I would save a lot of money. I was also told that I had a certain period of time to cancel the contract without penalty. After Googling “Direct Energy reviews” I found that many people had not been happy with their service and in many cases ended up paying more for Electricity with them than they would have with their local utility company. SO….I phoned up to cancel and they told me they needed written confirmation of the cancellation (funny they only needed verbal to sign me up). The lady I spoke with at Direct Energy today told me they had a record of both phone conversations but no letter or fax from me (go figure). Even though they have a record of my phone conversation in which I state I want to cancel they want to charge me $900.00 in cancellation fees. My option is to sign up with them again at 3 cents per kw more than I am paying now. They gave me the same speech on the phone today that the rates will go up!!! Same speech they gave me 2 years ago and I'm still paying less. Off to the lawyers I go.

UPDATE -- After speaking with Crystal in Public Relations she got my case to the appropriate department where it was resolved to my satisfaction!!!

On Monday January 19 I called the 1-800 number located on the third page of my bill to inquire about service to my furnace that was not working. I was told that they would send someone out between 9am and 1pm the next day (Tuesday January 20). Also, at the time I was assured that my contract was covered for parts and labor. The technician (Zyril) arrived at my door at approx. 10:45am and preceded to work on my furnace. At approx.11:45am he informed me that my contract did not cover parts and labor and that I needed a new motor. He also informed me that the part would arrive that day and if I was not home, they would leave it outside my door. At that time I decided that I would go into work and have the part installed the next day. However, he informed me that someone would be back out that day to install it so I decided to stay home because he assured me that it would get done that day.
At approx. 4:30pm, the part was delivered and I called the 1-800 number located on the work order the technician had given me, only to be told that no one would be out that day. I informed the female that I was not able to stay home the next day because I had already missed a whole day of work for nothing. Basically, the end result was that Direct Energy did not care that my house did not have any heat and that I have kids and an elderly person living with me. Had the technician told me it might be possible that someone might not be able to install it that night, I would have gone to work and taken time-off the next day to have the part installed.
When a customer is promised a certain service, it is expected it to be fulfilled.

I would also like to point out that I had another technician from another company go out and look at my furnace. The problem was not a $500 dollar motor (plus $160 dollar labor plus GST) but a $200 dollar socket board. I find this to be extremely dishonest and an outrage

We purchased a new furnace thru DE in 2005 just after a scheduled service tech recommended it to us (although nothing wrong with our furnace). We paid for a new 10yr warranty upfront in cash on installation. Our furnace broke down on Friday afternoon- we called and waited on hold for SIX hours transferred to several people all who told us no service available until Monday- the temp outside was -8 and a snowstorm of Dec 19-20-21 was imminent. Finally someone decided to tell us we were on an "EMERGENCY LIST". The following day I called to follow up on the status of the emergency list-- 2 operators told me there was no such thing. They both tried to transfer me to an "Executive" something or other---this individual assured me I was on the imaginary "EMEGENCY" list and that I could be reimbursed for 2 space heaters up to $120 each. My home is 3200 sq feet open concept--this does not cut it. Fear of our pipes bursting or windows shattering were quelled by Direct Energy by telling us this does not happen until at least 72 hours later..our closest relative is 2 hours away in good driving conditions- and probably 3 in hazardous storm conditions- impossible to meet an emergecy repair person had they shown up--hotels were all overbooked from stranded hiway travellers- we had no choice but to endure the ravaging sub zero temperatures IN OUR HOME with xmas guests from Ottawa in our home with 3 kids under the age of 6 and an elderly relative---this was a complete nightmare and DIRECT ENERGY has shown us their inability to uphold their part of the warranty so far- it seems the only party who has honoured the agreement of the warranty is us who insanely paid upfront vs monthly for this terrible illusion of coverage. It is now our 3rd day of absolute fridity-- the space heaters have had very little impact-- we were given the false hope by Direct Energy that perhaps in the event that there was a service cancellation we would be taking that spot--and we did not logically hold our breath to think someone else in our position who needed servicing on their furnace would suddenly forego their service appt because they miraculously did not need their furnace repair after all (?). In any event, we are now 2 hours away from this window of service which is apparently to take place somewhere in the short order between 11-3pm today so that we can have some heat in our home. The guests have left- lucky them- and our home has gone from 18c to 8c currenly and of course outside the temp is -10c at the moment - we have 2 small space heaters provided by Direct Energy (well they said they would re-imburse us upon receipt of our bill- and we shall see). In addition- the prev maintenance pkg we had on the old furnace we were told to cancel by the salesperson- because the 10 yr warranty would take the place of it---much to our surprise when we called for an inspection this past November only weeks before this horrid experience and as a precaution---we were told by Direct Energy that the 10 yr warranty pkg does not include preventive maintance...and to think we had to wait EIGHT months to get a refund on the prev plan (that was actually good)- It seems to us as consumers that as a result of all the confusion, the endless time on hold and the conflicting conversations with the call centre and their "executive" managers that the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. It will be interesting when I ask the unsuspecting repairman today if he works on weekends or if there is any "emergency" personnel he is aware of for Direct Energy- my guess is he will not know what I am talking about.

Have subscribed to Direct Energy's Total Home Protection plan for years and purchased a new furnace in 2006. Noticed that there was a lot of water leaking from the furnace room and all over the basement floor, under the tiles, etc. Got an appt with DE 2 days later. When the contractor arrived, he told me that the condensate pump is not covered by the TOTAL HOME PROTECTION plan. The new pump cost $250 plus labour charges for installation. The kicker is the pump is only good for 1 year, then it's expected to break down again. So much for a Total plan that doesn't include essential parts of the furnace. On top of everything else, DE hasn't resolved their double billing problems for over 6 months! When I called to talk to customer service, then to the Supervisor, I was blithely told to check the T&C's of the contract where it clearly states what is and what isn't included in the TOTAL home protection plan. Very disappointed to realize that their plan does not provide TOTAL protection at all and that they can pretty much charge extra whenever they want.

any dealings i've had with direct energy,it seems there's a problem of some sort and then it gets worse as nobody in their call centre is able to or not authorized to correct what seem to be simple problems.recently i changed my service plan and got double billed.it took them 4 months to rectify that and now hopefully i'm on correct chrges.made a call for appliance service and because i had "priority"service it only took 9 days for a technician to show up.

We are a family of 5. We have a 3 month old baby, a 3 year old and a 13 year old. Our furnace went in August and Direct Energy told me that the part we need, the side Venter motor, was going to cost about $360.00 plus $90.00 an hour for about 2 - 4 hours. Since we just bought the house in April and I now have a new baby at home we didn't have to money right away. So, now that it's cold out we have no choice but to get it fixed so I started calling around and asking questions. EVERY person that I spoke to told me that the part and labor is supposed to be covered, including Enbridge gas. When dealing with Direct Energy they keep telling me that the part I need is an "add on" and therefore is not covered under the HIP Plan. However, the furnace WILL NOT RUN WITHOUT IT. And when I asked to speak to a supervisor or manager, I was put on hold for 10 minutes and then told that there was no one available to speak with me. I was also told that I would not be able to cancel my HIP insurance because it was past the 30 day cancelation plan.

I wonder what would happen if the child of a Direct Energy Employee was freezing in, what is supposed to be, the comfort of their own home. I'm pretty sure that part would be installed FOR FREE and within 24 hours or less.

So be careful for the "Essential" service you require from Direct Energy as it may not be Essential to them.