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Report: #802293

Complaint Review: Hudson Energy - Etobicoke Ontario

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  • Reported By: Anonymous — Toronto Ontario Canada
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  • Hudson Energy 1243 Islington Etobicoke, Ontario United States of America

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I worked for Hudson Energy in Etobicoke for about two and a half months. Now, I want to make it clear that some people do make a lot of money working for Hudson. The established outside agents do make a lot of money--into the millions of dollars, in fact. But what I want to call attention to is what I feel are misleading statements concerning the new people who must first start as telemarketers. The first misleading statement is that they say you are not a telemarketer, but an energy consultant. But you're a telemarketer, make no mistake about it. And they want you to make at least 150 calls per day! It's all cold calling, too! Here's the biggest misleading statement: "We know you need to pay your mortgage, so you will get paid $1,000 to $2,000 per week." Really? I don't know of anybody who got that kind of money starting out. In fact, for two and a half months, I didn't make a single dime! You see, you're considered an "independent contractor." You aren't paid by Hudson--you're paid by your "outside agent" for whom you are booking appointments. You are supposed to get 30 percent of the outside agent's commission--but there's no enforcement of that supposed rule. You are expected to set a minimum of five appointments per week. Sound easy? Well, it's not. Cold calling is essentially obsolete--it may have worked five or ten or fifteen years ago, but people are a lot more resistant to cold calling today. Why? They've been ripped off too many times. You are given an out-of-date business directory from which to make your calls. Out of 100 calls, you might get one or two appointments. But here's the catch: your outside agent can be expected to "close" only 20 percent of the appointments you make. And ten days afterwards, the company's "customer service" department calls and gives the customer a chance to opt out of the contract. That's right. According to Ontario law, a customer has ten days to change his or her mind after signing a contract that was initiated through telemarketing. Want to guess how many customers cancel their contracts? The company says about 10 percent; my experience is 90 percent or higher. These are the reasons that Hudson brings on a completely new workforce of telemarketers every two weeks. People just see the futility in it and give up. A lot of these are seasoned sales professionals--but they just see the futility in it. Again, this "business model" might have worked ten or twenty years ago, but things are completely different now. What's more, this company doesn't spend a penny on advertising, so anybody you call has never heard of Hudson Energy. This company, by the way, has changed its name several times recently--from "Ontario Energy Savings" to "Just Energy" and now to "Hudson Energy." Just Energy owns Hudson Energy--but Just Energy's reputation was so sullied by reports in the Toronto Star and television news that people are very wary of that name. Now, I will say that some people with a great telephone voice and exuberant personality do actually succeed in this endeavor and go on to become outside agents. But I would estimate there is a 95 percent drop-out rate because of the difficulties in selling over the phone. Is the company's services legitimate? Yes, they can actually save a customer money on their electricity--but not on natural gas. But the company was founded on the idea that telemarketing is the way to go--and that's what is limiting them. They should pay their sales force a base salary to get them started--because it's just not true that you're going to make $1,000 - $2,000 a week starting out. And the company is a s-l-o-w payer, which makes things worse: it takes them three weeks to pay you for a closed deal! I wrote this report because Hudson Energy was advertising for sales managers--and that's just not the case. There are NO openings for sales managers--just for telemarketers willing to gut it out in making over 100 calls per day! The company has ZERO investment in you, so it doesn't care if you succeed or fail. Once a week you will get to listen to the sales managers' platitudes about winners and losers--none of which puts any money in your pocket. So, if you want a job where there is about a 1 - 2 percent chance that you will be successful, this is the company for you. Otherwise, stay away and look for something that actually pays you for your work!

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 11/28/2011 07:44 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/hudson-energy/etobicoke-ontario-m8x-1y9/hudson-energy-huge-attrition-rate-at-hudson-energy-etobicoke-ontario-802293. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
2Author
4Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#6 Author of original report

Honesty Matters

AUTHOR: - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, October 13, 2015

So we see that Glenn Lancaster has spent time in the pokey for fraud.   Hudson Energy touted him as their top salesman.   What does that tell you about the culture at Hudson Energy?   Look at the links in earlier posts about Lancaster and the founders of the company.   One of the co-founders even exhorted his "independent contractors" to skip lunch in order to make more calls!   That's really taking care of your people, isn't it?   I mean, Hudson Energy isn't even paying these people, and they want to deprive them of lunch as well as a salary!   You can work at Hudson Energy for a year and never see a nickel.   The business model is rooted firmly in the last century--and it just doesn't work any more.   It's nothing but cold calling using obsolete business directories.   The company doesn't spend a dime on advertising--and it could!   If you hate that you missed your chance to be sold into slavery, there's hope!    You can work at Hudson Energy and see what it feels like to not get paid for hours, days and weeks on the phone!   This company is to be avoided at all costs.   If you are a job seeker, do not be taken in by promises of $120,000 a year or more.   It's simply telemarketing in a market that is oversaturated, you would be lucky to set five appointments in a year, much less in a week.

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#5 General Comment

Hudson Energy: two facts

AUTHOR: shouldda known - (Canada)

POSTED: Monday, October 12, 2015

In this article, a lawyer refers to Hudson Energy sales star Glen Lancaster as a "convicted recidivist fraudster." Yet new recruits are subjected to backgropund checks. If Lancaster can continue, one wonders who might not:

 

http://caselaw.canada.globe24h.com/0/0/ontario/superior-court-of-justice/2012/06/20/cma-v-just-energy-l-p-and-glen-lancaster-et-al-2012-onsc-3524.shtml

 

This story questions the biography of JE CEO Rebecca MacDonald. Ask yourself, if this is the history of the CEO, what else might go on in the ranks:

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/rebecca-macdonalds-just-energy-golden-era-over-for-gas-marketer/article12222874/?page=all

 

THe company's top agents are embroiled in controvery regularly. Prospective agents should beware.

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#4 General Comment

Umm...

AUTHOR: Johan Spouse - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, June 03, 2014

If you can't spell "jealous", "believe", "innuendos", "motivation" and mix up "their" and "there", how seriously can we take your "extensive investigation"?  With all due respect, as someone who owns a small business I would never do business with someone of such clearly inferior intelligence.  That's just the brutal reality of business, son.  Intelligence and education count.  They do.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say you either didn't get that "great opportunity", or you are a semi-literate shill.

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#3 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Dont get scammed by John Roche's Etobicoke JE and HE office!

AUTHOR: Energy Guy - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Good Luck with your efforts at Hudson & Just Energy office in Etobicoke (John Roche's office).   I have been in this industry for years and you are just getting into it.   When it comes for you to get paid by either Doug Bloomfield, Glen Lancaster and I am sure other agents are in on it,  remember you dont get paid from the company because you are not an agent yet and Leanne is holding on to your JE and Hudson Energy Independent Contractor agreement without processing it with the company.   They will use you for booking appointments.   That is John Roche's scam.  He will not help you when you need to chase these agents for your cash money from the appointments that you booked for the agents.   It's hard to get paid when you dont have a contract with the agent, to use you for booking appointments and then they will hope you quit and that the agent does not have to pay you because your not around anymore.   Great scam John!  keep feeding your agents new recruits to book appointments for your agents and then dont help them get paid.\

Outline of John Roche's Scam:

Hire new outside agents and then tell them that they are inside sales for existing agents.

Give the new recruits a contract from Hudson and JE.  (but you do not get your ECPA training until to following step.) so your not an agent yet, and inside sales does not get paid from JE or HE, only the existing agents do.  

Tell the new recruit that they dont get paid from JE or Hudson but rather from the existing agent that they pair you up with.  (you do not have an agreement with the agent)

Now you have to keep track of all customers that the agent that closed for your appointments. 

Tell new inside recruit that they do not become an agent until you set up 14 appointments that have successfully been closed by outside agent for you to get your ECPA licence from the OEB.

Once you have successfully got your ECPA training licence, now you have to chase your money from the agents that you booked for and go out and sign your own deals.

You go cry to John about you not getting paid from your previous appointments that you booked for the existing agents.

John does nothing, you quit, and then John and Trevor continue to hire new recruits to replace you! bye bye and thanks! 

Remember, the OEB licencing and training is only for EPCA customers,  under 50000 m3 and under 150000 kwh per year.  You do not need a licence for selling contract above these thresholds as per the OEB.  But they dont tell you this because its part of the graduating from inside appointment setting to becoming an agent.  All this so that you can be exploited.

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#2 Author of original report

Good Luck - You're Gonna Need It

AUTHOR: Anonymous - (Canada)

POSTED: Tuesday, January 22, 2013

I wish the latest poster, who has decided to give Hudson Energy a chance, all the luck in the world.  He is going to need it.

There's a reason that there is a 99.95 percent turnover rate.   People can work there for months and still never see a dime.   Yes, a very few--with a gift of gab--do make it.   But most do not.  

This company does not advertise in newspapers or on radio or television.   The only publicity the company gets is from negative news articles and broadcasts.   

The sales manager will tell you that you can convince CEOs to believe you over their own controllers or VPs of finance.   Good luck with that.   Reality is something else.

Cold calling--which is what you will be doing--is pretty much dead as a sales technique--especially when you're cold calling from a business directory two or three years old.   You will confidently ask to speak to Mr. John Smith, CEO of Hamilton Manufacturing Company, only to be told that he died a year ago.  

But if you think that telemarketing is the way to go, more power to you.   Hope you get some appointments set, and that your outside agent makes some sales, and that the customers don't cancel within the 10 days that they have to cancel.   Just remember that of 10 appointments, maybe one will result in a sale.   And what the sales manager won't tell you is that 90 percent of the customers cancel when that gum-chewing "customer service" girl calls them to ask if they want to exercise their option to cancel.  

Too bad the company doesn't pay its telemarketers directly, and too bad it doesn't do a better job when it calls customers to see if they want to cancel.   And, no, you are not an "account manager."   You are a telemarketer.   You are expected to make 150 calls a day.   There's even a stupid sign on the wall in which the co-founder, now dead, tells people they should skip lunch to make the company more money.   Yeah, right.   That's really taking care of your people, isn't it?

Again, good luck.   Hope you will post a follow-up report after three months.   Tell us how much you made and how much that works out in hourly wages.   If you fail--and there's a 99.95 chance you will--don't feel bad.    Their business model sucks and you are set up for failure.   If they'd spend some money on advertising instead of putting everything into commissions, more people could get to first base.

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#1 Consumer Comment

Unfortunate Small Minded Jelous Person Making Up Lies

AUTHOR: ver - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, January 17, 2013

I felt it necessary to write this report even though I don't beleive in websites like this much. I have been looking into this opportunity and while telling a family member they brought this to my attention.



Before responding to a call back I received from John at the Etobicoke office for an interview, I did my own extensive investigation.



As for the office, I went in for an interview and everything seemed fine to me and the people were very nice. John does use a lot of sales inuendos and references great salespeople but I would say as more of a motavation. If your so small minded to be "brain washed" you have bigger issues.

I also talked to people who had been making calls for outside agents and they (the ones who were doing there jobs) had all been paid by the outside reps.



I looked into this issue about there top sales rep (Glenn) and there is only one law suite against him or against Just Enery because of one of he's customer's. If he's really is the top guy, that's a pretty good ratio.

As for checking this green energy box for extra commission, I found out that is an outright lie! First there are no law suites based on this, second, I found out there is a confirmation call that has to be made with the customer and they have to agree to take a product or not on a recorded call. As for this guy's past-

Who Cares. We all have pasts!



I for one am going to take this opportunity and if I don't make it, I won't be looking for other people to blame and talking down about people because I'm jelous.

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