Ontario Energy Savings AND Superior Energy Energy retailers stealing money from the most vulnerable grouops of population Missasauga Ontario

Below is my letter sent to MP, MPP, BBB, Ontario Minister of Energy and Ontario Energy Board. If anyone is interested in filing a class-action suit, I can find dozens of students in our residence who fell for this sham.

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To: Pearson, Glen - M.P.
Subject: Business malpractice concerns from your constinuents

Honorable Mr. Pearson,

I would like to bring to your attention some mal-practices existing in London North Center district you represent in the Parliament. While our government tries to help low-income families by providing them with
various forms of financial assistance, so-called "energy retailers" are shamelessly abusing the most vulnerable part of the population.

I am writing on behalf of the residents of the student family housing. Our community consists of apartment buildings and townhouses for students with children, who pay their energy bills themselves. The overwhelming majority of our community are either landed immigrants or international students. Being new in Canada, they are not very familiar with local ways of doing business. So every year, numerous "energy retailers" assault our townhouses, going door-to-door with colorful charts and graphs showing how energy prices are so volatile that we must use their services to protect ourselves. The trick is that the "protected line" on the graphs lies in the middle of the price chart, while the proce you actually get is well ABOVE the historical chart all together!

They mostly target those who recently moved and still are not well oriented in the country. My family became a victim of such a plot in early 2006. I was too busy settling in and arranging my and my son's studies that I didn't pay attention to what I signed for. When I realized that we've been taken advantage of and tried to cancel these contracts, the companies said that there is a "penalty fee" for early withdrawal since we apparently signed up, without noticing for 5 years. I cancelled anyway and made a thorough calculation (available upon request), how much these retailers stole from my student family. I based my calculations on the actual historical prices
(available on-line) of legitimate utility companies (London Hydro and
Union Gas) and those charged by the retailers.

Electricity:

London Hydro current rate: $0.05/kWt (max since 2006: $0.058)
Ontario Energy 'Saving' rate: $0.104 (although contract says it's
$0.095)
Total difference since 2006: $625
"Penalty" for termination: $177

Gas:

Union Gas current rate per M3: $0.3783 and adjustment -$0.01 (maximum
rate since 2006: $0.4167
Transport rate to Union gas: $0.0451 (max for the period)
Superior Energy rate: $0.449
Superior Energy transport rate: $0.055
Total difference from 2006: $350
"Penalty" for termination: $107

Overall total damage to my student budget: $1260 in 28 months!

My family monthly income is $1190 and rent payment is $809. So these two companies were monthly stealing 12% of my remaining budget of $381!

Although these companies' practices might be legitimate according to appropriate regulations, they are not according to the moral standards. Our elected representatives should take a closer look at their
activities:

- What kind of service over utility companies did they provide to me for this $1190 I paid?
- Why do they use hard-selling techniques on vulnerable
audience?
- Why do they target new comers who are particularly ignorant about local business practices?
- Why don't they respect "No solicitors" signs on the doors?
- Why didn't they disclose 5 year term when making their sales pitch? (a rare resident of Platt's Lane stays here more than 4 years since the charter allows only students in the residence and programs don't last more than 4 years).
- What kind of "penalty" do they demand after stealing a large chunk of the monthly bill already?

We are currently collecting signatures under a petition from the concerned residents of our community to take this matter further.

Marina
London, Ontario
Canada