Ontario Energy Group Misrepresentation - Working with Government offering upgrades and energy saving appliances and incentives Mississauga Ontario

I recently got conned into signing up with Ontario Energy Group to take a new furnace and air conditioner. I am a senior living on a very limited budget, but the sales reps did a lot of posturing to give the impression that they are part of a government program.

They tell you they are not selling anything, but are representatives of the govt sent to do an inspection on your furnace or AC to see if you qualify for a rebate. If you qualify, the govt sends you a cheque for up to $1000. There's no rebate; once they look at your furnace they come with a proposal to sell or rent you an upgraded HE furnace and AC which they say will save you money (that's the rebate).

When I Googled them, I must have mistyped OEB and saw a legitimate government website.

Ultimately as I became more and more suspicious, I realized this company is hot on the consumer watch/complaint sites and that they are consistantly claiming they are a 3rd party organization for the Province of Ontario. However, I did not make the discovery until after the installations were completed.

As things stand, my financial situation is forcing me to sell my house (I had told them as much at the outset) and they assured me that it would increase the equity in my home. The house has virtually no equity as it is and now I have to worry about how this exorbitantly priced contract will affect the sale. I can’t even get information on details regarding buying out or cancelling the contract.

I did make an audio recording of a meeting containing promises made by the sales person and have saved her emails and texts. I have left five voicemails at their offices in the last two days simply requesting a call back and they are not getting back to me. For all they know the units could be on fire, but as the contract mandates that service is to be executed only by their technicians, this is a huge concern.

There are numerous issues, and looking at the internet reviews, there are many other people who have had less than satisfactory dealings with this organization. They are flat out misrepresenting their product, services and credentials.

One online review/complaint  states

"Suckered into paying $160 a month for possibly longer than I'll have this first, fresh-bought house: they claimed to be with the province offering free installation as a matter of efficiency incentives. Turns out that's quite a lie, they only waive the installation fee after you've rented equipment off of them for FIVE YEARS!

It's strictly a condition of their own fineprint(which is so fine they gave me a grainy, crooked, illegible photocopy of my terms then the emailed copy had to be magnified 177% before it was readable), and you'd still have to buy out the equipment to stop renting. I had the new furnace and central air put in just this past fall and asking recently what the buyout cost would be it comes to over $15,000 with them putting just shy of $7,000 per piece of equipment for "release of interest title" or some bs, plus $1700 in taxes.

I determined the cost of renting for 5 years for both pieces of equipment to come around $9,500, almost triple what it would have cost to have made an actual purchase with installation.The only thing anywhere related to the incentive program is eligibility for $250 back on the central air and I'm getting conflicting information between the ieso and OEG on how to go about that.

As it stands the ieso who offers the grant says I ahd the wrong paperwork and the refund bounced.Now I have to try and find some loophole to edge them out. And yes, part of the cost is them charging you to dissolve the Notice of Security Interest on Title."

Apparently this contract is a rental for 15 years, you will never own the unit and if you own your house, their behind the scenes company Home Trust will put a Notice of Security Interest on your Land Title. FOR A RENTAL!!

I have no idea how to get satisfaction from this company or how to terminate the contract, but I would like to see these swindlers prosecuted or put out of business to protect the public.