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You have a rented water heater and you pay monthly fees on your gas bill. But Ontario’s gas utilities are no longer in the water heater rental business. Enbridge sold its portfolio to Direct Energy and Union Gas sold to Reliance Home Comfort.

Recently, new competitors are trying to grab the business away. The two legacy firms are losing market share and they’re not happy.

Direct Energy, in particular, has a strong motive to cover its assets. In 2002, it set up the Consumers’ Waterheater Income Fund, which gives investors 65 per cent of the rental revenues, while Direct Energy gets the remaining 35 per cent for life-cycle support.

“The Fund generates very stable cash flow, making it ideally suited to the income trust structure,” ..read more

You rely on your furnace to work well for about six months a year. You don’t want to it to get too old and turn into a safety hazard.

You try to prolong its life by buying a plan that includes furnace inspection or maintenance once a year, plus emergency calls and visits if there’s a breakdown. Direct Energy sells them as do others (such as AtlasCare, my contractor).

But can you rely on the technician who comes to your house for an annual furnace check? I wonder when I hear stories like this one, which I wrote about last Saturday.

I received many comments from readers and I’m helping those who need it. Meanwhile, I’m concerned about people being rushed into replacing furnaces without the proper ..read more

I’ve written about Direct Energy’s practice of automatic renewal of gas contracts. Finally, after much nagging, I think I’m getting somewhere on behalf of frustrated customers whose relationship with this company has been extended without their express consent.

DE spokeswoman Lisa Dornan told me that changes are coming to the renewal packages sent in the mail.

We are continually looking at our renewal process to make the necessary improvements to communicate clearly with our customers about their options at the end of their contract term.

Some of the recent changes have included the addition of a “Frequently Asked Questions” section in the package, and upcoming changes include:

* “IMPORTANT RENEWAL INFORMATION ENCLOSED” message on outer envelope – coming in August.

* Underlining the “Renewing this Contract” section on the ..read more

Thanks to this website, which received a record 256,000 hits last month, I’m getting more complaints and inquiries from readers than ever before.

Many people find me while doing a Google search for a specific subject. Here are the most popular searches in April, according to my website statistics:

– Wholesale energy scam (34) – Direct Energy (31) – QuickTax 2008 (31) – Bell vs Rogers (18) – Direct Energy scam (13) – Bell (13) – Aeroplan vs Air Miles (11) – CIBC exchange rate (10) – Rogers (10)

I love the emails that start this way: “I was looking for an ombudsman at Bell … or Rogers… and found your website.” That’s how many folks find their way here. Welcome, everyone. Too bad the telcos don’t believe in hiring an ombudsman.

My readers give me ..read more

I think I pulled my punches in calling for an end to auto-renewal of energy contracts last week. Today, I’ll go further.

In my view, allowing an army of pushy salespeople to trick people into signing contracts adds no value. It should be outlawed in Ontario.

Companies can continue selling their fixed-price deals, but only online or by phone (as RiteRate does). Doing it face to face just leads to abuses.

The reason I’m so angry is the sheer volume of complaints I get about deception at the door. I also hear from people who can’t seem to contact these companies on their own. They’re frustrated talking to call centre robots, who listen but don’t follow up.

Bell and Rogers, you’ve been outgunned by Direct Energy, Universal Energy, Summitt ..read more