Reliance Home Comfort/Heating - bunch of crooks

[Shepp]

I hope that by posting this I will prevent people from going through the ordeal I've gone through these past months.

But first, a little background. I bought a house in April. I bout that house with a brand spanking new OWNED water heater. One not installed by Reliance, a few days just before the closing of the house.

Says so right in my purchasing agreement too.

So I was quite surprised when Reliance started harassing me with bills for a water heater rental, strangely in my wife's name for the current property.

They harassed me by mail, and they harassed me at home by phone, and even at work. How they got my work number, I haven't the foggiest.

This all started at the beginning of May. So back then, I figured, hey, there must be some SNAFU with the paperwork, I'll just straighten them out.

Contacted the buyer and seller real estate agents, and the previous owner, and the lawyers that looked over the purchasing agreement.

Everyone agreed that Reliance had no business with me. I let Reliance know this. And then asked that a notice now be sent to their legal department.

Okay, sure. So I had the purchasing agreement lawyer write up a notice saying I didn't owe them any money and that I didn't have an account, since the water heater was owned and wasn't even handled by Reliance.

I watched him fax it, and I watched the little slip print out that it was received.

But the harassing calls and mail didn't stop. So I called Reliance again, and they said they didn't receive anything. Strange. So I had my lawyer fax again.

Still no change in Reliance. They still stated they hadn't received it.

So my lawyer faxed it a third time, to no effect. Reliance still states they haven't received anything regarding my erroneous account.

Then, to add insult to injury (and now early August) the one working my case is "on vacation" and nothing will be able to change until she came back in a week.

Once she returned, Reliance still claimed they hadn't received any faxes.

Got the BBB involved (turns out there's a lot of crap regarding Reliance).

So it turns out that the person they told me to fax stuff to, isn't the right person, right department, or even the right city. Strange, considering Reliance were the ones who told me to fax it to their legal department.

Then they said what was being faxed wasn't the right information (with how would they know without receiving it?).

So now the purchasing agreement lawyer faxed the purchasing agreement not once, not twice, but three times during the month of August to the "correct" number this time.

In addition, I had the other water heater company fax their invoice to Reliance (which they didn't accept, but did receive).

So the final fax was sent Sept 4th, 2012. Received Sept 4th, 2012. And the account was closed.

With the aid of a lawyer and pressure from the BBB, the account was closed, finally.

Oh, wait, it wasn't. I had to call Sept 5th, 2012 to have them actually close the account.

So I'm on their Do Not Call list, my account is closed, everything's all great, and

I

AM

STILL

BEING

HARASSED

BY

RELIANCE

!

After all of that, I'm still being harassed at work and home by pre-recorded phone calls from Reliance stating that I owe them money.


And it looks like there are thousands in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Guelph-Cambridge-Brantford-London area that are being scammed and harassed by Reliance.

According to other horror stories, if you pay them even one cent, their contracting takes hold and you've "agreed" of their terms and are now liable for whatever it is they're after.

Moral of the story, make sure you have documentation for everything and read the fine print.

The other moral of the story, don't do business with Reliance Home Comfort.

/rant

Hopefully this story helps others.

[Poopface Convoy]

Wow, they sound like a horrible company. My friend just moved to Kitchener, so I should tell him about it, in case his family gets scammed by them.

[Dark Rage]

What if you visit the office harassing you right after you finish work, angry and in uniform?

Or...contact some local media/TV stations and have them feature their scummy tactics?

[Beechy]

Just burn their legal dept down and harass them that they owe you money for materials used... Matches and fuel and what not.

[joshimus]

You probably could do something on the lines of your time wasted and harassment suit. I mean if you never had an account with them and YOU had to go to the lawyer and deal with it all, they should owe you money for time lost.

[jackalprime]

I have worked in the WH business for the better part of 5 hours. All I can say is that it is unethical and non-discriminatory. Do not give a penny, as the OP has stated. All I can assume is that the original owner had rented the WH and still owes payment.

[Shepp]

Originally Posted by joshimus

You probably could do something on the lines of your time wasted and harassment suit. I mean if you never had an account with them and YOU had to go to the lawyer and deal with it all, they should owe you money for time lost.

There's talk of a class action suit being prepared against Reliance. Unsure if I qualify because I never actually had an account with them.

I have heard rumours of collection agencies going after Reliance for fraud, selling them debts which didn't exist. But then that was only rumours.

Originally Posted by Dark Rage

What if you visit the office harassing you right after you finish work, angry and in uniform?

Or...contact some local media/TV stations and have them feature their scummy tactics?

There's been an article in the paper recently about it. It is well known around here how crooked Reliance is now.






AAAAnnnnndddddd here's an update.

After contacting them and having the account closed on Sept 5th, 2012, I'm still being contacted with harassing phone calls by Reliance through the phone.

On top of that, they're telling the BBB that they had never received any of the faxes, that my account is still open, and that I owe them money.

I'm just about ready to ship them a big steaming pile of poop in a box.



As for the original owner and the original water heater, it was a rent to own contract with a different company from Reliance. The water heater indeed was owned according to the original contract, in Feb 2012.

I've seen the paperwork, part of confirming that the water heated was owned before we signed the purchasing agreement in the first place.

What throws a monkey wrench into it is that Reliance bought out that company a few years ago. I've seen THAT paperwork too (part of the purchasing agreement stuff), and it said that Reliance would honour the original contract as it stood for the length of the contract.

So yeah, Reliance themselves a few years ago said that the water heater was rent-to-own, and that it would be owned as of Feb 2012.

They just ignored what they said before and kept the rental meter running.

I don't like Reliance.

[Beechy]

I bet burning them down sounds better now right?

[Shepp]

Originally Posted by Beechy

I bet burning them down sounds better now right?

Hmm..... arson seems a bit much. Plus, I could only burn them down once.

I could send many boxes full of poop, though, so that would be more satisfying to me in the short and long run.

[jjwankenobi]

Shitty...

Have you tried presenting this information to your local media? Newspaper or, better yet, television station? They love exposing sheisters and a little public humiliation goes a long way in terms of forcing a resolution.