HawthorneVillager.com

We've only been in our house a few weeks, new to Canada, so no history with any utility companies. The other day some guy came to the door, saying that he was with a company affiliated with Reliance (water heater people), and that their gas prices were better than Union Gas, who we signed up with because that's who the previous owners were with, and what the lawyers arranged on our behalf.

Is it necessary to switch, or is this guy just trying to get a sale? He said that no one goes with the company the lawyers arrange before a house sale, and if they do they regret it. Any advice? We had people like this in England, and since they got paid for every signature, even if you cancelled, they were pretty agressive and would literally camp outside your front door and harrass you until you signed the stupid contract. Just trying to find out if it's the same type of scam here.

It can be the same scam here.

Don't give them a copy of any gas bill you have or they will sign you right up. It can be worthwhile to ask for information from them and do your own research comparatively, but they are basically do the same thing you talk about. I know people who have signed up and it has been good for the first year and then they realized they are being overcharged the second year but they are stuck in a contact for 5 years!

How can they sign you up without your permission? I know of some people this happened to and they had no course of action, or so I was told. What happened to the consumer's rights? I'd be ready to ring some necks if they did that to me without asking permission.

I had a guy stop by our place just before Christmas.... he literally tried to come into my house. He was very arrogant and pushy, I had to be very aggressive with him and tell him to get off my property. It really pissed me off. I agree with Tim, that type of solicitation should be illegal.

When we first moved into our house in Aug 05, we had person after person knocking on our door to hook up services, gas prices.. you name it we had them at our door. When we move to the new house I am going to put up a sign on the front door for them not to bother.

Ken

I put a "No Agents, Peddlers or Solicitors" sign on my door, and by and large, it has worked. The one time it didn't work was with some woman who wanted to sell flowers, and I just looked out my door window and pointed at the sign. She looked at me in disgust and left.

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What is the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don't know and I don't care.

Welcome to HV and Canada.
I'm new to Canada here too. Every possible scam I ever seen all over the world is here.
Here is my word to you as from one immigrant to another immigrant.
Everyone who is trying to sell you something on the street, at the door or over the phone is a con artist or looser. Just ignore them.

But the internet's safe right?

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Professional - Audio - Video - Data - Security - Central Vac - Insured - Trained - Certified
http://www.phand.ca/

Internet is very simple.
Pop-up windows about you won something - 100% scam.
Any message in behalf of your banking institution about something which is asking account and another info - from criminals.
Any e-mail addressed to you to buy something which you never asking for - scam.

I'm with you kf095... personally, I treat EVERYONE that approaches me about buying something as either a scam or a waste of time... even the ones that are legitimate give you worse pricing than if you contacted them directly.

I used to make an exception for charitible contributions or collections for school... until I found out some kids were scamming those, supposedly collecting for their school, but they took off when I insisted on paying by cheque.

Now, there is only one exception... girl guide cookies, although I don't think they go door to door anymore, I tend to catch them outside grocery stores during their drives.

To be honest, I've been so disappointed everywhere I look, I don't even know who to honestly help anymore. I want to pick a charity to focus my donations on, but every one I investigate turns out to have all kinds of problems.... most of the money going to administration or phone solicitors, lying to get donations, pushing their political/religious agenda before allowing those in need to get the help the donations pay for... I'm getting very cynical in my old age.

We have a simple No Solicitors sign and for the most part it works. As for the kids going door to door, At my sons school (St.Peters) they are not allowed to go door to door looking for donations/sponsors etc unless they know the neighbours really well. Obviously Chris Hadfield doesn't have that rule or if they do the kids don't listen as I had a ton of them knocking on my door last year when they did Jump Rope for Heart or something like that. I sponsored the few kids I recognized from the street and had to say sorry to the rest.

Good points everyone.

If you think someone at your door is suspicious, you can call the Halton Region Police at (905) 878-5511 and ask for communications they can send an officer around to investigate to see if these sales people are legitimate (most municipalities require licences etc.)

Every legitimate utility company ie. gas, phone, cable, hydro etc. personnel have identification and they should have made an appointment with you if there is any work to be done on your house.

As someone who knocked on a few thousand doors last fall I can understand what everyone is going through (I sometimes ended up knocking on someones door right after one of these sales people called).

Just one word of caution though, which other candidates and I noticed.

Don't let your children open the front door unless you are present, there was at least a dozen homes I went to homes where and under 8 year old opened the door and let me stand in the open doorway (no I did not come in) while they went to get there parents taking from 1-3 minutes to come back sometimes telling me "their busy" in the meantime, if I was criminally minded I could have taken car keys, cash and credit card bills that were left out in front of me.

So just a reminder for your young children .

DON'T OPEN THE DOOR TO STRANGERS!

Colin Best
also a Halton Regional Police Services Board member.

I agree with what my2boyz said about the kids going door to door. Every school should have that policy about not going door to door except to neighbours that you know. I live in the St.Peters/Hadfield area and I was bombarded last year by both schools equally.

I hate when people come door to door because my philosophy is....if I wanted your service/product then I will contact you!!!!

It's funny, the last "gas scam artist" that came to my door said "I'm not selling anything", and insisted he was there just to provide us with information.

I said "Ok, hand it over". He replied with "Well, I'm trying to give it to you right now", and he started sorting through his papers. I told him that you don't have to "try" and give us info, you either have it or you dont.

When I said, "Give me the information, I'll read over it, and call you if we need anything". He replied with a "well, I can't do that, I don't have anything to give to you actually, I can come back another time".

I said don't bother, and if he returned again I was going to call the police.

We haven't had him back which is nice, but they are just so irritating.

How many times do you have to tell someone something before they get it.

And, if he truly wasn't selling anything as he claimed, and was looking at just giving me info., then he would have done so.

Oh well, what can you do, this sort of sales tactic is part of all aspects of our lives. I guess you just have to be aware to protect yourself.

Laurie

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Speaking of "No Soliciting" signs.

A co-worker of mine, a year or so back, made a killing selling "No Soliciting" signs for your doors and windows, for low prices like $2-3 each, and the most ironic part....

He went door to door to sell them.

Laurie

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You raise a good point. Any donation under $10 does not get a receipt. What the corporations are doing is pooling all of these round up your bill to the nearest dollar and donating them to charity as one large sum, GUESS WHO GETS THE MULTI MILLION DOLLAR TAX WRITE OFF????

That is why I do not give to them.
Matt