CALGARY – The City of Calgary is investigating how salesmen at four Ontario furnace companies are representing themselves at the door.
The City’s chief licence inspector, Kent Pallister, said at least 14 homeowners have complained about furnace salesmen who claimed to be working with the City.
“The complaints we’ve received have been that a business will come to their door say that their affiliated with the City of Calgary that their house has been flagged by an energy provider of some sort and their furnace needs to be inspected”, said Pallister.
He said once inside the home, the salesmen told the homeowners they need a new furnace.
Pallister said they have spoken with the four companies but no fines or charges have been laid.
“We’ve looked at the licencing, we’ve looked at the requirements of the bylaw and we were in touch with all 4 companies to remind them of the responsibility and were reviewing their sales script.”
Global News has confirmed one of the companies is Secure Home Services.
They are being investigated by Service Alberta after 16 complaints of misleading or aggressive sales tactics under the Fair Trading Act.
In a statement the company’s director of operations, Gaetana Girardi said, “services salespersons are trained to clearly identify themselves to all consumers as being from Secure Home Services. Secure salespersons wear Secure branded clothing, have a visible company badge, and provide consumers with business cards which clearly identifies them as being from Secure and not the City. In addition, before a consumer completes a contract with Secure a verification call is completed which advises consumers that Secure is not affiliated with the government or the customer’s utility company.”
If someone comes to your door always ask to see identification.
Call the City at 3-1-1 to verify the licence.
Don’t be pressured to sign a contract immediately; get a second opinion or quote.
Consumers can cancel any door-to-door contract within ten days.
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