MPP introduces bill to ban door-to-door sales of furnaces, water heaters

Liberal Yvan Baker’s private member’s bill would also ban door-to-door sales of air-conditioners and water-treatment systems.

Thestar.com
May 2, 2016
By Rob Ferguson

In a bid to clamp down on high-pressure tactics, Liberal MPP Yvan Baker is proposing a ban on door-to-door rentals, sales and leases of water heaters, furnaces, air-conditioners and water-treatment systems.

Too many consumers, mainly seniors, are being “scammed” by companies using “misleading, aggressive and coercive” methods, Baker (Etobicoke Centre) said Monday as he introduced a private member’s bill.

Aside from voiding contracts signed at the door, the bill would provide for refunds to consumers, fines of up to $2,000 to individual sales persons and up to $25,000 for their companies.
A 10-day cooling-off period implemented by the government a few years ago for contracts signed door-to-door hasn’t gone far enough, said Baker, who appeared at a news conference with a woman whose mother was scammed.

“What companies are doing is criminal and they need to be stopped,” said Lexy Fogel, speaking of a door-to-door sales company who talked her mother into a new furnace, even though hers was just five years old.

“They said it wasn’t efficient enough,” said Fogel, who lives in Toronto and noted her mom’s existing furnace was a rental with a sticker on it clearly indicating so.

“That day they put in a new furnace,” she told reporters. She added that it has been a “horrible situation” to get restitution for the old furnace and the higher fees her mother is paying.
Baker said he has been working on the bill for months. It comes after Mississauga and Markham municipal councils passed a resolution calling on the province to ban these types of door-to-door sales.

In some cases, seniors and others have been signed to expensive, 10-year contracts for water filtration and other products and services.

Last month, the government laid more than 100 charges under the Consumer Protection Act against a company called Ontario Energy Group and its director, Eugene Farber.
The charges follow complaints about the company, but the allegations of wrongdoing have not been proven in court.

Baker’s bill targets water heaters, furnaces, air-conditioners and water-treatment systems, because they are the top source of complaints to the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services.

According to ministry statistics, consumers who reported such complaints were bilked of $3.1 million last year, Baker said.

While his bill would not prohibit sales people from knocking on doors, it would ban any contracts signed on front porches or in homes and this includes instances when consumers themselves have called a company.

In such a case, contracts would have to be signed at a company’s offices or deals finalized online.

Consumer advocates said there are plenty of reputable companies that sell such products without going door-to-door, and that homeowners should look to do business with them.

“This is largely an obsolete sales technique,” Michael Janigan of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre said of door-to-door sales in the era of the Internet and do-not-call lists.

During the current 10-day cooling-off period for contracts signed at the door, consumers can cancel deals for any reason without having to pay cancellation fees.

In the case of water heaters, the cooling-off period is longer, at 20 days, during which no water heaters can be delivered or installed at the customer’s home.

Government and Consumer Services Minister David Orazietti said he’s “open” to Baker’s bill.

“It’s a progressive piece of legislation in the sense that it raises the bar in terms of helping to protect consumers in Ontario.”