Vancouver Forum: Universal Energy SCAM

I get my energy from universal energy (in ottawa) and they're pretty good so far!

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They screwed up my billing - again

Michael

One of the sales agents tried to threaten an elderly couple into a fixed plan - it was in the news here in Toronto. Watch out, there are really out for your money

Mary

http://www.universalenergy.ca/ what a scam It's not the truth. It's a lie and needs to be reported.

I am writting the RCMP and will proceed with a class - action lawsuit.

Bill

Whatever you do,.... do not sign with these crooks !! I am now paying double what I would have paid staying with windsor utilities.
 The sales rep misled us about the deregulation rates i am now paying 9.9 cents per kwh instead of 5.5 cents per kwh!!
 I called to cancel and they refused!!.... They said if I wanted to cancel I would have to pay an early termination fee!! get this...between $500 and $800 this company needs to be investigated and sued.
 I told them I was going to write every forum i could find, write the editor of the local newspaper, put a sign on my lawn, as well as printouts at the grocery stores and word of mouth telling every possible person I can reach about there little band of thieves

Ya Jim, I worked for them for a while until a got a real job. There is no base commission, so you have to husstle to make dough. They lie to everyone and only care about the $$$. My team leader was an ex-con, he dared to tell me how he was incarcerated for B&E. They let people like that into the homes of families. Well as long as he can SELL, who cares, it's all about the money.

Aaron  

""Whatever you do,.... do not sign with these crooks !!""

The sad thing is, you don't even need to sign in order for them to magically transfer you over to them!
Someone came to my door back in October telling me about this priceprotection plan from Universal Energy, he gave me a booklet to readwith an application form inside.  He said if i wish to take advantageof this, to fill out the application and mail it in.. I have a copy ofit at home.. it is only signed by him at the bottom where it says AgentName and Signature.. nowhere does it show any of my information or mysignature.. so i never signed it and i never mailed it to them....  inJanuary, i noticed on my gas bill that my gas supplier is now UniversalEnergy....  i phone my regular company-Union Gas-  the lady said that they received a requestsigned by the client which is ME asking to switch me over...  iimmediately called Universal and according to them i signed a contract,i also spoke to someone on the phone..i asked them to provide proof..send me a copy of the contract with my signature and i want to hear arecording of me saying on the phone that i agree.. obviously i did notreceive any of that.. and 2 month later Union Gas received a mysteriouscancellation letter again coming from ME asking to cancel UniversalEnergy services.

Couple of days ago, I also had a girl come to my door asking to seemy Hydro bill. She said that they've made a mistake and need to reversea processing fee that they have accidentally charged some clients. When she came in, i didnt'quite catch who she said she worked for so i asked her again and shesaid she was from Universal Energy.. I said to her that i do not getany services from them and do not wish to have anything to do withthem.. she assured me that my Hydro company is aware of this fee errorso i said if they are aware of it they can reverse it on my nextbill... but i am not showing you anything and please leave.. i calledmy Hydro company the next day, and the lady was in shock! She said thatthey would never have anyone come to the door, and there were noerrors!!!

It's very sad that this company Universal Energy has to go to suchextremes in order to get people to use their services! I think i gotlucky because at least i am back with my regular companies, i haveheard of people who are unable to get out of this universal energycontract which apparently they signed but for some reason the companycan not come up with any proof. How can this be allowed? How can thiskeep happening? Why is the Ontario Energy Board not looking into this?

It seems they will do anything to make money. This is the third time I asked somone to get-lost from Universal Energy. They always want to see my hydro bills. The last guy showed up with long hair and a black AC/DC shirt on. he should be a roady not a sales man.

Samantha Cartwright

hey, all you people out there market price for hydro and the price you pay in ontario are two different things.the ontario government has not fully deregulated the hydro in ontario. but they will soon. this will mean we will now be paying market price for electricity. the market price for electricity its obviously not 5.5 cents. it is around 10 cents. so if you think you are saving money now sticking with your utilities... watch out!if you get a five year plan for electricity with a supplier you will save money! nothing is free sometimes you have to pay a little to save alot. and to all you people who think this is a scam that's fine; it just means your not educated enough in this field to understand what is going to happen. 
p.s: if new york state pays 15.65 kwh and we pay 5.5 to 6.4 kwh, you tell me if our prices are going to go up. oh and by the way we are the lowest payed kwh in north america, because our government regulates our price.  

my ex just called me last week to say he took a job with them. however, i talked to him yesterday and he's no longer working there! he said they're a terrible bunch of people!! they wouldn't let him ask questions, saying that they're too negative. and when he gave his experiences about people shutting the door in his face he was told to shut up and stop talking and trying to scare everyone. he wasn't - he was just telling his experiences! they would leave them in neighborhoods all day with no access to washrooms, restaurants etc. when he asked what he would have to do if he needed a washroom he was told to go and use the bushes!! he ended up in a big fight with some guy in the team and ended up quitting. they sound like a bunch of jerks who are just out to make money and don't care about their employees at all. just for that reason alone, and not the other issue about the bills etc, i would avoid them like the plague!!!

[font=" verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"]blah-blah-blah, jeff unfortunately candor is not a prerequisite for this company. i was lied to and cheated out of 2 good days for my job search. why did i have to walk around in the snow with the goon squad and canvas door to door. you should tell people upfront what the job entails!

your friend assuming now, you work for the goons.  [/font]

hi jeff,

just a reminder, new sentences and names (nowns) of places e.g. new york use capitalisation.

educated?

Signing up with Universal Energy is the worst mistake of my life. Even the rate they tell you of 9.5 cents/kwh can be changed by them if you use more electricity on average than you did in the past. That is why they need to see your bill.  My hydro bill this 2 month interval is
$ 100 more than if I was paying the local utility rate.  On the other hand if rates go up to say 15 cents/kwh,  nobody would complain. The picture of a certain hockey player  on their pamphlet doesn't inspire much confidence here. If anyone finds a way out of their contract, please tell the rest of us.

[font=" verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"]Ya, "Pee in the bushes". That's very professional of their sales staff to recommend to new employees.  My father worked in sales for 35 years for a reputable company. [Unlike Univer$al Energy] He got a car, base comission [because you can't always sell - everyday] and between his work, I'm sure he drove somewhere to use the facilities.[/font]

[font=" verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"]Jeff are you a Univer$al goon?[/font]

I have been misled into signing the locked-in 5 year yesterday. I called them to cancel, they said they will call me after 10 days to verify and then you could cancel. I doubt they will call me . How do I get out from this shit.

Universal also scammed/tricked/conned me into signing their contract. I was approached by one of Universal's minion in April 2006, claiming to save me money on my utilities bill. To keep this short, most of us that got conned in signing the contract are familiar with their unethical tactics, that's why we're all posting here. So, I won't go in details.

The day I found out they switched me over without my authorization. I flipped and immediately contacted them. It took a couple of days and hours on the phone for me to get the manager as I was persistent. Bascially, they told me the verbal affirmation of the application was the contract when one of their rep called me and interrupted my dinner. He couldn't even speak english that clearly, when he called the way he worded things was affirmation. To me that means they're confirming the info on my application, in actuality when you answer 'yes' to those questions that's where they get you and it's all recorded. You just entered into the 5 yr contract with them. When I spoke to Vanessa (one of the head biatch at Universal) she basically played that recording to me and I'm thinking to myself (you bastards) that was very clever the way I was conned into this contract. Anyways, she told me if I want to get out of the contract I would have to pay roughly $500+. At this point I realized the argument was fruitless so I hung up and immediately contact my lawyer.

The court date is set in May 2007 for a prelimary hearing. My lawyer said I can have up to 15 witnesses who's been conned the same way I have. I'm going to take them down and I'm also thinking about a class action suit against them. If you're in the Windsor area or close by and would like to be a witness please let me know, right now it's just a small claims court. I will keep everyone posted on the outcome.

yah hi universal energy was just at my door and they pressured me into going with them, then in between him asking me foerr my hydro bill which i refused to give i googled it and found this and wont be goin with them thank you all for saving me from a night mare

[/color]
Hey Goingtocourt[/font], if you are interested I have setup an email account so people can add their name discretely. The email address is;[/font]

[font=" verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"] [/font]

Immediately the next day after the appllication, I called to cancell. However they said they haven't received it and they are going to call me within 10 days to verify it which I doubt. I quickly e-mail to cancel. Immediately I received a suto reply. Today I received another confirmation of cancellation. Thanks god.I got off the hook.

Well guess what , I had the same guy from Universal show up at my door the 4th time. It is of course a scam but here is a good idea for those that were scammed and never signed. Don't pay your bill and if they try to collect it, they won't have legal grounds. Better yet, file a ten thousand dollar small claims court plaintiff's claim and have them defend it at a settlement conference....just a thought. I am not signed up. The whole thing and idea is a scam...think about it why would people come to your door to save you money. There is an oxymoron right there.
Have fun!

I called in regarding and add that read "Looking for people for all types of office positions". So I spent the next day and a half learing about the energy industry. The day after that we were sent outside to canvass from door to door selling this nonsense. I thought this was office work like a REAL company. I should of realized this was not the case when I went down the hallway and there was no Finance, Law, Administration and Accounting departments like a REAL company. So we sped off in these stupid little cars all falling apart owned by the BIG corporation that claims to have billions of dollars and can't afford half-decent transportation. On the way outside my partner who was already pissed-off from finding out there are NO real reason to work for goon$ fell backwards on the ice. The leader did not even ask him if he was OK, he only complained that he was not make as much money today. What a bunch of idiots.

Bill

HELLO EVERYONE!!!
ME, like YOU I have had the blessed experience of dealing with UEC. I was told they would save me money, great who does not want to save money. They did NOT see any hydro bill from me personally at all. The agent then quoted me a price (I am not informed of HOW he got these numbers) of a fixed rate at 9.5 kwh as a price and unit cost of aprox 500 kwh so aprox $47.50 GROOVY. Here is the kicker he never tells me the 500 part or I would have told him the ACTUAL MATH... try close to 1500 to 2000 kwh meaning $142.5 to $190.0 THAT is NOT $47.5. So now after seeing the low rate of $47.5 as an average I figure why not THAT is a great deal. Then like everyone other then Jeff on here I see a massive JUMP in price (see above correction in math). Perplexed I call my local provider and they tell me I am being schooled in prison style sex by this GREAT Company. UEC tells me that the 500kwh "average" was given to them by my local provider... that is interesting cause I have never ever came to within 200 of that amount... lowest usage I have posted in this house is 700 kwh a month... law of averages? Have to have low and high amounts? Something like that? Learned that in grade school? Whatever I guess WHO CARES it is like the price of auto fuel going up and down right? ANYWAY.. so they are totally OK with the fact that they LIED to me and many others... and I LIKE YOU am locked into a 5 year SCAM not DEAL with these snakes. HOWEVER, and this is the rub for all of us... PAY CLOSE ATTENTION HERE... if you no longer have and account with your service provider then you no longer have an account with UEC (if you died they can not take your money) SO I am canceling my service with my local supply and setting it back up again with my FULL name... OR someone else's name and change it back again... at the end of the day as long as you have a different account number they can not charge YOU... I am absolutely SICKEN'D with this scam and can not imagine how this is still legal.

Be careful if you try to close your account and then reopen I have been told that they will ruin your credit unless you pay them the crazy breaking the contract fee

hey bill smith,

how do universal energy minions earn their money?

is it commission? how much?