Doorstep sales leave consumers fuming Complaints lead to city warning
Two Ottawa-area homeowners recently found themselves locked in bitter disputes with a homeappliance-rental company over its door-to-door sales.
Man Guo and Diane Cousineau are accusing Ontario Safety Standards, which has offices in Ottawa and Toronto, of misrepresenting itself at their doorsteps and employing high-pressure sales tactics to get them to sign up for expensive, long-term rental contracts.
The 10-year contracts both women entered into would have seen them spend more than $6,000 on water softeners. (The units are manufactured under the brand Tahoe and are valued around $1,800 online.)
The issue of companies peddling water softeners and filters doorto-door in Ottawa led the city to release a statement last month broadly warning residents.
“The city has received complaints from residents who have been contacted by vendors selling water-filtration or treatment systems and providing incorrect information about water quality,” reads the public warning, titled Phoney sales pitches prompt City warning and was released on Feb. 7.
Ian Douglas, water-quality engineer with Drinking Water Services at the City of Ottawa, did not identify companies the city received complaints about. However, he stressed that people on municipally supplied water do not need water softeners.
“We do not recommend the use of a water softener for residents on the city water supply,” he said in an email to the Citizen. “Ottawa draws its water from the Ottawa River, which is naturally soft ... the use of a water softener can result in very high sodium levels. As for other home filtration devices, Ottawa tap water does not require further treatment.”
The province, meanwhile, is also moving to restrict door-to-door contract sales, with new legislation.
Bruce Cran, president and director of the Canadian Consumer Association, said his organization has been hearing complaints for decades now about door-to-door sales people attempting to get homeowners to sign lengthy contracts.
Cran said the complaints started with electricity and gas contracts, which locked homeowners into fixed utility rates. Then it was furnace replacements, then air conditioners and water heaters; now the focus seems to be on products to treat water.
“This is chronic. It happens in peaks, and right now I think we have one,” said Cran. “The people who do this sort of stuff are looking for avenues where they can use these unusual skills that they have to convince people that they need something they don’t need.”
Questions to Ontario Safety Standards CEO Saeed Torbatim were referred to lawyer Pradeep Chand.
“With respect to the individual customers referred to within your email, I am advised that (Ontario Safety Standards) has undertaken to investigate these matters internally,” Chand said in an email.
The Citizen contacted Ontario Safety Standards regarding the issues this past Wednesday. Guo was then told her water softener would be removed, at no charge to her, and Friday it was. Cousineau hadn’t heard from the company.
Chand said that despite the company’s name, Ontario Safety Standards, it is not affiliated with the provincial government.
“(Ontario Safety Standards) is not affiliated in any way with the Ontario government or any government agency. (Ontario Safety Standards) has never claimed to be affiliated with the provincial government or any government agency and each customer is reminded of this distinction at least once before any contract is signed or installation takes place,” he said.
‘YOU’RE GOING TO SAVE ALL THIS MONEY’
“You have no idea how embarrassing this is,” says Diane Cousineau. “You keep kicking yourself.”
Cousineau says a representative from a company called Ontario Safety Standards was canvassing homes in Russell, just outside the city limits of Ottawa, on the evening of Dec. 9.
Cousineau runs her own business these days, after retiring from a career as a professional.
When the representative got to Cousineau, he asked her about the age of her furnace and air conditioning unit. He told her he was travelling with a supervisor and said he’d be back shortly to discuss their offerings, she told the Citizen.
The salesman returned with his supervisor a short while later, according to Cousineau. The two asked to come in and, she said, she grudgingly obliged.
She said the pair made comments about the provincial government encouraging everyone to update their heating and cooling systems to high-efficiency units. The two also commented on the upcoming Ontario carbon tax, she said. When the representative found out that both the furnace and the air-conditioning unit in Cousineau’s home were new, she said, he shifted his focus to talk about water quality.
“To this day, I can’t remember how we made our way to the water softener,” said Cousineau, although she did tell the pair she wasn’t happy with the faint smell of chlorine she could detect from her municipally supplied water. “He started talking about the benefits of a water softener. He said, ‘You’re going to save all this money.’ ‘You’re going to pay less with this.’ Then he did all these calculations and he said, ‘It’s going to eliminate the carbon tax.’ ”
As the evening dragged on, Cousineau said the tag team of salesmen was wearing on her. She agreed to rent a water softener for $59.99 monthly; the cost was to be added to her Enbridge bill. She said the supervisor then phoned his company’s head offices to confirm her as a new customer. Minutes after that, with the pair of salespeople still sitting at her kitchen table, Cousineau said, her home phone rang. She said when she answered it was a representative from Ontario Safety Standard’s offices calling to confirm that Cousineau accepted the terms of the rental.
She said installation of the unit was scheduled for Dec. 10, the very next day.
She says the sale left her embarrassed. “You question yourself,” she says.
“I am sure there are more people out there feeling the same way and just aren’t saying anything.”
MAN GUO
Guo is a technology worker who moved to a home in Kanata from Quebec late last year.
She said a salesperson arrived at her doorstep in the early evening on Feb. 4.
Guo, who speaks English as a second language, said she had a hard time understanding him due the language barrier and claims he spoke very fast. The representative showed her an identification card that he had clipped to his shirt that said Ontario Safety Standards, she said.
She said he informed her he needed to see her furnace and water heater to ensure they were energy efficient. After inspecting her equipment, she said, he phoned his manager, who promptly showed up at Guo’s home.
“He said that, ‘You are qualified for our program’ and he said, ‘By installing a water filter, you can save a total of $67 per month for your gas, hydro and water bill,” she said. “I just moved to Ontario a few months ago and I was not very familiar with the environment. I thought that this is a government program for energy efficiency and clean water, so I signed the agreement.”
According to Guo, the manager then called Ontario Safety Standards’ head office and passed his phone to her. Government legislation requires a phone call be made to the customer to confirm the specifics of the contract.
She said an installer arrived at her home less than two hours later. However, instead of a water filter the contractor installed a water softener, she said.
Guo said she sent a registered letter to Ontario Safety Standards about two days later, well within the provincially mandated “cooling off” period. She was told she would need to pay a $500 removal fee to exit her contract.
MEET THE CEO
The chief executive officer of Ontario Safety Standards is a young Ottawa businessman named Saeed Torbati, who founded the company.
Torbati found himself in the headlines last year after he was charged in an alleged hit-and-run that left a pedestrian dead in Toronto. A 56-year-old woman was struck by a Mercedes as she attempted to cross Markham Road, police said. Torbati’s one-week preliminary hearing is scheduled to start on May 1.
As well as being listed as the CEO of Ontario Safety Standards, he is also the chief executive officer of Ontario Stars. His lawyer described the latter as a legal entity incorporated in Ontario, and said Ontario Safety Standards is one of its trade names.
Torbati served as national sales manager for another door-to-door sales company — Ontario Consumers Home Services — until August of 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The lawyer said there is no relationship between Ontario Consumers and Ontario Safety Standards.
Despite that, Ontario Safety Standards is now using Ontario Consumers’ old Ottawa phone number and address.
Lawyer Pradeep Chand, to whom Torbati referred the Citizen’s questions, acted as legal counsel for Ontario Consumers Home Services in 2013 when the company and four of its directors were facing 63 charges under the Consumer Protection Act.
Ontario Consumers chose to pay restitution to the customers affected. Charges against the company were dropped, according to the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services.
Torbati graduated from Algonquin College four years ago with a diploma in sales, distribution and marketing operations, according to his LinkedIn profile.
On the company Facebook page for Ontario Stars, Torbati paints a picture of the earnings potential for his employees. In one post he shows a picture of a Rolex watch sitting next to Breitling time piece. The Rolex in the picture is valued at about $10,000 while the Breitling is valued at about $6,400.
“Beauty and the Beast sitting side by side,” reads the post. “Be structural with your business because it simplifies its teachability to others, be persistent and follow our success strategy.”
Another post shows a man standing next to a Lamborghini Aventador, which has a base price of US$424,845.
“Humans are designed and engineered for success and accomplishments,” reads the post from Torbati. “Do what you are engineered to do and in the process don’t tell people your dreams, show them your dreams.”
Job postings for the firms are featured prominently at colleges and universities and are targeted at the 18- through 25-year-olds. Job postings promise entry level salaries of $45,000 annually. One recent posting asked, “Wouldn’t you like to make at least $2,000 or more a week?”
The posting, for a job at Ottawa Stars, also says the company is expanding rapidly and looking for more sales staff this summer.
“Due to our massive expansion, Ontario Stars is now offering this exciting opportunity to young adults and teenagers,” reads the job ad on Indeed.com.
The companies use a third-party billing firm to automatically deduct payments for rental agreements from a customer’s Enbridge bill. As a result, the three companies do not need to be approved by Enbridge to operate their businesses. They also do not need their own accounting and billing departments and they do not send bills directly to consumers.
However, Enbridge distanced itself from any companies that piggy back on its bills. “These companies are not owned by or affiliated with Enbridge and we do not recommend, endorse or guarantee the products or services offered by such companies,” said Tanya Bruckmueller a spokeswoman for Enbridge. She further specified that Enbridge does not sell or rent any gas appliances, offer services such as furnace tune-ups, sell any natural gas supply contracts, offer any financing services or participate in environmental initiatives such as carbon offsets.
“Enbridge does not provide the ... services and does not authorize any other companies to provide them on our behalf,” she said.
THE LAW
Consumer groups have long lamented what they consider highpressure doorstep sales in Ontario. The provincial government is currently working to pass Bill 59, the Putting Consumers First Act, which will amend consumerprotection laws and make door-todoor sales of goods and services illegal in the province.
Current laws require businesses to allow a consumer to pull out of a contract within 20 days without penalties. The laws also require a business to phone a person who has agreed to a contract to verify that they are indeed interested in receiving the services and understand the terms of the contract.
The proposed regulations take things one step further.
“No supplier shall, while at a consumer’s dwelling or at any other prescribed place, solicit the consumer to enter into a direct agreement for the supply of prescribed goods or services or enter into such an agreement,” reads the bill, which has already passed its third reading and is expected to be passed as new legislation in the coming months.
The new legislation will limit the ability of companies to sell items and services by soliciting a person at their home. It will also alter the “cooling off” period for consumers who agree to long-term contracts. Instead of a blanket 20-day cooling off period to change their minds about a contract, the new laws will require companies to give consumers a 10-day cooling off period after an agreement has been made, signed and a copy of the contract has been returned to the consumer. The requirement that the contract be provided to the consumer is intended to ensure the person has time to fully understand the agreement they are entering into.