The Consumer Complaints Blog

When were companies given the right to no longer send statements or bills? I have tried contacting the Consumers Bureau about this, but to the best of my knowledge, no one works there. There’s an answering machine and no one responds to messages.

My complaints:

For years I have given permission for companies to pay bills by direct payment from my bank account or on a credit card with no problems. Lately, companies have decided to save money by never sending a bill or statement. Some say they will e-mail one. It seldom happens. When you contact them, they tell you they don’t have your e-mail address and somehow they never have it, no matter how many times you give it to them. Upon request for a paper bill, they promise but don’t deliver. The problem? You have no proof of payment, no knowledge when problems arise and payment isn’t made, and when you cancel a service they continue to take your money.

1. Rolly’s Transfer – a moving and storage company in Winnipeg. I removed my items from storage, direct billing on my credit card ceased for 2 months, then started again. I contacted the company; they said they’d look into it. I never heard from them again. Visa fought this battle for me.

2. Telus – Just stopped sending bills, then cancelled my cell phone service. When I contacted them, I owed them a large sum of money because my credit card number had changed. With no bills I had no way of contacting them so I waited for them to contact me. It took 3 months. As it was, I had a problem even when I phoned the number in their message on my cell phone. They can’t find the appropriate department themselves. They said they didn’t send bills by e-mail because they didn’t have my address ( not that they ever requested it or even told me they were stopping paper bills.) I have yet to receive an e-bill.

3. U Weight Loss – I used their finance company which offered interest free loans if you signed a paper authorizing them to take the payment directly from your bank account. I have never received a loan statement even though I have repeatedly requested one. I refuse to deal with this company as a result.

4. AAA Alarms – My alarm monitoring company sold their monitoring service to AAA Alarms. I have never received a statement or bill. When I recently married, my husband had a monitoring contract with AAA which he could not be released from even if he sold the house. They did agree to move it to my house. However, they have given us 2 months of run around and red tape. Every time we comply with their wishes, a new rule is brought out. The final one was that I had to prove I had no monitoring contract. Interesting, with absolutely no paper work from AAA. I contacted the servicing company which had the original contract and was told they were not happy with what their parent company had done and were having no end of problems with AAA. They said they would contact AAA on my behalf for the proof and relay the proof to me. AAA never responded to their written requests. Then I began the red tape process of just cancelling my service. I have yet to receive confirmation of cancellation or final billing information. I contacted the Consumer’s Bureau to determine my rights and advice; left a message and have never had a response. Does this place really exist or is it a government front to placate us?

5. Shaw – A direct payment didn’t go through. I didn’t notice. No bills, no contact until service was cancelled. I went down to Shaw in person to straighten out the mess and pay my bill. They had switched to e-bills and mine didn’t go through. They were very nice and said they would send me a paper bill. That was 6 months ago. I have received one paper bill.

Is anyone else having similar problems?

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

This is the first in our Helping You Shop section. Every once in a while we come across an exceptional business we just need to tell people about.

It’s BBQ season and for those of us that love to grill, there is no better time of year. The best results start with the best meat. Good quality meat is more important than any spice or rub you can come up with. Start with a great cut of meat, from a naturally raised animal, and all you really need is salt and smoke to make it taste great.

1 inch thick cut Berkshire pork chops gently cooking over some hickory wood and maple charcoal.

If you live in the city it’s fairly easy to find a few organic butchers. But what do you do if you’re somewhere else in the GTA or even in the 905? You’ve basically got two options. Either make the drive into Toronto and waste a beautiful day paying for parking or make the painless drive out to Fãmu. If you’re serious about BBQ and your family’s health, you need to go see Fãmu for your next cookout.

Fãmu is located at 3160 Steeles Ave, between Victoria Park and Woodbine just east of the 404. You can contact them by telephone at 905-475-5005 or visit their website at http://www.famu.ca/.

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So what’s so great about them? You mean beside the fact that they custom age their stakes, will cut or source pretty much any cut of meat you want, they cary only naturally raised meat that is free of hormones and other pollutants, and the meat is locally sourced in Ontario from small family farms?

But don’t take my word for it, let’s let the meat speak for itself. Below you’ll find photos of just some of the mouth watering cuts of meat that will make you the talk of all your friends gathered around the BBQ this summer.

Amazingly flavourful skirt steak.

Thinly sliced Wagyu (Kobe) beef. Ideal for Korean BBQ or Japanese grilled dishes.

Naturally raised angus steak.

Just some of the great meats available at Fãmu.

We recently purchased a retractable awning from this business. While the product is good, the service is definitely not. The owner of the business came and did a consultation for us where we described what we wanted from the awning and what it was supposed to do. That included where it was to be mounted in order to accomplish the result we were after. That would be above the patio light so as not to block it off. The awning was ordered based on the consultation but when it was installed, it was painfully obvious that it was too small to do what we wanted it to do. Granted, the measurements on the order were exactly what we got but the consultation we received grossly missed the mark.
When we determined that the only way to get this $1,700.00 mess close to fixed was to move the awning below the patio light which would require me to purchase and install a new light, we were told by the owner that he wasn’t running a charity and it would cost $150.00 or it wasn’t getting moved.

So remember, when John says “Excellence in service is my business – you have my word on it”…..don’t believe him!! There are other businesses out there that I’m sure will live up to that statement.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I need help to resolve a problem I am having with UPS and Fed EX.
In March my friend and I sent 18 bottles of wine home from Italy. Before I go any further I admit right now that we had no idea that it was so difficult to send wine to Canada never having tried something like this before. We were told in Italy that it was done all of the time and that they could ship the wine for us-and so we did. The wine cost approximately 20 euros/bottle. It cost about 100.00 Euros to ship. We thought at we were getting a very good deal. Unfortunately we were so wrong.

Once the wine arrived in Canada I received a phone call from Lynn Grant from UPS to send them copies of the receipts for the purchase and shipping charges. I was told that there were several steps before the wine could be released and that it would take approximately 30-40 days. I was told that they had to send the information on to the LCBO who would then determine a Canadian cost for the wine + taxes and then the shipment would go through customs and that they would assign customs fees. After that was done UPS would charge a brokerage fee and after all of the fees were paid that the shipment would be released and delivered by Fed Ex. for which there would be no charge.

It is now May 14. After having paid all of the fees requested by UPS I believed that my shipment would be released and that we would finally get the wine. However I received an ‘emergency’ email from Lyn Grant asking me to call her. I was told that I would have to pay an additional 300.00 on top of the 561. 00 for 12 bottles and another 194.00 for the other 6 bottles which I had already paid to UPS. Having paid almost 800.00 is fees I expected that my wine shipment would be delivered.
Unfortunately this was not the case. As you can see from the attachments above I received an email from UPS asking me to contact them. I was told on the phone that Fed Ex wanted to now charge storage fees. According to Ms. Grant from UPS this has never happened in the past. She explained that they had an ‘ understanding’ with Fed Ex, that Fed Ex understood that the process to get wine through customs could take up to 40 days and that they had never been charged before. However, according to Ms. Grant, Fed Ex now wanted and additional 300.00 in storage fees and that my shipment would not be released by Fed Ex unless I paid the fees.

I could not believe this. I asked for the number for Fed EX. I called Fed Ex ( 613) 738-4501 and spoke to Roger. Roger explained that UPS was being dishonest. He said that Fed Ex always charged for storage. He said that they were told by UPS not to deliver the shipment as UPS did not want to pay the additional fee. He put me through to his manager Jason. Jason gave me the same information. He said that they always charged UPS storage fees for anything over 3 days. He explained that UPS didn’t always pay the fees. He said that they were willing to deliver the shipment but that UPS would not allow it because they would have to pay the storage fees. He explained that there was absolutely no reason why it should take 40 days to clear customs.

I called and spoke to Lynn Grant from UPS (613) 737-5935. She was very aggressive on the phone. I asked her to send me this new explanation in writing and that I would discuss this with my husband. She maintained that Fed EX was being honest. She maintains that UPS has never had to pay storage fees before. She explained that if they wanted UPS to pay storage fees then they should have filled them from the start and that they should have received a bill from Fed Ex. She maintains that they never got a bill from Fed EX. She explained that it was Fed Ex who would not deliver the shipment as they now wanted more money. Ms. Grant told me that she didn’t like being seen as a liar. That she would speak to her superiors and that they would sort this out. It should be noted that she did not send me this information in writing, and that she got back to me.

As you can imagine I was very upset by this turn of events. I told her that I had paid all of the extra fees her company working as the brokerage company had requested. I felt that I had met my end of the obligation and because of this that they should ask Fed Ex to release my shipment and that this new battle is between Fed Ex and UPS. She said it was Fed Ex who would not release the shipment, Fed EX said it was UPS.

For some reason Fed Ex delivered 6 bottles. I did not have to pay the storage fees. I thought that Ms. Grant at UPS had sorted out this problem. I was wrong. I received a note from Mr. Wagi from UPS today telling me that I had to pay a Fed Ex bill or Fed EX would not deliver the other 12 bottles of wine. It seems Ms. Grant is on holidays and Mr. Waji had taken over the file. I did not hear back from Ms. Grant. I have no idea if they tried to resolve this issue with Fed Ex or as the manager from Fed Ex explained-they were simply trying to download 1 of their costs onto the client. (Because of a delay (Ups did not process the 12 bottles at the same time) the other 12 were not delivered at the same time.) As you can see from the attached, that UPS is now telling me that I have to pay the storage fees on the 12 bottles or Fed Ex will not deliver.

I feel that I had an agreement with UPS. I paid in full the amounts I was told it would cost to have the shipments released and delivered to my home. I don’t believe that I should now have to pay additional charges because UPS made a mistake or is simply lying to me. I don’t believe I should be caught in the middle of this new battle between UPS and FED EX.

Please help me. I am getting totally different stories from both companies and UPS is refusing to allow Fed EX to deliver my shipment.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I purchased several Kenmore appliances from Sears about 4 years ago. One refrigerator $700 another 3 door refrigerator $1800 and a front load washer $600. All three appliances broke down within 4 years. I was able to fix the $700 refrigerator which was due to a drain pan which is located above the condenser which was never properly glued down causing it to crack and slip out of place causing leaking. The $1800 one I am working on but if it is the computer, which I suspect, it will be garbage. The frame which holds the drum in place on the washer rotted away and I contacted Sears because the drum has a lifetime warranty; however, they refuse to send me a drum unless I paid $129.99 for them to install it. They also advised that I would have to pay for additional parts which would have to be replaced and they could not tell me how much that would cost. The washer therefore is also garbage. These appliances are very shabbily made and Sears is very difficult to deal with. I would advise anyone considering purchasing any Kenmore appliances from Sears to do so at their own peril.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.