The Consumer Complaints Blog

I am one of four owners of a small, but growing business. One of the other owners used his personal credit card to rent some scaffolding from Alberta Drywall & Stucco Supply in January 2011. He 4 months later was putting through his expenses and realized that they used his credit card to process the final rental fees and never sent him a copy of the invoice. He contacted them to request one be sent to him and was told by a female staff member (who seemed a bit put out) that she would look for it and send it out the next day. A week later after hearing or receiving nothing, he called back and spoke to a gentleman about the same request. This time the guy was blatant about the inconvenience of this task, especially because it was 4 months after the transaction and we were “JUST ASKING FOR IT NOW?” When he was informed that the total of this particular transaction was $86.10 (to help him locate it) that is when he went into full chorus of “You want me to spend $100 to find an $86 invoice?” Apparently his wage for the estimated 4 hours he felt it would take to locate our invoice was too much for a customer. When he was asked plainly if he would locate it or not he said “No.” Now the best part about all of this is when I called back to Alberta Drywall & Stucco Supply to see if I could speak to a manager and enlighten them to the attitude that their staff demonstrated to the public and their customers. When I told the office manager my request, he told me that he would have one of the office ladies obtain it and sent a copy to me the next day. I took that moment to tell him of the last response we got not hours prior. That is when he acknowledged being aware of it by telling me “Ya…I know. That was the owner.” I was FLABERGASTED!!!!! I told him that if that is the image that the owner wants associated with his company then all the power to him. It is one thing to see poor customer service from staff that are maybe poorly trained, unhappy with their jobs or maybe just having a bad day, but THE OWNER?! I can assure you that anyone that has a company that thinks that they can pick and choose who they service kindly, poorly or not at all, in my opinion won’t be in business too long. I know that we will not ever be customers of theirs again.

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.

When I bought my house four years ago, I hired Pillar to Post to do the home inspection.

This is a very critical part of the home buying process. Not only do the buyers rely on this report, but to some degree the banks do too.

To make a long story short. The Pillar to Post inspection stated plainly that there was no visible evidence of wood destroying insects. These creatures are better known as termites! The report from Pillar to Post further stated that there was no visibile evidence that the structure or a portion thereof (my house) was treated for termites. I bought the house.

Ok, so here is where the fun begins! It’s now time to sell my house and the buyer’s inspector shows my realtor and the buyers evidence of past termite damage in plain view.

On top of that he shows them drill marks where the termite treatment was applied. That too, is in plain sight, just as you enter the house. Are you kidding me?
Any inspector with basic training should have seen this. The evidence was in plain sight, to the trained eye that is (hint, it should have been to the Pillar to Post inspector).

I contacted Pillar to Post and apprised them of this information. I requested that they re-imburse me for the fees I paid to them. Reasonable enough request.
Not to Mr. Dave Moore, the current owner of the franchise. He basically stated that Pillar to Post is not responsible because they are not required to affirm that there is no evidence of damage or treatment, in spite of the fact that their report affirmatively checked “No” to whether or not “it appears that the structure(s) or a portion thereof may have been previously treated.”

And their report also checked off the following: “No visible evidence of wood destroying insects were observed. When I read this report back to him, his response was well, they are only responsible for 6 months! Can you believe that? How is the average buyer supposed to know what termite damage or termite treatment looks like when the “professional” doesn’t know. If you can’t rely on the home inspection company, who can you rely on?

Not only was Pillar to Post incompetent in doing the inspection, but I believe they are thieves too, because they did not earn my fees. And on top of that they cost me negotiating power (which translates into $). If I would have bought the house, you can be sure I would have demanded from the Sellers a concession($$$$), treatment and a warranty. Which is exactly what the current buyers of my house demanded.
So I had to give the buyers a concession ($$$), pay for an inspection, and treatment for the next 3 years (long after the sell of the house).

Signed,
Telling everyone via blog, email, and word of mouth about how incompetent Pillar to Post is…. aka

BUYERS BEWARE:So remember Pillar to Post is responsible for giving you a report, not for whether or not it is an accurate one.

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.

Resolving unfair stolen vehicle insurance offers:

We had our Honda Odyssey stolen in Nov. 2009. I was extremely disappointed by Primmum Auto Insurance, (TD Insurance), totally unfair offer. They started at $30,500. Replacement for a similar used vehicle was $40k. Why must the consumer battle it out just to get paid fair replacement cost. Hopefully this bad press will make them think twice.

After many calls to them, they raised their offer to $33k. They wouldn’t budge.

Finally I called the Insurance ombudsmen, who referred me to the Primmum Auto Insurance, (TD Insurance) ombudsmen. I thought here we go again, but was pleasantly surprised by their response. I e-mailed them my fair value comparison spreadsheet. 24 hours later they agreed to $40k, and sent me a chq.

One of many underhanded strategies employed by the ins. co’s third party fair value evaluator was comparing my car to recent similar sales and offers that were mostly US imports. Honda Cda doesn’t honour warranties on US imports. One can buy a third party warranty for between $1,500- $2,500 extra. This extra cost wasn’t being calculated in the “fair value”.

When I pointed this out to the Primmum Auto Insurance, (TD Insurance) I was told they “don’t insure warranties”. What a scam! All I wanted was a bruised apple for my stolen “bruised apple”.

We were fortunate to have two vehicles and didn’t have to rush to settle. The insurance company was in no rush to resolve this. They said my only other avenue was to get a lawyer. If it happens to you, give them your final offer and if it’s not accepted, call the insurance ombudsmen.

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 am a customer of Rogers cell company since 2003. During this time I may have had few late payments, however, I have always paid my bills ( otherwise I wouldn’t have a cell phone with them).

Rogers has the wrothest customer service in caring for their loyal clients. on January 17 2011 I received a message on my cell that I am behind for my phone bill payment. At the time I check and I realized that I never received my Rogers phone bill for the month of December and therefore I have not pay. I made the payment on line on Jan 20th in 3 days after their 1st message. Now the problem is that after a message being left on my cell in Jan 17th, from Jan 17th –Jan 23rd, they have called me 16 times on my cell and 8-10 times on my house phone. I received one call on January 21st at 1:14 am when I was sleeping. On Saturday Jan 22nd I told the lady stop calling I have paid but I still received a call on Sunday when I told her I have already spoken to someone, she was so rude and still would not let me off the phone and I just hang up on her.

I would like to know who gives them the right to call after midnight re. a phone bill? Who gives them the right to harass civilians continuously? What are my legal rights as a consumer? Could I take legal actions for harassment? They call from these 2 numbers 1-800-300-4000 and 1-866-349-4596. When I searched I could not find the subscriber, however, people from these 2 numbers told me they are calling from Rogers. I am very angry and upset with this situation. What would you do on behalf of me as a consumer?

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.

Upon installation of my satellite services, the Bell technician broke my brand new TV. I was not in the room and did not see it, but the TV was fine before he came and was moved from one place to another and broken when he left. I called Bell as soon as I realized what had happened and lodged a complaint. Since then I have been on the phone with Bell customer service repeatedly. I have been punted from one person to another, has escalated again and again and nothing is being done. They claim that because they outsource their installation practices, they are not accountable for the broken TV, but they also will not give me the name of the company they outsource to.

At long last they sent a guy (Al) out from the outsourced company to see if the TV is in fact broken – which of course it is. He then tells me that the technician denies breaking it and that if they choose to compensate me for the TV, it would be the technician himself who would have to pay for it (well of course he’s denying everything then). So basically it’s my word against his, and good luck with that. Additionally, if they do decide to compensate me for the TV, I shouldn’t expect full price because once it’s out of the store, it’s worth only about half of the original cost (the TV was 5 days old!). If the technician refuses to pay, then there’s nothing the company could do and I’d have to take him to small claims court, and the technician likely wouldn’t show up, so it really wouldn’t be worth it for me. Al continued to tell me that this is why Bell outsources, so that they don’t have to deal with this type of thing.

So basically, everyone involved is brushing me off and refusing to take responsibility and have no qualms with this. So my counsel to anyone thinking of joining Bell is to NOT let any technician in to your house – because even if you follow them around for the entire 3 hours it takes for installation, even if you do see the technician cause any damage, it’s still your word against theirs and again, good luck with that. It is such a huge risk for consumers because these technicians could steal anything, break anything, basically do anything they want and the company won’t do anything for you. It’s actually quite scary. Oh, and good old Al was quick to tell me that Rogers does the same thing so it’s not worth switching because I’d face the same thing with them.

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.