Just Beware of the “Just Energy” door-to-door scam [Video]

As the last of this year’s graduates from Algonquin College leave the neighbourhood, and the new crop of students move in, the energy re-sellers looking to take advantage of the newbies flock to the neighbourhood.

If you haven’t already had the “pleasure” of meeting somebody from Just Energy (www.justenergy.com) you will soon be summoned to your front door by a knock, or that obnoxious doorbell we all have and hate. What you will find is a friendly person wanting to talk about your household’s energy consumption and, guess what, how they can save you money! Sounds great right? Wrong. 98% of the people who sign this contract lose money! Here are the stats.

Here’s how it works:
A young, usually attractive, person will visit your house holding a clipboard, binder, or folder and an official piece of ID hanging around their neck, or clipped to their pocket. They say they work for an energy company, this year it is Just Energy (Others include Direct Energy, Active Energy, FireFly Energy, MyRate Energy, etc.)

They will ask you if the energy bills are registered to your name. Right here is where you should get out of this conversation, just say ‘no’ and say the person who takes care of the bills is on vacation for a couple of weeks – easy stuff.

But if you get stuck talking to this salesman he/she will try to convince you into signing a contract that guarentees one cost for your energy (electricity and natural gas) for the next 5 years. Doesn’t this sound great? Nope! The problem is that they adjust your rate to an estimated average of what the energy costs will be in 2015 average it out, and you pay the same amount over the next 5 years. This is bad because you will be paying more than the market price for energy. What you have just agreed to is a fixed rate, that won’t go up, but it’s already way higher than the rate you are paying at the “non-fixed” price.

The trouble is that most of these houses on Deerfield Drive are occupied for one, or two years maximum. This is where most of the profit is made on these companies, because you are paying anticipated 2015 prices in 2010. These companies know that the tenants turn over quite a bit in this neighbourhood, so each year at this time they try to “sign up” as many young people as they can.

Here’s a video about the same scam going on in the US (it probably explains it better than I just did). The company featured in this vid is called US Energy Savings Corp. and they just changed their name to….Just Energy!

How to avoid getting scammed by these guys…it’s pretty easy:
1. Never sign anything at the door. If you are feeling a lot of pressure, that’s bad – end the conversation
2. Ask for a card, talk it over with the dudes in you house, and call the company back if you really want their service
3. Just Google them to get the scoop on what they are offering, and what are the strings
4. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is

In my experience this year I asked for a card and said “I’ll call you and let you know,” the sales rep sighed, rolled his eyes and handed my this form, which really doesn’t say anything:

Not convinced? Here are some more stories about the scam:

• http://www.moneysmartsblog.com/energy-sales-scams/
• http://valpetridis.blog.ca/2010/03/13/gas-price-scams-exposed-8171442/

Also, I had a buddy who did this high-pressure energy sales thing for a couple of years all across Ontario and he thought it was a scam to…so even the guys pressuring you to sign this contract know it’s a joke.

If this happens to you, or you had a different experience, let us know by adding your comment below, or send us an email at deerfielddriveottawa@gmail.com. You can follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/DeerfieldDrive.

Hey Look! A Bridge!

Last night a pedestrian bridge was installed in the neighbourhood…..well it’s at Algonquin College, but we consider it part of the neighbourhood. Looks like it attaches the existing college to the new building across the street. It is going to be awesome to be able to walk inside all the way to the bus station.

There’s not a whole lot more to say about it, I took some photos and thought I would share them. Here ya go:

Pedestrian footbridge at Algonquin College

Another Pic

Attaching to the existing campus

See the rest of my photos of the bridge here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deerfielddriveottawa/sets/72157624785286098/

Fire! Fire! Fire! And Minto Security…[Video]

Our beloved Deerfield Drive went up in flames last night with a fire breaking out at the Aventura Apartment complex.  There was a whole bunch of trucks, police officers, and of course, Minto Security.

So it turns out an 18-year old dude was cooking with a pot of oil in his 3rd-floor apartment when it caught fire. Instead of putting on the lid, or pouring baking soda to smother the flames, the poor kid tried to lift it from his stove to the balcony.  As a result, he burnt his hands on the way, dropped the pot on his feet (burnt them pretty bad) and then the flames gutted his apartment – $175,000 damages.

Fire truck on the scene of the Deerfield Drive fire on August 18, 2010

The entire building was evacuated but no other apartments were burnt – which is good. A couple were treated for smoke inhalation, so there were 3 injuries in total.  Best part is that nobody was seriously injured or died.

I was taking video an pics last night, and I was only hassled by one officer…a Minto Security officer. He strolled up to me and asked me “Hey! Are you with that guy!” pointing at a fireman taking photos of the scene…with a mustache.  Of course I said “ya” and the Minto Security guard said “Ya, ok, sorry man,” and then slinked off into the night. Gotta love those guys…hahaha. Here’s the vid I shot at the scene….You can hear that Minto Security question and answer at the end.

If you want to read more about this fire, check out these news stories:

• CBC – http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/08/19/ottawa-grease-fire.html
• Ottawa Citizen – http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/taken+hospital+after+apartment+fire/3415391/story.html
• CFRA – http://www.cfra.com/?cat=1&nid=75065

See the rest of my photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deerfielddriveottawa/sets/72157624660727307/

What the hell is this blog and how do I get on it?

So you might be asking yourself a few questions.  First of all, what is Deerfield Drive and why does it have a blog? Good questions, and here’s the best we could do for an answer…

Deerfield Drive is a community in the west-end of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It’s one small street composed of about 100 townhouse/gardenhome buildings, 3 low-rise apartment buildings, and 2 high-rise buildings. Here’s an image from Bing maps:

Bird's eye view of Deerfield Drive

These are all rental properties managed by Minto Group Inc. By reputation, this place is a “student ghetto” for Algonquin College students. As a result, Minto doesn’t take very good care of the units – ancient windows, poor repairs, rotting balconies, and rent increases above the provincial guidelines, Hooray!

Lots of noise, lots of parties, lots of cigarette (and other) smoke, lots of booze (my neighbours are arguing about how to drink a 40 ouncer of beer as I write this post), in general it is a lively, and very interesting place to live.

In our brief time here there have been legendary parties, pickup street basketball, home invasions, Landlord and Tenant Board Hearing, and much, much more.

So what the hell is this blog?

Well we want to hear, and share, the stories from Deerfield Drive! The parties, the pranks, the dealings with management, the garbage issue (we’ll get to that in a later post).  The important thing is that we need to hear from our fellow Deerfield residents!  Send us an email, story, picture, video, or whatever you want to tell us about your living experience on Deerfield Drive – DeerfieldDriveOttawa@gmail.com.

We’ll be setting up a YouTube channel, and a Flickr gallery (probably) to organize and display all the submissions. In the meantime, feel free to upload your content to the Facebook page – I Live(d) or partied on Deerfield If your story/pics/video is one of the best, we’ll feature it on the blog – with full props to you of course!

So keep those cameras going and check back often to see what you, and your neighbours, are up to.  People who used to live on Deerfield are also encouraged to submit….I’ve already got some great stories from Deerfield Alum.

Already have something to share? Send us an email at DeerfieldDriveOttawa@gmail.com.