I want to share my experience with the public about Enercare and their service when your rental hot water heater breaks.
On Monday July 22, 2019 @ 8:30am, my water alarm sounded in my utility room notifying me of a water leak. I determined that the leak was coming from the rental Hot Water Heater that was installed on June 15, 2017 by an Enercare Contractor.
My initial thoughts were thank god I rented from Enercare because the Label on the Hot Water Heater states that I should call their 1-800 number 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and they will send a repair person with "Same Day Service". It also states "No Hot Water? Call and we'll be there. When your water heater breaks down, just call by 5pm and we'll be there as fast as the same day”. I have attached a Picture of the Label. It is now Wednesday when I am writing this email and the service technician is schedule to come on Thursday to have a look at the leaking hot water heater! When I was considering buying versus renting, the sales rep sold me on the benefits of leveraging their vast network of professional service technicians that would be dispatched the same day to resolve any issues with the hot water heater. The "Same Day Service" and peace of mind of having a big company like Enercare standing behind the rental heater made the decision easier for me to rent the unit even though I would pay significantly more.
I know it is more expensive to rent a hot water heater then to go buy one from Home Depot and have a professional plumber install it, but I rented the Hot Water tank for peace of mind if the unit broke down, I would have Enercare to help me. I pay Enercare $34.37 per month, these Hot Water Heater generally last 8-12 years so over a 10-year period the rental will cost me $4124.40. I know I can buy a heater for $1000 and pay a plumber $800 to install it. If I wanted no headaches with ownership, I would replace my hot water heater every 7 years and I would save about $1000 compared to renting from Enercare.
I have been home from work since Monday mopping up the wet basement floor and drywall (it is spraying out of the top of the tank), I have spoken to 8-10 customer service reps, managers, dispatchers and they are all nice people, but they can't schedule me until Thursday July 25 between 1-4pm. After 3 days of begging for help, a Dispatcher called me this morning and said they got me an earlier appointment, Thursday between 8am-12 noon. I have 4 kids at home, I have had to turn off the water in the entire house to prevent water damage to my basement. ALL of the Enercare reps I have spoken to are very nice and sympathetic & understanding but they can't help schedule a repair technician any sooner because "the service technicians are all busy". Why would they attach this Label to the Hot Water Heater if they can't service their equipment for 3-4 days, this is very misleading to the public!
I am so disappointed in Enercare that I called yesterday to see what it will cost me to get out of the Rental Agreement, the rep told me it would cost $1831 to buy the contract out. This morning, I spoke to another manager and he passed me to another manager in the "Loyalty" department to see if they could reduce the cost of the "buy out". After spending another 38 minutes on the phone and him speaking to his manager, they said that if I wanted out of the contract, I would have to pay $1831. I asked about some compensation for the 4 days of me not working, staying home to keep the basement dry to prevent water damage and they said that they are sorry but would not offer any financial compensation.
With this poor experience, I will never rent another Hot Water Heater. I know if I owned the Hot Water Heater, I could have paid a plumber to come fix my tank within 24 hours and not missed work and gone through all the stress.
This has been a learning experience and I would like you to share this information with the public in the Toronto area. I am sure Enercare has many rental agreements and many potential customers deciding if they should rent or buy their hot water heaters.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $35.00