ComplaintsforRene's Total Home Comfort Ltd

• Initial Complaint

  17/05/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Company performed chimney sweep first week of Jan 2022 Bill was paid Jan 12 2022 by EMT Company sent email stating EMT could not be accepted please send again. Jan 12 NEW EMT was sent and accepted by company. Company still maintained they had not received payment and claimed they had been hacked. Proof of accepted payment was sent by me to company on May 12 2022. No further interaction occurred until today May 17 2024. Received letter in mail saying bill has still not been paid and will be sent to collections. Phone call was made and company refuses to accept they have been paid and cannot provide proof of such and are still demanding payment and threatening collections.

  Business response

  21/05/2024

  ****** ******** ****** Report
  
  Subject: ****** ********** *** *** ***** ***** ********
  
  Jan 13/2022, we did a chimney sweep for this homeowner.
  The homeowner was happy with the work with no complaints.
  April /2022, the payment was not received so we put interest on the invoice & the invoice and statement was mailed to the customer.
  April 2022, the homeowner called into the office yelling and swearing at me regarding the invoice.  I was able to calm them down and try to explain the situation to them.  The homeowner said the payment was e-transferred to our ******** account.  I explained that we had been hacked in our email account in January 2022, and that they would have to check with their bank as the paperwork the homeowner sent us says it is accepted but our company did not accept this e-transfer and no deposit was put into our account for that amount.
  I explained to the homeowner that they had a responsibility to double check with their bank that we did not receive the payment. 
  The homeowner refused to double check with their bank as the picture in the email of the e-transfer does not prove where the e-transfer went.   One photo shows it was not successful, but the other one shows it was deposited.  As per homeowners’ complaint, he stated that one of the e-transfers was not accepted so he resubmitted it.
  If the homeowner responded to another email saying what their password was then someone else deposited it into their bank account not our business account.  At no point did the homeowner give our company a password that was needed to deposit it. 
  In April 2022, I put on the homeowners account to never service this customer in the future due to the lack of responsibility the homeowner did not take.
  From Jan-April 2022, I double checked in our bank account and the e-transfer did not get deposited into our account.
  The ** **** has proof of this email hack.  I went into our local ** **** in Campbellford, and they had numerous people and businesses hacked at that time.  When I spoke to the manager, they told me to remove the password off the e-transfer as the hacker will hack into these types of e-transfers than the auto deposit e-transfers.  After the meeting with the ** **** manager, I immediately changed the e-transfer setting to automatically deposit so that customer’s would not have to supply us with a password every time they sent us an e-transfer.
  ** told me any homeowner that made a payment on that date, would have to go into their bank and double check that the e-transfer was not compromised.  The bank is required to refund the payment if a hacker compromises an e-transfer to a company as per our ** ****.
  I contacted 2 other customers after our meeting at the bank and they were more than happy to call their bank and confirm their e-transfer. 
  We hired a company to support our Company with fraud email and to change our email platform.  We have not used the ******** email platform since this happened.
  In May 2024, we sent letters to all our outstanding customers which ****** ********** received a letter to go to collections if it is not paid.  The homeowner was to get proof from his bank account and let our company know.  The homeowner has not done this to this date.
  On May 17/2024 the homeowner ******, called in yelling, screaming, and swearing at our office staff saying he has paid this bill, sent an email to us with the same proof as back in Jan 2022 but it still does not show who deposited this money because he never followed up with his bank. 
  On May 17/2024, my office staff was yelled at, swore at, therefore our office staff told Mr. ********** to not speak to her in that manner.  He continued to do so, therefore we hung up on his abusive phone call.
  On May 17/2024, I told my office staff to never service this customer again and had credited the invoice.
  As a businessperson, I have asked the homeowner to do their part to double check with the bank, they have refused to do so.  We did a job and did not get paid.  We wrote off the invoice, but he is still conducting unprofessional behavior.  All we are asking is proof from the homeowner’s bank where the e-transfer went.  The bank can provide this information to him.  If the homeowner had done this back 2 years ago, we never would have sent him a letter asking for payment.
  Thanks ***** ******
  Renes Total Home Comfort L**
  *** ***** ****** ************ ******* ******
  
  
  
  
  

  Customer response

  22/05/2024

  
  ****** ******** ******:
  Happy they’ve decided to credit the account and not proceed with sending to collections. I did however explain to Rene’s on several occasions that **** does not give out personal information in regards to where EMT’s are sent and they’re not responsible to retrieve money sent once it has been accepted so as far as **** was concerned the EMT I sent was received by Rene’s as it was their email address that accepted the transfer. 
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 21727495, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** **********

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