<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE Confort Geothermique – Customers beware

 

Has anyone else had issues with this company?

Confort Geothermique, based at 368 Rue Main in Gatineau fitted a geothermal system for the previous owner of my house.  The house was then repossessed in 2008/9 and the company then entered the property, prior to the bank taking possession and removed the geothermal equipment.  An electrical system was then fitted and remained until I took ownership of the property in late 2009.  I made enquiries and discovered that Confort Geothermique had installed the original system so spoke to their sales representative Andre Lavasseur.  Andre gave me a quote for returning the house to geothermal.  As the previous system had been installed by Confort Geothermique and, as I was new to geothermal I asked Andre if he had detailed knowledge of the system previously installed and asked, on 3 occasions if I would be eligible for the  federal and Municipal grants.  On all occasions, both verbally and in an email quote, he confirmed that I did indeed qualify for up to $10,250 in grants / rebates.    On this information from Andre Lavasseur and on the assurance that my complete system qualified for the grants and rebates I paid for the new system to be installed.  I also paid for the energy audit to be completed.

 

I waited the necessary 3 months for the first grant  to arrive.  Nothing was received so I contacted NR Can who informed me that the file was not complete and they were still missing information about the wells from Confort Geothermique.  I contacted the company.  Even though they had installed the previous system and Andre had informed me he had detailed knowledge of that, I was told that the wells had been drilled by a company called Protec Wells and that I would need to get a C448 certification from them.  Andre also mentioned that Protec was prone to taking shortcuts when digging wells and sometimes filled the wells with sand. 

 

I then spoke to Protec who informed me that when they were contracted by Confort Geothermique it was actually Confort Geothermique that asked them to cut costs and fill the wells with sand. 

 

So I then spoke again to Andre Lavasseur at Confort Geothermique.  I asked him, as his company had sold me the system  with the assurance that I qualified for the grants / rebates what they intended to do, believing that I was dealing with a reputable company.  After numerous unanswered calls and voicemails I finally got my answer.  Andre Lavasseur told me that the company would resolve the situation and asked me to attend the office for a meeting.  After Andre  cancelling one meeting and not turning up for the second, having taken the afternoon off work,  I finally reached him on his cell.  He told me that, even though he had  assured me I was eligible for the grants and, even though he had told me the company would resolve the issue, he had now decided not to honour his word and I would have to take Confort Geothermique to court for the money.

 

So anyone thinking of spending a great deal of money on a geothermal system, the moral of the story is, be very careful who you deal with as there are some very unethical companies out there that will promise you one thing and deliver another.

I pointed out this comparison to Andre – If he bought a TV from a store and the sales representative tells him the TV comes with a $500 mail-in rebate.  Two  months later he receives a letter from the TV manufacturer  stating that the sales rep was wrong and no rebate will be forthcoming,  would he then feel he had been dealt with fairly and keep the TV at the original price or return it and expect the store to make good their error.