End of door-to-door sales

Door-to-door sales of some household appliances will be banned in Ontario as of Thursday. The new legislation means that businesses who sell things like furnaces, air conditioners and water heaters will now have to prove that the customer came to them first.

Both Hamilton and Halton police say they do not get a lot of complaints about criminal door to door activity, but the Ministry of Consumer Services says it does get thousands of complaints about these specific goods and services being peddled door to door. Other industries don’t fall under provincial jurisdiction and can’t be regulated as easily.

Managers at Hamco Heating and Cooling in Hamilton met today to discuss how the legislation will affect them even though they’ve never done door to door sales.

“So every contract that we do, that we’ve always done, we now have to add this contract, also present it, signed and keep a copy here with us.” Andrew Vasilak, Hamco.

In the contract, the homeowner agrees that they invited the supplier, not the other way around and they’re informed they have 10 days to cancel. Hamco is not sure if customers will be confused. They only use referrals and advertising to get business and often get calls for help from people who have been scammed. Hamco says this wasn’t a problem in the industry 10 years ago and staff wonder whether the new legislation will actually help. They say an ethical HVAC company would never call, unsolicited late at night, or show up at your door unannounced.