HVAC scams are still happening. Why is the government failing to act?

At the beginning, Crystal Sheffield thought it sounded like a pretty good deal.

A sales representative from a company called Provincial Smart Home Services came to her house in Madoc, Ont., roughly 200 kilometres east of Toronto, and talked her into a $26,000 loan to pay for a UV water filter, a reverse osmosis water system and smart home equipment, like a new thermostat.

The sales representative told her she would qualify for rebates that would help pay for it, Sheffield said in an interview.

"As a single mom of two kids, it was the middle of the pandemic … things were a lot tighter," she said. "I thought, 'This is great.'"

She alleges the salesperson never told her that the bi-weekly payments on the loan through a third-party lender — which started at about $65 — would more than double to nearly $150 two years later.

"I don't have that kind of money," she said. "My groceries [are] one of those payments."

Her phone calls to the company went unanswered, and her emails bounced back. Eventually, she refused to pay, which hurt her credit score. Now, she said, she can't renew her mortgage — in part because of her refusal to pay the loan — and she's had to put her house up for sale.

Sheffield is one of 80 people interviewed by CBC's Marketplace who feel victimized by Provincial Smart Home Services. Many say the company convinced them to buy HVAC and other equipment they didn't need by promising government rebates that never came and savings on energy bills that never materialized. 

Together, their contracts are worth $1.5 million, leading many to ask what the government is doing to prevent questionable heating, cooling and ventilation companies from pressuring consumers to sign major contracts that don't deliver, as tactics have adapted since Ontario banned door-to-door sales of household heating and cooling equipment in March 2018.

"We reached out to Consumer Protection Ontario," says Joao Garcia, one Provincial Smart Home Services customer, of the provincial body that investigates consumer complaints. "They just basically said we don't have enough for a case."

Provincial Smart Home Services and one of its corporate directors are now facing charges under the Consumer Protection Act, connected to unfair practices and failure to deliver valid contracts.

However, Bethanie Pascutto, a lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, says those charges often have no teeth.

"There just aren't any punishments that match the crime," she says. "People are being let off the hook if they're being punished at all."

Marketplace has learned that even when the government has identified wrongdoing, charges don't necessarily stick.