Who's at your door? N.S. consumers complain about 'aggressive' company selling water systems

For Natalie Lent, every day in her home feels like a boil water advisory since she only uses bottled water, even for cooking. 

But there has been no official warning. In fact, the Nova Scotia woman has three new filtration systems for her well water, valued at nearly $12,000, collecting dust.

"It's really just an ornament at this point for me," Lent said, pointing to her water softener system.

She bought them last July from Atlantic Environmental Systems, a water filtration company based in Dartmouth, N.S., that is now under scrutiny. At the time, Lent had just moved into her rural home along the Minas Basin and called the company to inquire about their products. 

"There was a sulphur smell, the water was quite hard. So that was one of the priorities on the list of things that I had to do was to put in a water system because water is a necessity," she said.

After a salesperson came to her home to pitch products, she agreed to the sale. The 53-year-old changed her mind a few days later when the installers arrived and did not answer her questions, such as what to do if she were to lose power.

"When I asked them to stop, all of a sudden there's more people in my basement helping them speed up the process to put this in," Lent said.

"Since then it's been a nightmare."

She is not alone with her concerns about Atlantic Environmental Systems. CBC News has learned the provincial government is examining whether the company has violated the Direct Sellers Regulation Act. It has given the company an opportunity to respond before deciding in the coming weeks if Atlantic Environmental's seller's permit should be cancelled or suspended.

It comes after receiving a series of complaints from homeowners across Nova Scotia, and follows a P.E.I. decision last August that revoked the company's licence. Atlantic Environmental appealed that decision and lost in April. 

"The evidence in this appeal clearly shows that the appellant and its salespeople repeatedly engaged in exploitative and high-pressure sales tactics while direct selling to P.E.I. residents," said Bloyce Thompson, P.E.I.'s justice minister, in his written decision.

In Nova Scotia, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) issued an alert for a similar pattern of complaints alleging the company "targets senior citizens and does not clearly or transparently notify customers about its policies." The BBB also cited concerns that Atlantic Environmental allegedly conducts poor after-sales service "with the intention to surpass the cancellation window date."

CBC News has interviewed several former Atlantic Environmental Systems salespeople, who all expressed unease about an "aggressive" sales culture. In particular, they described the in-home sales presentation as "manipulative," saying it uses "fear-mongering" to frighten homeowners into believing they have to "invest in their health" on the spot.