Kanata Residents Harassed by The Weed Man |
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| Written by Frederick Hidell |
| Friday, 16 April 2010 09:31 |
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The Weed Man is a lawn care company that boasts "40 years of success through community, experience, and trust," but, for one Ottawa family, interactions with The Weed Man have not been characterized by excellent service but continual harassment and lies. "At first we thought it was funny," admitted Kanata resident Kevin Johns, thinking back on his first few interactions with The Weed Man. "The phone would ring, my wife or I would answer it, and then we'd roll our eyes and say to the other one, 'It's the Weed Man . . . again!'" "They called us twice in the same night at one point!"What began as a running joke when the family first moved into their west end home soon lost its humour. "We told the people on the phone we weren't interested in their company's services, but they continued to call back again and again and again," says Johns. "They called us twice in the same night at one point!" Every year, thousands of Canadians raise concerns about receiving unwanted telemarketing calls similar to those by The Weed Man. In 2006, the federal government passed a law allowing for the creation of a National Do Not Call List (DNCL) that all telemarketers must respect. By placing a cell phone, home phone, and/or fax number on the list, companies making unsolicited marketing or sales calls can no longer contact you.
Johns estimates The Weed Man has called his house at least dozen times in the last year. "Each time, I tell them to never ever call me again, and they assure me that my number has been removed from their list. Then a few weeks later, the phone will ring, and lo and behold, it's The Weed Man, and it starts all over again." "I've never experienced this sort of continual long-term harassment in my life."Pushed to his breaking point, Johns called the company himself and asked to speak with a senior manager. He was told all managers were busy and would not be available to speak with him at any point. "I kept insisting that I speak with a manager, but it was pretty clear that wasn't going to happen," said Johns, "so I explained the situation to the customer service rep." To Johns' astonishment, he was informed that the dozen or so telemarketers that had called him over the last twelve months -- at least half of whom had told him his number would be removed -- don't actually have the ability to remove his number from their list. "So not only have they been harassing my family, they have also been lying to me about removing my number," says an exasperated Johns. At no point during the call did the Weed Man headquarters representative apologize for the company's policy of harassment. Johns was, however, assured that this time his number had actually been removed from their call list. But is that really the case? "I find it hard to believe," said Johns. "You can only be lied to so many times before you stop believing. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if my phone rings a few weeks from now, and it is a Weed Man representative on the other end of the line." In the last three years, 175 complaints have been filed against The Weed Man to the Ottawa Better Business Bureau (BBB), and the company has a Ottawa BBB rating of F, on a scale from A+ to F. To register your number on the National Do Not Call List, go to www.dncl.gc.ca or call 1-866-580-DNCL (866-580-3625). Tags: better business bureau, culture, dncl, do not call list, kanata, lawn care, ottawa, telemarketers, the weed man
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Comments (19)
Fraud
In the spring of this year I received a telemarketing call from Weed Man in Ottawa. I indicated to the representative that I was not interested in buying the services, but he could send me more information to my home address or email account. There was no confusion that I was purchasing service or entering in to a contract. I absolutely was not. I told the representative directly that I was not. During the call the representative began pressuring me about options. Would I like to have preauthorized payments or not. I told him directly that I did not want to buy anything. He asked me if he could consider me a client. I said no. There was no question or confusion.
Beware of Weedman
My parents are presently being harassed by Weedman who have been applying pesticides since May 2010 without authorization - we called the company several times and they keep insisting that a verbal contract was done by phone which is false - Weedman has been pressuring my parents to the point that they have made 1st payment but we are now going to the small court to resolve the issue since they insist that more payments should be done - I will keep you posted.
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I have never asked for their service.
Stop calling me
I hate them~~ we moved and the next year they continued doing the lawn and now are trying to make us pay for the lawn treatments, I didn't sign anything or tell them to do the lawn. They are crazy! they keep calling all the time and now are threating to put us in collection, time to call a lawyer.
Who Can Stop the Weedman's Lies & Fraud?
It started with the cold call..."Hi I can see your house here on Google Earth and I can see you have 1,000 square feet of lawn...blablabla..."
Feeling terrible..
I used to work for WeedMan as a CSR in Ottawa. Needless to say, I was only employed there for 2 months before I quit because I realized my job was to withstand the daily frustrated consumer calls. We were instructed to NEVER offer to settle a client invoice, regardless of the situation. I was so stricken with grief for these poor people who had never even signed a contract, agreed to the services or even CONSIDERED the lawn services. My office manager, Amanda Blythe, had no compassion whatsoever for any clients, and sent many of them to collections, forever impacting their credit, without firstly discussing what the client’s issues were.
I worked there also.
Weedman is a company that actively tells the employees to scam people though they don't call it a scam. We were told to ACTUALLY invoice people who had no contract at all with us. This is highly illegal and against provincial and federal laws but because the Minister is not doing anything to enforce the laws (Weedman is not even following the recent compliance order from the govt) the scamming of innocent Canadians continues.
HARASSMENT
Weed man came to my door at like 8pm one evening and asked me if he could have my e-mail and number to send me information on their products - this was it.. I asked if he would be calling he said no just sending us quick info periodically.
Wouldn't even recommend to my foes
Worst customer service sine reps dont have authority to credit. They will say one thing and do completely opposite. I paid in full (my mistake). Their system told them someone came for weed application but their inspector confirm nothing was done. When I requested credit, they were going to charge for servies not performed. Reason to hire Weedman was to save time but time spent on phone could have been spent me doing it myself. This company has very low rating in BBB. After I emailed Scarbrough Manager Steve Stronge from Review website and posted my review on same site, Coincidently 6 positive review popped up. What a shame!
I'd rather pour concrete all over my lawn to avoid having this company call me repeatedly.
It's almost like a fixed routine now. We expect a call from them at 3pm and 7pm daily. Each time it's a different agent and we ask them politely to take us off the list. And of course they all say that they did so. But like clockwork the phone rings and behold, it's Weed Man.
JUSTICE
I am a 72 year old widowed senior & I don't think I should be bullied into paying for a service that I did not authorize from weed-man.They don't follow through on their promises!I was told by a representative that it would all be straightened out & she apologized profusely, this was way back in May of 2011. Now I get a notification in the mail that they have put it in the hands of the credit bureau.With all these complaints against weed-man,why are we not getting any justice?
SOOOOO annoyed! How is this allowed?
I am so pissed off! We bought our house at the beginning of the year and the owners prior to us used Weedman, we have never used them but we were getting invoices in the mail (addressed to the previous owners) I started getting calls from Weedman on my cell phone and they were calling for the previous owners? I have no idea how they got my cell phone number, but they are continually harrassing me! I have told them over 10 times to stop calling. They call at 9-10pm at night. Today after 3 calls during the day I snapped and looked up the number (because it shows up weed man on my phone but I can't call back) I talked to the head office and she assured my that I will not be called again...not even joking...1 hour later they call back and are asking for the previous owners..I feel bad snapping on these people but this is seriously harrassment. I also keep getting mail. How is this allowed? I am also going to try and report this to the BBB. I am on the do not call list so I have no idea that the heck is going on! So beyond frustrated!
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thank you for writing this article. It's the same thing here in Niagara and I contacted the franchise owner who said she has no control over the telemarketing company. Apparently to her, the DNC list does not exist and telemarketers can call who ever is on the list they buy. But everyone should learn that Xentel DM the Telemarketing company was fined $500k last year. Contact Xentel to complain and remind them of that hefty fine. |
"I didn't see a need to join the DNCL," said Johns. "If you tell a telemarketer you aren't interested, most won't call you back; they get the message. The Weed Man is different. I've never experienced this sort of continual long-term harassment in my life."
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