If you happen to have been unfortunate enough to have natural gas billing with ‘Just Energy’ then you may know about what I would describe as their extortion like cancellation policies.  I’ve written of this in my old blog

https://peeterjoot.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/just-energy-canada-nasty-business-practices/

https://peeterjoot.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/just-energy-contract-complaints-going-nowhere/

https://peeterjoot.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/1693/

https://peeterjoot.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/just-energy-cancellation-finally/

The short story is that they wanted to charge me about $450 because I had moved without renewing a policy with them that I did not know I had in my name.  I had been fairly certain that I was paying more with them than I would have with the gas company distribution service, and had thought I had let the service expire.  They renewed it without my knowledge and sent no papers to confirm the renewal.

Their first method of contact for the fees they expected was through a legal like notice from a collections agency, which I felt to be a scare tactic.

I’ve detailed lots more about that unfortunate transaction, including how I got them to back off by both registering a complaint with the the provincial regulatory agency (Ontario Energy Board) and by contacting Toronto press providing details about this.  They actually contacted the Ontario Energy Board, and blatantly lied to them with a statement that they had settled with me, so that my complaint would be dropped.

Shortly after my cancellation interaction with them, new Ontario Energy Board regulations went into place to help protect new customers.  Existing customers weren’t protected, and had to go through the complaint and appeals process as I did.  It appears that the story did not end with the 2011 regulations, and I got the following “settlement” letter from Just Energy not that long ago.  Check out this rather pathetic attempt at spin:

This PR person tries to make it appear that their massive discharge fees weren’t policy, but were just an unfortunate mistake.  Unbelievable!

It seems like the Ontario Energy Board subsequently proceeded with a class action suit against them, since I recently got an unexpected check in the mail, via the gas company, with an account number that must have been the account from my previous house.

The purpose of this blog post is to inform anybody else that had gas distribution via Just Energy prior to 2011 that such a settlement has been reached.  If you have moved and perhaps no longer have a mailing address that allows you to receive correspondence from them (or the gas company they charged through), then you may have not only a rebate waiting for you, but can perhaps also get your cancellation fees refunded entirely (if you paid it, as I expect many people that were threatened by the legal letter would have).