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 (8)
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 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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