TSSA review: Bogus service over billing 17

WGAF/WGAS!

I agree I've had dealings with T.S.S.A. and found them to be worse that any gov't agency, you can't get an answer from anyone about anything, except when it's time to bleed money out of you(contractor)with their audits, and raised licensing fees, and the endless B.S. with oil equipment regulation.the only way to excert any pressure on T.S.S.A. is to tell the customers that the reason they have to spend thousands of dollars updating equipment, is due to T.S.S.A. nazi/facist empire.Who ever heard of a so called arm of the prov. gov't, who inforces gov't reg.having absolutely no accountability, padding inspection hours, sending invoices for same without showing up at all.Alot of theses "inspectors" wouldn't know a furnace from their sisters tit.The majority of them were contractors who did ### work, and then got the opportunity to make 80000 a year critisizing and over charging for these ### inspections/audits.I'm surprised the oil co. and gas co. haven't got together with their power and their political influence and put this dog down, T.S.S.A. has cost both of them money, customers, good contractors leaving the trade due to T.S.S.A.'s mafia style tactics.When it was Cons.&Commer. Relations, the only time a contractor heard from them was when it was license renewal time, or there was a customer complaint.We as contractors' as citizens should start an M.P.P. letter writing campaign see if the politicians will get off their ### and help the small businessman who runs a mom and pop heating co., and john and jane q. public who they say they hold in high regard, at least when they want to get re-elected to the trough, and put T.S.S.A. TO SLEEP.

An explosion occurred at my families business. It was mandatory that TSSA be there to do whatever it is they do (eat pizza, talk and walk around.) The bill came in the mail and it was an outrageously over $8000. It turns out they get paid to walk around, eat pizza, and talk on their cellphones. Needless to say they really only did a maximum 10 hours of work but found a way to charge us for over 48 hours of work. When I called the company to ask what these outrageous charges were for, she acted like she receives these types of irate calls over billing all the time and sighed when I told her my issue. Then her reply was I cannot discuss any information with you, you will have to talk to the inspector. She gave me a local number for the inspector, so why am I paying 8 hours of commute on my bill which says he had to travel from Toronto. This is ridiculous, none of it makes sense or adds up. This is highway robbery and they are getting away with it, exploiting the victims of the catastrophes they are supposed to help.

i hope that none of you pay any bills/fines/service charges...what are the consequences? you lose your propane dispensing license? you lose your marina license? been there done that. Now I do not sell anything - maybe this is what the tssa wants. An erosion of services that seem to only affect the small business person.

Here is a good one.
received a bill in January for inspection of my propane facility. I am closed in the winter...
Did not notice any foot prints in the snow...
I guess they "inspected" my facility from their car - thanks TSSA

Our company placed a red steel expanded metal box with a locking door for propane cylinders. This box was fixed to the building wall with long lag bolts. It was painted red, had a hazardous gas explosive sign on three sides as one was against the building it said propane. We all know in industry what a propane tank looked like. It was placed away from everything main doors eating area. One day one the way home an inspector saw from the road the back of our building as the road was high on a hill and our place was in low giving visibility to the back wall. He pulled in and drove off to later send a notice of none compliance for the propane cage. We failed to have on the cage a sign that said no smoking with the circle and a slash line through it. So we got and additional sign “NO SMOKING” for 2 bucks and placed it on the cage. We received a bill from TSSA for $423.75.
Adhock Inspection 1 hour $135.00 + HST $17.55 for $152.55
Fuels Safety Adhock Inspections minimum fee $240.00 + HST for $271.20
Total billing amount $423.75
No this is for some guy that needs to build up hours as TSSA is going broke paying the big bucks. He sees and opportunity for hours. Drives in opens a window of his car sees a small cage RED, with intelligent signage folks are not stupid to the most part but fines us anyway. One hour to inspect a 2 foot by 5 ft box ONE HOUR? Must have felt and checked each weld and hinge, ONE HOUR GEEZ.
One hour administration fee, I received a copy of the report there were 283 words on the report and it was a template that is filled in. A typist should achieve 32 words per minute that would produce 1, 920 words, 283 words should take 4.7 minutes.
TSSA is a not for profit company but a build a big buck paying job company at the expense of small trying to survive business. TSSA and their 40 thieves.

Just got my bill $1017.00 cheap in comparison to you other guys, no details to what the inspector did. My tenant call the fire department (don't know why, but didn't call us first) the fire department didn't find anything so they called the TSSA and the ESA. The Inspector was told 1) that the gas dryer (which was unplugged) did not cycle off, 2) that the vent pipe seams were sealed with duct tape not aluminum tape (previous owner) 3) the gas stove ignited slowly 4) gas fireplace had been tagged by Union Gas and not serviced (previous fire department call not reported by the tenant to us) and 5) maintenance done by someone my tenant hire drilled a hole in the furnace vent pipe and covered it with aluminum tape.
I'm already lawyered up because of this tenant, think she should be paying, she didn't call me to report the need for maintenance, nor that the fire department, TSSa, ESA or Union Gas had been at the house.

Forgot to mention when the TSSA supervisor was in to submit their plundering bill he also had on his fat wrist a Breitling Watch. Now after spending much working time in Switzerland and this watch being my favorite over Rolex I can tell you this is a multi-thousand dollar watch. Ya think he would show up to work with a regular watch not to show off his membership on the sunshine list and opulence.

This is from my experience being in the Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning trade the most absurd agency I've ever encountered. 11 yrs ago, I started my own HVAC business... Over the first few years, Union Gas gave us infractions when and where we had a mistake made and or needed addressing for a specific infraction. THIS WAS A PAINLESS PROCEDURE. Customer informed us and the issue was usually remedied within 2 days. NOW... If an issue arises from TSSA being called or emailed in, well we have had for the first few years...Driving time costs for the inspector, at $135/hr+HST... This amounted to nearly $1, 000.00 in just one visit as the nearest inspector was a 3 hr round trip drive time alone! My company has been given orders to cease and desist for over 10 months while the billing was in question and that the complaint was frivolous and subsequently dropped completely. As a result after that incident I have had not one good dealing with TSSA since that time, harassment, following my company around, etc... The non profit is an absolute insult to all non profit organizations everywhere. Their mandate is to bill, bill, bill, as much as possible. I have had nothing good or positive said by anyone in our industry of Fuel/Oil, Gas fitters, period. All have said that they're doing not a single thing for the public safety, just writing orders at $135/hr, although now no more charging for driving time, their billing department sent my company bills for over 2 yrs after our settlement and bill was withdrawn as a result. The story is so very long with many more instances of abuse, corruption, inspector in court with me discussing a court case in which he was the officer and I the defendant... PETITION TO STOP THEM NOW NEEDS TO BE STARTED...

im pissed with tssa because on my g2 and obt2 exam i received questions about house electricity which had nothing to do with gas or oil burning equipment, needless to say after my exam my teacher had told me overlooking some our papers during the test he found a few of us had questions which were never taught in class and i ended up failing by 1.7% and 2 % do i bother paying another 240$ to re write each exam

Unfortunately, fighting the TSSA is counter productive. The ONLY people that can get rid of the TSSA cancer are the politicians that created this mess in the first place. There is no way to get at them directly, to force them to do something about the TSSA. You may not be able to get to them by the front door, you can certainly get to them through the back door!

Below is a link to the government of Ontario website that gives you a complete list of every Ontario MP.

http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/member_addresses.do?locale=en

I suggest this list be downloaded and passed on to EVERY HVAC contractor in Ontario. ANY of the MP's calling any contractor for service be denied services. Same applies to ALL contractors currently servicing ANY government facility. Refuse to service them.

If for some reason you are forced to provide the service, charge them through the nose for it! As the contractor you can charge whatever amount you want. A typical furnace repair costing $600.00 should be marked up to $6000 to one of these boneheads. Realize MONEY is the ONLY language these guys understand. When they have to suffer the consequences of their decision, its the only time they will move their ### to change it.

When the temp hovers at -30 and they have no heat in the house, and no one to service them. Watch how fast they take up your cause! Of course, this will only work if everyone works together. Posting and complaining will never change it. Action will! If we want it changed, this is our best and only option.

how about sending those d bags from tssa a bill for entering your site and not reporting to the site office? That's what we're doing. Sending them a bill for 3000.00 for non compliance with our site regulations which is everyone must report to the site office or face a fine. F them extortionist ###.

Same exam I had...80% electrical questions. .2 questions l could use code book for..all the rest were apparently a combo of g3 G2 and one on vaporizers...apparently g1 question...funny thing is all marks were from modules 10- 24 as per mastery email ...wouldn't g3 be modules 1-9...I was told to rewrite is 250 ish...50 % of class failed...73% of Algonquin students fail this exam. ...does anybody out there think Tssa has found a new revenue source. ...100 bucks first write ...250. Second write ...250 3rd. Rewrite...failure rate over 50%...2 rewrites per month in Ottawa...Barry...Kingston. ..tor onto. ..so on and so on...no questions from code book...you are set up to fail...can anyone say money grab...hope to run into a Tssa rat out there...well l can dream!

YES! They are crooks for sure. First they made a bogus invoice as there is no evidence of an inspection. $600 and a new bill every week. Any other company would send a bill once a month. Then threats to put me in the credit bureau. Unbelievable pukes.
So, no request for service, no evidence of an inspection and did not sign for any work done. Then the weekly billings and threats.
Sounds like Mafia to me.
Don't give them a cent!

I got billed over $4800 to inspect a BRAND NEW Hot Dog Cart. I gave them 1200 bucks and told them to F off sent it to collections, I'll pay $1 dollar a month until I die and has long has your making a payment the states your making an effort to pay the bill thus they cannot send to collections. If everyone did this. How quickly would this extortion company be shut down. I was led to believe extortion was a criminal offence and punishable by law. Am I wrong?