Greetings. This is our family home page, for us and our boys Nicholas (10) and Severn (9). We moved this summer from the delightful eastern Manitoba town of Pinawa and are now living in Deep River in eastern Ontario. Deep River is taking a bit of getting used to, being busier than Pinawa and situated along the Trans-Canada Highway, but it is also proving to be a great place to live.
Morgan's interests include nuclear power and trains. For the former, he has created a number of web pages for the Canadian Nuclear Society, especially in the area of Canadian nuclear history and reactor performance. To view these pages, click on the side bar "Nuclear Info & Links" and "Nuclear History".
In July 2002 we made a foolish choice when we dealt with the frozen food company "Home Shoppers Club" of Hamilton, Ontario, also known as "Discount Food Services". A sales representative, English-accented Richard "Dick" Gallaway of 688 Bayview Drive, Constance Bay, Ontario, paid a visit to our home. We bought a half order of meat and dry goods, to be delivered to our door, for $2006 (I know, I know, we shouldn't have). I guess in the back of our minds we were thinking of the very good frozen food service we'd received over several years while living in Manitoba.
To make a long story short, we received about $0.40 worth of goods (regular prices) for every $1.00 we spent. I complained to our salesman, who claimed he was no longer with the company (and "couldn't" remember us)!
We also had a terrible time dealing with the HSC "manager" Dave Ridge (that's the name he gave us) - he lectured me on net versus gross weight and other total nonsense in his effort to obfuscate the issue. He claimed our local grocery store (where I priced out the food) didn't include its overhead in my bill!!! Can you say incredible? The HSC toll-free line is: 1-866-670-6244. The Discount Food Services web site is here.
Our best results to date have been with Al MacRury, Action Line Columnist of the Hamilton Spectator (thanks Al!). Here's his column, with some of the sordid detail of our story:
Sep. 19, 2002
Engineer has beef with bulk food order 'We didn't research the deal,' he says
By Al MacRury
The Hamilton SpectatorSometimes it's hard to get to the meat of the matter.
Morgan Brown, of Deep River, Ont., received an unexpected telephone solicitation earlier this summer from a Hamilton-based food delivery service. Curious, he met with a sales representative and agreed to pay more than $2,000 for a half-order from the firm's shopping list. The list of advertised products includes almost everything from frozen beef and poultry, to cereal and cleaning materials. He paid in full on his credit card; a move he now confesses was not prudent."We were naive and trusting," Brown told Action Line. "We had never bought in bulk before and thought we'd try it out. We didn't research the deal. No excuses. We were suckers."
Well, perhaps he's being overly harsh on himself. After all, these firms have been around for quite some time. They now solicit on the Internet. They advertise grade A, AA and AAA beef. They claim normal handling, distribution and transportation costs can add 50 per cent to the cost of your food when buying similar produce and materials from the local supermarket.
With graphic illustrations, they promise to send that cow from the farmer, to their processing plant and directly onto your dinner plate. Nobody else touches, handles, distributes or transports your order.
It may sound like a stretch ... but provincial and federal agriculture officials say there's not much they can do to protect the consumer who enters into this type of contract. It's like buying meat from the deli section of your market -- you supposedly have the opportunity to tailor your order.
"All meat coming from an Ontario-licensed or federally-licensed slaughterhouse or processing plant must be inspected before going to the consumer," media officer Mark Van Dusen of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency notes. "If it goes to a supermarket, it will be packaged, labelled and weighed. If you buy it from the meat cooler, it must be.
"But, if you go to the deli section and specifically ask for a certain amount or weight of meat, then the rules are different. They don't have to write down the precise details. You're getting personal service."
Van Dusen described the issue as a classic "buyer beware" scenario. In other words, do your homework before ordering.
Brown says the meat he received from Discount Food Services Ltd./Home Shoppers Club Inc. is actually quite good. Products were simply identified in hand-writing as "rib eye," for example. It's the amount of meat he believes is well below the level advertised on the firm's marketing literature.
An engineer with Atomic Energy of Canada, Brown said he checked weights of individual items on his own scale and checked prices at his local grocery store.
It's not just the meat he has a beef with. He maintains his entire $2,000 order can be had for about $800.
Brown says the consumer doesn't really pick an order.
The firm determines how much you are willing to pay, then presents its list of products. You remove those you don't want and substitute others of equal value.
When he called Discount Food Services to complain, Brown says a representative of the firm lectured him.
"He said I was quoting gross weight. He said they use net weight, without the bone, water and packaging," Brown explained.
And that's entirely a federal issue, notes an Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food spokesman.
"Anything to do with the cuts, ingredients and weights comes under the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, which is governed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency," media and editorial services manager Tom Rekstis confirmed. "The only regulations we have in Ontario is that advertising or signage on a package has to indicate the grade."
When contacted by Action Line, president Dave Ridge of Discount Food Services said there was no relationship between that firm and Home Shoppers Club.
We noted Brown's name and order are printed on documents bearing the letterhead of both firms. Both firms also share a common director, George Andrei and both have the telephone number 905-318-4155 printed on their marketing material.
Ridge denied ever speaking to Brown and noted: "George has been working on this since Day 1."
"We know Mr. Brown has some concerns. We are trying to reach a resolution. It's by no means a dead issue."
He offered no further comment on his firm and would not disclose how many customers he had.
"That's our business. It's not your concern. I don't know how objective you are ... but we're trying to resolve this for Mr. Brown. Any further comment would be premature. You can print whatever you wish to print."
When we relayed Ridge's comments to Brown, he said: "George who? We've had no calls from them since Aug. 28, when my wife phoned and received the same lecture I received."
In an earlier reply to the Southern Ontario Better business Bureau, the firm stated it had fulfilled its contractual obligations and was not in a position to give a refund.
Its promotional literature states that it will replace or substitute unwanted items, if the customer is dissatisfied. It also guarantees its prices are 20 per cent lower than any other bulk delivery firm.
Ontario law gives consumers 10 days' grace to cancel and back out of deals made in their own home. But Discount Food Services/Home Shoppers Club states orders take 14 to 21 days to deliver.
If you have a consumer problem, call me at 905-526-4665 or e-mail me at: amacrury@hamiltonspectator.com
In February 2003, I was contacted by someone in southern Ontario, who also received poor value for money from the same company. He gave me the name of a woman in Eastern Ontario who is similarly upset - and she was also a client of our salesman Dick Gallaway. Recall that Gallaway claimed he no longer worked for the HSC when I phoned in August 2002; he must have had a change of heart, for he sold this woman her freezer order in November 2002. And he's no longer got a listed phone number. I wonder why ...
Latest Home Shoppers' Club News They've stopped bothering with a phone line - both the local and 1-866 numbers are no longer in service as of March 12 2003 or so!
More news: On March 24, 2003, I received some printouts from the Ontario Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations (Cost me $14.30!). There are a total of 60 complaints and inquiries about the Home Shoppers Club and its various forms, during the period April 1999 to March 2003. Unfortunately there are no details about the specifics of the complaints, just their broad categorizations (Misrepresentation; Reputation of company; Failure to provide; Cancellation of contract; Incomplete order/partial delivery; Not honouring contract terms/provisions; Incomplete order; Quality; "Free membership" not free; Request for exemption). Of interest are the addresses of the organization:
Home Shoppers Club
1-36 Keefer Court, Hamilton, Ontario (Also Suite 5 in another listing)
Home Shoppers Club Inc
1112 Rymal Rd East, Unit 2, Hamilton, Ontario
Discount Food Services
333 Wharncliffe Rd, London, Ontario
Discount Food Services Ltd
148 York St, London, Ontario
Discount Food Services Ltd
35 Goderich Road, Unit 7, Hamilton, Ontario
Modified March 24 2003