Amish Mantle

I want to thank the viewers who brought an ad that appeared on page A-12 of the Vancouver Sun to our attention. The headline reads "Amish mantle and miracle invention help home heat bills hit rock bottom."

I did some research into this company and I have some concerns consumers might buy-in without fully understanding what's on offer. First---despite the headline --these heaters are not made by the Amish: they're made in China. If you read the ad carefully, you realize that only the wood mantle is made by Amish craftsmen. Amish have nothing to do with the fireplace itself. The ad says this is a free heater if you order in the next 48 hours.

But when you phone to you're told you'll pay between $300 and $350 for the wooden mantle plus about $70 for shipping and handling. So let's look at what you're getting. In the ad there's a little boy pushing one of the units-- it's just above his knees. These are not large heaters. It's basically a 1500 watt electric space heater which you can buy locally -- for less than $300. The ad also says that it uses about the same amount of power as a coffee maker.

But consider that a coffee maker is just on for a few minutes. Most people would keep a space heater on for hours. Electricity is not the most cost effective way to heat your home. You can only use space heaters to reduce energy bills if the temperature is lowered in the rest of the house -something not mentioned in the ad.

While the heaters are made in China, they are sold by Heat Surge, a division of Universal Syndications in Canton, Ohio. Similar purchases in the US have resulted in dozens of complaints with the Ohio Attorney General and Better Business Bureau.

The Canton BBB has processed a total of 187 complaints about this business in the last 36 months. All have been resolved. None were about how the unit works --but a majority were about billing and people not being able to contact the company. Universal Syndications says it recently added more customer-service representatives and introduced a call-back option to reduce wait times.

Smart Photo

It was an offer that sounded picture perfect. But dozens of investors in BC and Ontario have lost over a million dollars and their faith in the system after signing up with a company called Smart Photo.

"We decided to buy two machines and put the deposit down," described Devinder Chahal, remembering the meeting he attended promoting Smart Photo -- a vending style photo developing machine to be set up in malls.

What sounded like a sweet idea -- soon turned sour.

"As soon as we paid the balance there was no more communication no one would pick up the phone," explained Devinder.

Julie Cheng invested after seeing an ad in a local newspaper.

"This guys spends so much money on advertisements and the shows and their office looks so beautiful you couldn't believe it could be a fraud," she said.

Tony Chen is the man behind the Smart Photo investment.

Devinder says in his last conversation with Tony Chen he was told a machine was going in Richmond centre mall.

"I called Richmond centre even their head office and they said 'No such thing. We haven't heard of any Smart Photo', then we realized this is not going nowhere."

The Smart Photo office in Richmond had closed. The business and Tony Chen had disappeared. So had Devinder and Julie's money.

53 people in Vancouver and Toronto invested more than a million dollars. They've complained to police.

The York Regional Police fraud squad is the lead police agency looking into Smart Photo. They want to talk with Tony Chen .

"The business can't be found at this point, I'll be learning more through further investigation," said Detective Constable Gino Benedetti.

"I'm not sure where he is but once we gather further information we will eventually speak to him, he said.

All police can tell investors at this point is: 'Be patient.'

"Wait and hear what investigation comes to they are aware there could be charges or not charges it depends on where this investigation goes," he said.

Julie and Devinder don't think suing Tony Chen will get them their money back.

They believe criminal charges are their only chance at justice

"Some people already give up and don't think there is any chance to get their money back and if the police could help us we would be more happy," concluded Julie.

Authorities say that with any investment, if you are feeling pressure to make a fast decision, that's when you need to step back and really take your time.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen