I heard about this company through an acquaintance Barbara Estebany, from the Montreal Soaring Council gliding club in Hawkesbury
I approached them partly with the aid of a 35-page resume from Lalonde-George Careers Ltd., referred to elsewhere on this site. They were located at 212 Brunswick in Pointe Claire (a suburb of Montreal)
I met Phil Lancaster on Friday, October 15th 1982. He seemed to like my resume because – he said – he knew everything about me… after reading it.
They were looking for someone to sell and install the Aegis Energy Saver Series 24 Energy Management System; one of its functions was to eliminate wastage of electricity by switching electrical circuits on and off again at pre-set times of the day (programmed in by the user) – for instance, to prevent any lights being left on at night in a vacant office building. He gave me some information which included, among other things, a comprehensive list of owners of this system.
He also explained that I would only get paid after he had received payment from the client for a completed and functioning installation; obviously, it was a commission-only job. There might be no payment at all, for instance, for the first 6 months after starting the job. There was no base salary and no car provided (a car was obviously necessary to visit clients, prospective and actual).
I did not think much of this arrangement but said I would consider it.
Enquiries with some owners of the system revealed that it apparently was a good system, this being the case, there was no apparent reason not to have confidence in it. Thus it followed that the company should have no concerns about providing me with a car and a base salary, and I wrote to Phil Lancaster in those terms and including a detailed proposal about it on November 7th, 1982. Prior to writing, I had a telephone conversation with him in which he said that anyone not prepared to accept his original terms - commission-only, no base salary, no car provided, no payment to me until after the client had paid, etc. – was, quote -…not a proper salesman…unquote.
Needless to say, he did not accept my proposal (telephone conversation November 30th, 1982).
So I had no more to do with Enercentre.
This was just as well, because - some time the following year - I heard that Enercentre had gone bankrupt.