freezing in grimsby

We purchased a new furnace thru DE in 2005 just after a scheduled service tech recommended it to us (although nothing wrong with our furnace). We paid for a new 10yr warranty upfront in cash on installation. Our furnace broke down on Friday afternoon- we called and waited on hold for SIX hours transferred to several people all who told us no service available until Monday- the temp outside was -8 and a snowstorm of Dec 19-20-21 was imminent. Finally someone decided to tell us we were on an "EMERGENCY LIST". The following day I called to follow up on the status of the emergency list-- 2 operators told me there was no such thing. They both tried to transfer me to an "Executive" something or other---this individual assured me I was on the imaginary "EMEGENCY" list and that I could be reimbursed for 2 space heaters up to $120 each. My home is 3200 sq feet open concept--this does not cut it. Fear of our pipes bursting or windows shattering were quelled by Direct Energy by telling us this does not happen until at least 72 hours later..our closest relative is 2 hours away in good driving conditions- and probably 3 in hazardous storm conditions- impossible to meet an emergecy repair person had they shown up--hotels were all overbooked from stranded hiway travellers- we had no choice but to endure the ravaging sub zero temperatures IN OUR HOME with xmas guests from Ottawa in our home with 3 kids under the age of 6 and an elderly relative---this was a complete nightmare and DIRECT ENERGY has shown us their inability to uphold their part of the warranty so far- it seems the only party who has honoured the agreement of the warranty is us who insanely paid upfront vs monthly for this terrible illusion of coverage. It is now our 3rd day of absolute fridity-- the space heaters have had very little impact-- we were given the false hope by Direct Energy that perhaps in the event that there was a service cancellation we would be taking that spot--and we did not logically hold our breath to think someone else in our position who needed servicing on their furnace would suddenly forego their service appt because they miraculously did not need their furnace repair after all (?). In any event, we are now 2 hours away from this window of service which is apparently to take place somewhere in the short order between 11-3pm today so that we can have some heat in our home. The guests have left- lucky them- and our home has gone from 18c to 8c currenly and of course outside the temp is -10c at the moment - we have 2 small space heaters provided by Direct Energy (well they said they would re-imburse us upon receipt of our bill- and we shall see). In addition- the prev maintenance pkg we had on the old furnace we were told to cancel by the salesperson- because the 10 yr warranty would take the place of it---much to our surprise when we called for an inspection this past November only weeks before this horrid experience and as a precaution---we were told by Direct Energy that the 10 yr warranty pkg does not include preventive maintance...and to think we had to wait EIGHT months to get a refund on the prev plan (that was actually good)- It seems to us as consumers that as a result of all the confusion, the endless time on hold and the conflicting conversations with the call centre and their "executive" managers that the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. It will be interesting when I ask the unsuspecting repairman today if he works on weekends or if there is any "emergency" personnel he is aware of for Direct Energy- my guess is he will not know what I am talking about.