Hilgy's LP Gas

Review: Having recently purchased property in northern WI, I contacted 5 local propane suppliers and selected Hilgy's to be our supplier. Noting our 500 gal. tank was at around 35% : I contacted Hilgy's Hwy.51 location on 12/16/13 (whose price that day was at $1.999/gallon) to set up an account and secure delivery over the phone wherein I was asked to provide the following: detailed property logistics as it resides on a shared driveway configuration, provided IL address (primary residency) for billing/contact purposes, phone number, and VISA information. I was told 1) delivery would take up to 2 weeks which I said would be fine as we would not be returning until after the holidays (little use of propane to heat as we keep the place at a temp just to prevent pipes from freezing), and 2) that they would be mailing paperwork to my IL residence to determine whether or note we would be electing "will call" or "auto fill". We had a medical emergency shortly after the holiday which prevented us from returning to property which occured this past weekend. We arrived to find our tank had not been filled and we were not under 20%. I immediately phoned to inquire about the situation. On Fri., 1/17/14(11:06 a.m.) I called a what ended up being one of their "other" locations as I did not have my file with me. I spoke with a Lois who said she would look into it but was going on her lunch and would call me back. She never did. So at 1:29 (being it was a Friday and most propane companies close around 4PM), I phoned back to be told they had no record of me, that due to a now propane shortage situation, they were in "allocation" mode and weren't honoring new customers. Being on the road, I decided to visit the Hwy.51 location. [redacted] (male), was working. I explained the situation and he pulled up his computer to find I did exist with an entry date of 12/16/13 and couldn't provide explanation as to why our gas had not been delivered. He said that due to it being a Friday afternoon, that he would have someone deliver our order Monday, 01/20/14 (same price as quoted as the price had shot up to almost $3.00/gallon as the situation had become short supply/high demand now). He duly said he wanted to look into who at Hilgy's end "dropped the ball". I mentioned to him that I also never received the paperwork they said they would send to my IL residence. He in turn had me fill out 3 documents (Hilgy's lP Gas Credit Application, a Hilgy's Wi9ll-Call Status/COD Status Agreement, & Hilgy's LP Gas Payment & Account Information Policy which I in turn requested copies of). I confimred payment was in order and I left with peace of mind that all was taken care of. While in route home to IL on Monday, 01/20/14(3:18 pm) I received a call from [redacted] stating Hilgy's main office wold not honor the price established when I originally set up my order. I in turn found that unacceptable and asked who his contact was. He told me it was a lady named "[redacted]" at their main office Tomahawk, WI. In in turn placed a 3:21 PMcall only to be told [redacted] left for the day. I followed up on 1/21/14 I followed up on my lunch hour. What I asked to speak to [redacted], the lady in turn asked a) who was calling, b) the nature of my call (undelivered propane order). The lady then told me she could assist. I in turn asked who I was speaking with and she replied "[redacted]". I discussed the details and she said "she had not spoken with [redacted] about this and that she would have to call him and get back to me. Mind you the price with other competitors (which I was now having to call just to secure a primary utility (HEAT) were at 3.199/gallon Monday afternoon and told me that if I couldn't resolve my issue with Hilgy's and had to go with them (noting most companies weren't even honoring "new customers" due to the now current shortage situation) that I should secure before 4PM as they expeceted the price to rise again by C.O.B. By 3:00 p.m., [redacted] had not gotten back to me. I in turn called her back and went through the same "may I speak to [redacted]" scenario I did the previous call wherein it ended up all along I was speaking to "[redacted]". [redacted] now defensively told me that their policies weren't followed "by me" when in fact I did exactly what their employees requested me to (both on 12/16/13 and on 01/17/14)! Wanting to still work with Hilgy's to avoid having to pay approx. $250 more for the same amount of gas (now requesting 200 gallons), I begged to counter that it was Hilgy's employees and Hilgy's employees not following policy that resulted in this order failure. Unfortunately I was abrubtly told via [redacted] to find another supplier in this now dire situation of supply and demand up North (which actually hit the national news report in IL on 01/20/14) and she hung up on me! I tried calling back only to have a man, [redacted], pick up the phone and give me a run around stating [redacted] was now on the phone. I asked if she had a superior I could talk to but was old she was the owner. I asked "sole owner" to which he stated she was in partnership with her husband [redacted]. I left a message for [redacted] to contact me only never to hear from them. Under the wire I had to contact a competitor around 3:55 who within 5 min. over the phone established me (similar to my initial call to Hilgy's) a credit card support account, noted that the price in fact had now risen to $3.999 but would honor the earlier quoted $3.199, and gas was delivered this morning already but at approx. $250 more than had it been delivered by Hilgy''s/any of the other local competitors I contactged back in early December. I understand the current situation is stressful yet I established this all in good faith and understand prior to the situation becoming so frustrating for customers and/or suppliers! Pleae help as this should never have happened.Desired Settlement: Refund of the difference I had to pay for Hilgy's lack of communication, lack of providing a service that from the customer's perspective was established fully based on what their representation requested of me.

Business

Response:

In regards to Mrs. [redacted] complaint she indeed did contact me on 1121/14 while T was in the oftice,l do

not usually identify myself since our company has been inundated with telemarketcr calls and we are

trying to deal with that situation by not giving out any of the owners names. She explained to me that she

had contacted our oftlce in Minocqua on 12/16/13 and had given her mailing infonnation to the office

staff to with regards to her being interested in setting up an account with our company. At the time of her

contacting us. she asked the price and was given the current going rate. As with an)' one contacting our

company # 1 you must have an account established in order to receive tho current going rate. Thus when

she contacted our company and asked the going rate she was given this verbal inionnatiorl at the time of

her call, yet it does not lock her into a price with our company since we did nOI have any signed

paperwork at the time of her inquiry. 1 tried to explain this to Mrs. [redacted] and she stated that we had her

credit card infonnation on file. which is indeed untrue since we do not keep ANY credit card infonnation

on file for Any of our customers ever.

1 understand her frustration regarding this paperwork situation, yet when she stopped into the office 1 n

Manitowish Waters on Friday 1117114 she was intonned by the office statT that we would take care of her

if it was oked by management on Monday 1/20/14, when we informed her that since we now had

paperwork in the office we could now talc.e her order for ~ropane. she became very upset and was insistent

upon the fact that we should honor her price from the 16' of Dec. Again ( tried to explain that we had to

have paperwork in the oftice and run a creuit ch~ck on her prior to Hilgy's laking an urder and locking in

a price for her. After trying to reason with Mrs. [redacted], 1 felt it was best to end our call. She processed to

call back and make threats upon our company with regards to contacting tho Revdex.com and contacting each

and every newspaper within the Northwood's to slander our company's name if she was not contacted the

next business day. Again the following day, 1 indeed tried to contact Mrs. [redacted] and she stated that it

didn't matter because she had already contact the Revdex.com and was going forww'd with her threats.

We at Hilgy's regret that this had gone to this level, yet we have policies and procedures set up tor a

reason with regards to setting up an account with us. Regrettable even today we have people calling daily

tor the price and yet it does not mean that they will receive that price if. they do not have an account with

Hilgy's nnd hove the proper poper work on file, and actually make and order propane. etc ... We do not

extend 'redit to anyone wilhoul first hl1ving everything on tile.