Petro Heating Services and Fuels

Review: I had a one year contract with Petro, which expired, and I was charged almost $600 for a delivery after the contract expired. I contacted Petro via phone to renew my contact, which I was told was honored. I paid my almost $1200 balance in full to them in 12/2013 and since then they have come to my home, WITHOUT being contacted for a oil delivery, THREE different times (January, February and March) at $500-$600 each time!!! After the first initial delivery in January I contacted them about renewing my contract and they said they would. When they came in February and it was reflected at regular price and not the $250 month contract rate I called them AGAIN only to be told that they didn't have that on record and that they record all calls and can go back to the call to review it and see what was said by both parties. They never got back to us me so I called them and told them DO NOT DELIVER ANY OIL to my house because I am canceling my service and switching to gas, which I was told was going to be honored. Yet again, like thieves in the night, they came on my property, without permission and delivered oil against my wishes. They keep saying all calls are recorded, yet every time I tell them to go back and review the call to see what was said by each party, they never get back to me. I feel cheated, lied to, scammed and bullied. I will NEVER do business with this company again nor recommend them to anyone else. I wish I would have checked their background on Revdex.com before I did business with them. Just from the number of complaints here you can see that this is NOT a company to do business with.Desired Settlement: Adjust your bill to reflect the contract rate or come take back your oil that I don't need!!!! Either way, I do not EVER want an oil delivery from Petro again. Stop coming to my house.

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted]:

Please accept this reply in response to complaint by the above referenced consumer.

Upon receiving the complaint, we immediately reached out to [redacted]. We discussed the deliveries and the balance on his account. We have come to an amicable resolution and payment arrangements that [redacted] was satisfied with.

Very truly yours,

Review: I had petro convert my house from oil to gas, a petro rep came over the house and evaluated were the burner would go and the work needed to be done to have this installed. The rep put everything in the contract. After petro removed the old burner and placed the new one in, the town inspector came by and informed the workers that the burner needs to be lifted 18 inches and a certification will not be produced until this discrepancy is fixed. I have been going back and forth with petro and now they are saying they are going to need to place an 18inch wall around the burner to have the the town pass it and so I can get the certification for the house, but they are telling me it will cost me an extra 800. dollars, I have disputed this with them and they say it's in the contract, but I have read the contract and don't see it. The other part is that they should have known prior to the installation of the burner that it had to be lifted 18inches for proper installation. Now I have to pay 800. dollars so the town can give me a certification on the installation and avoid any problems with the town.Desired Settlement: I wish petro would pay for the installation of the wall and refund the money I had to pay for their mistake.

Business

Response:

[redacted] Dear [redacted], Please accept this reply in response to complaint #[redacted] by the above referenced consumer. Attached is a copy of the retail installment sales contract. Please note the verbiage in the upper left corner advising of additional costs if the town/village deems additional work is required to meet their current codes. [redacted] acknowledged being made aware of this responsibility when the contract was signed on April [redacted], 2014. I have been advised by our [redacted] that on January [redacted], 2015, [redacted] approved us to do the additional work at the quoted cost of $800.00. Please be advised that we have put this work on hold until we receive written approval from [redacted] to proceed at the quoted cost. We await his decision. Very truly yours, [redacted]

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

[Your Answer Here]

Attached is my copy of the contract, signed in April, which does not include anything about my responsibilities to bring the job up to code. The copy provided by Petro has this on the top left, yet it is not on the client's copy. I entrusted Petro to preform a routine job and to know the code requirements as they are in this business. If during the consultation, they had advised of the potential need for an 18 inch cement wall to be installed around the burner, I would have not used Petro and maybe not have converted to gas heat at all. Furthermore, the master plumber who signed off on this job, [redacted], should have known basic code requirements. Since the installation, two other plumbers have seen the job and both immediately said that the burner and water heater needed to be raised 18 inches. One of these plumbers was a Petro employee. Instead of redoing a botched job, Petro has tried to find a way around their careless mistake. Then they try to have me pay $800 for a wall I do not want. All while jeopardizing the safety of my family.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Business

Response:

[redacted]Please accept this reply in response to the complaint by the above referenced customer. Upon receipt of [redacted]'s copy of the retail agreement, we reviewed the situation with our [redacted]. We have been in contact with [redacted] and an appointment has been set up for February [redacted], 2015 with our [redacted], the plumbing inspector and [redacted]. Sincerely, [redacted] ?

Review: I have been a Petro customer for 32 years purchasing my home heating oil along and yearly service contracts. Due to the high cost of home heating oil over the last few years, I agreed to enter into the Ceiling Price agreement with Petro so that pricing would exceed a stipulated amount. Based on the letter received and the way it was explained by the telephone sales representative my pricing would not exceed the cap and would vary based upon market conditions. As we all know market conditions have changed significantly and my last oil delivery was not significantly less than my capped price per gallon. My ceiling price from 7/*/2014 to 6/**/2015 is $4.349 and my last delivery on 11/**/2014 was $4.049 per gallon. During that time period the average home delivery price was somewhere in the area of $3.60/$3.80. Petro is taking advantage of customers who purchase on automatic delivery and ceiling price agreements. We all know market fluctuations occur and oil companies buys putts and calls to protect themselves in the market in the event of a price change. So who is protecting the consumer from these types of market conditions? If prices decline significantly the savings should be passed onto the customer. Petro would certainly increase its prices to the customer if the price of oil jumped significantly. Petro's marketing is deceptive and misleading.Desired Settlement: As prices continue to decline I expect Petro to bill me based on market conditions, product availability and wholesales prices. I should not be paying a premium for home heating oil. When my contract expires in June 2015, I will certainly be looking elsewhere to purchase oil.

Business

Response:

December **, 2014

The Revdex.com

Re: Case #[redacted]

Dear [redacted]:

We are in receipt of the correspondence relative to [redacted] and would like to address her concerns. We reached out to [redacted] a total of 5 times since December [redacted], but we have not heard back from her.

While we do sympathize with [redacted]’s situation, it is a common misconception that if the wholesale or retail price of oil drops in the marketplace, that a retailer can drop the price under it’s protected price programs because it is paying less for its supply. Because we secure the product for a customer at the time of the customer’s acceptance, we are contractually committed to purchase that product from our supplier at the price we originally agreed to, not the current market price.

The security measures we take are hedging and other market mechanisms. These mechanisms protect us, and our customers, against these market fluctuations. They are designed to ensure that we will be able to fulfill price and product commitments to customers even if our cost of product increases or supply runs short – which is very important to the customer, us and the Revdex.com. These security measures ensure that we can honor the commitments and contracts we make with customers, even if the price of oil increases or supply is tight.

Like many companies, we have sought to take advantage of the use of technology that allows us to confirm our contracts, including electronic records and electronic signatures. With the customer’s ?consent, we record our offer and the customer’s acceptance of a protected price contract or a renewal, including the early termination fee. We continue to mail to each customer a confirmation of the terms of the contract or renewal. We offered [redacted] two protected price plans, and she chose to accept the ceiling price. The price on her account was lower than the 4.349 ceiling on her last two deliveries (4.049 per gallon on 11/**/14 and 3.699 per gallon on 12/**/14).

We are proud of our long history of service to [redacted] residents. We should emphasize that we have honored our contracts, based on the phone agreement and written confirmation, by providing oil to customers at the negotiated prices, no matter the circumstances in the marketplace or the weather.

We hope that we have addressed the concerns expressed in your letter. Please call me at [redacted] if you have any questions or would like to discuss this matter further.

Sincerely,

Review: I called to inquire about their services and now they claim that we have a contract.

I have request a copy of our so called contract and they have refused to supply me with a copy.Desired Settlement: Stop billing me for cancellation fees or take me to court.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

Sincerely,