Quarles Petroleum, Inc

Thank you for making us aware of this concern related to a customer’s account.  We have contacted the account holder and reviewed this...

complaint with her.  We apologized for the circumstances that caused her daughter to file a complaint.  The delivery was made on Tuesday and the account holder appreciated that we contacted her and made her aware of her daughter’s concern.  She stated that she was satisfied that we were able to resolve the issue and we provided some helpful tips for avoiding the circumstances that led up to the events.  We appreciate her feedback and will make steps to improve our communications.

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's offer.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. If the company does not perform as promised I can get back to you at: [redacted]
Regards,
[redacted]

Please find [redacted] an internal string of emails following up on and tracking our investigation of this complaint.  We also have reached out to the customer following our investigation and feel we have satisfied his complaint in a timely and amicable manner.   Although we have...

evidence that the customer did indeed receive his delivery, we have credited his account with an additional $150 for his efforts and his less than optimal experience.  We also credited him an additional $50 for our run-out guarantee.  Please advise if we can provide any additional documentation or any further assistance.

this company sucks make false promises. paid for 100 gallon of heating oil on monday. said will deliver by thursday. no deliver. very cold night. no oil. I will be filing law suit if quarel does not make good with this promise. I should not had to spend the night freezing with no heat due to quarel not delivering oil as promise. I will also be filing with Revdex.com and write to editor of free lance star. THIS NOT RIGHT. YOU HAD 4 DAYS TO DELIVER OIL AND YOUR WERE PAID. IT LIKE THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY AND THEN YOU AT THE MERCY OF THEM. THEY ARE NOT A CARING OIL COMPANY. THEY MAKE FALSE PROMISES!!

Review: My LLC has a contract renting a property in Fredericksburg VA. The newly acquired property had a Quarles rented propane tank installed so we decided to stay with them. On November 4th technician Dana H[redacted] did an inspection which was signed for by the renter. The first delivery came on Nov 11, the paperwork was received by the renter. Payment was made Nov 30th.

The next contact anybody received from Quarles was an email 2/23 stating that we were due for another delivery but that could not be made until the January delivery was paid for. The renter was never contacted and had not seen a propane truck nor a bill. Upon request Quarles emailed a copy of the bill which shows that their truck dispensed 192.1 gallons on 1/12 but nobody has any evidence that the delivery ever took place. No contact was made. No receipt was left. You would think in today's connected age a phone call or text could be made. Propane tanks do not have a meter like a natural gas home but they do have gauges on the tanks. A simple dated digital picture taken of the tank gauge before and after the fill would provide delivery confirmation. Evidence of delivery can be texted or emailed.

If you are going to trespass on private property without any notice of a delivery and expect to be paid for it, you had better have proof that the delivery was made. A typed out piece of paper is not evidence.

An Amerigas tank has been installed and Quarles complied with an order to remove their tank. And, of course, they want payment for the removal fee. It is customary to receive product when a purchase was made. Perhaps there was a delivery made but it could have been 50 gallons instead of 192. It could have been delivered to the wrong house. Quarles has yet to provide any justification that a delivery was made to our property besides a bill.Desired Settlement: Either provide actual evidence of a delivery or close the account as paid in full.

Business

Response:

Dear Ms. [redacted], This message is regarding Complaint ID # [redacted] – [redacted]. We greatly appreciated you sharing this customer communication regarding this complaint. We strive for all Quarles customers to have a great experience with Quarles. We have completed our internal review of this situation and have taken the necessary steps to resolve the issue with the customer. The manager of our Client Services team spoke with Mr. [redacted] on several occasions and we explained our procedures to ensure deliveries were made and recorded properly. For this particular account, we also agreed to close the account as paid in full, and we are hopeful that Mr. [redacted] will reconsider his supplier decision in the future. We consider this matter closed to the mutual satisfaction of both parties. Thank you for all that you do to foster ethical relationships between businesses and the public, and for your partnership with Quarles to ensure service excellence and a great public experience in everything we do. Please feel free to reach me at any time should the need arise. Kind Regards, Michael B[redacted] Vice President of Operations Quarles Petroleum, Inc.

Review: When I wanted to purchase my in-ground tank from Quarles so that I could switch propane providers, they charged me the full price of a *new* tank, even though the tank in question is 15 years old. (I did not learn this information until I had already paid the specific bill for that tank. Since then, I have been withholding payment of my final propane bill for the *difference* between the used and the new tank--$600.) Several phone calls have gone back and forth (with [redacted] and [redacted]), wherein I learned that the sales price reflects the cost of a *new* tank. When I proposed that it was unreasonable to expect me to pay the price of a new tank when it is, in fact, quite old, they have refused to budge and are now threatening collections.Desired Settlement: I would like Quarles to agree to a revision of the sale price to reflect the age of my tank. At the very least, I'd like a reasonable compromise--indicating that it is reasonable to expect to pay a depreciated price for a depreciated product.

Business

Response:

Thank you for the opportunity to resolve this issue. We have now spoken with the customer and have come to a resolution. She did not recall that the tank was replaced in 2008 and not as old as she thought (from 2001). She told our operations manager, [redacted], that she was concerned that her issue did not get raised above the level of the branch manager. She also said that she had mailed a letter to HQ, on Mar 10th; we have not received the letter here at our Headquarters as far as we can find. [redacted] said he had not received one and it does not appear on her account. [redacted] asked her what it would take to keep her as a customer and she agreed that a fair resolution is to meet us halfway on the difference. We have written-off the difference of $300 along with the finance charges accrued. [redacted] agreed to pay the remaining $300balance. We hope we have resolved the issue amicably and to the complete satisfaction of the customer. I have attached a string of intercompany emails showing our research and inter-office discussion on the matter. As of today, we feel this has been successfully closed.

Review: My wife, 8 month old son, and I began renting a home in [redacted] has Quarles as the propane provider. There is a 500 gallon Quarles propane tank in the ground at the property. As we were beginning to move into the home, we realized that our propane had run out on a Sunday, I was able to contact Quarles the next day to open my account. This began the demise of Quarles' reputation through my eyes. During my phone call on Monday, my main goal was to get our propane refilled as quickly as possible. In order to get a refill, I had to open an account with Quarles. The person I was speaking with was unable to execute this and I was told that I would be called in the morning (Tuesday morning) to get my account open. I told the lady during that call on Monday night how urgent the situation was as we had zero propane and zero heat during the coldest week of the year. I asked if I could pay up front via check or credit card so I could get a refill as soon as possible. The "customer service" female began her aggressive denial of any proactive help to my family and I. She stated that even their current accounts could wait up to 2 weeks to get refills at this time. She said that she personally ran out of propane in her life, and just had to deal with it. Her whole approach and attitude were atrocious and her attitude was an accurate predictor of all future correspondence with Quarles. I demanded to speak to someone above her in management, she promised that the [redacted], [redacted] would call me the next morning. He never called. After my lengthy phone call Monday, and the promise of 2 return calls Tuesday (to open my account and the local [redacted] to call me regarding our dire situation), I did not hear from Quarles until Thursday stating that my account was now open. Leaving behind my disgust from my treatment and lies of Monday's conversation, I forged ahead with Quarles and was promised a morning delivery between 8am and 12pm on Friday. By 11am Friday, no one had shown up and I called Quarles. They stated that they do not commit to time slots, and the 8am to 12pm promise was not true. They called me a liar on the phone, I had to retrace the exact details of the conversation before they would take me seriously. They stuck to the fact that the driver could show up at any time Friday and they had no way of knowing when the driver would be there. Since pay was being missed because I had to take the day off from work, I was obviously very upset. I demanded more answers, and I an accurate ETA. I was put on hold, and the lady got back on the phone to tell me that the driver had put in notes that he had come by the house and was there from 10am to 10:30am but no one was home. He also said that he called my cell phone and no one answered. I said those were absolute lies as I had been at the house all morning and no one called my phone. The "customer service" person was very nasty with me and said someone would call me back. She had the driver call me back at 1pm, and said he could be there in an hour. I asked him why he told all of those lies, and he said that he just messed up but he could be there soon. I said that does not work because I had to be at work. I was obviously very upset. I called back and requested to be scheduled for a refill on Saturday. Quarles said the scheduled me to receive a refill the next day, Saturday. My wife and I called 3 times to confirm that we were on the schedule for Saturday. We began waiting at 8am Saturday, and starting at 11am we began calling to get an ETA. 3 times, Quarles said they got a confirmation that the driver was en route but they could not provide an exact ETA. This occurred from 11am to 4pm. The people were mostly nasty and annoyed that we were calling. By 6pm my wife demanded to speak to a [redacted] as we had waited all day with no propane. This "gentlemen" showed a lot of attitude towards my wife including, stating that "our 9 month old son was freezing to death." She responded that is not something to joke about and that she never stated that because there are less fortunate people who have suffered those type of losses. After a lot of back and forth dealing with his attitude, he finally committed to speaking to the local [redacted]. Within 30 minutes, we received a phone call from the local Quarles driver that he would be there by 8pm. He stated that our house was never scheduled for a refill all day. He has been sitting at home since 2pm on call with no stops to take care. This really put me over the edge and prompted me to file this complaint. We were lied to and were made to feel stupid and a bother. All we wanted was to pay a company for services rendered.Desired Settlement: I want the public to know how poorly Quarles helps their "customers". They should be ashamed of the way they treat people and their extremely poor level of service.

Business

Response:

Thank you for notifying us of a complaint from a customer. We strive to provide the best possible service, and when a customer feels that it fails to meet their expectations, it’s important for us to know in order to make improvements.

We have reviewed the scenario described by the customer and we have found breakdowns in our communications both in our conversations with the customer as well as our internal communications. The [redacted] has contacted the customer by phone, on March 5th, and apologized for the less than pleasing results of our interactions and servicing of this customer’s new account setup and delivery.

We have issued a good will credit and advised the customer that we are doing everything we can to assist in his desire to switch fuel providers. The customer expressed his appreciation and stated that it is apparent that Quarles does care for their customers based on our response to the issue he raised.

Customer satisfaction and loyalty is important to us, and we need to continuously make improvements in order to have the opportunities to serve our customers by meeting expectations, and hopefully, exceed their expectations.

Thank you again for bringing this matter to our attention.

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's offer. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. If the company does not perform as promised I can get back to you at: [email protected].

Regards,

The [redacted] of the company called me and apologized in full. He also said that he is actively working to resolve the issues at his company. He also [redacted] to try to make up for the bad service.

Review: Quarles sucks!! Not only are they overpriced but the customer service sucks too. Still waiting on a response from email and phone call. Vicky said the manager would call me back. Vicky also said she would call me back and make sure the manager followed up. No one has followed up. I was given a buy out price of 800.00 two years ago. Now they are trying to charge me over 1,000 for buy out price two years later??? Makes no sense. This place is a joke. Overpriced, unorganized crooks.Desired Settlement: Buy out price lower than 800 as previously discussed or a competitive propane price. It's kinda simple.

Business

Response:

Re: complaint #[redacted] Quarles appreciates the opportunity to respond to any customer concerns and misunderstandings. Upon research of this issue, we found that there was a missed action by Quarles to follow-up after a call on Oct 28th in order to address Mr [redacted]’s concerns. We did communicate by telephone, on Nov 3rd, and discussed the issues regarding tank ownership and propane pricing. There was an error made by a representative of Quarles regarding the cost of the tank as the agreement is over ten years old and the pricing had changed in that time frame. We also discussed that the price of LP varies based on location, amount of fuel consumed and general market variances. An occasional purchaser of propane will generally pay a higher fee than a customer that uses the fuel as a primary heat source. Also effecting pricing is the factor of who owns the tank. If a customer has a Quarles owned tank, then Quarles assumes the responsibilities for safety checks, maintenance and meeting the regulations. This factors into the price the customer will pay for fuel. If a customer owns the tank, then the customer assumes all responsibilities and may be able to obtain better pricing on the fuel. We have worked out an amenable resolution with Mr [redacted] and he has placed an order for Quarles to deliver propane. Again, we apologize for the miscommunication and hope that this explanation provides insight on the workings of delivered fuel practices. [redacted] Manager, Client Services Quarles

After many bad expierence with customer service from other gas companies, I was extremely pleased with their customer service team. They helped me in a professional and timely manner. [redacted] was my rep and she was extrememly nice and answered all of my questions! I will recommend this company to all of our customers!

Review: My mother and father havery been loyal customers for 10 years. My mother made a payment on Friday and that night we ran out of propane. My mother called on Saturday asking for a delivery because we have a 5 year old an infant and a cancer patient which is my father living in the home. She was told there is no such thing as an emergency delivery and that they had no one in accounting to be able to lift the suspension from the account. There apparently was also no managers available to do it either. That they couldn't do anything until Monday even with below freezing temperatures. Well it snowed Sunday evening and now it is Monday night and we are still without heat because the trucks couldn't come out. Yet there were posts made to their Facebook page. This is absolutely horrendous.Desired Settlement: We would like to be contacted by the company with a sincere apology and to have our propane delivered Tuesday with no excuses. We would like to have the employees that were working on 2/13/2016 retrained and taught how to respect customers.

Business

Response:

Thank you for making us aware of this concern related to a customer’s account. We have contacted the account holder and reviewed this complaint with her. We apologized for the circumstances that caused her daughter to file a complaint. The delivery was made on Tuesday and the account holder appreciated that we contacted her and made her aware of her daughter’s concern. She stated that she was satisfied that we were able to resolve the issue and we provided some helpful tips for avoiding the circumstances that led up to the events. We appreciate her feedback and will make steps to improve our communications.

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's offer. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. If the company does not perform as promised I can get back to you at: [redacted]

Regards,

Upon receiving a customer satisfaction survey, I decided to write the CEO, out of Fredericksburg, VA. That was 6 weeks ago. I suspect he was not given my letter but at any rate, I never heard back from anyone...my problem is with the accounting and billing dept. If there is ever a question or confusion, it will not be answered. While I have paid every bill in full that has arrived, I also rec'd a random $20 bill for a "balance" that they refused to itemize or explain. If I overpay or round up, it is not credited to the balance. Now that I know this I am very careful to not do anything to tax their inability to deal with the most basic accounting practices. Otherwise, the service people are excellent and the customer service on the phone is mostly pleasant, if ineffective.

Review: We have an automatic refill plan with Quarles. They fill our tanks when they calculate we are due. All went until this January. The downstairs furnace was not keeping the set temperature. I checked our tanks and they were empty. I called Quarles and they came out the same day and filled us up. They apologized and offered a 50 dollar reduction on the next bill. But then I got a bill in the mail for 276.39 which they said was for a delivery they made on Dec. 12, a mere month prior to us running bone dry! It is usually months between deliveries and it wasn't even terribly cold in December. We had no delivery ticket for this alleged delivery either. I have gotten one every other time. We use propane for nothing else but the downstairs furnace. The bill for the January fill up came and there was no 50 dollar discount either. I called to complain about the spurious bill and the representative seemed to have no idea how to handle my call. I waited a day or two and called again. I talked to a different representative who listened to my complaint and said they would look into it. He called me back in a couple hours and said GPS proved their truck had been here and he wasn't prepared to do anything for me. I then called the [redacted] who also listened to my complaint and offered to look into it. He called me back next business and said GPS proved they were here blah blah no deal. I don't want to go through the hassle of changing proprane providers but I will if they force me to pay this bill for something we so obviously never received. We have had no problem with the system since then so there are no leaks.Desired Settlement: I do not want to pay almost 300 dollars for something we never received. The 50 dollar discount would be nice since it was promised but I definitely want the bill for 276.39 removed.

Business

Response:

Please find [redacted] an internal string of emails following up on and tracking our investigation of this complaint. We also have reached out to the customer following our investigation and feel we have satisfied his complaint in a timely and amicable manner. Although we have evidence that the customer did indeed receive his delivery, we have credited his account with an additional $150 for his efforts and his less than optimal experience. We also credited him an additional $50 for our run-out guarantee. Please advise if we can provide any additional documentation or any further assistance.