Tolino's Fuel Service, Inc.

October 15, 2015Dear [redacted],We are in receipt of your letter dated 9/28/15. We are an honest, and reasonable company that always strives to serve our customers with the highest degree or customer service and fairness. We maintain our position on the dollar amount of the refund and after consideration, frankly we do not wish to do further business with the customer  and a credit on his account would put us in a position to have to deliver to him. At this point we are oping to send the customer a check in the amount of $466.10. We stand by our dollar amount based on our fair and generous calculations. It would be very common and accepted practice to credit a customer based on the current price which ir this case would be lower that how we calculated his refund.If you have any questions, Please contact me.Dave S

October 15, 2015Dear [redacted],
We are in receipt of your letter dated 9/28/15. We are an honest, and reasonable company that always strives to serve our customers with the highest degree or customer service and fairness. We maintain our position on the dollar amount of the refund and after consideration, frankly we do not wish to do further business with the customer  and a credit on his account would put us in a position to have to deliver to him. At this point we are oping to send the customer a check in the amount of $466.10. We stand by our dollar amount based on our fair and generous calculations. It would be very common and accepted practice to credit a customer based on the current price which ir this case would be lower that how we calculated his refund.If you have any questions, Please contact me.
Dave S

September 4, 2015I'm in receipt of your letter dated 8/20/15. Here's what transpired. We had set 2 propane tanks at the customer's house in February 2000. The customer purchased propane on a regular basis until the last delivery on 7/15/08. We have not made a delivery to his location...

since then. Each summer we review customer accounts to look at usage. It has always been our policy to do this, if we see that a customer hasn't used propane in some time, we contact the customer, try to ascertain why no usage. If the Customer for whatever reason isn't going to use propane, we explain that we would come out and pick Up the tanks and a credit would be issued to them. Unlike many propane companies we do NOT charge customers on an annual basis a fee or non-usage. In the industry it the commonplace for companies to send out each year to customers a bill for 150.00 and higher for non- use. It has always been our opinion that we would rather have the tanks back so we may deploy them to other customers homesThe tanks at [redacted] house were picked up on 7/30/15. At that time there were 158 gallons between both tanks. We derive at this number by reading the tank gauges. How we determined the dollar credit to be given to [redacted] was as follows: - His last delivery was on 5/15/08 then he paid 3.85 per gallon for 114.31 gallons, the delivery prior to that (10/13/06) he paid 2.50 per gallon for 80.3 gallons. if you average out those last 2 deliveries by gallon and cost it comes out to 2.95 per gallon. (Please keep in mind that this was for propane that was delivered to the tanks last in 2008. Today if he got a delivery he would be paying 1.95 per gallon and an argument could be made that we should credit that gallon amount back to him).
I spoke with [redacted] he explained to me what had transpired, I got the call once he wasn't satisfied with the credit he was issued to his oil account (he's gotten fuel oil from Tolinos since 2000). I explained to him that I understand his frustration, but our policy is very fair and he's had tanks there for 7 years with no delivery, was never charged anything for them sitting there, and he received a credit based on the average he paid for the last 2 deliveries he received over 7 years ago. I also explained to him that the propane market pricing is a lot less then it was when he got the deliveries but that we felt that a credit of the average he paid was more than fair. [redacted] indicated that he had some document that our service tech signed the day the tanks were picked up indicating that the gallons in the tank totaled 165 (we calculated 158), said if he had that please bring it to our office and well credit you for the 165. He said that he would come by with it and as of today I haven't seen anything, Finally it is also our policy to issue credits to customer accounts not checks, [redacted] uses fuel oil, has an account here and is free to use his credit in the amount of 466.10 anytime he wishes. At the current price of 1.919 per gallon that would translate into 242.88 gallons of fuel oil. In my discussion with [redacted] My conversation was VERY cordial, l expressed several times understand where he's coming from but that's not our policy and think how we handled this is very fair. take great offense with his comment that was arrogant and rude, in fact just the opposite. believe our policies are reasonable and fair and the credit at the average that he paid for the propane is more than fair, Our decision stands and [redacted] credit will remain on his account.
If you have any questions or need any additional information, Please feel free to contact me.
Dave S

July 15, 2014
Dear [redacted],I'm responding to your letter dated 7/10/14. The customer's tank was inadvertently picked up due to a clerical error. In his account it was not indicated that the tank was customer owned and that is what caused this issue. When he purchased the tank at...

that time it was never marked that way. In the spring of each year we look at tanks and customer usage- and in this case we saw no deliveries since 2005. (As it was shown that we still owned the tank). We attempted to call the customer- no answer and no message could be left, so we scheduled t he tank for a pick up. We picked up the tank on 4/23/14. The next morning we had messages on our voicemail about picking up his tank, that he owned it and that he was faxing us proof. We received his information by 9 am and by noon the tank was returned- in fact it was still on the truck from the night before. Our installer preformed a documented pressure test after re-connecting the tank. I spoke with the customer and assured him that we would re set the tank and pressure test his entire propane system. In addition I apologized for our error. I explained to him how this mistake occurred. And at that time he was satisfied. The tank was returned exactly as we took it-same tank- same amount of propane in the tank and same regulator. The customer contacted the paper reporting the issue to them; I spoke with the reporter and relayed to him this same information. We've admitted we made the error, and as I said I did apologize to the customer for the mistake.I also spoke with the local police department and explained to them the error on our part. And that by the time I had talked with them the tank was already returned, reconnected and tested. They acknowledged that things like this happen.In addition the tank in question is a 100 Lb, 24 gallon tank. These tanks have a life of forever, requiring a visual inspection once every 5 years. There is no deprecation and these types of tanks are very much in use everywhere today for small usage situations and in fact can be bought at any home depot type store.In conclusion, yes we did make an honest mistake, which we admitted to, the customer had t he tank returned actually in better condition, as we tested the propane system for any leaks and documented that none were found. I did apologize to the customer for the error.
If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me.

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
Regards,
[redacted]

Review: I had purchased a propane tank from them when I first moved into the area along with the first filling. I subsequently learned they were overpriced and never ordered from them again. Occasionally I would check prices but they remained overpriced so I never did business with them again. The propane was solely for cooking. One night I went to turn on the stove but no flame. I went outside to check to see if it was empty and there wasn't even a tank. Someone had stolen it. I called 911 and filed a complaint with the police. They discovered that Tolino's had "repossessed" it. I had a receipt proving my ownership. I had also recently discovered that such small tanks were no longer used by propane distributors. I had also learned from someone else in the business that these tanks are fully depreciated in 5-7 years. There was no value to them in taking it. I called them up and demanded my tank back supplying my proof. They could not read the image so went down into their basement where they still had my file and dug the receipt out confirming I owned the tank. If they were able to do that, how did they determine they still owned the tank to take it from me without any kind of notice, warning, attempt at resolution of whatever they thought the problem was, no notices left they'd taken it, no court order, nothing. The tank was returned almost completely empty and the regulator damaged and leaking. I never received any kind of apology nor compensation for the distress or damage.

They disputed the damage to the regulator supplying a test report stating there were no leaks but dated the day after they returned the tank with the damaged regulator.Desired Settlement: A public apology, compensation for the damage, distress and empty tank. I'd had the tank inspected and filled 8 months prior. It generally takes 14-18 months to need filling again.

Business

Response:

July 15, 2014Dear [redacted],I'm responding to your letter dated 7/10/14. The customer's tank was inadvertently picked up due to a clerical error. In his account it was not indicated that the tank was customer owned and that is what caused this issue. When he purchased the tank at that time it was never marked that way. In the spring of each year we look at tanks and customer usage- and in this case we saw no deliveries since 2005. (As it was shown that we still owned the tank). We attempted to call the customer- no answer and no message could be left, so we scheduled t he tank for a pick up. We picked up the tank on 4/23/14. The next morning we had messages on our voicemail about picking up his tank, that he owned it and that he was faxing us proof. We received his information by 9 am and by noon the tank was returned- in fact it was still on the truck from the night before. Our installer preformed a documented pressure test after re-connecting the tank. I spoke with the customer and assured him that we would re set the tank and pressure test his entire propane system. In addition I apologized for our error. I explained to him how this mistake occurred. And at that time he was satisfied. The tank was returned exactly as we took it-same tank- same amount of propane in the tank and same regulator. The customer contacted the paper reporting the issue to them; I spoke with the reporter and relayed to him this same information. We've admitted we made the error, and as I said I did apologize to the customer for the mistake.I also spoke with the local police department and explained to them the error on our part. And that by the time I had talked with them the tank was already returned, reconnected and tested. They acknowledged that things like this happen.In addition the tank in question is a 100 Lb, 24 gallon tank. These tanks have a life of forever, requiring a visual inspection once every 5 years. There is no deprecation and these types of tanks are very much in use everywhere today for small usage situations and in fact can be bought at any home depot type store.In conclusion, yes we did make an honest mistake, which we admitted to, the customer had t he tank returned actually in better condition, as we tested the propane system for any leaks and documented that none were found. I did apologize to the customer for the error.If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me.