Complaints

This profile includes complaints for A.C. Howell Corp.'s headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  A.C. Howell Corp.

  126 New Vernon Rd Ste 1 Howells, NY 10932-9800

  
• 

  A.C. Howell Corp.

  PO Box 143 Howells, NY 10932-0143

  

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/10/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  A.C. Howell Corp., a local propane supplier, has owed us a refund in the amount of approximately $250 for more than 30 days. New York State law requires any refund period longer than 30 days to be "posted" although I have searched every one of their website pages and I see no such posting, which suggests they are in violation. I have called repeatedly and emailed them to no avail, they have not yet even mailed me a check for what they owe. Furthermore, while approximately $200 of the amount owed us by the A.C. Howell Corp. is for reimbursing the propane left in their tank when they collected it from us, the other $55 is a refund for one of their technicians who erroneously told us that he suspected a propane leak was coming from our stove, when it was actually coming from a line outside our house. Our leak was correctly located and repaired by a different propane supplier (**********). An A.C. Howell Corp. supervisor called me to say that he would be issuing a refund for the $55 diagnostic fee, but never said that this refund also could take up to 90 days. This is all completely unjust. Not only did this company misdiagnose a problem, causing us to switch propane suppliers, they have taken over a month to refund they money they owe us and seem in no hurry to do so. Since I do not see any mention of said 90-day refund policy on their website, it seems that they are in violation of New York law.

  Business Response

  Date: 02/10/2025

  
  
  Thank you for forwarding the *********. This is the first time we have received it.
  
  In ******** to *** ******* *********, *** ***** had originally contacted our office 9/3/2024 that he suspected a leak at his range, that there was an odor. He was advised to shut off the line behind his range and his tank outside and we would send a technician to check the system. On 9/3/2024 a technician was sent and isolated the leak to the range. ******** was advised to have someone come to repair the range, or to purchase a new one. The range was then disconnected from the gas line and the gas line was plugged. He was charged a service fee of $54.06 which he paid with a check. On 9/4/2024 *** ***** called the office and stated that he felt that the range did not leak, and that they found the source of the odor, which was a bag of fish guts that they didn't realize were at the stove, and insisted that we come out to re-connect his gas service. He was advised by the office that the technician has isolated a leak in the system to his range and that we would not reconnect the service until a repair was made to the appliance. He then demanded that he speak to that technician. On 9/5/2024 A.C. Howell technician did speak to *** ***** of his findings and that it would be unsafe to re-hook the leaking appliance to his system, and for that reason we would not re-connect service until repairs were made. ********* ******** was that the tech did not really want to be there that day, and made the results of the leak test up, and if we were refusing to re-connect his service that we needed to come and pick up our tank, because he would get a different company. On 9/5/2024 we did recover our equipment from ********** residence. He then called the office and spoke to the secretary, that we had come and picked up our tank, and he would move forward and bash our company on all public service sites, and report us to the BBB. *** ***** did have installed at his residence a 50 gallon tank. At the time of pickup, his tank was on 50%. He was credited for the gas that was in the tank, 24 gallons at the price he paid $5.40p/gallon, for a refund of $129.60. He was then charged a "pickup and account closure fee" of $50.00. His refund would be $79.60. On 9/12/2024 ******** called to check on the status of his refund, and he was informed that it was being processed. He also wished to make sure that we had the correct mailing address on file. On 9/18/2024 he called again to check on the status of the refund, he was told the above information, and that the total of the refund was $79.60. He said that he would like to be refunded for the service fee of $54.06, and also requested that the pickup fee be removed. He was informed by the secretary that the supervisor would have to speak to him. On 9/19/2024 I, ***** Howell, spoke with *** ****** and informed him that we would remove the pickup fee from refund amount as a courtesy, and he would receive an adjusted refund amount of $129.60, which was the value of the gas that had been returned to the company. On 10/30/2024 check # **** was mailed to ******** in the amount of $129.60 to the address he provided, and his account was terminated. On 11/6/2024 *** ***** started sending a string of emails, demanding we refund the $54.06 that had been originally charged to him for his service call. He states in the emails that we underpaid him for the gas in the tank, and insists that the tank on his site was a 100gallon tank, and therefore he should have been refunded for a larger quantity of gas. He states that the supervisor said he would refund the service fee, and that is not true. This office retains a copy of all those emails, and our ********s if you are interested in seeing a copy of them. Our last correspondence with him was on 11/7/2024.  The email you sent us today is the first notice we have received about the ********* against us. As to ********** ********* regarding the length of time it had taken to receive a refund, and it not being on our website, all of our customers are provided with a copy of our customer policy and ********** which has listed in it our account closure and refund policy. It states in that section of the agreement that refund checks are issued within 90 days of the account closure. All customers are required to sign the agreement as acceptance of our policy in order to receive deliveries. Please see the attached copy of our policy. If needed, we do have the signed copy of ********** ********** showing his acceptance of our policy if it needs to be forwarded as well, we can do so. At this time, there will be no further refunds issued to ********. His account has been terminated as of 10/30/2024. If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know.
  
  Thank you
  
  ***** ******* *********
  ** ** ****** ****.