ComplaintsforFirst Call Oil Co.

• Initial Complaint

  08/15/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I called First Call Heating & Cooling on August 5, 2022. I asked to talk with a manager: ****. He picked up the phone instantly. Very pleasant, then I told him about what was going on. That's when things changed. I had another company come out to assess our oil tank. It had a slow leak since we last had our tank filled. We were told that it would stop, maybe from being over filled. It continued and I had this other company come out and they were exactly right, it had been over filled. They wrote up there findings, and I had sent that over to ****. **** said that he would talk with the driver who went out. When we connected again, he said that was untrue. It hadn't been overfilled. There is a bell when it gets full, I said maybe the bell didn't go off? **** again said "no". I asked for them to come out to look at it. He said sorry we are booked. I asked if he could come out and pump out the oil, he said yes, they would charge us $350. They would buy the oil back at .50 cents per gallon. I said you just filled out tank and charged us $1106.00. He said oh, I can give you a $1.00 per gallon. We will give you the $350.00 back if you buy a new furnace from us???? They could come back Monday at 7:15am to pump it out. As the conversation went on, I was getting no where and I was starting to get furious at his customer service! We have been a customer of ****** Oil from the get go, then they bought them out. So, all in all for over 50 years. I made the appointment. Then I thought, wait, I going call back on a different phone number and asked if they had any service calls for oil. I was told yes they do. Its summer and we have lots of availability. I called back and cancelled my pump!

  

  Business response

  08/19/2022

  Im sorry that you are experiencing failures in your heating oil tank plumbing.  When we spoke, I tried to explain that when you have you tank filled, various plumbing connections are exposed to heating oil. This is the case every time your tank is filled completely.  Those connections by design are made to retain that oil and not leak.  Especially since they are not part of a pressurized system.  However, with all aging equipment they can develop leaks over time.  That is why we make sure our customer understand that they are responsible for maintaining the safety, integrity, and operational condition of the tank and plumbing.  This is stated on the back of every delivery ticket/receipt.  I cannot speak to why the other company you hired would call this an overfill and deem it the cause of your leaks.  I also clarified that we are available to pump out your tank and hold your oil for you until after you have your tank and plumbing repaired.  We do charge a $350 fee for that service to cover expenses.  We were set to come do that the day we spoke, but you werent able to have anyone at the house to ***** our driver access to your tank until the following Monday.  The buyback programs you allude to are for when customers are converting their oil furnaces to natural gas or electric and no longer have need for the oil.  My apologies if I did not make some of this clear.  I was informed that you had cancelled our services and gone with another company.  If that is not the case and we can still assist you further, please dont hesitate to reach out.  Sincerely, Matt.
  

  
  

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