Oil Dilemma

[wolfie]

An extra update.

I. Am. An. Ass. After being rather rude to the lady (admittedly, she wasn't too great either), I had Mr. Wooden pull out the meter, tap it and screw it back in. We got our oil the first time.

I am so incredibly ashamed of myself right now. I called a separate oil company and the guy on the phone actually walked me through thes steps, so I could check my meter myself instead of just telling me that my meter is wrong.

Classic customer service fail. You ordered a specific amount of oil, they said they delivered it, but your meter (I assume "gas gauge" type) says you got only a fraction of it. Since you're not familiar with the working of the equipment (and apparently it's a common enough failure that the first thing the other company did was to walk you through the procedure), it's natural for you to assume the delivery was shorted.

Imagine how your opinion of the first company would be different if, on calling to say that your meter says they only delivered a fraction of the oil you ordered, their first reaction was "Are you sure your meter is reading properly? Here's how to check it" - steering the blame to a piece of equipment.

Is your tank exposed, or buried? If exposed, might you be able to (next summer, with tank empty) get a "sight glass" mounted on the end, or get a thin stick (3/4" dowel would be perfect) that you can use as a "dip stick" - take off the filler cap on top, dip it in, and see how far up it gets wet. Both of those are pretty much failure-proof gauges.

[Lurking Sockpuppet]

or get a thin stick (3/4" dowel would be perfect) that you can use as a "dip stick" - take off the filler cap on top, dip it in, and see how far up it gets wet. Both of those are pretty much failure-proof gauges.

This is what we did the year we rented a place with a gas furnace. We also learned that we needed to check to make sure there was no water in the line. We found that out the hard way. Florida got hit with severe weather and we woke up to no power, no heat (water in the line froze) and everyone in the house had waterbeds. We were very cold for a few days.

Sockpuppet

[dalesys]

Florida got hit with severe weather and we woke up to no power, no heat (water in the line froze) and everyone in the house had waterbeds. We were very cold for a few days.

And the cats enjoyed the new vibrators on the waterbeds.
[/FatFreddysCat]

[LillFilly]

There's a similar story in a book I have. The only difference was that the account wasn't cancelled in the system so the delivery was still done. The company then demanded that the homeowners pay for the oil. After showing copies of pictures of the ruined furnished basement and the paperwork the homeowners were going to file in the inevitable lawsuit, the company backed down and paid for the cleanup and repair work.

Reminds me of a People's Court case. Woman usually called to have her tank filled every X month, but she found a hole in the tank and was waiting to get it repaired. When she didn't call for a fill-up the company took it upon themselves to schedule automatic fills, filled the tank, and then tried to charge her extra for the 'courtesy' of automatically filling her when she wasn't scheduled to, and FOR THE REMOVAL of the oil so she could get the tank fixed! They hemmed and hawed over why they did it and you could pretty much tell they has just been trying to soak her for extra $.

[PepperElf]

An extra update.

I. Am. An. Ass.

I called the lady from our oil company back to apologize. It's my own fault for jumping to conclusions like that.

Edit: We ordered 200 gallons of oil. They requested we provide a specific amount, so 200 gallons was it.

The part in red negates the part about calling yourself an ass.

Asses don't call back people to personally apologize for making a mistake.

[wolfie]

Reminds me of a People's Court case. Woman usually called to have her tank filled every X month, but she found a hole in the tank and was waiting to get it repaired. When she didn't call for a fill-up the company took it upon themselves to schedule automatic fills, filled the tank, and then tried to charge her extra for the 'courtesy' of automatically filling her when she wasn't scheduled to, and FOR THE REMOVAL of the oil so she could get the tank fixed! They hemmed and hawed over why they did it and you could pretty much tell they has just been trying to soak her for extra $.

From what you've posted, it sounds like the oil company was suing for their "services" which had not been requested. I hope that not only did they not get the money they were demanding, but that they were ordered to pay for the cost of the cleanup when the unordered (due to hole in the tank) oil leaked out (again due to hole) and contaminated the woman's yard.