Petro

I've been a customer for 20+ years. I've been a payment plan for several years now. I use about $2100 in oil every year consistently, now Petro is raising my payment plan that would give them an additional $600 annually. The increase makes no sense. Also, they are charging an outrageous $566/year for a service plan, never bothering to ask me if I want their highest cost plan. Because of this discrepancy they actually put a hold on my oil deliveries when my supply is low, risking sludge in my lines. At best this is a terrible way to treat a long time customer, but truth be told, it is a sneaky and slimy business tactic. I've called a few competitors who can't believe what Petro is trying to do. I'm sure plenty don't analyze their bills and are just paying outrageous fees for their services. I've also submitted a complaint with BBB.

I have been a customer for 20+ years. Over the years, Petro's service has gotten progressively worse but after this year's experience I am done. I had an oil delivery scheduled for early October which I called to cancel and push back by ~2 weeks. Customer service said no problem - except this message was clearly not relayed to the delivery department. Petro ended up showing up on the day I had cancelled, filled my tank all the way (I only ordered a portion since I never need a full tank), charged me $2000+ despite the original quote being ~$700, and broke my fence gate since I was not on the property to open it (original reason why I cancelled).

So I have been using Petro since I purchased my home about 3 years ago. My locked in price contract ended and the price of oil was high so I decided not to lock in and "float" with the market. Come late spring, I received two separate delivers within two weeks while the prices were high. This upset me as I did not feel like I needed the oil and that they were overcharging me. I ended up paying close to $1000 dollars (sorry I do not recall the exact price).

Updated on 11/07/2018: Well, I am not making much progress. I wrote a review last week. The company responded suggesting a call a specific person - at the general number. The agent who answered didn't know the individual I was looking for but did look her up in the company directory. I was told an email was sent with a request that they me call back. That was on Monday morning - this is Wednesday morning. Would I be writing if they called??

I used to be a customer of a company which has been recently bought by Petro. When I signed the contract for home heating oil, I was promised a discount of $100 and an additional discount of 15 cents per gallon for every delivery till next May. When I tried to explain this to the customer service woman, she seemed to be not bothered by what I am trying to explain at all. Put me on hold several times, apparently to talk to my sales rep, but came back with the same answer every time. I even told her that I have everything written in an email and I can forward it to her, but she was not interested in that.

I've been a commercial customer since 2010. As a PM, they have been incredibly responsive to my building issues. I've usually dealt with Lisa ** and she's been a great help with getting me answers on projects while meeting me with competitive pricing. I've been a customer and will continue to be a loyal customer because getting great service without getting gauged with paying a huge premium does not happen, especially in NYC!

They refused to put oil in my tank because it was "unsafe" and "tank needed to be replaced." I found that very strange since no plumber or company had said that before in the same conditions. After several attempts to get them to be more specific they finally said (3 days later) a valve and alarm needed to be changed but that they could do this work for $300. Keep in mind they had me wait 15-20 minutes every time I called; cold weather and no oil in the tank they feel no rush in solving this "issue". 4th day and I'm still waiting for some "technician" to contact me regarding scheduling the repairs (which I'm not so sure are needed)...

This company is rude and doesn't seem to care. They will talk you into getting into a contract with them verbally and lock you into a rate. If you verbally agree to it, you're stuck in it because they will charge you a $300+ fee to try to get out of it. Even if it's just a day after you agree to it, they will not let you get out of it. They will constantly call you and mail you letters to get in a contract with them. The staff is rude and seem like they are just interested in making money off you. If you are in the North Shore area of Boston, there are many good companies you can use for home oil. Take a look at these companies instead, Amanda's Fuel, Bob's Oil Company, Nardone Oil, Oil Connection, Howie's Oil / Mar Oil, Order Clean Oil, CODOil, Broco Oil, Northeast Oil Delivery, Fuel 2000, Savino & Sons Oil, Ranco Enterprises, Reading Discount Fuel, Absolute Oil, Smaart Fuel, Apple Oil Co.

This is the note I sent to the company to try to finally get them to stop bothering me. I moved away from their service area, and still they continued to send me bills and act as if I had not formally terminated service: "I am paying my final bill today. Please do not contact me again. I have had an extremely frustrating experience with your company. I paid my bill in full last spring and requested that my account be terminated because I was moving to Portland, Maine. Since then, I have received monthly invoices with sums of $240 or $480."

Petro Homes Services took over the company I'd been using for heating oil, Superior Oil last spring. They kept screwing up my budget, so I paid my account in full in June. Then they invoiced me for a Service Agreement in July. I told them I didn't want it, but they keep billing me for it. I closed my account before I needed oil again, but they STILL keep sending bills for that service agreement, now with late fees. Don't sign up with this company.

So I locked in with Love Effron which was taken over by Petro in September of 2017. It was for a one year locked rate of 2.26 which turned out to be a great deal because the cost went significantly up. They made all of their automatic deliveries with no issues until the spring (last fill for season). The guy claimed he ran out of oil (which happens) but said he’d be back. They never came back and I talked to them and refuse to come fill me up cause I’m over a half tank. The real reason is today’s rate for them is near $3.00 and they don’t want to fill me up at the lower rate and because they were unhappy that I didn’t want to renew my contract at their new price of 3.39. Terrible business practice. Will never use or recommend this company to anyone!

We had used Petro Home Services, Princeton, NJ for oil delivery at our Company’s heated garage for years and never had any problem with a delivery. That all changed when our gas furnace died last October. I contacted several installers and was impressed with the Petro salesman and price. While the installation went without a hitch, a second emergency shutoff switch which was included in the contract was not installed. This was corrected but we began to have problems once the work was inspected on January 23rd by Ewing Twp. The electrical installation failed due to what parts were used as well as the fact that some of the work (second emergency shut off switch) wasn’t included on the permit application. I emailed Petro that same day with the items that had to be addressed.

We have been using the same company for 14 years. We gave the new business in town (York, Maine) a chance to hear about their services. We explained that we had a pellet stove, don't use a lot of oil, we call when we need oil so we don't waste their time and money by delivering a small amount of oil every month, but we were told it's not a big deal. They will come out every month regardless of how little oil is needed. We were locked in a contract for one year and it was a great rate. We received 4 consecutive deliveries and then nothing 5 months.

When I signed up with Petro, I did also signed up for the automatic monthly budget plan. I provided representative with the credit card info and agreed to all terms and conditions. Somehow they never did monthly withdrawals and suspended my account with making it legal matter. Why to ask for the credit card at the first place? It is both extremely upsetting and disturbing. I used Petro in the past and never had that kind of horrible experience with them.

After 13 years with Hoffberger Oil, I found myself with Petro after they bought the Hoffberger company. I had been on the budget plan for years and was surprised not to receive a bill in September. I sent in my usual monthly payment without a bill sent and by October called to inquire what was happening. "Customer Service" assured me all would be worked out once my first delivery occurred. Upon the first delivery, I still did not receive a bill (I continued to send monthly payments without a bill) and The second month after the delivery I was sent a bill with the full cost of the fuel plus a late fee charge!

Petro bought out Superior Oil last year (who provided very good service) and at the time we were told to call in July of this year to lock in a rate. When we first called, we were given a quote of $3.08/gallon for the 1st delivery and then the price would increase to $3.31/gallon. At about the same time, a relative was solicited by Luke to become a new customer. The relative was able to lock in a fixed rate of $2.699/gallon for the season. When she called, she spoke with Valerie **, who credited our account $100 because of the referral. We tried to get in touch with Valerie several times but were always told the rep would leave a message for her to call us - no reply call. A second call was placed to Petro and this time the rep stated they were a big corporation and had a lot of overhead expenses which is why they couldnt offer an existing customer close to or the same price per gallon as a new customer.

Stay far away from Petro Home Services and Rinnai water heaters. Petro Home services installed the unit 3 years ago. That is how long it lasted. Rinnai would not give me a new unit but only new parts. Petro spent an entire day trying to fix the unit. Love the labor charge. In my frustration I told them to replace it the next day. 2500 dollars later I have a new unit. Nothing covered. And paid labor too. It would have been less expensive to install an electric unit. No one in that company advised me about anything. They will sell anything. Customer service is terrible also.

Stay far far away from this company. Absolutely awful customer service. Have spent my weekend trying to rectify my propane gas being empty despite being on a regular service schedule. House full of kids I can't feed and hours getting different stories and being disconnected. After finally being told on a Sunday they could not help (despite the day before they assured me would be taken care of Sunday) I get a call saying someone would come "diagnose" the problem for $300. What a joke. Canceling my service tomorrow 8 am.

Petro has been delivering oil to my home for quite some time. They always did one delivery every year and I never paid much attention to their pricing. For some reason they did two deliveries this year and I was stuck paying the bill. I decided to look into the charges and as it turns out they are billing 25% higher than Long Island average price per gallon. Example, Long Island average price per gallon is $3.28 for home heating oil but PETRO billed me $4.40 per gallon at over 500 gallons, that's a lot of money. There is a NY Government website that tracks average prices for heating oil for specific areas of NY - NYSERDA. They specifically do this so that companies like PETRO don't take advantage of trusting customers. I tried calling them and reason with them but they wouldn't hear it. I paid them what I thought was a fair price of $3.50 per gallon which is 7% above Long Island average.

Petro's business model is, to recruit gullible customers who think that by signing up with them for oil delivery and service. The customer will think that they have unburdened the headache of dealing with service and delivery of their oil boilers, while in essence they are going to burden themselves with an everlasting dishonest company, that will cheat them repeatedly. I have been blindly paying them their invoices for service of an oil burner and a one time oil delivery on a rental property that I own, assuming that services were rendered. Turn out that they had never repaired the boiler.

I am very upset, I called around and found out that the exact day we were charged 6 other area oil companies were charging on average .60 cents less a gallon. "When I called the 1-800 number I was told all companies do that." ( He continued to anger me and informed me "I was not angry with them but with my husband for signing the contract.") WHAT! They are not customer oriented in the least, not one bit. He just hung up after insulting me further- at that point I gave it right back and informed they were not ethical. Angry in CT.

We moved to Long Island in Oct 2017. The Home currently uses oil heat and we set up “budget” contract for 250$ a month. Numerous times we were told that this is a set fee and we would not be charged more. During the coldest winter in year Petro decided to not deliver on time. Strike 1 no heat for several days. Then we called numerous times for days and no response. I had to contact the central Petro office and speak to senior management. Finally the heat was restored.

When I subscribed to Petro Oil for home oil heating services, they put me in a budget plan, meaning, equal monthly payments for a year for that sole delivery. What they don't tell you is that towards the end of your 12 months, they will refill you again and ask you to PAY for the total balance in full including that refill that they just sneaked in. I got a full tank delivery on December 15th, and then they sneaked in another delivery on the 21st of January knowing my 12-month budget plan will end on that same month. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY.

I received a bill charging me 4.249 per gallon of heating oil. According to my research this is 163% of market value. I have no idea why I got charged so much, and I haven't received an answer from Petro. I am on the budget plan so I pay the same amount all year long. This year that has left me with over a $1200 bill at the end of the year. I will definitely be searching for a different oil company.

DISGUSTING AND A RIPOFF. They fabricate charges and constantly send you bills for fraudulent charges, unreal! I called to get an explanation and the rep couldn't even explain what the charges are for and couldn't find a supervisor to speak. Of course no one called me back. I am definitely finding another propane company.

After receiving numerous phone calls from Petro to get me to sign up for their rate plan, I finally agreed to only a 6-month variable rate plan 2.86 - 3.229 to get me closer to the end of my service agreement in November. They delivered and charged me 3.229. We called the salesman who convinced me to sign up Sal ** and, "So sorry. Petro is within the price fix offered." I do not recommend Petro as obviously they hedge oil prices but do not pass along any savings to their customers. They are terrible in CT.

I had problem with my heating in Feb 18. It took five service calls to fix the problem instead of 1-2. On top of that they are manipulating the service contract and keep billing. WE try to resolve matter but consumer service keep promising return call from several field supervisors but no success. Now we have no choice but to take the matter at high level including president. By the way we are their customers for more than 15 years and referred so many friends and family. We deserve better treatment than this kind of conspiracy. I hope this get resolved soon.

This review is based on TWO times that Petro has left myself and my family waiting in a frozen home for fuel deliveries that were promised, yet never arrived. We called Petro at 5PM on a Friday when our in ground tank ran out of fuel in 24 degree weather. We were promised a delivery between 6PM and 9PM which never came. At 11PM we called Petro and they told us they no longer had trucks out so we would have to wait until the morning. I explained we had 3 small children in the home and were guaranteed a delivery.

I would like to share this winter's very cold and horrific experience with Petro Home services. I had been on a Petro Home Service Elite program from Nov. 2017 to till Jan. 2018 for my apartment boiler. In November 2017 right after Thanksgiving day, my boiler had been malfunctioning. Then, I had called many time Petro for home services. Their technicians just came and go without fixing the problems. They purposely ignored the problems if boiler parts had to be replaced in order to save their end of expenses.

When I agreed to a contract with Petro I had asked them to notify me before deliveries are made. (2.09 fixed rate per gallon) Never notified me. They told me I would get 2 deliveries during my contract. I got one, and another one 10 days after my contract was up without notification for $1.00 more per gallon than my fixed price. I called them to try to get my fixed price thinking they were a legit company that wanted to keep costumers. They would only give me a discounted rate if I agreed to their current fixed price. Not a good way to do business and keep customers. I have spoken to them couple times now about the price.