ComplaintsforFraticelli Oil Company, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  01/27/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Called Fraticelli Oil shortly after my first two deliveries because the driver said he was coming each week and the company must have the schedule messed up. I called and requested to be taken off automatic delivery because it was a waste of the company and the oil drivers time coming so often. From then on, I would call for delivery when I noticed I was getting low on oil, approx 1/4 a tank left as I have done with prior company. I called on Monday 1/24/22 early morning to report my oil level was a little shy of 1/4 a tank. The woman stated I was on for this week, by Wednesday I would have oil. I came home Tuesday and noticed I was at 1/8, I dropped my heat to 58 and called Wednesday for delivery and was told it would be out today. Wednesday at 4 pm I called and just inquired as to worrying I wouldnt get delivery, I was told the drivers are still out. By 445pm, I called again worried because now my level was at almost empty, which I took a picture of. I was told by Tracy that I wouldnt get oil till the following day and if they came out they would charge me an ER fee of $200 if I got less than 220 gals. I told her the reading on my gauge and she sent the driver out. I received 175 gals. The manager Cara the following day, refused to take of the fee stating that if she did that for us, all other Fraticelli customers we could potentially tell, would come looking for the same thing and that would cause them problems. Then she mentioned that due to new staff not communicating efficiently to possibly have prevented this issue, that the errors of not making certain things clear to customers would be done with future training, which again did not help me financially. When all of this was explained in detail to Cara, she asked if we would like to have her call the driver and request the fee back, to which we declined as it has nothing to do with the driver and everything to do with the customer service issues. The fee is costly and was absolutely unnecessary.

  

  Business response

  02/25/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2022/01/30) */ Contact Name and Title: Stephen Fraticelli, Pres. Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX Contact Email: *******@aol.com This is in response to Complaint Case #: XXXXXX In the consumers opening statement they said they cancelled automatic delivery because the driver stated he was coming each week and the company has the schedule messed up. The driver did not say that and no one had called to take the account off of automatic delivery. The account is still on automatic. A call came in Monday, January 24 from the consumer to see when she would be getting a delivery. Our office manager Stephanie took the call and told the consumer it was scheduled for this week and would have it by Thursday. At 4:45pm on Wednesday the 26th the consumer called. The call was answered by one of our customer service reps. Tracy. The consumer stated to Tracy that she didn't think she would make it to Thursday and wanted the delivery that evening. We explained that based on the heating degree days she had plenty of oil in her tank to make it to Thursday however if the consumer really wanted it we could deliver that evening but there would be an after hours fee of $200 because the drivers were already off the road by then and we would have to call a driver back in to take care of the delivery. We also stated that because she was on automatic delivery we would waive that fee if she took over 220 gallons. The consumer agreed to those terms and elected to have the delivery that night. We have a note in the account time stamped 1/26/2022 16:53 "If customer does not take at least 220 gallons she was told she will be charged after hours fee!!!" We dispatched the driver, the driver went there and filled the tank. It took 176.6 gallons. The consumers tank is 275 gallon capacity so they still had 73.4 usable gallons in the tank before the driver arrived which is about a 4-5 day supply. The driver did not have to prime the burner as the consumer stated they still had heat. Clearly this was not an emergency situation. The following morning, January 27th a call came in from a gentleman calling on behalf on *******. He spoke to my wife Kara Fraticelli and demanded that the after hours fee be taken off. Kara stated the terms that ******* agreed to the night before and the reasoning behind the after hours fee. Kara never mentioned "that due to new staff not communicating efficiently to possibly have prevented this issue, that the errors of not making certain things clear to customers would be done with future training" as the consumer alleges. The consumer feels that the fee was unnecessary. The fee is to pay the driver to come back in after hours to make emergency deliveries. We had to pull the driver away from his family that night to make an unnecessary delivery. A delivery that clearly could of waited until Thursday. A delivery the consumer elected to have and a fee they agreed to pay to get that delivery. Consumer Response /* (3000, 8, 2022/01/31) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) The dishonesty in this response is astounding especially for a company that was not only recommended to myself and my family by my family, my coworkers, but my families employers as well. It is also clear through this response, they are as unprofessional on the phone as they are in writing a response back to a complaint. The president of the company wrote this? Husband to Kara? Or is this you Kara? I would bet another $200 it is. This response is HALF truth, suited to fit your company's needs for this complaint. Tracy was very nice to deal with actually, but at no time did Tracy indicate that we had enough oil. I told her our reading, I told her the multiple calls through the week I made, she placed me on hold to talk to Kara, and then mentioned their readings on their end show we would be okay. My lack of faith in this was apparent as evidence by the SMALL history of screw ups with this company. There was no mention of how many gals we should have, there was no mention of you all will have enough and if you don't, just call back and we will come out, and fill you at night. Not once. At almost closing time, my third call of the day, Tracy did her due diligence to indicate there would be a fee if they came out. Another dishonest portion of this response, the fact that I DID call to have myself taken off automatic to help the driver that came EVERY week, as well as the COMPANY, because it was A WASTE of all of their TIME-HENCE why I call every time my oil is at 1/4 for REFILL since becoming a customer. They have recordings of conversations, they should be able to indicate that as well. Funny enough-they never took me off automatic, because again, they clearly have a tough time communicating with customers, but would likely blame this on "new staff" also. I went out of my way to be a solid customer and give the company a heads up about that situation, and at that time they were appreciative because clearly there was a weird issue surrounding the constant deliveries. But when it came to me having ZERO faith in them indicating I "shouldn't" need oil when I was at slightly above empty and their LACK OF COMMUNICATION, there is no lee way for MY FAMILY. Even the driver who came out said that with a 275 gal tank, you will never actually "fill up" completely. He also said that next time we should just add diesel fuel instead just to hold over. Also a very nice guy to deal with. The most hilarious part of all of this, this company came the next day to deliver me 11 gals of oil. The incompetence is astounding too, but I suppose they didn't hear me say take me of automatic!! I had to laugh! Total waste of the driver's time and their company's time, but again, this is not a new thing for them. I would have liked this company to have first, been honest about the conversation Kara had on the phone, second, been honest about all the events listed which they are not. But I am assuming they just don't care enough because we are capped in at a much lower cost than oil is currently at right now, so our business means absolutely nothing to them. Keep your $200, I will never recommend your company, I will make sure through the word of mouth -remember the word of mouth you were so concerned about by giving us back our money so others won't come doing the same thing when your subpar customer services get challenged-no one who buys a home with oil up here ever chooses your business. Your $200 was certainly not worth the long haul of what will not be added by not only our "word of mouth", but my family, and the large employers you deal with also who can easily go to another oil company. That is a shame for you. I would of accepted an apology for all the miscommunications, and you could of kept your fee. You all should hire a quality management person. It would be better for your business. Maybe incorporate some of that into the training Kara was indicating will happen for new staff to avoid these types of issues for brand new customers. Business Response /* (4000, 11, 2022/02/04) */ The consumer is on a cap price contract with our company. One of the requirements to be on a cap price contract is to be on automatic delivery. If the consumer had read the entire contract, they would of seen the bold print wording stating "A CUSTOMER WHO CANCELS AUTOMATIC DELIVERY IS CONSIDERED IN BREACH OF CONTRACT AND WILL BE SUBJECT TO CANCELLATION DAMAGES." I can forward a copy of the signed contract if requested by BBB. Again, the consumer never called to be taken off of automatic delivery. Fraticelli Oil prides itself on its outstanding customer service. We have been in business for over 90 years with thousands of satisfied customers. We have been voted Best of the Best by Market Surveys of America for the last 23 years. The consumer even stated that we came highly recommended by their family, coworkers and family's employers as well. We gave the same professional, prompt service to this consumer as well. They requested an oil delivery on Wednesday evening, they agreed to our terms and we dispatched a truck right away. The truck would not of been sent out if the emergency fee was not agreed to. The consumer is correct about us coming out the following day and delivering 11 gallons. However, it was not because of incompetence. The consumer's delivery was already on the schedule for Thursday. When the call came in Wednesday evening a majority of the staff had already left for the day. The following morning, due to the extreme cold weather the drivers started their day at 6am, before dispatchers or other staff had come in. The driver happened to get to the consumers house before the dispatcher had a chance to remove it from the schedule. In reading the consumers response, I get the impression that the consumer has no interest in doing business with us anymore. As a resolution to this matter, I will do as the consumer requested in their complaint and response. I will take the account off of automatic delivery and release them from their cap price agreement effective immediately. They are free to purchase oil from any vendor they choose. There is a small credit on the account which will be refunded to the consumer in its entirety. I wish the consumer nothing but the best in the future.

*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. ↩