Re: Unethical treatment of new customer
THIS IS THE LETTER I SENT TO FERRELL GAS, which will give the reader the information he/she will need to know about their business dealings
Dear Ferrell Gas Representative,
I thought I would drop you a line and let you know why you lost our business. We have been a customer of one of your competitors for almost ten years now. Due to the rising cost of gas we thought we would check around this year for a lower rate.
Upon contacting your company in Galesburg, IL, we were told we could contract a winter rate for gas of $1.16/gallon. She said this was a contract rate for the winter but did not have to be paid up front. I told her to mail the contract. I hung up from her and cancelled our service with our current gas distributor.
Three days later, I received not the contract, but a credit application. On this application it not only asked for social security number/drivers license numbers, but also savings account and checking account numbers and Visa/MasterCard numbers! This was a little too invasive for my comfort level so I called Ferrell gas and explained that I would be glad to give them our social security number so they could run a credit check but I would not give out other personal information. She said that was fine, she would submit the application for credit with just the Social Security number.
I then asked her why we needed to have the credit approval to start with since we would be paying C.O.D., I told her that no mention of this was made during the initial conversation to your company when quoting the rate. She explained that we were not paying C.O.D. But paying for the entire 1,000 gallons up front. I told her that was NOT what I was told a few days earlier. She explained that the women I talked with was on vacation. After telling her that this was no way to do business, she said she would call me back. She did call back a few minutes later and said they would honor what they told me in the beginning and do this C.O.D. For the $1.16/gallon, but that a credit application still had to be filed and approved before a contract could be signed.
I sent the application in the next day and the following day (yesterday) she called to say all was approved and we could go ahead and sign the contract now. I told her I would be in today shortly after 8am to sign the contract.
While en route to your office in Galesburg this morning shortly after 8am to sign the contract, my cell phone rang. It was Andrea at your Galesburg office calling with bad news as she put it. She said they just had a rise in gas costs this morning, and would be unable to honor their verbal agreement given to me. She said it will cost $1.24/gallon to go C.O.D. She reminded me we did not yet have a contract signed, and therefore they were free to raise the price.
No contract was signed because Ferrell gas never sent me one! Instead they sent a credit application, when I didn't even need CREDIT to start with. The credit approval was not a problem as we have excellent credit, but the time it took to mail the application, fill it out, mail it back then run the credit and notify the customer was valuable time lost. Well valuable to me the customer, because you quoted me a price and wouldn't stick to it until the contract was signed, but you wouldn't sign the contract until the credit application was done.
One positive thing that came from this is that I learned of your lack of ethics and honesty BEFORE getting too involved in doing business with you! I agree, that legally I don't have a leg to stand on since no contract had yet been signed. But if your word isn't your bond, what good are you to me or anyone else?
No doubt you are quite familiar with the bait and switch way of doing business.
I will not hesitate to inform anyone I encounter in both my business and personal dealings, about your company and the negative way you do business.
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