I have been displeased with suburban propane for years but stuck with them because in order to get a new tank set I have to have the lines into my home redone. I was prepaying my propane small amounts at a time because thats all I could afford on limited income. They then told me I had to order at least 200.00 at a time for them to come out. They seem to make the rules as they go so, I ended up on the budget payment plan. The budget pay is a joke. They quote you low so you think it is an affordable heat source and every year I have ended up with a balance due of 500 to 1000.00 at the end of my budget pay. Every year they say we will revisit it in January to see where its is at. Never changes in January, never hear from them in January. At the time of reconcile I usually have a comeapart on them and we repeat the next year. You work with the corporate office through your local office and the 2 do not seem to communicate with each other in any way. One never seems to know what the other is doing. Told them to stop filling my tank because I just wanted to use the propane that was in it. I knew I was in a financial situation that I was going to fall behind on the payments. Felt I was doing the right thing to keep paying what I could and not get more propane. After that request I was kicked off the budget pay and never notified until I got a pay on demand letter for the full amount of propane that had been delivered. Set up payment arrangements with corporate. Agreement was to pay agreed upon amount by the end of each month. This month the last day of the month fell on a sunday, made my payment on Monday as my bank holds funds deposited on the weekend until Monday. They issued an order to shut off my tank because I was less than 24 hours late making my payment. I called corporate on Monday to notify them of the payment. This would have been a great time for them to tell me that there was an order for my tank to be shut off issued. Not a word said to me, I assume so they could charge me a shut off fee. Last year when I asked them to come get my tank there was a fee of. 30 cents per gallon to pump out the propane. This year it is. 75 cents. I paid 3.34 per gallon for my propane. After the pump out fee I can be refunded 2.59 per gallon. Another propane distributor in my are quoted me a rate of 1.15 per gallon to purchase. For every gallon I have pumped out I can puchase 2 gallons of propane from a competitor, so that is a no brainer if suburban propane was up front with the fees I will be charged. I have kept my tank this long out of fear that they will charge me some inconscable amount because they can. I asked for a copy of my contract and got a copy of the front, which refers to the fine print on the back. Apparently im not allowed to have a copy of that, I just have to pay what they tell me it says. Im not comfortabel taking their word for anything. If I do ever get it im sure it will be a fraudulent copy. I also am unable to be present when they pump out the propane in my tank. Im sure that is so they can be dishonest about the actual number of gallons they removed from the tank. Seems to be how they do business.in addition, I will not be surprised when they carge me a fee to pick up the tank, which will be justified by the back of someone elses contract. Have been discussing getting the tank picked up for a year and no fee has been mentioned. I dont think that I can accept the fact that they say I used 2000.00 worth of propane to heat a 900 sq ft home to 65 degrees. There is an issue with my furnace in which it doesnt always light and after a few tries shuts down for 24 hours. Have had a few different repairmen out to look at it and they all agree that the issue is withing the delivery of propane from the tank to the home. I asked Suburban Propane to look into it and I never get a call back saying they did anything. They want to come clean the fuel censor. That did not fix it the first time so I dont know why doing it again would resolve the problem. The tank is so old it is now obsolete and a complete eyesore to look at. A complete pile of rust as they dont maintain the tanks in any way.
Suburban Propane does not offer proper training to their employees. Luckily I very much like the service tech who has work with me for years. One time I had to have a different repairman out as it was a holiday and my tank was empty because it had not been filled per my "budget pay agreement". This young man did not turn off the propane and about blew himself up. Ran out of my house screaming he quit and he hated this job. Meanwhile propane is seeping into my house and we had to evacuate and he had to go to the emergency room.
To sum it up suburban propane wants premium dollar for very poor customer service. They will change prices and payment agreements at will to suit them. I would advise anyone with a 2nd option to go with that other option in leiu of Suburban propane.
As far as a resolution to this dispute, I have paid off my balance with suburban propane. I probably wont pay them the 75 cents per gallon to pump out 150 gallons of propane and tell me it was 50 and charge me to pick up my tank. I will use my 150 gallons of propane over the spring and summer, get a new tank put in for the fall, part ways and be thrilled to never have to do business with them again. I will however let everyone I know what a crooked outfit I believe suburban propane to be. Its obvious from the class action suits against them that I am not the only one.
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