Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/17/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Schilling propane told us do to low usage we would either need to buy our tank or pay a low usage fee. We offered to buy the tank and they offered it to us for one price but when we called to finalize purchase they advised since it wasn’t over a certain age we would need to pay a higher price. We agreed to just pay low usage fee. 10 years after paying the low usage fee we discovered our tank was gone. We called and they advised they took the tank for not paying the yearly payment. We had not been advised of this in writing prior to this. We called to pay low usage fee but then they told us that this was no longer an option and that we would have to buy the tank. After agreeing to pay for tank it was told that it would be 3 weeks to get it back even though it had only been gone a day at that point. No credit was given for the 10 years of low usage fees. We want this to be credited back to us as we ended up buying a tank we had for the last 10 years paying low usage fees on where by this time we would have ow ed it anyway. On top of this it was never disclosed at time we got the tank at first there would even be a low usage fee and that as long as we bought propane from them the tank would be free.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 12/06/2022

  The customer states that he paid a low usage fee on this
  tank for 10 years (became a customer in 2012).  This is inaccurate as the
  low usage fee as a company policy did not go into effect until 2017.  The
  customer was actually assessed the low usage fee in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and
  2022.  The low usage fee was then credited back in 2022 when the customer
  purchased the propane tank from Schilling Propane.  Therefore, a total of
  4 low usage fees totaling $200 was all the customer ever paid (the customer
  purchased a sufficient amount of propane in 2021 and was not assessed a fee). 
  On one occasion the customer was assessed a system check (leak test) fee which
  gets assessed to every customer if a tank runs out of gas.  Between
  September 22, 2022 and October 26, 2022, our office left multiple voicemails at
  two different phone numbers belonging to the customer which were not
  returned.  The messages relayed that the tank would be picked up if the
  low usage fee was not paid promptly.  After no response from the customer,
  the tank was picked up.  At that point, the customer contacted our office
  to advise that they wanted to purchase the tank.  It took three weeks to
  get the tank reinstalled at the customer’s property because our service
  department has been booked out for three to four weeks at a time as this was
  getting into our busy season.  The tank was reinstalled once our service
  department was available to do so.  Schilling Propane’s tank lease forms
  expressly state that the company reserves the right to resize or remove a
  company owned tank at any time based upon propane usage.  Also, the lease states if a customer is delinquent
  in payment, Schilling Propane reserves the right to pick up and remove the tank
  from the premises.  The customer signed this tank lease on August 17,
  2012; we would be happy to provide the customer a copy of this lease if desired
  as well as an account history showing billings that were assessed and paid
  since 2012.  Propane tanks are a costly investment for the company which
  is the reason for the low usage fee.  If a customer wishes to keep a
  company owned tank at their property but are not purchasing a sufficient amount
  of propane, the low usage fee helps to justify Schilling Propane having a tank
  where it is not being fully utilized.  The customer voluntarily elected to pay the low
  usage fee to keep the tank at their residence.  At any time, they could
  have purchased the tank or the tank could have been picked by Schilling
  Propane.