When I offered to prepay for a lower price per gallon on my fuel oil, a price of $2.09 a gallon was agreed upon. I continue to be billed $2.29.
The first time I called to complain, I was assured the billing would be changed to reflect this agreement. NEVER happened. Now that they have the prepay, they act like they never heard of me.

Stay away from this company. They are dishonest.

I could write a book on how incompetent this comany is. My first bad experience with them was finding their driver on the side of the road claiming to have a heart attack. In fact he was drunk and had to leave the truck on the side of the road and be driven home. I will make a long story short. They let me run out of gas in the middle of winter when I was supposed to have regular deliveries. They did not service their rental tank. The regulator on their rental tank was bad and caused my furnace to explode causing bodily injury. Then they tried to charge me for the service call to change their non working regulator. I returned their rental tank about 5 years ago and they are still sending me a yearly bill for rent. Even more bizzare is the fact that they show I paid the rental last year and gave me a credit for it. I did not have the tank and can confirm that I have been doing business with a different local company since they picked up their tank.

My elderly neighbor's rental tank from them was leaking causing her great expense, danger, and the whole area smelled. They did nothing and her son had to step in and stop doing business with them.

It is no longer frustrating it is just comical.

Below, the text of the complaint I sent to Ferrellgas via their website. Planning to call the corporate headquarters and write a physical letter as well. This is totally unacceptable...

"
Greetings,

I am a new Ferrellgas customer, and I am very dissatisfied.

On January 28, I was charged $231.39 for my deposit and first fill. This charge was UNAUTHORIZED.

The previous day (1/27), I spoke with a representative to set up my account. There was some confusion over the rate. My landlord said not to pay anything over $2.14 a gallon, since it was a takeover from his account. The Ferrellgas representative I spoke with quoted me at $2.57 a gallon. She told me that to figure out the rate issue, I would need to speak with her supervisor Bob, who was not in the office at the time. I was assured Bob would call me first ting Monday morning to sort things out, and that my credit card would NOT be charged until the issue was resolved. But it was.

For the last month, I have been trying every week to reach this elusive Bob character, who is evidently the manager of four Ferrellgas offices in the Northern California region (I live in Lake County)... and I've been repeatedly leaving him messages and talking with associate after associate about my problem and how to resolve it. The customer service representatives are all sweet young girls, and I don't blame them a bit. They've always just told me "you have to speak with Bob..." -- but Bob is never around and hasn't returned a single phone call. I've left him five or six messages by now.

Now my propane is starting to run low... but I am determined to resolve this issue first. I also have an outstanding $14.09 on my account right now that I am withholding until this issue is taken care of.

I'll continue to try calling Bob -- but I sure would appreciate some help at the national level, if possible. I don't even know if there are any other outfits in the area who can sell me propane, or if this company has a monopoly... I've read a number of negative reviews of Ferrellgas online, and I am not surprised one bit. But I would really like to be the exception to this rule.

I hope to be a loyal and satisfied customer -- but first, I need to be treated like a valued customer. Please help me get in touch with someone who has some decision-making power. This is simply unacceptable.

Thank you very much for your time and your help. I wish you all the best.

Peace,

"

If you choose to use Ferrellgas as your propane provider I can only suggest that you read every single word written on every piece of paper that they send you. They have been my provider for 10 years, and during that time I've always used their Auto Bill service, whereby they charge a set amount every month. When you have an account set up like that, they send you the exact same billing statement every month. In the AMOUNT DUE block, the words "Auto Pay" are displayed, and the first sentence in the fine print in the center of the bill reads "Auto Pay - Do Not Pay Amount Due". When you receive the exact same billing statement every month for years you get lazy and when the first sentence of the fine print says "Do Not Pay Amount Due", you believe it. DON'T.

Three times over the past 10years they screwed up my auto pay billing, and instead of contacting me to fix (their mistake), they just let it go for several months, then removed me from the auto pay program and sent me a bill for $1k+, due immediately. Oh, and the bulk rate I had initially agreed to in the spring was now double. In going back over my bills, all of which said "Do Not Pay Amount Due" as the first sentence of the fine print, several sentences down is a single sentence indicating that the account is past due. Should I have read through the fine print that looked exactly like the fine print of every other statement I got from them? Yeah, probably. Would it have made any difference when the first sentence says "Do Not Pay Amount Due"? Probably not...at least for the first 2 months or so.

The first time this happened I just paid them and didn't think much about it. I had other things to worry about, I gave them some money, they shut up, and all was right with my world. The second time this happened was right before Christmas, and coming up with the cash was somewhat problematic, but the prospect of not having heat for my family going into a MI winter was a motivating factor, and I managed to come up with the cash to shut them up. This balance was paid in 12/08. I went to their Howell office, some 20 miles away to make this payment, and stood right there to make sure that they had the account info correct for the following month. I asked "Now this is the last time I'm going to have to do this, right? The account information is correct, and the Auto Pay is in place, right?" I was assured that, as I stood there in front of them with all of the correct account information, that the billing would not be screwed up again. I received my January statement, read every word, and everything was good. They accessed the account and billed it correctly with my Auto Pay. Problem solved. Again. I received a fill in April (per their "Keep Full" program), and in May I noticed in the fine print that my account was past due AGAIN. I started pulling statements and bank records, and sure enough, the January billing was the last time they correctly billed my account. So again, I was removed from the Auto Pay and Keep Full programs, and oh yeah, the bulk price I agreed to no longer applied, and the fill I got in April about double what I agreed to. And oh yeah, I now owed them $1k+ again, due immediately.

When pressed about why they weren't doing their job and billing correctly, they said it was my job to make sure that they do their job correctly. I was also told that it was policy to stop the Keep Full program running after the bulk pricing was discontinued to ensure that I didn't go without heat...in April...less than 4 months after my last fill...though of course it would cost MORE THAN DOUBLE what I agreed to. All of this while receiving statements that looked just like every other statement I've received over the past 10 years with the phrases "AUTO PAY" and "Do Not Pay Amount Due" prominently displayed, and their screwed-up book keeping several lines down in the fine print.

After reporting them to the BBB, they agreed to reinstate the Auto Pay, which would of course be adjusted to reflect the payments that I had "neglected to make". Of course, they refused to even do this before the BBB complaint was filed. And they still refused to let me in on any bulk pricing agreements as I had missed that window when I had "neglected" to pay my bills...that said "Do Not Pay Amount Due" on them.

Far be it from me to accuse anyone of anything in public, but what happens every time they screw up the Auto Pay on a customer's bill is this; They get all of their money for the year within a few months, can remove you from any bulk pricing agreements and (in my case) more than double the per gallon price, and can get one last fill in at the new price without you really knowing what's going on.

Ferrellgas is not the only game in town, and will not get another cent from me.

Last summer my propane tank was filled because I was on the "Keep Full" program. I was charged $3.50 per gallon when the going market price in my area was $1.99 per gallon. I refused to pay the outrageous amount and finally after many phone calls and a lot of yelling, Ferrellgas matched the $1.99 price. It was then I decided to switch to another propane supplier.

On 10/22/09 I notified Ferrellgas that I was going to switch suppliers and for them to come and pick up my tank. My tank rental was paid through 7/2010. I was told that I could not get a prorated refund for my tank rental charges. Also, today they picked up the tank and tried to charge me $85.99 for the pick up of their tank. I immediately called their office and complained. The told me that the charges would be canceled. We'll see if that happens.

The moral to the story is to NEVER use Ferrellgas as a propane supplier. The are a ripoff and try at every opportunity to gouge their customers using unscrupulous tactics.