I just got off the phone now following a complaint I had with Hoffman. When I signed my contract with Hoffman, I bought the Gold Plan for $250/year to provide "insurance" for my furnace should something break. Over the weekend I had water pouring out of a pipe in the furnace. When I called for service, I was told I would be billed $250/hour, so I put a bucket under the pipe and kept emptying it until Monday. I called first thing Monday morning and was told they couldn't tell me what time they could get there, so I ended up having to take the entire day off to wait for them. When the repairman arrived he informed me that the parts aren't covered because they are considered plumbing. I was billed $125 for an hour of service, plus $260 in parts, plus tax...totalling $408.

When I looked up the parts myself, I found I could have bought them at my local hardware store for $140. I called to complain about the lack of coverage and the overpriced parts, and was told by the manager that I could have called a plumber at the time I had a problem. I called them because they are my service provider and I had a service plan with them. Nice service!

The customer service department of Hoffman Fuel should be trained in what good customer service really is. They are rude, intolerant and obviously "know it all" and too bad for us - the consumer.

I never received a new contract which was due in May and now they tell me that I can't have the original lower price because it's too late. Even though I repeatedly said I never received a renewal they told me that was not there fault and there was nothing they could do about it. I should be happy that they were offering all of their wonderful services to me in the first place. After 20 years with Hoffman I look forward to doing business with anyone but them.

Hoffman Fuel has the worse customer service. They are very rude and unprofessional, especially if you have a legitimate dispute. They charge more and fail to credit payments when received. In fact, even though the bank clears payment to Hoffman, they delay posting the payment internally for over over five days, if not more! Stay away from this company. Horrible customer service and bad faith business practices.

Hoffman Fuel is the WORST in EVERY WAY regarding fuel service. This is a letter that I will be sending to them shortly (still being edited!)

To Whom It May Concern:

I’m writing to inform you that the service your company provides is horrific!! I have two specific issues to bring to your attention:

First, the service that your operators provide is absolutely awful. I have never dealt with such rude, inept people in all my life. I am paying a premium for your service and all I get it is the run around.

One instance just happened today but it ties into something that happened last year. A year ago or so, I had requested to have a service call from one of your technicians to service my furnace and was told that since I didn’t burn enough fuel during the year, it wasn’t necessary to have someone come out. I was told to wait until the following year to have my furnace serviced which is what I ended up doing.

Yesterday morning, I smelled some oil burning in my basement where the furnace is kept and the gases were making my eyes water. I had to leave the house because I had an appointment out of town and so I turned off the furnace before I left the house because I didn’t know what else to do. Once I was on the train, I called to have one of your technicians come out to the house to look at it and fix it. I told the service operator where the spare key was and that he should just let himself in to the house. I also requested that he contact me on my cell phone once the work was done to let me know what had happened. I never got a call. I had to call back and when I did, the operator told me that he had come to the house but wasn’t given the message as to where the key was and so he left without doing anything.

I pleaded with the operator to have someone go out again to please fix the problem because the house was now getting very cold and I would be coming home to no heat. The woman told me that since it was now dark, she couldn’t make a technician go into the house to do any repairs and so no one was going to come out. So, now I was put in the position of having to deal with a potentially dangerous furnace issue, no heat all night, and possibly no one coming out the next day which was a Sunday. All the while I’m paying for emergency service to deal with these types of situations!!! This situation escalated due to the fault of your operators!! They are complete idiots!! To top it off, the service technician who finally came out to fix the problem the next day told me that the problem was due to some clogged oil due to the furnace not being maintained in a timely manner!!! Unbelievable!!! If you had come out when I had requested it, this wouldn’t have happened!!! You people SUCK!

Another situation happened last year as well with my oil contract. I called and was urged by one of your operators to lock in to a fixed rate since she gave me very bad advice by telling me that the rates would just keep getting higher. So I signed the contract at the higher rate. Since that time, the prices have fallen significantly and so I called again to see about getting out of it and was told I could do that. I was told that my budget amount would drop to $235 a month instead of over $300 which was what I had been paying. I went ahead and signed the new contract and sent in a check for that amount but the bills I kept getting were still showing the higher budget amount. I called again to discuss this with one of your service people and was told that the budget amount would be $275 instead of $235 (!!) If it was going to be that little of a drop in my payments I would have NOT signed the new contract and would have taken my business elsewhere.

I’m beginning to think that your organization is absolutely corrupt and you’re ripping off your customers in a well thought out, systematic way. Now that I’ve gone online, I’m seeing that other customers feel the same way due to the numerous complaints I’m reading about. I’m also seeing that I should be keeping my eye on what I’m being charged for oil on the delivery days since you are not honest about that either.

I will very gladly be posting my complaint about you online as well to warn other customers about you and will also be informing the BBB about you. I can see that I’m not alone in that endeavor either.

I would like to be released of any obligation to pay a fee to get out of the contract I have with you for the remainder of the year. I regret ever signing up for service with you and will be sure to tell all my friends about the horrible service you provide and NOT to go with you if they are choosing an oil company.

I received an oil delivery April 22 - 82.4 gallons. When I called, they told me the driver was in the area and was topping off my tank. Unbelievable, at $4.34.9 a gallon.