I am in the midst of rebuilding a house from a fire so I am temporarily not living there. The contractor I am using had the heat working, no problem, for the past 3 weeks. Today we came into the house and there wasn't any heat at all. The house was freezing. I called Slomin's at 11:00am and they informed me that they would set me up for an emergency call which could take anywhere from 1-4 hrs. I explained to them the situation that I am not living in my house right now, do not have any faucets in the house yet to keep the water running so the pipes do not freeze, and that there are no light fixtures or outlets yet so working after sundown would be impossible. Not one person could understand why a house that was in the process of being rebuilt would not have any of these items yet. We do have water running in the house for the pipes and we do have electricity but the rest of the stuff hasn't been put in yet since they are not top priority. I was told by the person on the phone that if it is dark when they get tghere it is not their problem because it is not their fault that I do not have any lights or outlets. I said to the person on the phone I'm sorry but I did not ask for my house to burn down either. Things happen. I called Slomins around 3:00 since they had still not shown up yet and they called to get the technician there as soon as possible. I received a call back at 3:07 but unfortunately i was in the bathroom at the time and just missed answering the call. I called back by 3:08 and was told that since I did not answer the phone the service call was cancelled. I explained that they had just called a minute ago but it didn't matter. I didn't think that I had to take a phone in the bathroom with me for 1 minute. I was then put at the end of the list again and told it was going to be another 4 hours till they could be at the house and that there was nothing that they could do about it. Since there wouldn't be any light and nothing could be done I had to tell them to not even bother coming tonight and hope my pipes don't freeze before they could come tomorrow morning. I just had my wood floors put in last week and stained. I am hoping that there is no damage in the house tomorrow because of Slomin's service department. At this point I think that they have the worst service department. One minute should not have made a difference. There is no way for a person to speak directly to their technical dept to explain the issue since they are guarded under tight security by customer service who do not understand things. I would definitely not recommend Slomin's to anyone and am seriously thinking of switching to another company after this.

I called Slomin's to find out if my contract had expired. I was assured by customer service that it had and that I was under no obligation to buy home heating oil from them any longer. I very specifically said "I do not want any more deliveries. I've been paying way too much for too long!"

The customer service rep said that even though the contract expired, “Once you’re a Slomin’s customer, you’re a customer for life.” I told her that I didn’t want to do business with them anymore and didn’t want an account with them. She said she understood (was very pleasant, in fact) and ASSURED me that I had no deliveries scheduled and would not receive a delivery. I said, “I’m buying oil from another company and want to make sure that I’m not going to come home and find out that Slomin’s delivered.” She told me, “We will not deliver. You weren’t on the schedule until after Thanksgiving anyway.” I was confident that I wouldn’t be getting oil from Slomin’s ever again.

Two days later, I look out my window to find a Slomin’s deliveryman pumping oil into my tank! Luckily I was home and I stopped him, but not until he had already pumped quite a bit. I received a bill for on the spot. I immediately called Slomin’s customer service and spoke to another rep. She was very courteous and apologized for the mistake and assured me that the Billing Department would be able to adjust my bill. She said that the woman that I spoke to a couple of days prior did not write on my account to stop deliveries. She saw who I spoke to and when, but did not tell me her name.

A couple of hours later, I got a call from their Billing Department. Unfortunately, I did not write down the name of the man that called. I was so furious at his demeanor right off the bat that I didn’t think to write it down. The recording at the beginning of the call did tell me that the call was being recorded. I relayed my story and told him that I had ordered oil from another company at 80 cents/gal less and since I had notified Slomin’s that I no longer wanted any deliveries (since I wasn’t obligated), I wanted at the very least to have my per gallon price adjusted down.

He told me that he could adjust my bill a little, but only if I locked into a contract price of $2.999 for a year. I told him that I knew that I wasn’t on the schedule until after Thanksgiving before I called. I said that once I told Customer Service that I didn’t want to deal with Slomin’s anymore and was going to have another company deliver, they rushed over in two days to fill my tank. He told me that they “moved up the delivery, because they had an opening” and “Sorry, but we delivered, so you’re obligated to pay the bill.” He asked if I wanted to cancel my account. I told him I had already done that! Just to be sure, I told him to cancel the account and hung up. I eventually got a letter that states that I cancelled the account.

I was completely and utterly scammed. I could not have been any clearer about not wanting to do business with them anymore. I feel that I am entitled to a FULL refund since I chose not to deal with them and was very explicit about that fact. At the very, very least, I am entitled to a billing adjustment that I CHOSE to pay with a competitor. I know that they only showed up when they did, because they wanted the sale and knew I was going elsewhere from now on.

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH SLOMIN'S!!! DO NOT SIGN A CONTRACT WITH THEM!