Standard Oil Of Ct Screwed on the way out the door Bridgeport Connecticut

I'm a consumer doing research on oil companies, and accidentally found this complaint against Standard Oil. I can't help but be amazed that the company's response to the original complaint was so belligerant.  Standard's owner went to great lengths to describe the "device" but didn't spend a single word to address the issue of poor customer service, a rude representative, and ever-increasing charges. If the quote was for $200, why was this man charged $275? How does that "rounding" occur?

I'll pass on Standard Oil, and choose one of its competitors.

At Standard Oil, we take every customer complaint seriously and we investigate each one fully.  If we are wrong, we say so, we apologize and we try to make amends.  In this situation, we do not feel the customer suffered any harm and they are not being reasonable.    

The Heat Manager we installed on this customers boiler is a very sophisticated computerized control that makes the boiler operate more efficiently so that it saves about 10% on fuel consumption.   It is not a gizmo or contraption.  Here is how it works:

 The typical boiler is not an intelligent device it basically stays at about 180 degrees regardless of whether it is warm or cold outside.  This is very inefficient because on a warmer day, the boiler could be set at 140 degrees and still warm the house properly.  So what this control does it to sense the outside temperature and adjusts the boiler temperature either up or down, depending on whether the extra heat is required or not.  This type of technology is used on almost all commercial boiler systems and on some higher end residential boilers like System 2000 or Buderus.  

This control has been tested extensively by independent laboratories, by Beckett Corporation (the world largest oil burner manufacturer), by us in our own laboratory.  All these test results indicate that this control saves about 10% on fuel.  I have one installed on my boiler and my fuel consumption decreased about 10%.   For more information on the Heat Manager, you can refer to the manufacturers website at http://www.intellidynellc.com/02_pgLCH.htm or you can go to Becketts website at http://www.becketthm.com/. 

If this customer used about 1000 gallons of oil a year before installing this control, he probably saved about 100 gallons of oil a year.  At about $2.50 a gallon, that is a savings of $250 a year.  Over 3 years, he saved about $750.   He did not pay a single dime for this control or for the installation.   In the agreement he signed, all we asked is that if he stopped using Standard Oil for any reason, that he should either pay for the control, give it back, or pay us 2 hours of labor to remove it for him.    I think that is pretty reasonable, especially considering he paid nothing for it and the savings he enjoyed.  Between the time it took to install the control (which is not simple it requires re-wiring the boiler) and the removal, it took us more than 2 hours, especially including travel time.   And $110 an hour for a skilled tradesman like a plumber, electrician or burner mechanic is a competitive rate.

So overall, the customer enjoyed at least $750 in savings and is upset to pay $275 as required by his contract which he signed with us.   Most companies would have required a $500 buy-out of equipment, plain and simple.   I really do not think this customers complaint is fair.