Approved Oil Company

Tami M. N.

UPDATE: reducing to 1 star. Not sure who Michelle is or if it's a bot, but no response was received after three attempts per the directions below. If you own a brownstone or limestone, Feel free to message me or reply as I've found an exceptionally better, and cleaner option and couldn't be happier. I'm grateful to have dodged a bullet with these charlatans.

Bubby G.

""Bad customer service attitude. Unfair payment policies. Abusive treatment through payment extortion.""

A Sunday morning , March '21, we discovered we were very low on oil and called for a delivery. For 50+ years, we always did that.

On the call, this young lady with bad phone etiquette took an attitude asking a rude inappropriately assuming question in a sharp voice; 'Why did you wait so long to call for a delivery??""

I clarified that it's just business and we only call to discuss deliveries and payments. (Because when a customer decides to call for an oil delivery should not be of their concern so as to to keep things on a professional level.) So she digressed, and scheduled the delivery.

Some minutes later she called back saying her name was(Danielle?/Diane?) and that she's from the""credit department"". She bombarded me with stuff like how we still didn't make a payment from January and being past due, so they weren't releasing the delivery. I knew that couldn't be true because we just sent a payment 2 weeks prior. She then kept insisting over and over that I give her a credit card, (something we'd never give them ) as I kept saying; ""I can't do this now, let me call you back tomorrow"" -giving me a very hard time getting those words in edgewise so I can properly end the call.

( I was busy making breakfast for my 94 year old mother in her unit downstairs and didn't have the necessary paperwork in front of me.) I felt ambushed.

So after going back and forth like that on the call, she was still harassing and badgering me for a credit card, and exclaimed, at one point, in a very condescending manner;""Don't take that tone with me!"" which of course finally provoked a bad escalation. It eventually resulted in me having no choice but to just give her a well deserved ""G.T.H."" and slamming the phone.

Later on, I grabbed all my paperwork that confirmed we made payments in February and March totaling about $1000. I also saw a January invoice, and another copy of it re-printed with an adjustment just mailed to us a few days before this call. The adjustment was for $388.08. But I still wasn't sure what they meant by ""past due"".

With my mother next to me, I called the office back to try to straighten this out. I got the front desk, then this(Danielle?/Diane?)person took the call again and continued to argue with me, now complaining about my GTH comment, claiming she was""trying to help me""(??). So I clearly and calmly explained why I felt I had the right to say what I did, but she just kept on talking over me, once again being condescending as if she was scolding a 1st grader, making more rude comments, now attacking me personally accusing me of ""letting my 94 year old mother's oil run low"".

She has no knowledge of what actually goes on in our house, nor is it any of her business.

Finally remembering what I was told about trying to argue with an idiot, and seeing that I'm getting nowhere with this girl, I demanded to speak to the boss, Vincent Siciliano.

I didn't make much progress there either. I described the phone call, he just brushed it off saying he heard the call and said she was just doing her job.(To be rude to people?) It says alot if he allows such unprofessional behavior in the office.

I addressed the billing issue letting him know about the large February and March payments we made. He understood that, but pointed out the $388.08 from the January invoice claiming we were beyond a 45 day limit. I asked why they couldn't apply what we paid towards what we owed first and then make the adjustments afterwards, like many other companies do.Because in reality we were only 2 weeks behind. We also pointed out how it was not our fault the re-adjusted bill didn't arrive in the mail until a couple of days prior, not giving us enough time to pay it.

He just kept talking about this 45 day limit, -which I still had a hard time swallowing because my family has been their customers for more than 50 years -And in the past I knew we waited longer than that during the slow summer months. So they are just completely full of it.

Something also tells me that girl didn't like me telling her it wasn't her concern when we call for deliveries. I thought I smelled something fishy when she called back.

So, anyway, we felt we were forced to (reluctantly) agree to write a check for the $388.08 to give to the oil delivery driver to collect the following morning. Giving in to extortion!

I now understand the stress my mother(and grandmother before her) went through all those years. Which is why I'm taking these matters into my hands for my mother's house. Because she is just too old and tired and has become just plain disgusted with them.

But I never recalled us ever being treated like that. Seriously. Imagine. Just 3 months into the year where we already paid them over $1000 and they pull this over a lousy $388.08 with 50+ year customers?? During this pandemic??

Shame on you Approved Oil !

A O.

Called for emergency service since heat wasn't kicking in and 3 hours later still no service or any calls. I will be switching company and report this to BBB.

Michael M.

Even during a pandemic these people never let you down. No heat when I woke up. Had a repairman in an hour and he was great (didn't get his name---he lives in Oceanside he said). Jennifer who answered the phone was professional and polite. A happy customer for almost 20 years. They're the best.

Hedy A.

Ive been a customer since 2003. They are phenomenal. Someone is always in the office to take your calls 24/7. They respond immediately to emergency calls. Both their customer service and repair department go above and beyond to get it done. I highly recommend them

Sundar C.

I reached out to Vincent over yelp asking for HVAC service. we needed our freon refilled ASAP to get through a hot & humid week. Even though Approved Oil does not provide the service directly, they were awesome at providing me contact info for Steven Fillecia. Steven was great at understanding the issue, set expectation on pricing and showed up at agreed time to fix our issue. This shows how businesses like approved oil care for the customer and enable other service companies or professionals during these tough times. Thanks Vincent !!

Kenney V.

Dishonest company. I was short changed on the amount delivered. There price was higher than it was supposed to be. I asked for a service call for an Apartment building and they said no unless I give them a cut of my natural gas delivery. Approved starts out ok and then turns in to a band of thieves

Tricia E.

The worst experience in my entire life dealing with a company. They delivered oil with me not consenting to it and later on sent a bill will fight in court with proof as I have cameras and they left no slip

Rony F.

don,t trust this company the lock the price and the charge you different price don,t trust them don,t buy oil or get service from them

Vivian S.

Terrible customer service. Had to call three times until someone didn't hang up on me. Answered my first question and then hung up before I could ask another.