Petro Home Services

Jordano W.

In November, I signed up for a Petro account for the water boiler in our new house which powers the heat and hot water. It is an oil delivery and service plan paid on a monthly budget. We needed service on the unit. The reset button had tripped and the unit wouldn't stay running for more than 30 seconds. I called Petro for service and they said they could make it in a four hour window same day. The guy ended up showing up about 5 hours after the end of the window and said they were backed up normal excuses. The guy said parts needed to be replaced and did the work. Everything was back and running and he assured me he tested the unit and everything was fine. Less than an hour later, I decided to go double check the unit to make sure everything looked ok still. I had about an inch of water covering my basement! I immediately shut off the boiler and made another service call. The same routine went on with the window that they were incredibly late for and I believe I stayed up until about 5am waiting. They said that I could schedule an appointment the next day but I told them it was an emergency because I was without heat and hot water for the entire day, they had flooded my basement, and didn't actually fix the problem in the first place. While I was waiting, I was trying to shop vac and mop up all the water! Finally, another guy shows up and says more parts need to be replaced. He does some of the work but he doesn't have all the parts so he says another person has to come with the parts. That person shows up in the afternoon of the next day and fixes it and supposedly everything is back to normal. Later we have no hot water. I go to check the water boiler again. Side note: they replaced the electronics on the water boiler so I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the new settings and adjusting the temperatures. The first guy who repaired the unit obviously set it too high. The last guy must have set it too low I assumed. But that was not the case. The temperatures were fine and the unit was functioning as best I could tell. I make yet another service call. The entire same routine goes on again and they miss their window by hours. Finally a guy shows up and says more parts need to be replaced and doesn't have all the parts again! He goes out and gets the parts and comes back and makes more repairs. After he leaves the hot water is working and we run a couple of tests and everything seems fine. The next day during showers we notice that we only have about 5 minutes of hot water. I check everything again but I can't figure out why. I make another call again and when the guy shows up he actually just turns my whole house water pressure down because he claimed that the water was going through the water boiler too fast and not giving it enough time to heat up. I kid you not. He was here about 10 minutes. This seems to have worked however. Fast forward a month later and I check my bill from Petro and not only have they charged me for my monthly budget plan but they have also charged me for the service and the oil deliveries! All of which is included in the budget plan that I had already been paying monthly! I call them and talk to customer service and they tell me it is their mistake and it will be corrected on the next month's bill. I should just keep paying my monthly budget only! Fast forward another month. I check my bill again and all the same charges are there! I call customer service again and they assure me that their supervisor Jacob Campbell can resolve my issue and he'll give me a call soon. Side note: their phone system is in the stone ages. There are no prompts. It goes straight to a customer service agent. You can't type any extensions. Apparently Jacob was in the field and wasn't picking up his phone so they couldn't transfer me. They had to email him and he would call me back. I tell Jacob my whole story. This was very difficult by the way. His listening ability was very poor and he kept cutting me off to explain why the charges were on my account. I tried to explain again that this was their mistake on the bill that they had already admitted to a month ago and had assured me it would be corrected on my bill. I was only calling to follow up and get it resolved. At this point I am so frustrated with the entire process that I ask him if he has a boss that I can speak to. He tells me that his boss' name is George Bossy and that since it is the end of the day he will not be able to give me a call until tomorrow. I actually thought that he was making it up to get me off the phone and so I ask him about it. He laughs it off and then I try to ask for George's information. Phone number? Extension? Anything! Of course he doesn't have any of this information. I try to explain to him that I have been playing phone tag with everyone at Petro for about 2 months. I am still waiting for the follow up call. Terrible service. Avoid at all costs!

Cyndi R.

We had an appointment with an hour window of 2-4. I started a new job just 2 months ago so asking off was the last thing I wanted to do. Knowing we needed the service I reluctantly took the time off.

Petro was a no show.

I tried to call. I've been on hold with a recording for more than 15 minutes. No service there either.

Looking into other options now. Then I'll be contacting the BBB.

You are horrible.

Ron V.

I have only been a petro customer for a little over a year.My service fee went up from 185.00 to 287.00.over 100.00 dollars in 1 yr.Well got delivery and my oil went up70 cents a gallon,I called about it and was told ( even though I have service contract) I was on floating oil price.I said what the hell was the 278..00 dollars for.Got no answer,just danced around question.I was dealing with Jen.That was a week ago.I have been calling everyday,4 or 5 times a day and I am told by recoerding ,all reps are busy call later or else won""t get to rep at Always says place call later.Jen left message to call her back about problem last week but Have not been able to get back to her since.Even local phone line on citation is aleays busy.I wonder how many future customers they lose because they wont answer phone.Well they wont get paid a penny til they straighten out the bill.My phone will be busy also.Ron .V

Claire S.

Worst experience with company ever. Initially problem was that our furnace wasn't blowing out hot air, under our service agreement we had a technician come out for free to diagnose the problem. After requesting a call beforehand when technician was in route and never receiving this call and him coming out late, I was already irritated. Technician came out and it took him 5 minutes to realize the problem was our line was frozen. 1 hour later he said he didn't have the right tool and would need to go to the office to get this- essentially a blow torch to unfreeze the line. 1 hour later he returned and fixed the problem in 1 minute and went to his truck. He came back and told us that we were being charged $300+ for his services. I was appalled. We told him we didn't receive any sort of paperwork showing what needed to be done/estimate anything at all! He apologized and took blame but said there was nothing he could do that the work had been done. I called the office and of course complained, was then routed to a field supervisor who instead of being apologetic made it seem like it was our fault! All we heard were excuses upon excuses, that it's busy season that's why they were late and the reason it took so long to fix the problem was because he was sure the technician wanted to make sure the problem was fixed ( uh no the technician fixed the problem in 1 minute and then left!! ). The supervisor agreed some sort of proposal or estimate should have been given but that work was rendered ( turns out the technician also charged us to replace a nozzle, unfreeze the line, and an additive to the oil - didn't know 2/3rds of this was even done )! We were adamant on not wanting to pay for anything and the field supervisor said he would need to talk to a higher up. Meanwhile we were going spammed by phone calls to renew our membership but I told them we were having problems with a bill and wouldn't agree to anything until it was sorted out. Finally the same supervisor called us and once again tried to lower the bill and then eventually said he will rid of our bill- however, the supervisor had no problem telling us he was doing us a favor and making it seem that we should be thankful- and then told US to tell HIS TECHNICIANS to give us estimates in the future before they do work (since that's our job right?). Unbelievable. Oh no this doesn't end here. The other day we got a phone call from Petro that made it seem like we were agreeing to service for another year- turns out we somehow agreed to a price limiting plan- that is $600 to cancel. Now we are somehow under two plans and I'm assuming will be paying way more money than necessary.

I am not surprised by all of the other terrible reviews. I work in customer service and cannot believe the service I received from the supervisor. I will be counting down the days until I am done with petro and can move on to one of the cheaper more reliable oil companies.

Tim R.

BUYER BEWARE! In Jan 2015, we enrolled in PETRO's auto delivery heating oil program. At the time, they were offering an incentive of $100 off of our first bill which incentivized us to sign up. They were also offering 3 different pricing plans. Two offered some level of price protection and the third was based on paying the current market price. We opted for that.
Over the next 13 months, we received 5 oil deliveries at what I believed to be market rates, with prices ranging from $2.75/gal down to $1.75/gal.

On 12/21/16, we received our first oil delivery of the this season. PETRO'S delivered price was $3.299/gal. Knowing that the price of heating oil in central Md. had not increased that dramatically since last year, I immediately called several other local oil delivery companies in my area to do a sanity check. Their prices ranged from $2.29 to $2.67 per gallon.

What was most disturbing was when I called PETRO's 1-800 number and asked the sales rep who picked up what PETRO's current price was for my zip code that day. She quoted me $2.399/gal, a difference of $.90/gal. This added over $100 to my bill and I needed an answer. Over the course of the next 2 days, I spoke to several people at PETRO and was given multiple reasons why we were billed the higher rate. The answers ranged from ""we are a full-service oil provider"" to ""we have more overhead than other companies"" to the higher rate has to help cover the cost of our 24 hour service department"". (I thought that's what the cost of my separate service policy was for)

The last straw was when I spoke to Patty on 12/22/16. Her explanation was that the $2.399 rate quoted to me on the phone the previous day was actually up PETRO's ""introductory rate"" and that is what we had been receiving since our first delivering in Jan 2015. However, that rate ""is no longer available to you"". I then explained that based on the terms of the program we signed up for in Jan 2015, we thought we were being billed PETRO's market rate. I then asked if that were not the case, then (a) why weren't we told that and (b) why weren't we notified that we would no longer be receiving it? Her response was ""that is the way oil companies do business and we have no obligation to do so"".

Needless to say, I won't be doing any more business with these people in the future. They could all seriously use a course in business ethics.


Tim R
Pasadena, Md.

Big J.

Don't do it. Sister company to Griffith Energy, extremely poor rating. High prices and bad service.

Billy B.

Recently converted an electric stove to gas and used Petro for the hookup. They showed up in the 2 hour window promised and then completed the complicated job as it needed to be tied into an existing fireplace. We even ""upgraded"" the older regulator valve and refit this into the cap of the tank. Great job!

Anthony F.

Management Only look for ways to Take advantage of consumer and Techs they hire have little to no Training ! You would be wise to find other company !

Amanda F.

Our air conditioning went out in the hottest weather this year. Petro was super quick in having people out to check it out and they were wonderful to deal with the whole way through. The poor guys who came to replace it on the hottest day this summer were friendly, did clean work and were very efficient. I never once saw them just wasting time and they answered all the questions I had. I will definitely use Petro Home Services for any more of my home needs!

Gina B.

Update to Update: Well folks, I finally have heat but getting it was a challenge. I was on hold up to 45 minutes per call but I needed oil daggone it!

- Tuesday, called to confirm ""EMERGENCY"" delivery. ""Oh yes, you are scheduled for tomorrow.""

- Wednesday, called at 3:00 pm to confirm the delivery was coming. ""Yes. Your order is on the truck and out for delivery. It may be late but you will get it today."" I told the person I was out of oil so it was important to get it that day. The EMERGENCY delivery time then slipped to ""tomorrow at the latest""

- Wednesday evening, called at 8:00 pm to ask just HOW late the order will be. I was told ""Tomorrow. Deliveries are only made between 7:00 am and 5:00pm.""
-- I called Jen M. She was not available so I asked for any supervisor. None available.
-- Asked for an EMERGENCY delivery of oil to hold me until the actual delivery arrived. The next available EMERGENCY window available? 7:00 - noon Thursday. Since that was the time they were standing by, I told them I would need a technician to prime my furnace again because I was out of oil. ""Can do. We'll have someone out there between 7:00am and noon... tomorrow""

- Thursday, early in the morning, called asked for a supervisor. I was connected to the Delivery supervisor who was very nice. Yada, yada, He contacted the delivery person and said I would have an oil delivery in no more than an hour.
Did I? NOPE! But I did have a delivery in under 2 hours.

- Flashback! Remember that EMERGENCY technician visit scheduled between 7:00am and noon? Yeah. :-( The oil was delivered around 10:30 am but because the technician didn't arrive until 4:00pm (that's 4 hours later than ""assured""), I still didn't have heat for another 5 1/2 hours!

AND...The price per gallon for the oil delivered is almost $1 more per gallon than a few other oil delivery services [that I SHOULD have ordered from]

As long as I was on hold every time, I KNOW I wasn't the only person having issues and getting broken committments. Just saying... Poke me with a fork because...

Update: I was contacted by a rep this morning. (Unfortunately, I am remiss in remembering her name. I apologize.) Based on our conversation, her apology, and stated committment to restore quality customer service, I am wiling to give them a chance to continue earning my business.

Original: I've been with Petro for about 12 years. The customer service used to be on point. The reps ""used to"" talk to you like you were BFFs. They were so nice, I didn't even mind that some of the techs were a bit ""sketchy"" because they got the job done without setting my house on fire. (So we are talking pretty low expectations - be nice, fix the problem, don't charge a lot.)

Lately, their customer service has gone down. They are fine as long as you don't have a problem or ask questions that make sense. Worse is they give you a 6-hour window for an appointment so you are stuck in the house waiting, if you are me, almost all 6-hours for the tech to show. Even WORSE.... if you need ""emergency"" service, you will be given a 6-hour window but the tech, if you are me, will arrive an hour or more after that. Today, I spent 12 hours in a house without heat. I called at 11:00am. Had an appointment window of 1:00 - 7:00pm. The technician arrived at 11:15pm. The high was18 degrees. It didn't feel that warm in my house though.

GOOD customer service: One of the 2 reps and/or the Tech would have apologized for the delay

GREAT customer service: ""Some one"" would contact me, apologize, say they appreciate my business, offer a discount or T-Shirt for my inconvenience. :-)

Can anyone recommend another Oil Delivery company? I like to feel like my business is appreciated and lately, I just haven't been getting it from Petro.