Osterman Propane LLC

Completed job quickly and professionally.

Ordered propane online with guaranteed delivery within 5 days, if my memory serves me.  The 5 days come and go, no word from them.  I call the office, they're closed, I leave a voicemail--my tanks are empty now and it is still quite chilly at night.  I call again and select for "emergency" fill.  The gal tells me it will be an additional $125 for the "special" trip.  I explained my situation and that I had already ordered the propane with no response and told her I would not pay the ridicoulous fee.  Nobody showed up to fill my tanks that evening.  This left me at risk for frozen pipes and a very chilly hygene routine in the mornings with no heat.  When I finally did get to speak to somebody that seemed to care, she told me that the online system is broken and not all the orders get placed.  I retorted, as I was pretty angry at this point, that they should remove it or fix it--it simply isn't fair to customers that are left cold ESPECIALLY IF THEY KNOW IT DOESN'T WORK!  I am shopping for another supplier for next season.  It really isn't worth the hassel for me, my family, my pets to freeze our butts off because of a known website problem.  I had used them in the past, prior to this incident and the service was always OK, never stellar, always seemed inconsistent at best.

They've been fine. I've had them for several years now because they bought out the other company. I haven't had any issues and they come on a scheduled basis. I haven't run out of gas yet and they are reliable. I pay a lot more because it's based on the number of gallons that you use, but we only use it for our dryer and a gas stove. We don't use enough to make it worth their wild to give it to us cheap, but I haven't done any comparison shopping. He comes every quarter when he is supposed to. I haven't had to call them to come and bring my gas or had any problems.

Overall, it went badly. They replaced the superstore (breaking our door jamb while removing the old unit--snapped it right off, but they didn't seem too worried about that). My  husband spent hours with the technician trying to figure out how to get everything piped correctly. To be fair, someone had messed up our piping years before. In any case, it took 5 hours and cost $1800 (parts and labor). Two weeks later, we had no hot water in the shower. I called the next day. They sent the guy out how had done the install--I asked whether it was normal that it should take 5 hours for the install. He was super rude to me. Ultimately he said it was a thermostat and he'd send someone else for the next day. They never showed up. I called about 10 days later (no hot water again) and they said "oh, we were out of those and they JUST came in!" That didn't fix it, and the next time I called they just didn't know WHAT to do since we had since cranked the boiler back on.
We've had intermittent no-hot-water episodes. I called again yesterday and spoke to their AMAZINGLY rude service manager, Jeff. He yapped at me that it was the zone switch and I told him to hang on and talk to my husband. When my husband got on, he said "I already explained this to your wife 3 times." They ultimately agreed that the next time we had no hot water, we wouldn't restart the boiler, we'd call so they could come out and see the problem live. After they hung up, we reasoned that if he was so sure it was the zone switch, why didn't they just replace that? I called back, and Jeff told me that my husband had said he didn't want to do it that way, he didn't want them there, he wanted to wait and see. I had heard the whole conversation--that was not true. And I thought the first guy was rude! He obviously trained with a master.
They sent someone out immediately though (Mike, I think), and he was friendly, efficient, and a pleasure to work with. He should be running the show there. Stay away from Osterman in Sunderland!

This was the single worse customer experience I have had in years.  Have tried for 4 days to receive propane to maintain my generator during a recent snow storm when the power went out for days and have been repeatedly lied to by customer service.  After being told I was 18th on the emergency list this weekend, I found out that they do not transfer the wait list from the weekend to the normal work week.  Today, Monday, I was told by the same insulting customer service group that they have 9 trucks on the road but none of them will be visiting my town and I am no longer on the list.  I have 4 young children, no power and can not get propane to run my generator.  On top of that, I am captive to Osterman because my underground propane tank is owned by them.
I feel like a hostage to their terrible and insensitive service.
Stay away from these guys!

If they can get their prices to match other suppliers or at least close that will be great

bEAcThe propane was fine and the delivery wasn't an issue.  It was payment that was a nightmare for me.  I prefer to do online banking and use a lot of auto-pay features so I'm not writing checks and sending mail (and to get the credit card points).  I tried doing this with Osterman and had to fill out the authorization form and mail it in 3 times before it worked.  I would get a delivery, then a bill and then a notice that I hadn't paid. I'd call in to let them know I was on autopay and they would tell me they had no record of the paperwork.  I'd send a check out (having to use my own envelope because they send tiny envelopes with their bills) and they would send me the authorization form and the process would start all over again.  I threatened to take my business elsewhere twice and finally got a different woman on the phone and everything was quickly corrected.  I'm guessing they simply have a few folks in billing that don't do a good job, but a big company like this should invest a few bucks in improving their website to allow online enrollment in autopay and better online billing account management, especially if the folks in billing aren't all top notch.

They do a good job, and my tenants continue to use them.  They have been easy to work with, and I would highly recommend them.

Fair

They are very responsive over the phone with excellent communication.  They are very timely as well. 

They are reliable. The prices are better than competitive. I did a lot of research to see which company I wanted to use. They are professional, polite, and helpful. It's just a good company.