Suburban Propane

We found the price was excessively high. Even though we had been customers for many years, they charged us discontinuing service when we went to another provider. Although we notified of the change in the fall of last year, their tank is still on our property. We have had to call them several times to even get a date when they would pick it up. On the last call today, they would only give the pickup within 2 weeks.

I purchased my house in 2010. It has a 500 gallon propane tank in the ground that suburban apparently owned. It was my first house with Propane so I didn't know the ins and outs of propane supply. Over the summer of 2010 Suburban neglected to send me the pre-purchase contract offers and options for heating season propane. When it came time to fill the tank I had to purchase propane at the going rate. I tried to negotiate a better price pointing out that I was a new customer and didn't have the opportunity to order or purchase my propane up front at a more reasonable price. Suburban would not give me any discount on the price. I very quickly did the math and determined the propane was still a little cheaper than our baseboard electric heat, but was exhorbanantly too expensive for long term heating so I started looking at other options. Calls to other propane providers revealed that suburban was quoting me a going rate price about 35-40% higher than other dealers would fill my tank for. In my opinion price gouging on suburban's part since suburban was the only company that could fill my tank (they owned the tank and I was a captive customer in a monopoly situation). I quickly did my research and started efforts to install a pellot stove to heat the basement and part of the first floor. I also called suburban and explained that their propane prices were beyond my budget, that I was installing a pellot stove to reduce my winter heating bills, and that they needed to either sell me the tank or come remove it. Suburban and I were able to reach an agreement for the tank price, though looking back I paid about 1/2 of retail price for the tank even though the tank was about 2/3 through its expected life. It was an expediant transaction at the time, especially since digging it up will require cutting down a tree. I have been purchasing propane from Ferrell fuel ever since and very satisfied. I would not recommend doing any business from Suburban other than purchasing your tank if they quote you a fairl price.

I am currently looking for another provider. When we purchased our home last spring, it took several emails, phone calls and two months past before they would come out to fill our tanks. The company was being sold, so I thought I would give them some more time and thought they might improve with the new ownership. I called them to fill my tanks in the fall and that went ok. I noticed my tanks were low the week before Christmas so I called for a delivery. The man who answered said I was on a schedule and I did not need to call for a delivery. He said I was already scheduled for a delivery on Friday. Friday came and went and we didn't get a delivery. I thought that since it was Christmas week, maybe I misunderstood and he meant the next friday so we turned our heat down to 64 degrees and waited. The next Friday came and went and we got no delivery. I had to call and beg for a delivery and was told there would be an extra $185 charge for weekend delivery. I had to literally beg, "Its going to be freezing and we wont make it through the weekend. Please. Why would I have to pay $185 for an emergency delivery when I called over a week ago?" It took a couple of calls to the national office and a couple of calls with the delivery man. That delivery was over $900. When the weather was going to drop down to below zero in January, we checked our tanks even though we had been assured we were on a schedule and didn't have to call. They were almost empty. No one answered at the local office so we called the national office. She said that if we had been told we were on a schedule, we had done nothing wrong, that we should not have to watch the tanks and that it should be delivered automatically. The local driver called to say he would come but since it was the weekend, there would be a $185 fee. That was around $1000. Three weeks later we were going to have another extremely cold weekend. My husband checked the tanks and they were less than 10 percent. Again we called. Again we had to beg. The delivery man called before he came out and said, "Do you need someone to teach you how to read your tanks? Are you sure you need a delivery? If I come to your house, someone who really needs it might not get a delivery." So not only did I have to beg for a delivery but I was made to feel bad that I was taking something away from someone. And it cost a THOUSAND dollars for that awful service for one delivery. When he did come out on Saturday night, he said there was about 7 gallons left in our 200 gallon tanks and we would not have made it through the weekend. We were never made to pay the $185 that we were threaten but we have had to call and plead four times for a product that we pay dearly for. I need to find a new service.

I have been pleased with their service and will continue to use them in the future.