FRED SCHILDWACHTER & SONS INC

Excellent, responsive oil company. Deliveries are on time and service is quick, friendly, and first rate. Parts cost covered by service contract.

We have used Schildwachter for more than 10 years. I think their prices are on the high side.  We have a service contract with them on a 12 year old furnace.  They call us to remind us to have our furnace serviced and it gets serviced every year. 

Three years ago the furnace would not turn on.  When we called them they said there would be at least a four hour wait.  No biggie but I had to get to work so we arranged that they would arrive after 6 PM.  When I arrived home, found a note on the door that they had come but no one was home.  Back into the service queue we went so it was more like 9:00 PM before the service person arrived.  There have been no issues of running out of oil on their automatic delivery program.  When the oil tank gauge had to be replaced the cost was included in the service contract.  Service people are nice; some have more experience than others and one gentleman in particular went out of his way to help. 

This year, the day after a huge sleet/snowstorm, the driver had no idea where the filler was, he was looking on my neighbor's property.  I happened to be home, so I ran outside to show him.  He was a bit short with me until I showed him that not only had we shoveled it out but there was a bucket covering the filler .  However, ice had formed around the filler and he couldn't get the nozzle locked in.  He said he would let the office know and they'd send someone out to clear the ice.  I told him we had half a tank and there was no hurry.  What he didn't tell me was that they were going to charge us $100 plus tax to clear the ice.  We found out only days later when we received the invoice.  We found it outrageous that they had not disclosed this charge and also felt it was excessive.   I negotiated it down to $35 + tax, but this has pushed us over the edge to seek a new provider.

When we bought our ca. 1895 house in summer 2014, we inherited a service contract with Schildwachter. Because of this, we did not shop around for a fuel oil provider. Following is a list of issues we had with this company until we switched to Petro in February 2015.
--They would not offer us a budget plan and it was impossible to get a straight answer from them about whether there would be budget plans available in the future. This left us with unpredictable costs and no way to spread out payments as we had with the oil company at our prior home.
--The heating system in the house is old. When our first winter came, we realized that the thermostat was not regulating the heat in the house in any sort of predictable way. We had a serviceman come out. He said that we needed to replace a specific part on the boiler to get the thermostat working and quoted about $600 in parts and labor. It was a simple replacement, so we bought the part and replaced it ourselves. When the thermostat still didn't work, we called again and Schildwachter sent another, more experienced serviceman. He said that in fact the thermostat would never control the boiler because it's too old. He showed us how to control the maximum and minimum temperatures for water in the radiators; the thermostat is only for measuring the temperature in the house. So, we were given false information and though we didn't lose the $600 we would have if we'd contracted Schildwachter, we were out about $250 for the unnecessary replacement part. When I attempted to discuss this with someone in the company they said they couldn't understand the issue and I was transferred to the voicemail of one of the principals, who never called me back.
--The accounting department is a mess. Despite having excellent credit and practically begging them to set us up on a pre-payment plan, Schildwachter would bill us for delivery and refuse to deliver again until we'd paid that bill. I pay all of my bills online and I could see that payment had hit Schildwachter's accounts, but they would deny it. This issue came to a head when our very small oil tank was almost out of oil just before the blizzard in January that could have potentially made it impossible to get a truck to us. I could see that they'd been paid out of my bank account, but it took them several days to process it, during which time they refused to deliver oil, and they left us questioning whether we would be able to heat our house during what was supposed to be a debilitating storm. This was the final straw and I switched companies that week.
--Schildwachter does not have 24 hour emergency service. Their price per gallon when I switched was about 40 cents higher than Petro.
In conclusion, this seems to be a very small business, but without the positives like strong personal relationships and good customer service, and all of the negatives--poor organization, inability to leverage lower prices through bulk purchase, and no accountability among the staff. Given how few customers they have, I was surprised that no one contacted me when I canceled our service to even ask why or make some attempt to keep our business. That said, the delivery drivers and repairmen were all very polite, and there was an older repairman who was very knowledgeable.

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I chose to use the monthly budget plan and it is a help in avoiding large bills in the worst months of winter. The company sends a monthly statement of all transactions with the invoice. As of their statement dated 12/31/12, I had an accumulated balance of $628.24. Then, as of the 1/31/2013 statement I owed the company $230.47 and their statement listed my previous month's balance as - $10.93. I called and spoke to the finance manager who assured me that my accounting was wrong and promised to send a ledger which I never received. This scenario continued through May: the statements continued to show that $639.17 of my accumulated balance disappeared somewhere between 12/31/12 and 1/31/13. In each of our telephone discussions the finance manager was very condescending and assured me that the company statements were correct. At the end of the budget period (5/1/13), the company sent a bill with a balance of $1172.83 that I owed to the company. I sent a letter, a spreadsheet and copies of every monthly statement they sent to me in the budget period. In the letter I explained that, using the statements that they issued to me my accountant arrived at a balance owed to them of $533.66. They responded with a ledger and the excuse of a computer glitch that did not show a delivery made on 12/31/12 in the amount of $639.17. I keep meticulous records and receipts. I never received the receipt that is put into my mailbox at the end of a delivery, and this delivery never appeared on any statement that they sent to me. I am now seeking a company that I can trust to - at the very least - research a concern in billing that I raise and not ignore what MAY have been a glitch in their system.

I think their price might have been a little bit higher than the others, but they were very honest and thorough. Their price was probably average because I had seen higher and lower prices than that. My heating oil tank was rotten. Everyone said that it was wonderful before I bought the house. They were very helpful. They just filled it up a little bit so that I wouldn't freeze to death. They directed me to other places I could get an oil tank. They provided excellent customer service and had integrity. They came only once but they were on time.

I used this company's service contract and oil delivery since I bought my house over five years ago. They added a hot water storage tank for me and the work was done well. Other than one time when I ran out of oil (which they resolved the next day), they we consistent in their service. I am switching to gas heat, which I why I no longer use their services. Even though I did not have any service calls since I renewed in May, they did not refund any portion of the yearly contract.

They have been responsive and great most of the time. We were stuck without oil this past winter and had no heat in the house during a snowstorm. They are very expensive and are looking for a cheaper rate.

I owed them money for a tank of oil. I paid the amount in May. Then unbeknownst to me they came and put in $2500 of oil in my tank. They didn't discuss with me about them coming to deliver the oil. I didn't know how much they put in and it should have been discussed with me first. I was in a position where I couldn't pay the amount in full and that's the only way they would turn it on. I tried to negotiate with them to see if I could pay half but they said I had to pay in full. They were being unreasonable.

Always very easy to deal with. Responds promptly to requests for service and delivery.

They where very friendly when they where out there working for us. They where very professional about the job. They had not showed up to fix something on the tank for us.

I called them because they service the White Plains area. They specialize in boiler systems. If I need to call them during the year for maintenance, the service is covered.

I HAVE NO PROBLEMS. I WOULD NOT CHANGE COMPANIES. THEY ALSO PROVIDE MY OIL. THEY ARE VERY PUNCTUAL IN MY OIL DELIVERY. WHEN I NEEDED THIS BOILER THEY WERE VERY PATIENT AND VERY UNDERSTANDING WITH MY LACK OF KNOWLEDGE WITH ANY OF THAT STUFF. I DID CONFER WITH SOMEONE THAT I KNOW THAT DID THIS KIND OF WORK TO MAKE SURE I WASN'T GETTING CHEATED OR ANYTHING.