Dassel's Petroleum Pisses on another customer

From http://www.yelp.com/biz/dassels-petroleum-hollister

Mark T.
Santa Cruz, CA
8/1/2009

I used Dassel's Petroleum for years and thought they were the best...

Until I had a problem with my service. I called and they blew me off, telling me that if I didn't like it I could cancel my service and go somewhere else.

Another complaint about Dassel's Petroleum

This one was posted today at http://www.yelp.com/biz/dassels-petroleum-hollister:

John F.
San Jose, CA
7/17/2009

stay far away from dassel's petroleum

The only time you should even consider using these guys is if they were the last propane supplier on the planet, and even then I'm not so sure.

High priced. Service is practically non-existent, and what service they do provide is spotty.

They're rude to customers, even abusive at times... putting customers off on refills, unwilling to work with customers with financial problems. Refuses to test/repair equipment, etc.

Check out some of the other sites on the internet about them. I'm not the only one.

Dassel's Petroleum Complaint

This one was posted on Dasselssucks.com as a comment. I'm reposting it here so it's more visible. The original post can be found here.

cheshire572 says:
June 23, 2009 at 4:42 pm (Edit)

I too have had problems with Dassel. They come every three weeks in the winter & charge over 300.00 at a time. They don’t tell show how much was in the tank, it starts at 0 everytime. I find that decieving. I called to work it out but got no where. Later the owner said I could make payments. They still try to come every three weeks but I catch them & stop them. Last time I needed it they put me off for 4 days, so we had none. The guy on the phone told me, “well it’s not our fault your late” Like I did it on purpose. Now I paid over half of it last month & they are harrassing me. I would switch but I didn’t have the tank installed, my landlord did. I find them to be very unprofessional and heartless, I owe less than 170 bucks & they are harrassing me. I’ve NEVER used propane this fast. I used to have it last 3 to 5 months, now apparently 3 weeks in the winter & 3 months in the summer. If I ever need propane again, it will NOT be with Dassel

And ANOTHER unhappy Dassel's Petroleum ex-customer

Found this one at

http://local.yahoo.com/info-21559075-dassel-s-petroleum-incorporated-hollister?tab=reviews#reviews

User Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

by swbsteele74@...

11/04/2008

Unfortunately, they don't like to set up convenient payment plans. They will hassle you to pay in full immediately when the bill is due. Since they only fill up once every 6 months, you will be surprised by a very large bill, in my case, more than 500 dollars, due all at once. Their customer service is lacking.

Another Unsatisfied Dassel's Petroleum Customer

I found this at

http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Dassels.Petroleum.Inc.831-636-5100/review/read?cid=202757

I called in reference to my bill and I was told to cancel my service if I did not like the service.They did not even offer to make it right.Three times I have run out of gas even though I am on a keep filled program. Since that time I have been dealing with coast gas and they have been great and The per gallon price is thirty cents lower. 12\07 Just my thoughts here.Jo

April 12, 2008 by Jo Freddy in San Juan Bautista, CA

Another DasselsSUCKS.com reader comment

I can't believe you didn't smell it you were loosing that much propane!

But I did smell it, and when I called Dassels Petroleum about it I was told that this was normal when the tank got low and was nothing to worry about. I assumed they were an honest company and knew what they were talking about so I took their word for it.

Questions from a DasselsSUCKS.com reader

So, have you gotten any further response from dassels?

Nope. I have not heard a thing from them since I paid off my bill. Apparently all they care about is the money even if the way they earned it was questionable. They could care less about customer satisfaction from what I've seen.

Im still trying to figure out their saying your tank caused the increased usage. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Yes, that statement defies all logic. Specially when my usage DROPPED when I switched to my own tanks and regulator. For someone that has worked for Dassels as long as she says she has she sure is clueless about the products/services her employer provides.

Is your usage really that much lower than when you had dassels service?

YES! Dramatically lower. Since cancelling my service I am going through a 5 gallon bottle in about a week. Compare that to a 250 gallon tank that was being filled every couple months.

At 85% fill capacity (Space has to be left for expansion) the 250 gallon tank should hold about 212.5 gallons of propane. The 5 gallon tank should hold about 4.25 gallons.

I can go 50 weeks on what I was buying from Dassels every couple months. I am now paying retail (Gas station) prices, plus sales tax, and still coming out way ahead.

The only other thing that's changed is that I cannot run my generator. It pulls propane too fast and causes the bottles to freeze up. But then the generator wasn't run that often. It exercises 10 minutes a week but at 1 gallon per hour at no-load that only adds one gallon every 6 weeks to my usage.

Other than that I only use propane for the water heater and stove. A wood stove is my primary heat source.

Why does Dassel's Petroleum have fewer complaints than other propane companies

This question was asked of me recently. It's a good question and one with a very simple answer.

EXPOSURE

You cannot compare it to names like Amerigas. Why?

1. Size: Amerigas sells to customers in almost fifty states across the US. Dassels sells in one (California).


2. Configuration: Amerigas is a "partner" or "franchise" operation. It consists of hundreds of separately owned businesses that operate under a single name. Dassels is a single, privately owned, company.


3. Market: Dassels markets it's products primarily to Commercial customers (How many individuals do you know of that have a Pacific Pride account?). Generally commercial accounts are more interested in saving money and less about "service".


4. Service: Amerigas sells tanks and other propane equipment. They also provide other services like installing, testing and repairing propane lines. Dassels delivers propane. True, they also rent you a tank and regulator but they refuse to test or repair them even if you suspect a problem and ask them to.

To fairly compare Dassels to Amerigas you'd have to look at a single Amerigas station owner. You cannot compare it to the whole franchise.

Now I'm not a big fan of Amerigas either (At least not my local Amerigas franchise), and only use them in these examples because they are the most widely known propane supplier. I had service problems with them in the past but, unlike Dassels, they were always very courtious and professional.

Dassels charges you rent on a tank and regulator that they then refuse to maintain. So what if there is a problem with it? Your only recourse is to hire some other company to come out to fix or replace it. But if you do that Dassels most likely isn't going to reimburse you and will probably charge you for replacement because you "tampered" with their equipment. In my case it cost me hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. In hind sight I would rather have paid a little more for my propane and had the assurance that, if there were a problem, my propane supplier would be there for me. Dassels wasn't.