Dassel's Petroleum still won't talk to me, but they're good at sueing people

Instead of talking to me and working out the problems with their service (or lack of service) Dassel's continues to threaten me in court.

• When I tried to work things out in a civilized manner I was ignored.

• When I got too vocal I was threatened with a harassment suit. Now the only way I can communicate with them is through this site.

• Today my wife says we were served with another legal document. I wonder what they are suing for now.

If they want me to continue to air their dirty laundry in public I'm happy to do so. I will continue to ratchet up the pressure (DasselsSucks.com is already on page 3 in Google Searches) and being added to more search engines daily.

I've also started talking to people in my community and passing on my experiences with Dassel's Petroleum.

Believe me, in the long run, this is going to cost Dassel's a LOT more than it's costing me. This site costs me nothing to keep up other than the $10 per year for domain registration.

Keeping customers happy isn't that hard. I've owned a business or two myself and have had complaints from customers. This is not a big deal. What is a big deal is how you, as a business, treat that customer. Do you just ignore them? Insist that you have gazillions of happy customers so there couldn't possibly be anything wrong? Threaten them?

No, a business that's concerned about their customers and the quality of the services they provide would address those complaints (instead of trying to avoid blame and sidestep the issues) and work towards a solution that FIXES the problem instead of trying to sweep it under the rug.

Dassel's Petroleum just doesn't get it.

Someone else unhappy with Dassel's Petroleum?

Well, I see that a house down the street from me, which has had a Dassel's tank for at least the past 12 years, now has an Amerigas tank.

I wonder why they switched... seeings how Dassel's has nothing but happy customers.

Dassel's Petroleum in denial

Dassel's refuses to admit they screwed up, have a customer service problem, or that they even have ANY dissatisfied customers. They have thousands of happy customers, I can't possibly be unhappy. This is all a figment of my imagination...

Yeah, right.

They seem to think the way to take care of unhappy customers is to ignore them and continue with business as usual.

And if you're too vocal they threaten to sue for harassment.

It looks like this battle is going to be going on for some time and I don't feel that the Lompico Community Center website is appropriate for this, so I have set up this site dedicated to the issue.

Lots of talk, but still no answers....

Originally posted October 1st, 2008 on www.lompicocc.org

Funny, I seem to recall reading in that email from you I posted, "how about you post the email i sent before this?".

I take that as permission to post your emails. And since the email header, which contains the sender information, is considered part of an email it also implies that that, too, may by published.

NOTE: As I have explained to Dassel's, I did not intend to use my connection with the Lompico Community Center and the Lompico Community to influence this issue. It would not have been professional nor fair. I want to make sure that everyone that reads these posts is clear that Dassel's employees made the connection on their own and decided to make it public knowledge. My posts have been from a regular user account. Any statements or opinions expressed are mine alone and do not reflect the position of the Lompico Community Center.

But to get back to the real issues...

Most businesses think they have few dissatisfied customers because most do not complain. Studies have indicated that the average business doesn't hear from 96% of it's unhappy customers. For every complaint received the average business has another 26 customers with problems, at least 6 of which are serious.

I keep hearing about how good Dassel's customer service is, how they have many happy customers, how they try to help, how I was a terrible customer, etc, etc. But I've yet to hear ANYTHING that addresses my complaints

1. Why, when I paid ~1/4 of my bill and sent an email AND letter trying to work something out, did you cut me off like you did?
You say you never received either. Well, I received a reply to my email stating that it had been received and forwarded
to the proper department. I also doubt my letter was lost in the mail. More likely it was lost by someone at Dassel's.

2. Why do you say the first you heard about removing the tank was on Saturday when I called and emailed on Thursday canceling
the account and demanding the tank be removed by EOD Friday?

3. Why where subsequent emails asking about the $190 entry on my bill and my discovery that there was indeed a problem with
Dassel's equipment ignored. Why has it taken these public posts on the Internet to get a response from Dassel's?

4. Why, on several occasions, was my request to check the equipment refused when I suspected there was a problem somewhere?

If nothing else it sounds to me like you have serious communication and record keeping problems within Dassel's.

The forth item shows a complete lack of concern about the quality of service you provide to your customers.

Duane Davis

Dassel's Petroleum - Their answer? Threats

Originally posted 2008-09-29 14:41:57 -0800 on www.lompicocc.org

Well, it took several postings on the Internet to get Dassel's to finally respond to me...

When you wish to tell the TRUTH, let me know. Otherwise I have no desire to read your "frustrated with the world" rantings using Dassel's as your convenient whipping post. We treated you with much more respect than you did Dassel's. Get your stories straight so that we can communicate on the same honest leve.

Wow, now they're accusing me of lying , among other things.

My response: Everything I have posted has been accurate. I challenge you to find one statement I've made that isn't.

To which Alisa Thompson of Dassel's responded...

(I've included my response in italics. Their wording is underlined. Everything here is verbatim and only one irrelevant section was left out.)

---

Did your HATE blog start out "I was past due on my account and refused to answer the phone or return calls to Dassel's"? how about you post the email i sent before this? the one in which i reminded you of the numerous times you chose to ignore or cooperate with us.

No, It started out admitting that I had been unemployed and having trouble paying my bill. I also indicated that I was past due. Where was I dishonest?

And you know for a FACT that I was REFUSING to answer the phone? There's no way I may not have been home? Now who is being dishonest?

You can now tell your readers the $190 is court costs, charges you were told you would have to absorb should we have to take you to small claims- would you like to clear that up in your blog as well?

I never saw anything about that. I emailed you on 9/4/08 asking what this charge was for. I never received an answer.

According to your blog you called and asked the tank be picked up. The TRUTH is YOU emailed ME to say the tank was already on the county road, to come get it. I have a printed copy if you wish to refresh your memory. It was not a case of you asking that the tank be picked up, waiting for our "incompetent" service, and then you having to move it later. According to you, in your email to me, you had already dumped our tank on the side of the road.

WRONG! Your company removed the regulator the morning of 3/13/08, a Thursday. I phoned immediately after to cancel my account and demanded the tank be removed by the end of the day Friday. I followed this up with an email the same day.

I have a printed copy of the email and notes of my phone call should you wish the review them.

On Saturday, two days after canceling and demanding the tank be removed, I moved it down to the street myself. I should not have to do this and will be sending you a bill for my time and expense to remove your property since you refused to.

You were using our equipment to run tanks. As for your decreased usage, perhaps there was something wrong with the tanks you were hooking up to OUR regulator - post that why don't you.

Let me try to clarify this so even you can understand. I am using less propane with my tank on a used regulator that i>I picked up than I was on your tank using your regulator. Since removing your tank and regulator my usage has dropped dramatically. This has nothing to do with my tanks on your regulator.

If you had communicated with us as well and frequent before as you communicate ABOUT us now, there may have been a different outcome.

When I paid about 1/4 of my bill and tried to work something out the regulator was pulled.

Vent your frustrations however you choose. Our Constitution gives you that right. However, you had an opportunity to state your case in a different public arena and you did not choose to do so in person. So, please do not email me your propaganda again or I may have to look into the legal terms regarding harrasment. Dassel's Petroluem is a stellar business - according to thousands of paying customers. Like I told you before, vent your frustrations elsewhere, about something that really, truly matters to people.

Oh, I intent to continue posting my experiences with Dassel's. I never said I was perfect or faultless. But when I did try to work something out I got screwed.

BTW, I too keep all records of emails, etc. And, since I am the ONLY person on this end that has dealt with Dassel's I can say with 100% confidence that my statements are accurate. You can't even seem to keep track of emails or letters, much less what has been said between myself and other Dassel's employees.

As I've always been told... It takes many happy customers to build a good reputation but only one pissed off one to ruin it. Well, I'm pissed!

---

Threats, accusing me of being untruthful, attacking me personally, lost emails, lost mail, no record of phone conversation when I canceled, not responding to my queries.

And their excuse? It's all because =I= ignored them.

"You didn't answer our calls so we're going to ignore yours, nya, nya, nya, nya, nya!"

This doesn't sound like a very professional company to me.

And I will clarify here, even though I indicated such in my first post, that I was having problems. A combination of being unemployed due to the .com bust, having to file bankruptcy, dealing with depression and the problems associated with going through half a dozen mood altering drugs trying to find one that worked, and a new baby, left me in an emotional and financial mess. I never claimed I was perfect or that Dassel's had no cause to cancel my service. It's just the unprofessional way that they handled it after I asked that my account be placed on hold and TRIED to work something out to get caught up that I am unhappy about. Plus the fact that it appears their equipment was faulty. The personal attacks, accusations and threat are just icing on the cake.

Dassle's Petroleum - Dishonest or just incompetent

Originally posted 2008-09-24 21:04:26 -0800 on www.lompicocc.org

So, I canceled my service and demanded that they remove their tank within two days.

They didn't. So I had to haul it out to the street myself.

A few weeks later I get another bill with an additional charge of $190.00. If anything the balance should have gone down since I'd only used a few months of my tank rental for the year.

I sent them an email asking what the charge was for...

No response.

I also noticed over the next couple months that I'm using a fraction of the gas that I was, supposedly, using under my dassel's account. I'm talking a BIG difference. Even though I'm now paying a higher per gallon price plus paying sales tax I'm spending 1/4 to 1/5 what I was with Dassel's.

The ONLY thing that's changed is the tank and the regulator, both property of Dassel's. And, since they took them back I have no way of proving that they were defective. Though they still could have been charging me for propane I never received.

I'd suspected that my usage was abnormal and had called them a couple times asking if they could check it. Their response, "We don't provide that service".

I sent them a message about this too....

Again, no response.

Their lack of response leads me to believe that they were aware of this and were intentionally ripping me off... Or maybe they are just incompetent.

Either way, this is not qood customer service.

Dassel's Petroleum: Kicks you when you're down

Originally posted 2008-03-15 08:41:55 -0800 on www.lompicocc.org

BEWARE OF DOING BUSINESS WITH DASSEL'S PETROLEUM

I've been unemployed for several months and having trouble paying for my Dassel's service.

In order to avoid running my bill up further I sent them a letter explaining my situation. I also asked that they put my account on will-call (Don't deliver any propane unless I call and request it) and I would pay off my bill as I was able. In the meantime I would run off small bottles (Like the kind you use with your BBQ or travel trailer) which I would take to have filled as needed. I also sent them a partial payment of $150 (aproximately a quarter of what I owed), to show my sincerity and which I couldn't really afford.

Evidently this wasn't good enough for them so they came out to lock off my tank. This was no big deal as the tank had been empty for over a month. However, when they found that out they also removed the regulator to prevent me from even using my little tanks.

This action has done nothing for Dassel's but generate ill will. Letting me continue to use the regulator costs Dassel's NOTHING and doesn't increase my bill any since the tank and regulator rental is charged on a yearly cycle. It is clearly an INTIMIDATION tactic specially since they left the tank, which is worth much more than the regulator. They just want to deprive me of the capability to use any propane, from any source.

It doesn't get me a job and I still don't have the money to bring my account up to date.

What I do have is a 2 year old and a 7 year old, both currently home sick with the flu in a house that I can't heat because of Dassel's pettiness.

So, instead of being out looking for a job I get to spend several days trying to find, and spending money I can't afford to spend, another regulator so I can provide heat, hot water and food to my family.

My recommendation; DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH DASSEL'S.

Based on their helpfulness to me as a non-customer I would recommend Suburban or Amerigas (In that order).