Suburban Propane
reviews and complaints

ZERO STARS to the worst customer service ( DEBRA, KENNY and AMANDA) money stealing company!just had this company for 2 months and their service fee is ridiculous! The pilot went out I couldn't turn it on they had someone come to my house a week later to look at our fireplace. We had no heat for a week!When the service guy came he told me nothing is wrong just the pilot went out. He's name was George he was super nice and showed me how to turn it on. The whole process took 20 min because he was teaching me few things I should know about. but unfortunately he said the company will be charging service fee. I was okay with the fee since he had to come all the way to my house but when the bill was 135.00! This was absolutely crazy fee! Plus I found out there is 10.00 charge to fill your tank, I spoke to Amanda and see if there is any other hidden fee I should know about of course she was rude and didn't know what she was talking about. She said the charge per gallon always change for example it can be 1.59 per gallon or 1.89 per gallon or MORE?! Why do we have a contract if the charge always change?! I asked her couple of more questions and all I got from her was i don't know..? Ridiculous! It took them almost a week to come to my house but still they didn't give me a break and when I called for someone to come all they said was if it's ASAP it will be 175.00 charge!I told them no just have someone come and they never mention about a fee for 125.00 for someone to come look at our fireplace. I found out Everytime they come it's 125.00 plus tax it will be 135.00 even if nothing was broken and if they didn't show up for over a week it's ok with them?! They don't care about customers that been waiting with NO HEAT! plus whatever they do it's Extra MORE MONEY. I asked Amanda to have someone else call me I talked to Debra very rude! didn't want to listen just kept saying this is the price, she said Its only 125.00 nothing is free giving me attitude..when I said what about the time I waited for someone to come without heat is that ok?!And no one mentioned about a fee for someone to come how is that my fault? She didn't want to listen and when she gave the phone to Kenny the branch manager **which I don't believe he is a branch manager**very rude, cold hearted, unprofessional and bad attitude. What's going on with that company why is everyone so rude, unprofessional and bad to customers ?How can you tell the new customer to call sears and find out if they have service fee?! He kept over talking to me very bad attitude I was soo surprise how someone like him can be a branch manager! I am so disappointed at this company if they keep talking to customers that way and charge us a ridiculous amount of fees I can see this company falling apart. Kenny and Debra didn't want to even believe that no one had mention about the fee and if there was nothing that was fixed they could've at least try to work out the fee I was charged. After I talked to them I told DEBRA not to come to my house to fill the tank DEBRA called me few hours later telling me I am not authorized to make any decisions. How the hell are u gonna tell me that? My name was on the receipt! Don't tell me that after I talked to you twice before! She clearly do not know what she is doing! Why the hell did they kept talking to me about other things?Get your facts straight and then talk to me! No wonder AMANDA from customer service wasn't nice over the phone because maybe she gets influenced by these two unprofessional people In the office. They will lose a lot of customers by talking to customers that way and I would make sure everyone around me knows how I was treated. I feel sorry for elders that need help with the propane because I know for FACT THEY WOULD NEED HELP AND EVERYTIME WHEN THEY CALL FOR SOMEONE TO COME THEY WILL GET CHARGED CRAZY AMOUNT OF FEE for something so simple! That doesn't involve fixing anything broken !plus they come whenever they feel like and never sorry about the wait we had with it heat!Horrible customer service I WILL FIND A DIFFERENT SERVICE IF THIS DOESN'T GET RESOLVED! WORST WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!

We have been loyal Suburban customers for 13 years with auto delivery the entire time.

We have run out of propane and the company wants to charge us a delivery fee of $150 with no explanation that yields any type of logic.

I realize good people are hard to find, but the depths of their arrogance is shocking.

Making a change in suppliers this afternoon

More than a month ago, the valve on a 125gallon propane tank I rent from suburban propane stopped working.

I called suburban propane and informed them of the problem. They told me to run out the tank and they would switch it out when it was empty.

When I got down to a few gallon from empty, the idiots came by and filled the tank without informing me or seeking consent in any way.

Now, I have a 6 month supply of propane in the tank, and no way to turn it off or have it replaced, as well as a bill for propane I did not want and should not have received.

Their only response was a very surly truck driver who told me to take care of their problem myself.

I have found all the local propane delivery services to be dishonest, but suburban propane is the worst, and the fact that they endanger their customer's safety is unacceptable.

They really are scammers. All you have to do is complain and they cut you a break till the next month and then they do it again. It gets old real quick. Most expensive propane around and paying rental on 2 small tanks (for stove only) that are over 25 years old, rusted and maintenance has never been done on them or have they been inspected. We had enough of their nonsense and bought our own tank and had another propane company disconnect and we brought the tanks back to them and said goodbye and good riddance.
In the last week I have received 3 bills from them for $67.00 for a close out fee. Sometimes you just have to laugh at a company that I cannot believe is still in business. Hopefully people will google this company before doing any business with them.

We had our propane gas tank filled by Suburban Propane today and they charged $4.70 per gallon. When the driver handed us the bill, even he said we needed to protest as the cost was too high. I made a quick call to a competitor, and their pricing was $2.54. When I called Suburban, they quickly lowered the price. However, if you don't call they charge you an exorbitant price.

We have a gas fireplace and fill it once a year. We called the local Suburban Propane to ask for size of our tank and pricing. We were quoted 4.63 a gallon. They said we had a small tank, we did the math and told them to put 50 gallons in. That Monday the bill was at the door and they filled the tank up and charged us for 81.3 gallons making the bill $386.00 and filling it more than we ask them for. I had a neighbor down the street and called him to see which propane service he used. He told me he just filled his tank and they charged him 2.45 a gallon (a different supplier). I researched the current pricing and found the US Government propane prices for the Northwest zone and the current residential pricing was 1.99 per gallon. I called the local Suburban Propane office and complained and they told me to tear up the bill and they would send me a new one and charge me 2.65 a gallon! That reduced the bill to $225.80. The reduced bill never showed so after 30 days I called again and she promised it would get taken care of. They told me to pay the $225.80 against the 386.00 and it would be taken care of. I sad no way would I pay the bill until they reduced it to the proper amount. The made the change several days later and i paid the bill. What a ripoff to the consumer and people who let them charge what ever they think they can. This is a large publicly owned company and that behavior should not be tolerated.

I thought I would post a story about my worst customer service experience ever and it involved Suburban Propane. I contacted them a month ago about possibly getting propane from them as I own my own tank. After getting the necessary paperwork taken care of they scheduled a technician to come out and and make sure everything was OK to deliver. After taking a day off for work the technician never came that day. I had to call periodically to get different excuses why he wasn't there yet. Every time up to this point if I could get through to a person there they would put me on hold for 15 minutes while they went and checked on something but 90 percent of the time if I called it just went to an answering service to take a message without call back. He finally showed 2 weeks later without notice as I was leaving my house. I explained to him how horrendous their service was and that I didn't want propane at this time due to the bad experience plus other dealers were now 15% cheaper. I had a panic attack after speaking to him that they might come out and deliver so I called and got their answering service and told them not to come. I then contacted my account rep at Suburban Propane on Monday and told her not to deliver under any circumstances. 4 days later I get a slip that they delivered 600 gallons. I know based on my tank reading they were off on their number of gallons. I then called over 30 times before finally getting to speak to a live person instead of their answering service. She apologized for the error and would give it to me at a reduced rate. I explained all the problems I had with them and she offered to come pump out the propane. I asked before they come pump out the propane what was their reduced rate. She quoted me 40 cents a gallon HIGHER than their slip which was already higher than their quoted price. Needless to say I told them to come take their propane when we are there so we can monitor how much they take as they seem to have issues reading meters. So everyone beware of Suburban Propane.

I - stupidly - got on Suburban Propane's "budget plan". When I called the company I was told, based on prior consumption, my bill would be $150 a month. Okay, fine. That lasted about 2 months. Then... without using ANY propane at ALL (I only use it for heat in the winter) I got a bill for $200. No explanation. They just jacked the bill. THEN... about 2 months after that (still hadn't used any propane) it went up to $250 a month! Again... I'd not used ANY propane and my "budget" payment went up $100 a month - WHILE propane costs are going DOWN. I had to have 4 (smaller) tanks installed instead of one big one. Of those 4 tanks the gauge on only one tank still works. I was told the other three cannot be repaired. Too bad. When that last gauge fails (and it will) I'll have NO idea how much propane is left in the tanks. WTF? HOW do these people stay in business? I think they need a class action lawsuit to wake their greedy a$$es up.

We have been a customer of Suburban Propane for roughly five years. Previous to being called Suburban Propane, they were known in our area as Tru-Gas. Our first major problem with them was about 3 years ago. We had been on a "keep fill" service for a couple of years. And then suddenly we weren't. Our tank went empty and when we called them, they claimed we never were on the "keep fill". They charged us $50 to come out and do some sort of test before they would put the gas into the tank. And while there, the driver commented that he wondered why we were taken off of his route; confirming that we had been on the "keep fill." In addition to that, I believe we were also charged an emergency "trip charge." Since then, we've been monitoring the tank level and calling every time we needed gas. A month ago, the woman at the local office told us we were being put back on the "keep fill" (which we supposedly were never on right?). She said we would be added to the regular route again. Over the weekend we were talking about how cold it's been, so just out of curiosity we took a look at the level in the tank. It was at ZERO. My fiance called and was told we would have to pay $175 in addition to the price of the gas for an emergency trip charge. He explained that we are on the "keep fill" service and therefore it was not our fault that the tank ran out. The person he spoke to argued with him and said he showed no record of us ever being on "keep fill". But he said they would come. Nobody ever came out or called us. So this morning he called again and spoke to "Gary" who said he was the manager. Gary made no apologies and insisted that an application had been submitted to put us on "keep fill" but it had never been approved. My fiance explained that we had never filled out an application, that we were simply told we were being put back on. Gary continued to argue and then informed my fiance that if we wanted them to come out we would be expected to pay $50 for a trip charge AND now we had a minimum amount we had to buy. So, he said someone had to be there with a check for over $550 in hand. We have NEVER been informed of a minimum order. We have NEVER been informed when we were taken off the "keep fill" service. This is nothing more than a huge racket to steal money from us. The people at the local office lye, cheat, steal and behave with general rudeness and incompetance. There is clearly either a total lack of communication or a bunch of people conspiring to steal from us with bogus charges. On a side note, our neighborhood recently got natural gas and we were one of the few homes that didn't switch over. Considering how many customers they lost, you would think we would be treated a lot better than this. If nothing is done about this, for whatever it costs, we plan to have the tank taken away and switch to their competitor in West Salem. And I also plan on reporting this to the Better Business Bureau. I'm furious. My name is Elizabeth Arihood and my email is elizabeth.[protected]@trane.com. Our address is: N3684 Scenic Drive, La Crosse, WI 54601. Our account is under my fiance's name Eric Neuman.

I finally got my propane delivery after six days of no heat in January! I was told they could not make a delivery until they had another one in my area. Not only are they uncaring but their cost per gallon is double everyone else in the area. I am very unhappy with this company and plan to have my tank removed and go with another company.

The company location at west market street in west York, Pa. was notified on 11/13/14 that we wanted to stop service and asked when they would come to remove their 3 - 100 Gal. tanks from our property. The tanks were just recently filled but none of the propane was used. Also we had paid them for all the propane (Approx.. 85 Gallons per tank) They would not give me a date of pick up and were extremely rude when told that we had switch to Heller propane due to their cheaper rates. They have been contacted multiple times since but each time refused to give a date of pick up and reimbursement. The tanks are still sitting for pick-up as of 1/11/15. I have been in contact with a lawyer who I paid to write them a letter giving a date of 1/29/15 to pick up and make reimbursement otherwise I will take possession of the tanks as being abandoned by their company at which time if they want them back they will be charged a storage fee of $10.00 per day for any thing past the date given for pick up.

October of 2013 I cancelled service with Suburban Propane due to poor service. I called and told them to come get their tank. It is now October of 2014 and the Suburban Propane tank is still in my back yard. I called many times to ask them to come get the tank and they always said they would. However, no one every came and got it. Today, I had to get mad when they said they would be out to pick up the tank in November. Told them to come get the damn tank or I would get it moved off my property. What kind of business are they running?

I am paying a bill the was not authorized for delivery, only after they company threaten to put me in collections. I cancelled there service 1 month prior to an unauthorized delivery. Due to there lack of poor business practices, I am forced to pay for a delivery that I did not order. My husband and I where without heat and hot water till the other company could come out and remove their tank. I did not know they where coming to fill the tank the first time after I told them not to. If I hadn't been home they would have filled the tank again. I questioned the driver and he did not know I had discontinued service from them. I feel they have bullied me and my family to pay for something we did not order or else we will ruin your credit. I feel this is deception and out right bullying. I will let everyone I know not to use them.

I had propane delivered on 1 / 25 / 14. At this time we were empty so elden the employee for

Suburban propane came and put 300. 6 gallons in. Then on 2 / 11 / 14 he came without me calling to have another delivery. And he put another 400. 1 gallons in. So within 17 days we had 700. 7 gallons of propane in our tank. On march 16, 2014 we woke up and our furnace wasnt working when we went to check our tank the meter was at 95%. Well full is normally around 80%. So i waited until monday morning to call in to see what they said. Well after elden came out he checked our tank and told me that is was totally empty so he put 100 more gallons in and did his leak test where he quickly found out there was a problem. He decided that it must be leaking under ground because he couldnt find anything at the tank nor inside the house. So he went back to get his utility truck so that he could replace the faulty line. My issue with this company is that if he would have done a leak test the last time he delivered he would have seen that something was wrong before my tank with over $2000. 00 worth of fuel was flowing through my ground outside. So now i have a bill of 1138. 38 due and i have 7% reading on my tank. Im being told that it is my fault that the propane leaked out. I feel like i was robbed i cant heat my home now for almost the rest of the winter with the fuel i had planned on heating my home with. It was not my fault, if i had known me nor all 3 of my small children would have been staying in our home. Ive asked that we be credited for some of this propane and im being told no. They will work with me on payments. I didnt use that fuel and if he had done a leak test he would have found it long before this issue came up.

Do not get your propane from Suburban/Pyrofax in Vermont. They are sneaky and unreliable. They overcharge, jack prices up without notice, fill you up when you didn't ask and forget to come fill you up when you did ask them to. They wouldn't come out and disconnect my broken propane hot water heater, or look to see what was wrong with it unless I paid for that and a fuel delivery upfront, even though I didn't need a fuel delivery at that time. I went with no hot water for over a week. I have a friend in the energy audit business and he has to deal with fuel companies and customers changing their energy in their homes all the time. And he says Suburban is terrible and recommends everyone who has them switch from them, because they are so shady. This spring I will get rid of propane in my home all together. Going to get a pellet stove for heat and electric for cooking. Got the propane hot water switched to electric already. Never going to get *ucked up the *ss by Suburban or any propane company taking advantage again.

Customer service is terrible. This is the third time in three months that we have waited more than five days for delivery of propane. The first two times we were completely out of propane. The delivery man was unaware we were completely out and didn't know he had to do a start up. He also knew nothing about our heater system, nor how to work our digital thermostat. We were told by law they have seven days to deliver. Our tank is now at zero percent and on top of that it is now Saturday and their office is closed. We have never had this problem with Farm and Home Propane company. We are located in Pennsylvania and always speak to someone in New York. We are so furious with this company.

Suburban Propane Company HQ
One Suburban Plaza
240 Route 10 West
P.O. Box 206
Whippany, NJ [protected]

December 10th 2013

Over the course of the past 24 hours myself and my wife have had the single worst customer and technical service experience of our life. Suburban Propane's lack of response, lack of compassion and complete disregard for our family safety will not go unnoticed

Effective this morning based on your insulting approach to:

1) An obvious oversight at the least, or potentially negligence at the worst based on your technicians who had to first be urged followed by supposedly doing a tank leak check and claim to have found nothing

Our initial call to Suburban based on having no gas (although 250 gallons were delivered three weeks prior—obviously indicating the potential for a leak) went out Sunday morning at approx 11:30. We were told we would be contacted with respect to time of delivery. We received a call later that day at approx 2:30 from Bill and Joe who said they were on their way. They never arrived nor did they call back until after our additional call to Suburban again to determine if they were coming. We were debating on whether to leave the home for a hotel. Bill then called back again asking for specific directions to our location? I thought that was odd as they must have GPS AND OUR ADDRESS AS WE HAVE BEEN A CUSTOMER FOR YEARS. He said “yes, we have GPS however we always get lost with it”? I gave them specific directions and informed them (based on what appeared to be two very uncertain delivery people) that if they were not coming to simply tell me so that I could move my family to a hotel. HIS RESPONSE AT THAT POINT WAS “SIR IF YOU DON’T WANT GAS THEN WE WON’T COME OUT”! They then called at 7PM and told us their GPS (the same GPS he had previously explained got them lost) was telling them 27 minutes. At approx 8:30PM we again called Suburban Propane to tell them our situation and to determine where they were. They finally arrived after 9PM. I emphasized to them that a leak check should be done as gas was running out at a very rapid pace. They claimed to install 50 gallons yet gave us no receipt as to the volume of gas installed. As they were leaving I had to tell them to come into my home to check the pilots, gas water heater and fireplaces to be certain that the gas was on and there was no danger!

The very next morning AGAIN we had no gas—no heat! They claim to have put in 50 gallons however they provided us with no receipt with respect to gas volume delivered.

2) An obvious leak in our system, based on a recent delivery of 250 gallons that barely lasted 3 weeks--followed by a delivery of 50 gallons last night that did not last 24 hours!

This in and of itself should have immediately put up red flags. Any concerned company would have sent out techinicIans to test the tank and the property! You then had an obviously unconcerned technician call us last evening (Dec 9th) who said he can’t do anything because “there is no gas in the tank"! Again his demeanor was less than concerned and obviously he was not interested in making the trip to be certain of this customers safety..

3) NO propane --no heat--

All of this adds up to an obviously potentially dangerous situation.

Your lack of response and most importantly lack of concern has us absolutely amazed however the behavior of Mr Nate Rand, your Market Manager in Temple PA has us now feeling completely violated.

The final straw that prompted us to stop our night and begin this process which will not end with this outline. We received a phone call from your Market Manager in Temple, Nate Rand, whose patronizing approach began by telling me that he was the Market Manager in 3 markets. He made no progress to resolve this matter. Opposed to taking steps towards a resolution he decided to place his ego first and began steps of taking control He stated the obvious and agreed that this rapid reduction in gas was obviously a leak. This is something we have been trying to convey since the prior night! He then became increasingly aggressive when I told him the only way to resolve this matter is to have a trained technician come out to diagnose what we all have concluded is a problem! He then took the "I'm in charge here approach" and stated “I’m not sending anyone out, I'll discontinue service, remove you as a client and pull the tank out at your expense—this is what the contract allows us to do"

This approach is what will be clearly conveyed to the consuming public.

You have decimated your own mission statement with this one situation.

"It is the Mission of Suburban Propane to:

Lead the industry in customer satisfaction by offering the highest level of total value

Treat all employees fairly and create a work environment that offers challenge, opportunity and rewards

Maintain the highest level of safety standards for the well-being of our employees, customers and communities"

Additionally your website states:

In addition to the peace of mind of our 24/7/365 emergency service,

Suburban offers you:

• Dependable fuel supply fuel - there when you need it.
• Employees who are trained with your safety being their #1 priority
• Over 80 years of experience.

Your mission statement and claims made on your site are obviously something Mr Rand does not concern himself with.

Failure to resolve this matter immediately will result in filing complaints with the Attorney Generals Office in each state that you operate as well as each and every consumer affairs related website, as well as 6ABC, NBC10 and FOX29. Additionally we believe it is also important that your Builder relationships, who inevtiably convert their own customers into your customers be made aware of this approach towards customer service. Resolving this matter is now not as simple as a leak check and a tank fill. It is imperative that that Suburban Propane assures us that they in no way advocates or accepts this type of behavior.

Sincerely,

K DALEY

Several weeks ago Suburban Propane bought out Garner Gas. We were established gas customers for 28 years when this buyout occurred. We decided against receiving gas service through Suburban and advised as such. Suburban may have bought our account, (which was & has always been PAID IN FULL), from Garner Gas but they did not buy our future business.

The tanks which Suburban assumed as a newly purchased asset from Garner Gas are also their liability. Should Suburban decide to pick up their tanks, they assume liability for any damages caused by the removal. Further, if Suburban does not pick up their tanks, they are considered abandoned property and customers who have not signed a Suburban Propane contract do NOT have any liability for the tanks.

The bills we have received for removal of the tanks are unethical, erroneous and without cause. Suburban was liable for the tank and for the removal of the tank as part of their Garner Gas buyout. We are therefore, not going to pay for any type of service that Suburban assumed as part of its assets or liability through the said buyout.

We NEVER signed any type of contract with Suburban but yet, the company seems to expect their new area customers to conform to their established business practices and accept whatever fees they decide to charge. Services that, I reiterate, were never agreed to via any signed instrument with Suburban.

Sincerely,

Robert R. Matthews, Jr
And Dorothy Matthews
PO Box 723
Angier, NC 27501
[protected]

I purchased a house a few weeks ago that the past owner had used Suburban Propane for there fuel dealer. She had closed her account prior to closing and asked that they remove there tanks. They didn't remove the tanks and after closing I called several times over a 2 week period asking them to get there tanks off my property. Finally after suggesting they pay me a storage fee, they came to get there tanks. We where not at the house when they got there tanks and when we got there we noticed they had stolen all out copper Gas lines that where attached to our house. I spoke to several other local gas companies regarding if this was standard practice and they all agreed that this was not and was in fact theft. I called Suburban who insisted it was there copper line. When I asked for something in there policy that shows that they own it they couldn't supply me with anything. I spoke to other gas dealers who where very clear that all companies including suburban charge customers for these lines if they need to be installed and therefore when we purchased the home - the lines where ours. I have submitted a BBB complaint as well as contemplating filing a police report. I can't imagine how many people this company has ripped off for scrap copper.

I am on Suburban's Budget Payment Plan. Because of the unseasonably warm winters we have had over the past couple of years, I have not needed a propane delivery. On the 18th of January, I did receive a top-up of propane. When I got the bill, I almost crapped my pants! On top of the usual sales tax, municipal tax, and transportation surcharges, I am also being charged a $9.62 Safety Practices and Training Fee, which also has sales and municipal taxes applied. The Safety Practices and Training Fee is charged so that Suburban can recoup the inspection fees for their vehicles and facilities, as well as costs for training their employees and associated testing. So, for a 28.7 gallon tank top-up, I am paying $22.38 in taxes and fees...What a rip-off!