I've never left a bad review for any company. And I've been as patient as I possibly can. Until I wasn't.
Suburban Propane is abysmal in most ways other than a few nice service techs
Our relationship started off okay. They delivered the tanks and came soon after to fill them. Within a few days we smelled propane outside. I didn't overreact. I called my heating guy and we agreed that it was probably due to being super cold and new. The smell dissipated. Almost three weeks later, we had no heat. Our heat guy came and realized there was only 10% fuel in the tanks and it was very cold. He explained that this is not a good combination for our Viessmann boiler. Suburban had us on autofill and were not supposed to let it go below 20%. I called for fuel and, at the time truly considered it an emergency since we had no heat. They promised to call immediately and put an emergency delivery on. One day...nothing. Two days...nothing. On the third day - and after I called a minimum of 10 times - they came back to fill our tanks. I literally had to heat with wood so the pipes wouldn't freeze...but forget about a hot shower. Suburban blamed the boiler. The Viessmann rep disagreed.
After the fill, we really questioned why we had burned so much fuel in less than 30 days. Fun fact, the Viessmann actually tells you how much you burn and when. So we pulled the report and quickly learned that we didn't actually use all of the propane. Therefore, there definitely was some kind of leak. I shared that with Suburban and was told "there's never been a leak". My guess is that there was a leak and the tech fixed it and didn't share. There's no other explanation for the huge volume of propane "missing".
It gets better. Over the next 2-3 weeks, we lost heat nearly 8 times. Always when it was very cold and in the wee hours of the morning. We woke up to an ice cold house and no hot water. I continued to call our heat guy who studied the failure codes and trouble shot. Eventually the system came back on. Recently, it happened again. He checked the tanks and realized the regulator was frozen. He put warm water on it and the heat kicked on immediately. AND the error code on the boiler was exactly the same as it had been. Appeared that we had a bad regulator.
I called Suburban. Mind you...we were entering into what everyone is referring to as an arctic front over the next several days. Two techs came over and looked at the system onside (said it all looked great) and then the tanks and regulator. Corey acknowledged that we needed a new regulator. He promised me he would come back around 5 and install it. Again...we're going into sub zero temps. Much to my surprise (not), Corey didn't show. Nobody called. When I called service at 8 pm I was told they'd look into it. I was absolutely fuming. Again. Bad regulator. No heat. Nobody cares. They suggested I go out periodically and put a nice warm washcloth on the regulator. Hello???
A very nice woman called and apologized. The ONLY time anyone in management has taken accountability. She assured me that Corey got called to another emergency. Somebody didn't have hear. Um.....hello!! Me too. She told me she would make sure it was taken care of in the morning.
Guess what? No call. No message. Nothing. At 11:30 I lost my mind and caller again. Nice kid named Andrew answered. I told him I realized this wasn't his fault but I was absolutely pissed. He agreed and told me to hold for a minute. Then Sue got on the phone. In my opinion she will be the demise of this company. She had told me earlier that "regulators freeze. We live in Maine. So you just need to deal with it". I've had propane my entire adult life living in Maine and it's never happened. This conversation with Sue was just as unproductive. I started going through everything they have failed including the lack of service and communication. She asked me to not raise my voice (clearly the wrong person the job give their horrible service record and reviews....cause you have to look hard to find one happy customer - maybe Sue's mom??)
I explained that I was at the end of my rope, and I was absolutely sick of their lack of service and attention. And I also said "and now you want me to put a fucking washcloth on my regulator in the middle of the night." well little Miss Sue doesn't like swearing apparently. I wonder who works with all the contractors.? in reality she just doesn't like me because I demand service and explanation. And when they don't call me back, I call them over and over and over. She doesn't like that. She likes providing an answer and and then wants you to go away. She hung up on me. That's fine. It's her prerogative. She then called me back and said I talked to Webber and we have decided this relationship isn't going to work so you have 30 days before we come and take our tanks. That was slightly entertaining, cause I already have a new service lined up in two weeks. read more