Pocono News Section

I-Team: Heating Oil Company Doesn't Deliver For Customer

I-Team: Heating Oil Company Doesn't Deliver For Customer - Monday, February 15, 2010 at 6:17PM EST

Reported by: Jeff Chirico
Monday, Feb 15, 2010 @ 06:17pm EST
TAMAQUA, SCHUYLKILL COUNTY --Tonight, the I-Team is investigating a Schuylkill County heating oil company. At least one customer says he didn't get the fuel he paid for. Consumer investigator Jeff Chirico is live in our control center with a story you'll only see on Eyewitness News.

STS Discount Oil is based in Tamaqua. It accepts prepayment for heating oil. But one customer says he shouldn't have prepaid --because he's still waiting for his oil --he paid for 19 months ago!

“I believed him so many times, I have a tough time believing anything about him," says Joe Weicicoskie of Middleport, Schuylkill County. He has been waiting for this truck to deliver the heating oil he says he paid for. Instead --it's sitting at the STS Discount Oil office in Tamaqua. “I kept calling him. Kept saying I'm bringing it. I'm bringing it."

Joe prepaid a nearly 28 hundred dollar contract when oil prices stood at four bucks a gallon. A year and a half later, he says STS still owes him almost four hundred dollars worth of oil. “It ain't the end of the world. I realize that. It's the way he's doing it. It's deception. That's all it is. Deception."

Joe has a ruling in his favor by the local magistrate. Still, he says the company owner, Scott Steffy hasn't paid up. He also hasn't responded to Joe's complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Joe says he knows there are other people in Schuylkill and Carbon counties who have problems with STS Discount Oil. In fact the company has an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau.

No one answered the door at the oil company office. Our phone calls went unanswered. But the outgoing message on the answering machine seems to acknowledge some problems. It says “we are a little behind because of inclement weather. We've been having problems getting all our messages off the machine. That’s been causing a lot of problems.”

Chirico asks Joe, "his voicemail says he was having problems getting messages from his voicemail. Do you believe him? No. I don't believe anything he says anymore."

If you have had a problem with STS Discount Oil, please contact Jeff Chirico at jchirico@pahomepage. com.