Oil delivered to wrong address

hotshots85

Lilith Miniature Marquee wrote: »

An awful lot of supposition going on. See what they say first.

Don't come in here with your reasonable statements ruining the internet for the rest of us.

slave1

Not nice but I remember the opposite of this a few years back, mate moved into a new estate and came home one day and his side gate was open (no lock), he could see activity around the tank and checked it and it was full to the brim.
He went down to the hardware store and bought a lock and locked his gate and that was the end of it.

selous

I remember years ago a similar thing happening, but this guy was cutting back trees and hedging, he asks me is this "Smiths"? nope I said, that them across the road,
he says directions were last house on left in cul-de-sac.
I said yep, that's right,they are (your other left)
He had started cutting already and having a bite to eat,
He had turned around at the bottom of cul-de-sac and started work on his left, (which was his right driving in)

Maybe something similar happened there.

The_Honeybadger

OmegaGene wrote: »

Any update op ?

No didn’t hear anything today he did say it would depend on the other fella being available will give it another day or so and if I don’t hear from them I’ll give him a ring

holly8

Poll Dubh wrote: »

Small claims court is another avenue.

Find out if truck has GPS tracker.

and it should

gozunda

slave1 wrote: »

Not nice but I remember the opposite of this a few years back, mate moved into a new estate and came home one day and his side gate was open (no lock), he could see activity around the tank and checked it and it was full to the brim.
He went down to the hardware store and bought a lock and locked his gate and that was the end of it.

They broke in and filled his tank? :eek:

Duffryman

gozunda wrote: »

They broke in and filled his tank? :eek:

I took that (no lock) bit to mean that he didn't have a lock on his gate anyway, and so they were able to enter freely to fill the tank. I don't think it means that they broke a lock off so that there was then no lock on the gate when the guy got home, after he had one there earlier.

Seth Brundle

I'd be curious to know if the person who received the OP's oil uses the same type and what would the impact be.
OP mentions "heating oil" whereas most people use Kero.
Can you mix the two without any issue?

argolis

Sorry for the long post. TLDR; oil delivery driver possibly attempted scam on workmate, workmate has evidence, driver sh1ts himself and then delivers the rest of the oil.

A workmate (WM) of mine had a weird experience with a delivery two years ago. The driver was to delivery 500L. When he was done, he had a docket and everything for WM to sign but WM wouldn't sign it because he could see the tank level wasn't anywhere near where it should be.

The guy got really shirty and asked him how would he even know, etc. WM had just moved into this new house and knew that the tank capacity was 950L and it was totally empty, so he was expecting the oil level to be visibly over the halfway mark after the delivery, which it wasn't.

Also fortunately for WM, he likes to tinker and build things, and he had recently made his own oil level monitoring system with a laser proximity measure and a WiFi module that constantly pings the oil level back to his computer in his garden cabin office. That told him that the oil tank was less than 40% full.

So he showed the delivery guy the graph for the day on the computer, and how much was in the tank. The guy went white and got really nervous when he saw it and said he'd check the truck. WM says he spent at least twenty minutes at the truck spitting out dockets and messing with whatever system is on the truck.

Eventually he came back in to WM and apologised saying that in fact only 375L had been delivered, not 500L, as the "machine wasn't calibrated right" or some BS.

It could have been an honest mistake but we were certain there was a scam going and couldn't figure it out for sure. WM had no interest in pursuing it with the oil company (a well known name) and just left it be. Apparently it's really difficult to come back to the oil companies after they've driven away. They argue people are clueless, or they've used up the oil since delivery, or they're trying it on (which I'm sure happens), etc.

I've often wondered is there a scam here - especially with prepaid deliveries where the customer isn't even there - where the driver delivers 125L to themselves/their mate first, drives to your place to put 375L in, then does a docket up for 500L. There's enough oil in the tank now that they can argue with you and say you're trying it on. Maybe someone who knows better can contradict this but it was so suss...

NUTLEY BOY

Basically, it falls to OP to prove that there was no delivery.
The standard of proof is the balance of probabilities.
OP's main basis of claim is non-performance of a contract.

I assume that this would fall within the scope of the Small Claims Court as OP was a consumer dealing with the supplier in the course of business.

Here is a link to the Courts.ie homepage on Small Claims procedure http://www.courts.ie/Courts.ie/Library3.nsf/0/A9C6E93D70127EF38025810D0034EAD6?opendocument&l=en

Hopefully, OP will not have to resort to litigation. For practical purposes I would in future use a stick [bamboo] to dip or "sound" the tank before ordering.

bullethead

Hi.. Has the op asked the oil company if the oil truck is fitted with a vehicle tracking device? ,most companies have these fitted to their trucks. This would easily prove if truck delivered to the correct address

Seth Brundle

bullethead wrote: »

Hi.. Has the op asked the oil company if the oil truck is fitted with a vehicle tracking device? ,most companies have these fitted to their trucks. This would easily prove if truck delivered to the correct address

It would prove that the vehicle was at the address, not that he delivered oil to it.
(a minor difference)

Spook_ie

It would only prove they were in the right cul de sac. The truck hose could probably reach several tanks from a single parked position.

theguzman

Reasons like this and theft of oil are why a friend of mine went for FloGas LPG in his new house. He lives in a rural location and will be working abroad for a few months each year so you could nearly guarantee his Oil would be stolen.

EdgeCase

Is LPG not drastically more expensive ?

theguzman

EdgeCase wrote: »

Is LPG not drastically more expensive ?

1,000 litres of Kerosene stolen is far more expensive, any attempt to steal LPG will lead to a Mushroom cloud similar to Nagasaki.

Mike3549

NUTLEY BOY wrote: »

Basically, it falls to OP to prove that there was no delivery.
The standard of proof is the balance of probabilities.

Ehm no.
The oil company must provide a POD.
Op just call them and say that you gonna do a chargeback if they dont get this sorted.
This is straight forward case, no proof, signature or del docket, youll get you money back quickly.

Source: had to do chargebacks from companies going bust, non-delivery and other faults. Also was on the other side where we had to supply proof of delivery to card companies etc

The_Honeybadger

The supplier delivered the missing oil today when I was at work there was a docket in the letterbox so problem solved. I will continue to use this company I thought the owner was very friendly and helpful when he called and he followed up as promised.

3DataModem

The_Honeybadger wrote: »

Just to clarify I have already paid for the oil by Debit card so no going back. .

You can do a chargeback on a debit card.

Johnny Red Cab

The_Honeybadger wrote: »

The supplier delivered the missing oil today when I was at work there was a docket in the letterbox so problem solved. I will continue to use this company I thought the owner was very friendly and helpful when he called and he followed up as promised.

Well done on sticking to your guns.

my3cents

We all love a happy ending

theguzman

my3cents wrote: »

We all love a happy ending

Yes Handsome Man. :D

LionelNashe

What?! 119 posts and we're not going to find out where the missing oil went! This is so disappointing. It's like the last season of Lost.

theguzman

theguzman wrote: »

Yes Handsome Man. :D

Who’s a Handsome Man ........my3cents ??
I’m intrigued

_Brian

Few years ago I heard a truck outside and it was neighbors getting oil.

After a few minutes the driver rang my door and asked isn’t this x house next door they said they’d be there but the house is empty. Completely wrong house, driver was like Usane Bolt running to shut off the truck but I’d recon he’d left it on long enough. I asked my neighbor about it and he said there was never a word, thinks he got near half tank for free !!
Mistakes happen.

tuxy

You would think of the oil companies would insist on someone answering the door or padlock on tank with key in known location. Or even something marked on the tank so they know it's the right one. Doesn't have to be anything complicated, just something to reduce the chance of mistakes.

Do they use Eircodes? Even that would help.

kippy

The_Honeybadger wrote: »

The supplier delivered the missing oil today when I was at work there was a docket in the letterbox so problem solved. I will continue to use this company I thought the owner was very friendly and helpful when he called and he followed up as promised.

Great stuff and the sign of a good company. Mistakes happen. The cause and fix are ultimate ly the companies problem and at least they OP is not involved in that side of it.

kippy

tuxy wrote: »

You would think of the oil companies would insist on someone answering the door or padlock on tank with key in known location. Or even something marked on the tank so they know it's the right one. Doesn't have to be anything complicated, just something to reduce the chance of mistakes.

Do they use Eircodes? Even that would help.

As I think I said earlier I've often wondered how this issue isn't more common. There is a great deal of trust involved. I am sure relying on someone to be homes doesn't suit the customer or the merchant however.
But yes, even the use of eircodes could tighten up on some of it.

theguzman

I know of a driver who was fired for stealing oil for himself and tipping off his buddy oil thief where there was full tanks to drain. Not as uncommon as you'd think.

tuxy

Something as simple as a barcode or RFID on the tank would work too.

theguzman wrote: »

I know of a driver who was fired for stealing oil for himself and tipping off his buddy oil thief where there was full tanks to drain. Not as uncommon as you'd think.

Stopping thieves is a much more difficult issue but I think there are some easy steps that could be done to rule out honest mistakes.