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Service Calls

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What do you expect when you need service on your heating system?

It's the middle of the night in the middle of winter and you wake up to a freezing house, your first thought maybe "why isn't the heat on". So you check the thermostat, it reads that the temperature is much below what you set it at. Your next step is head downstairs and check the heating system. Come to find out it isn't running, what do you do?

First check a few things. Does your tank have oil it? When the temperature drops you may begin to burn more fuel than you anticipated and a run out may be the culprit. Many full service companies will be able to deliver an emergency amount of fuel to get you through the night until a more substantial amount of fuel can be delivered. Has your emergency on/off switch been flipped for some reason? This can usually be found heading down to your basement or around the heating system itself. You can also hit the burner reset button once and only once. If any of these don't fix the issue it may mean that you'll need to call your heating company for service.

Now back to original issue, nothing seems to be working or you are in fact out of oil and need to call in a service tech to fix your heating system.  Your first thought will probably be, I'll call the company I got my last delivery from. If you're a customer of a full service company than more than likely you'll have to wait an hour or so as you're probably aren't the only home experiencing issues. If you are a customer of pseudo-full service company, a company that has more than a few trucks but might not staff their own service department or may only have a few guys. You could be looking at several hours or days before you get any service done. If you shop around and use a COD company there is a very good chance that you won't get any service from them at all. 

 Most COD companies don't have a service department at all, meaning that you'll have to call around to other companies that do have service departments.  I may be making it sound that if your buy from COD company X you could get service from full service or pseudo-full service X just with a simple call.  That isn't always going to be the case, as full service companies have their own customers who may be experiencing the same problems as you are, it is their obligation to their customers to service them first and in some cases exclusively.  Now that isn't to say you can't find a company to service your heating system, but on a cold winter night with the wind and brutal cold wouldn't it be nice to know you're with a company that can service you 24/7.

 The difference on average between a COD company and a full service company's delivery maybe be $40-$60 per delivery. The difference between a service call with a full service company that can prevent frozen pipes could be in the thousands of dollars.  When you are looking for an oil company and skip right to the price of oil, you aren't taking everything in consideration and could pay more in the longer run.

 Robert Stahelski

 ckSmithSuperior Santoro Oil 
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