Oil company delivered to wrong address

BirdonaBudget

Hi! So basically my problem is that myself and my mum ordered 800L of home heating oil which was to be split 400L each between our two houses (we live next door to each other). It was delivered today and they put all of the oil into her tank and none in mine. When we phoned them they said they did receive our note stating that the delivery was to be split but that there had been a problem with their printer and it hadn't printed out the note for the driver on the delivery docket. They proceeded to start to give us a price to buy another 400l of oil. My mum told them we do not have another £400 to spend, she is on a low income and I am a single parent, we had to borrow just to be able to afford this amount and it is just not possible for us to buy more oil. This is our oil for the whole winter. The oil company said they had no way of getting the oil back out of my mum's tank and suggested that we syphon it out and transfer it ourselves. 

Surely they can't just deliver my oil to the wrong address and expect me to pay for another delivery or rectify the mistake myself?

Does anyone have any experience of this happening or know what I should do in this case? 

Thanks! 

eskbanker

I think I'd approach it in the same way as if they'd delivered 400l to your mum and none to you, i.e. alert them to the fact that the order hasn't been completed, and make it their problem rather than yours.  Do the supplier's Ts & Cs make any reference to how mistakes should be resolved?

Was there some sort of volume discount that led you to combine the orders together rather than placing two separate ones?

pinkshoes

Firstly, why didn't you order 400L of oil each to your own property?

Have you split an order before?

Although you have planned to split the order, in essence you have ordered 800L of oil on ONE account, so I'm assuming this was your mum's account hence they delivered the 800L of oil to her? So they have not actually delivered to the wrong address nor the wrong amount.

Were you not there when the oil tanker arrived to speak to them and make sure it was split between the two tanks given it was ordered on one account?

Aylesbury_Duck

I agree with the others.  If you had placed two orders, they'd have to worry about how to deal with the over-supply to the house next door.  That doesn't help you now, though.

If they have no way of extracting the excess oil, how do they expect you to do it?

From a consumer rights perspective, you need to look at your contract.  If 800L of oil was ordered on your mother's account, then unless the contract explicitly states it has to be split between two tanks, they've fulfilled their contract.

Unfortunately, the pragmatic solution to this might be to borrow more money to buy your own oil, and pay it off with the money your mother would ordinarily have paid when what should have been just 400L ran out.

TELLIT01

As has been asked, the question is - was this order for 800 litres with one address on the order and a request for it to be split between 2 addresses, or was it an order for 2 x 400 litres and separate addresses for delivery.

I've never been involved with oil usage but is there a drain on the tank now holding the 800 litres?  If so is it possible for the OP to transfer 400 litres manually, using 10 litre containers.  It will take quite a while but may be the only solution available to them.

user1977

I would suggest to them that if they want your continued custom, they supply the missing 400 litres now, and you'll pay for it whenever you'd normally expect to have your next delivery.

Or if syphoning is actually feasible, they come round and sort it out for you.

Bradden

user1977 said:

I would suggest to them that if they want your continued custom, they supply the missing 400 litres now, and you'll pay for it whenever you'd normally expect to have your next delivery.

Or if syphoning is actually feasible, they come round and sort it out for you.

It's not missing... it's in the wrong tank as @t@TELLIT01 said.. "As has been asked, the question is - was this order for 800 litres with one address on the order and a request for it to be split between 2 addresses, or was it an order for 2 x 400 litres and separate addresses for delivery"

Rodders53

Kerosene is nasty smelly oily stuff.

Most Oftec boiler service technicians will have access to a pump system that can transfer Kerosene from a tank into another container or nearby tank.  When we had water in our tank that's what our guys did (with assistance of another firm) into 200/205 litre steel oil drums, and eventually back into a new bunded tank (leaving any water behind for safe disposal).

It'll cost in their time to do it and it won't be possible to accurately measure the volume transferred.

Minimum legal delivery of Kerosene in most of UK (N I seems an exception) is 500 litres;  so I'm surprised the Co agreed to split the Order in the first place. 

MattMattMattUK

Rodders53 said:

Kerosene is nasty smelly oily stuff.

Most Oftec boiler service technicians will have access to a pump system that can transfer Kerosene from a tank into another container or nearby tank.  When we had water in our tank that's what our guys did (with assistance of another firm) into 200/205 litre steel oil drums, and eventually back into a new bunded tank (leaving any water behind for safe disposal).

It'll cost in their time to do it and it won't be possible to accurately measure the volume transferred.

Minimum legal delivery of Kerosene in most of UK (N I seems an exception) is 500 litres;  so I'm surprised the Co agreed to split the Order in the first place. 

I suspect that they did not, but that there was a notes/comment section, rather than an official split delivery. 

user1977

Bradden said:

user1977 said:

I would suggest to them that if they want your continued custom, they supply the missing 400 litres now, and you'll pay for it whenever you'd normally expect to have your next delivery.

Or if syphoning is actually feasible, they come round and sort it out for you.

It's not missing... it's in the wrong tank as @t@TELLIT01 said.. "As has been asked, the question is - was this order for 800 litres with one address on the order and a request for it to be split between 2 addresses, or was it an order for 2 x 400 litres and separate addresses for delivery"

It's missing from the tank to which it was contracted to be delivered.

Bradden

user1977 said:

Bradden said:

user1977 said:

I would suggest to them that if they want your continued custom, they supply the missing 400 litres now, and you'll pay for it whenever you'd normally expect to have your next delivery.

Or if syphoning is actually feasible, they come round and sort it out for you.

It's not missing... it's in the wrong tank as @t@TELLIT01 said.. "As has been asked, the question is - was this order for 800 litres with one address on the order and a request for it to be split between 2 addresses, or was it an order for 2 x 400 litres and separate addresses for delivery"

It's missing from the tank to which it was contracted to be delivered.

That may be true... we won't know until @BirdonaBudget comes back and confirms what the order was for which is why I referred to the question @TELLIT01 asked.