Ultramar customers struggle to get their oil

Company cites weather, demand

For 30 years, West Island resident Denise Williams has had heating oil delivered to her home by Ultramar. She’s never had a problem, she said. Until this week.

Williams gets automatic deliveries from the fuel company, but on Sunday, that delivery never came. So she called the company. “Every day they were giving me the runaround. Sunday, they said, ‘Oh maybe Monday.’ Monday they said 48 hours, so that was Wednesday. Wednesday, I didn’t get it. I called again and they said, ‘Oh, we don’t know.’ ”

Every time she called, Williams said, she had to wait for between 30 and 45 minutes.

On Wednesday, Williams said she was told that only emergency deliveries were being done and that because she has a heat pump, her situation wasn’t an emergency.

“So I called Thursday, and I said, ‘Listen, it’s getting cold on the weekend. My pump won’t work. I need oil,’ ” she said. “Same runaround.”

On Friday morning she said the customer representative she spoke to told her she still wasn’t on the list to receive a delivery on Saturday, so she asked if she should find another company to deliver her heating oil.

“He said, ‘I would encourage you to,’ ” she said.

Williams said her heat pump won’t work if the temperature drops below -12 C. Environment Canada is forecasting an overnight low of -22 C Saturday night. On Sunday, temperatures are expected to be between -17 and -22 degrees.

“It’s a disaster with Ultramar,” Williams said.

Williams isn’t the only Ultramar customer who has had delayed deliveries. One Sherbrooke resident who contacted The Gazette said she’s been having trouble with deliveries since December.

Pierre Tessier, a spokesperson for Ultramar, said the situation is now back to normal.

“Since last night, the delivery operations are running normally. The call centre is also operating normally and none of our clients are running dry,” he said.

Tessier said the issues were caused by a confluence of factors, unrelated to the supply of fuel.

“As you know, the past few weeks have been very cold and that, of course, caused higher demand for heating oil,” he said. “Combined with the fact that we also have several snow storms, that really complicated the delivery.”

Delivery truck drivers also have legal limits on the length of time they can work, Tessier said.

“All that combined really affected some deliveries, especially in the West Island,” he said.

“What we also see, some people are worried and they’re calling saying they’re empty and they don’t have any oil but when we arrive there, sometimes, they have half a tank or just under half a tank,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure we deliver on time.”

Tessier said the company has increased the number of drivers on the road. However, he said he doesn’t know why Ultramar customers appear to be making more complaints than customers of other distributors.

While all recent complaints received by The Gazette were about Ultramar, one of the province’s largest heating-oil distributors, others are not having an easy time.

The Association des distributeurs d’énergie du Québec, which represents heating oil distributors, said all of its members are at capacity.

Listen, it’s getting cold on the weekend. My pump won’t work. I need oil.