Heating oil service call. Tenant is upset .

[Matthew Paul]

I was working for a friend of mine this week running service calls repairing oil furnaces .  I go to service a rental , landlord called because tenant had no heat . The first thing I do is dip the tank , its empty .  I talk to the tenant and tell them they need to order heating oil , the furnace doesnt work with out oil . She is livid , tells me that she cant be out of oil she got 100 gallons at  christmas .  Ok well thats a month ago and its been cold , you are out of oil , I even show her on the dip stick.   The landlord shows up while I am there , I hand him the bill , $ 175.00  ( trip charge and 1/2 hour)   he hands me a check . As I am leaving I hear her screaming that she isnt going to pay , its not her fault that she ran out of oil .  Well I am dreading going back , in the morning after oil is delivered to bleed out the system . Because not only will there be the first service call of $175.00 plus $285.00 for 100 gallons of oil , there will be another trip charge plus time to bleed the furnace and probably have to thaw the lines and replace the filter and nozzle . ( its a bottom feed 1 line so condensation and crud usually gets in the line. )  This will cost total about $ 650.00 all done.  All the tenants responsibility . 

This is why I switched my 2 oil heated units to electric baseboard .