Irving Oil under fire for not offering full refunds on overbilling
Another Irving Oil Ltd. customer has come forward complaining the company is refusing to fully refund amounts it overcharged for heating oil.
Joan Shaw, a 68-year-old potter from Fredericton, who says she's been an Irving Oil customer for 43 years, discovered she had been charged more than New Brunswick's legal maximum price for heating oil on 15 deliveries after hearing about similar experiences of other customers.
"I just took each file out, each year, and went down through my oil deliveries," said Shaw, who says she still has every bill she's ever gotten from the company.
"We're not talking a lot of money here. It's kind of the principle of the thing, I guess, that I'm concerned about."
Shaw says the excess charges added up to $288, and although Irving Oil did confirm her accounting of 15 overcharges, it eventually only refunded the largest one — a $110.32 overbilling from February.
She said when she asked about the other 14 bills, a company executive explained to her that discounts Irving Oil had given her in previous years more than made up for the other excess charges.
"I didn't feel that was relevant to the issue," said Shaw. "My issue was the number of times I was overcharged. He just stressed that, 'You know, we saved you over $700.' I think that's a really unfair way of dealing with it."
Irving Oil officials could not immediately be reached to comment on Shaw's case, but spokeswoman Samantha Robinson has previously said she can't discuss individual customer issues.
Robinson insisted, however, the company is fulfilling its commitment to fully reimburse anyone who has been overcharged.
Shaw says she decided to come forward after reading of similar problems a Saint John family has been having getting excess charges refunded.
Earlier this week, Corey Duke said his grandmother Eileen Fudge, who was charged nearly $550 too much for heating oil over the course of 27 deliveries stretching back to 2007, was offered a refund of only $178.20 and a $20 Irving Oil gift card.
"That really shocked me," said Shaw. "I really feel I'm going to pursue it further with the [Energy and Utilities Board] and Irving."
Irving Oil's heating oil billing practices are currently under investigation by Energy and Utilities Board (EUB).
The investigation stemmed from a CBC News report in March about Irving Oil charging Fredericton librarian Joanne Smyth and her husband nearly $700 above maximum prices for heating oil, stretching back several years.
The EUB is charged with enforcing provincial petroleum pricing laws, which set maximum legal prices for gasoline, diesel, heating oil and propane weekly.
