“Placed my 1st order 23rd Nov for delivery on or before 1st Dec. Seen 24th Nov I’d been overcharged by £40 on my card. Phoned same day. Had to go through it all on the phone while listening to the person typing up the complaint. Had email 28th Nov to say my query was resolved? No idea what or how they’d resolved it. Had to go on to online chat after queuing. Then told a credit was going on to my account. Had to ask for the refund as I didn’t want a credit note. Told it was being done and would be on my card in 3-5 days. One week later, still no refund!!!
No sign of oil delivery by 1st dec. had to go on online chat again 2nd dec and wait in line again. Was then told my delivery was out that day and should be with me any time. Surprise surprise, it never turned up. So far I’m £469 down. Almost 2 weeks with no oil and no sign of the refund for the over charge. If this isn’t resolved today and my order isn’t received, I will be filing a claim with my credit card company for the full amount (the overcharge and the the charge for the oil which has failed to be delivered) terrible service for a 1st time customer.”
“Did not deliver when stated, do not answer the phone, and when finally came they carried out first a safety inspection of the route to the tank and the tank it's self then declared the tank cracked and refused to deliver until I had it replaced. My boiler inspector came and had a look and reports it's a small scratch, not of any concern. I'm now low on oil and having to make an emergency order from another company. The Certas delivery driver also arrives and puts on a white hard hat, safety glasses, and florescent coat, how is anything in a standard English open garden in requirement of such over the top safety equipment. Useless company, unreliable, keep clear. Totally engrossed in health and safety at the cost of providing any sort of reliable service. If you want to use them, be prepared to be let down.
If you're using one of the online comparison / oil supply sites such as Boilerjuice, The Heating Oil Club, Fuel Fighter, or Chepest Oil to name a few, you can call them and have Certas removed from the list of suppliers, I highly recommend you do this. I’ll also add here if you are thinking of using the sites homefuelsdirect or heatingoil this is also Certas, again avoid.”
“Infuriating and frustrating experience with this company. I arrived home on 26th October, having been promised an oil delivery by 21st, only to find a note through my letterbox saying oil had not been delivered and I was an “unsafe stop – no delivery until issue rectified”. The tank condition was ticked on the check list and there was a note under “description of defect” saying “spilt tank in a few paces”. ( I took this to mean “split” not “spilt”) New tank needed for further deliveries. Photos taken.”
I inspected the tank, together with a carpenter and stonemason who were working at my house. None of us could see the slightest damage, split or anything remotely resembling damage or deterioration. The tank looked exactly the same as it had during the 6 years Certas has been regularly delivering to me. I called the 0345 number listed in the accompanying wallet that came through the door. I explained and asked the person who took the call to tell me what he saw in the photos, as this was a complete mystery. He looked at the many(apparently) photos and said he couldn’t actually see very much as they were so blurred, there was nothing allowing him to identify that it was my oil tank, but that there was one photo showing a scratch, but up very close, so it could have been anywhere on any oil tank. There are absolutely no scratches on my oil tank! I asked him to forward the pictures to me so I could see what they showed, but was told he could not but would have head office call me back to get to the bottom of this with me. This would be immediately as it was an emergency issue.
Needless to say no phone call was forthcoming, and I phoned again only to be given the same assurance that the appropriate team would contact me and discuss the situation. Still waiting for their contact attempt!
I will not be ordering from this company again. In the meantime I have sent in my own photos of my oil tank and I fully expect that they will go straight in the digital bin. After all why complicate matters with the truth?
This is completely unacceptable. Apparently a tanker driver can report a fault which is disputed, is unsubstantiated by reliable evidence, only by unidentifiable photos which are kept secret so they cannot be contested in an open environment. Then on this spurious basis a red flag can be put on an oil tank so that oil cannot be delivered.”
“The worst company I have ever dealt with. Didn’t turn up for delivery. Don’t know when they may delivery as they say No drivers which I don’t believe. Taken over 9 days for a phone call despite me ringing numerous times. Won’t supply complaint policy. Priority delivery now but that’s supposed to be within 3 days. So far 4 days but already know it’s not coming tomorrow. Offered £50 good will gesture, said what’s the point when I would ever order again from them. They don’t know if they can order within a month. DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM. ABSOLUTE JOKE. THEY DONT EVEN KNOW if there is a governing party. Fell sorry for receptionists as they get the frustration from clients. Never ever again”
“Have been with this company for years
Our local branch do not answer the phone
Continual answer phone on hold
Pathetic service has gone to the dogs
Tried for 3 hours today to order heating oil”
“Dreadful service. I spent 1 hour and 20 mins on the phone and no one answered at all! I wanted to get a price and place an order. I see many others have had bad experiences aswell.”
“Absolute SCAM company avoid at all cost, they now hide behind the name Homefuels Direct who they recently bought out. The driver from Certas arrived outside of the advised time slot and left my property gates wide open so that my tank was in full view of the passing traffic whilst no one was at home amazingly the oil wasn’t stollen but that was probably because there wasn’t enough in the tank the driver had refused to deliver the oil as he classed my tank as an unsafe installation, I contacted the company and informed them the tank had only just received its annual inspection by a OFTEC registered engineer who said it was fine, I contacted the engineer and they kindly checked it again free of charge and have confirmed in writing the installation is safe, all of this has been communicated to the company and they won’t budge and have said there driver is an expert even though they have confirmed the driver is not a OFTEC registered engineer so how they think the drivers technical knowledge can exceed that of my registered engineer astounds me. I have asked for my money back which is nearly £900 and after two weeks I still don’t have it back to enable me to buy fuel elsewhere. Absolutely shocking company I honestly believe they are operating as a scam, avoid at all costs”
“3 days of phone calls, emails and not one person can respond. How can a company be run like this? Quick enough to take your money not there when their assistance is required. I’ve been with them for many years but my account will now be closed and direct debit cancelled.”
“They have just increased my monthly payment by almost 400% yes 400% without having the decency to inform me , now i know my usage has not gone up by 400% and their fuel certainly hasn't yet all i can get out of them is "we can legally take what we want" ! , needless to say they will not be taking another penny from me as i have cancelled my DD and had them refund me the credit on my account.
Stay well clear is my advise and that's coming fro a customer of over 20 years.”
“Where do I start good company to work for but management is terrible My husband needed holidays as We have 2 young children and We needed holidays when the children are off school He was told point blank no, even though he is the only employee with young children so sad he had to go higher up to get them,
Hours are bad working from 6 in the morning till sometimes 5.6.7 o’clock at night no good when you have a young family with 2 parents working”
“Wanted to get a price and place an order. No one answers the phone, goes through to answerphone and no one rings you back. Dreadful service. I shall simply go elsewhere.”
“Been a loyal and timely payer for commercial fuel for decades with two of the companies they have taken over but this time I’ve been trying to get some sense and a delivery for well over 5000 litres and the salesmen do not answer their phone and when they do I am fobbed off. There is something very wrong with Certas in April 2022 and I suspect that they may be unable to obtain fuel that other reputable companies have no issue with. Ordered with another company today. Delivery tomorrow. No going back.”
“Absolutely awful company to deal with, slow with deliveries, despite being a loyal customer of 22 years, and supposedly being on their auto top up service, and always the most expensive in the market place. Only positive is that the drivers are a decent team!!”
“I was with Owen fuels who gave excellent service until it all went downhill with Certas. I ordered oil 15 th of March and it has failed to reach me. Apparabtly they put me on “automatic stop” generated by a computer despite the fact I pay by direct debit and have never missed a payment but didn’t feel the need to let me know. I rang and was immediately taken off stop and yet had to wait a further two weeks for oil with no heating g as by now I was totally without oil and yet again the same thing happened. I requested to speak to a manager who failed to get back to me and there is no e mail address to raise a complaint! I have been with them for many years and yet will definitely look elsewhere. They are a rude arrogant company who fail to communicate in house as well and more importantly to their customers !!!!!. .”
“Terrible service
90 year old mother on their "Priority" list now without oil, due to them cancelling 2 orders without telling us.
They don't ring you back, answer your emails and lie on the phone.
do not touch CERTUS ENERGY”
“I ordered oil through valueoils on the 15th Feb was told Certas would deliver on the 8th March ‘ driver turned up but no oil delivered ! when I managed to contact someone they told me
that my tank was unsafe and they had pictures to prove it 🤷♀️
Well call me a pessimist but how convenient when the price of oil has gone through the roof . Still waiting for a refund oh and the pictures 😂 ordered through boilerjuice and swallowed the price difference ( £161 ) nice driver came from Western Fuel no problems’ did say he wasn’t surprised at Certas attitude as they were a lousy company and were known for it ‘as all these terrible reviews can testify to ! Unfortunately I shan’t be using valueoils again unless of course they block Certas from quoting .
Appalling service from Certas DO NOT USE there are other much
better company’s out there who give proper customer service .”
“Been a business customer from 2014 with Total Butler then Certas when they bought them out, made a order just before the prices went up which they cancelled saying my account could not be opened, Then promptly took a new order at the current market price with the same account. (Very disappointed at the underhand tactic and wished I had ordered from a another supplier as I would have had the oil at the original price)”
“Literally the worst oil service in my 20+ years of deliveries. We had a delivery of oil, and the incredibly rude driver stated that our tank didn’t meet regulations. Absolutely no idea where that came from, as Certas have many deliveries to our home with no issues since our tank was upgraded several years ago. My mother went into the house to retrieve the certificate showing our OFTEC compliance, but before she could return (about 2 minutes), the driver drove off. I literally ran down our street to try and show the driver the required documents, only for him to ignore them and simply tell me that he’d “explained why he couldn’t deliver and wouldn’t explain again. And the delivery wouldn’t even put a dent in your tank.” I was on with someone from their customer support center as he was driving off - they hung up on me midway through the call when I asked if they could tell the driver that it was okay to make the delivery.
To top it all off, we were going through the paperwork and it turned out that the company who’d installed our tank was recommended by..... Certas!
We’re not the only people on our streeet who’ve had issues with this company in the last 2 weeks. They tried to deny a topup to a family with young kids at the end of the road due to “overgrown vegetation”, until the dad argued their case for literally 40 minutes. As well as this, they refused to deliver on arrival to a widower in his 90s for similar spurious reasons, leaving him with an empty tank during subzero temperatures.
The behavior of these charlatans is absolutely despicable. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re trying to cancel orders on delivery so the oil can be resold to someone else at a much higher price.
The final blow was when we got a call back this morning from their head office. Apparently we had "chased him" and he "felt threatened”- what the driver should have said is we asked him to inspect the necessary documents and ran after him to try to get him to look at them after he refused to inspect them and incorrectly denied us a delivery! We’re in the process of filing a complaint with the appropriate authority after this shambolic service. There are other oil providers out there - for the good of your sanity, use them instead”
