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by John_Deutzman from New York City

Last Post 25 days, 2 hours Ago


Oil Cheats
Nov 20, 2008 | 8:22 PM
Category: News
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Here are some tips the experts recommend to help detect heating oil cheating:

1) Be aware that the problem of cheating/theft of heating oil exists.

2) Try to be there when the truck delivers.

3) Make sure the truck has an official Consumer Affairs seal on it.

4) Make sure the truck guy puts a blank receipt in the meter in front of you.

5) Make sure the meter starts at zero.

6) Measure your home tank with the "stick" method you will see in THIS VIDEO.

Here are some important and helpful links:

>>SIPPIN ENERGY OIL TANK CHART

>>US ENERGY GROUP OIL GAUGES

>>PETRO-METER OIL GAUGES

>>HOME HEATING OIL RESOURCES

>>NEW YORK CITY'S CRACKDOWN (PDF)

>>FILING A COMPLAINT IN NEW YORK CITY

>>OIL TANK MEASUREMENT DEMONSTRATION (VIDEO)

Feedback appreciated.

John

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Member Comments Total Comments: 10
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jmax123 read my blog view my photos
Nov 20, 2008 | 10:21 PM

Oil tanks date back to the days when businesses had more pride and integrity, and consumers trusted in that. That's probably why the tanks are not equipped with gauges to measure the oil.
Today many oil distribution companies are folding up, due to homeowners upgrading to gas heat. Maybe they need to cheat to survive now? If that is the case, they should consider changing careers.

Jane
John_Deutzman read my blog
Nov 20, 2008 | 10:44 PM

Jane,

Sometimes it's just the drivers. The guy expert we talked to said if a driver knew what he was doing he could scam about 250 k a year!
And remember the concept is small amounts so that you wouldn't even know it. So if you five buildings and they all have 5000 gallon tanks that's 25,000 gallons x .03 (cheat rate) = 750 gallons x 3.50 gallon=2625 at the end of the day. Then they sell the extra to someone else.
John_Deutzman read my blog
Nov 20, 2008 | 10:49 PM

Just a note,

The economy is moving is such dramtic directions so quickly! When we started talking about this story in September the price of Oil was almost double! It doesn't change the cheating problem but sure changes the big picture dramatically.
jmax123 read my blog view my photos
Nov 21, 2008 | 7:38 AM

I know what you mean about the small amounts concept. People are so busy in their lives that they don't even realize the small stuff.
A few years ago, I used to go to the Quik Check every day before work, and the same check out woman shorted my change exactly one dollar each time. The first two times I was too rushed to care, but then on the 3rd time I said something to her, and she gave me the "ooops" excuse.
That store is busy 24/7, she probably makes an extra hundred per day by doing that!

Then at the Mobil station I get the guy who keeps saying "move your car up more" and I can't figure out why----there is room for 3 more cars behind me. Then when he shorts my change, I realized it was because he thought he had moved me up too far to see the numbers on the pump. I just said "nice try, can I have my other $10. change now?"
fjgallagher
Nov 21, 2008 | 10:15 AM

It's worth noting that the vast majority of oil dealers, and their employees, are honest people who care about their customers. The typical home heating oil dealer is a small businessman, and the name on the side of the truck is more often than not the name of the guy driving the truck.

Indeed, as your story briefly noted at the end, the actual number of incidents of this nature has declined dramatically in the past year.

The real problem, when it comes to energy prices is on Wall Street. Speculators drove energy prices to historic highs and sent this country's economy over the edge.

Perhaps you should look at how the insiders at Goldman Sachs et al. made billions by buying oil futures contracts on an unregulated commodities market and then "predicting" that oil would go to $200 a barrel.
John_Deutzman read my blog
Nov 21, 2008 | 1:03 PM

Fj,

The story didn't imply the whole industry was crooked. But according to the indictment, T&S Trucking and Mystic Tank Lines stole oil from their customers for many years.
I assume all of the their trucks were checked by consumer affairs yet they still were cheating.
While it's nice that Consumer Affairs checks the trucks it would be terribly misleading to make the public think that they don't need to check on their own.
rich1125
Nov 25, 2008 | 3:49 PM

John, my dad was a mechanic and told me about this. I would like to know more about the guys who invented the Verifier. When was it patented? Who was the inventor?
John_Deutzman read my blog
Nov 25, 2008 | 4:34 PM

rich,

here's the link to their company:

http://www.use-group.com/
JASharf
Nov 26, 2008 | 2:21 PM

John:

I need to contact you re: a possible story against the NYC DEP. What is your e-mail address? (or how can I contact you with the details?)
John_Deutzman read my blog
Nov 26, 2008 | 2:30 PM

john.deutzman@foxtv.com
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John_Deutzman

John Deutzman, a New York native, has been working as a reporter at Fox 5 News since September of 2001. John has won 12 career Emmys and has received 28 Emmy nominations. He's known for his aggressive and at times humorous style when catching bad guys and exposing scams for the Fox 5 Investigative Unit. John's stories have resulted in arrests, businesses being shut down and dozens victims getting their money back from scam artists. Before moving back to New York, John spent 11 years in Miami, first as a sports reporter but when hurricane Andrew struck, John was thrown into news reporting and evenutally made the full time switch to news. John also had stints in Binghamton,New York and Springfield,Massachusetts
. A native of Smithtown,Long Island, John is an 11th-generation Long Islander. He describes himself as a 50/50 mix of his two grandfathers. One grandfather was a journalist who owned the town paper, the "Smithtown Messenger" and the other was one of the first cops in town who had a reputation for being tough and crazy but fair.

Member Since: 6/1/2006