In New Hampshire, on the coldest day of the year, with temperatures below zero, having heating oil in your tank at home is not a luxury. It’s a necessity.

Customers of Fred Fuller Oil and Propane company learned this lesson the hard way last week as delivery trucks that were scheduled to deliver a badly needed refill to oil tanks never showed up. When customers called the company, they found the phone lines were down.

Some people called the Attorney General’s office to complain, others called the newspaper, some took to social media to vent their frustrations.

An attorney for the company said a high demand for oil, a shortage from suppliers, problems with phone lines and a lingering snow storm created the “perfect storm” of problems for the company.

That was cold comfort for customers throughout the area who watched the meters on their oil tanks go to empty as they waited for promised deliveries.

The problem wasn’t just limited to those who waited until the last minute to call. Customers reported calling before the holidays and still the delivery truck did not arrive. Others who are on automatic fill-ups waited for deliveries and then called as oil levels became dangerously low.

Dozens of customers from around the greater Nashua area said their tanks went dry.

Carl Williams of Merrimack took matters into his own hands and started filling his oil tank with diesel fuel from a 5-gallon gas can.

“I’m disappointed. It’s irresponsible of the company – it seems like they just tried to run away rather than dealing with the issue,” he said.

Which brings us to the next point: Failing to deliver oil in a timely fashion – when that’s your business model – is bad enough, but not communicating with your customers is a breach of a business’s covenant.

In New England, customers expect a high level of service. People want a personal relationship with the companies they do business with. And when there’s a problem, they expect the company to do everything in its power to make it right.

When company phone lines go out, it’s time to give out cell phone numbers, folks. Announcements can be made on the company’s Facebook page, after all, that’s where many customers went to lodge their complaints.

The company’s website offers this brief explanation, “We are experiencing phone issues. Please keep trying to call us if you can’t get through. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

An apology is nice, but how about a customer-service email address where people can actually get reliable answers about when they can expect their oil to arrive?

Still, even customers who were able to get through by phone and actually talk to someone still didn’t get their oil on time.

Apologies are one thing, but when someone’s heat goes off, they need heating oil, and fast. When temperatures drop to double-digits below zero, not having heat is no longer an inconvenience, it’s a public safety issue that can threaten people’s lives.

If Fred Fuller did not have enough oil to meet demand, they could have contracted with another company with an ample supply.

They didn’t do that either, and left it to their customers to call other companies.

We’d like to take Fred Fuller officials at their word – that this was just a horrible confluence of events – but it seems there’s more to the story that’s not being told.

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