ComplaintsforSmart Touch Energy

• Initial Complaint

  02/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  the nature of the dispute is as follows: my husband and I are seniors and live inRaymond maine. For the past 5 months I have been ill- 2 hospitalizations and I cannot work at my private practice speech pathology job. The town of Raymond, Maine accepted us, based on income into their oil program. On Jan 29, 2023 we paid for oil upfront from Smart Touch oil and recieved 100 gallons of oil. On 02/06/2023, our application with the town was accepted and we were told that the town would pay for this delivery of oil with Smart touch and that Smart Touch would reinburse us or give us a credit for the 100 gallons of oil. Smart Touch REFUSED to do this!!! They would not offer me a credit and let the town program pay for this past delivery so my husband and I, senior citizens in Maine who have lived in Raymond Maine since 1979 and, for the first time ever, are in need of fuel assistance which the town said we qualified for, are being told by your company that they will not give us fuel credit or reinburse us when the town pays them!! This is senior discrimination and downright wrong business practice. The total amount under quesstion is 409.90. ***** * ********* M.S. ******* ** ***** **** **** Raymond Maine ***** *** *** **** or *******@***.com. The town of Raymond's phone number is *** *** **** ask for ***** ********** or ***** ******** or email the town to receive confirmation of the program we have been accepted into. *****

  Business response

  03/30/2023

  I am writing in response to the complaint listed against Smart Touch Energy in regards to ***** *********’s order with Smart Touch Energy on January 29th, 2023. The amount paid for her order was already fully processed with the personal credit card she issued payment with. Payment on her card was fully processed by the time her fuel was delivered on February 2nd , 2023, before we heard from her that she was going to have a third party, Raymond County Maine, pay for her fuel. The only time that our system would have allowed us to have Raymond County make a payment on her behalf is during the initiation of the order when a credit card is used to pay for the order.
  
  I recommend that if **** ********* wishes to place more orders with Smart Touch, that she have Raymond County set up an account for her on the SmartTouchEnergy.com website that uses their credit card to process a payment on fuel delivered to her home address. Our customer care representatives have expressed to **** ********* and Raymond County with sincerity that we would love nothing more than to help resolve this in the way that she wants and unfortunately, due to our system using credit card payments tied to orders, our credit card vendor has forbidden paid for and processed orders to be refunded once the product is delivered.
  
  Our credit card system is purposefully built (by our credit card processing vendor, *********.net) to disallow opportunities or fraudulent transactions or refunds on orders that have been processed and delivered (in the form of fuel to the customer’s home). When a customer places an order with us online they pay for their fuel delivery up front and we deliver the fuel through one of our delivery partners across the northeast within 1-3 days. After the delivery was made **** ********* informed us that Raymond County Maine has admitted her into their fuel assistance program and asked for a refund on the grounds that Raymond County would issue payment to us.
  
  Due to our credit card processing being set up to ward against fraud, we are unable to issue the refund that she wants in exchange for Raymond County’s payment to Smart Touch Energy. Due to this, the sole option that we have to make this right is to send **** ********* a refund check in exchange for a check from Raymond County. This was rejected because Raymond County insists on paying for the order with a credit card which we can not process because the order has already been completed and we do not have the ability to create a fake order in our system. Again, our willingness to make this right has been extended to the furthest length that we are able to go. I regret that **** ********* feels that we are discriminating against her due to the limitations of our processes. This could not be further from the truth and we still hope that Raymond County chooses to see that the solution for helping **** ********* rests with them, as Smart Touch Energy did what we were contracted to do, which is deliver fuel to their tax payers when they order fuel from us. Should they decide that they want to exchange a check with us so that we can issue a special exemption to **** *********, we will be happy to do so. 

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