Oil Delivery - Um, no thanks!

[lml999]

Oil truck backed onto our driveway earlier today. Thought he was turning around...nope, preparing for delivery.

Um...we don't have an oil tank. Never did. You must want our neighbor...what address?

If I wasn't home, I wonder how far that delivery would have gone before the driver figured out he was in the wrong place. I don't have anything that looks like an oil filler tube...but these guys can be pretty ingenious.

Thinking I might want to hang a small sign where they'd look for an oil filler tube, stating "No Oil Deliveries, Please!" or something similar...

Or am I overthinking it...

 

[Ashful]

Honestly, where would he have put it? You’d need a pair of pipes coming thru your wall, vertical, and with an oil filler cap on it. You got something like that, without any oil in the house?

 

[lml999]

Honestly, where would he have put it? You’d need a pair of pipes coming thru your wall, vertical, and with an oil filler cap on it. You got something like that, without any oil in the house?

Nope, nothing.

Had oil at our last house, so I'm familiar with the setup.

Perhaps I'm overthinking it.

 

[mustash29]

LOL.

My area is rural. For every house you see along the road, there is a 50' right of way to the big flag lots in the back. I have 2 acres. Behind me is Mike with 7 (has an OWB), then Sean with 2 (pellet stove) and then Chuck with 10. Mike & Chuck are brothers.

A few years ago a small local oil company was supposed to fill Chuck, but they mistakenly filled Mike. Chuck was pissed because he was dangerously low on fuel so he called to complain. The oil company realized they filled the wrong house and came to Mike asking to suck it back out.

"I didn't order oil, no one was home to pay the COD delivery, and YOU put 300 gal of $4.25 oil in the wrong tank, not my problem."

I use the same oil company. Now they have a serial number tag zip tied to the fill pipe.

 

[Rob711]

Sorta on topic, when I was 4, so think 1982 oil prices, I watched the oil delivery guy unscrew the cap and hook up to fill basement tank.
Well soon after I was pretending to be the oil delivery guy, unscrewed cap, insert garden hose, turn on hose. Story goes mom thought it odd no hot water, I must have shown her my new game. Had to have tank pumped, it cost my dad double the oil price per gallon! Ha.
Also I've heard of oil going to houses that have tanks removed but not the fill pipe. Wow that's gotta be a pricey mess!

 

[peakbagger]

It happens on occasion where a house is switch from oil to gas and the old fill pipes are left in place. There is no whistle so the driver just keeps pumping. Then the homeowner comes home to major oil spill.

I think it may be requirement now that fill pipes have to be removed.

 

[Ashful]

Reminds me of those stories you hear once every few years, of a demolition company taking down the wrong house. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

 

[Highbeam]

Reminds me of those stories you hear once every few years, of a demolition company taking down the wrong house. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Or removing some guys good leg instead of the bad one.

 

[PaulOinMA]

… Well soon after I was pretending to be the oil delivery guy, unscrewed cap, insert garden hose, turn on hose …

 

[Ashful]

Sorta on topic, when I was 4, so think 1982 oil prices, I watched the oil delivery guy unscrew the cap and hook up to fill basement tank.
Well soon after I was pretending to be the oil delivery guy, unscrewed cap, insert garden hose, turn on hose. Story goes mom thought it odd no hot water, I must have shown her my new game. Had to have tank pumped, it cost my dad double the oil price per gallon! Ha.
Also I've heard of oil going to houses that have tanks removed but not the fill pipe. Wow that's gotta be a pricey mess!

Very funny story. But I was thinking about this, and wonder if they made it more difficult than it had to be.

I used to work at a gas station in highschool, and we had four in-ground tanks, each 9000 - 16,000 gallons. They always had a few inches of water in the bottom, I believe from rain and snow melt that work work its way in thru the filling hatches over the course of the year, but it would always stay separated from the fuel on the bottom of the tank. Our sumps were located 7 or 8 inches above the bottom of the tank, and there was an electronic meter that would tell us how much water was in the tank, when it would get up to 6" we'd call to have the water pumped out of the tank bottom.

Point is, I suspect the fuel oil should have still been usable, if the water could be removed from the bottom of the tank. It should have separated after a few days sitting in the tank, I would think.