Hocon Gas - Waterbury, Connecticut

Rainbow Brite

The propane is fine. Prices are what they are. Customer Service is a joke. Karen will only get back to you before you sign a contract. After that good luck, do not hold your breath, and for the love of anything don't have an emergency. HOCON can't wait for my contract to end.

Schultz 31B

Called them on a Saturday morning to see if they could do a same-day, short notice delivery before Memorial Day. I was told they could and I would be getting a call back within 45 minutes. Cancelled all of my morning plans and kept my phone on me in anticipation of their call. No call came.

I understand I was requesting a very short notice delivery but if you can't do it, it would've been nice to have been told so instead of forcing me to cancel my morning plans for nothing and leaving me without propane during a long holiday weekend. If I had known, I would've called somebody else. It's a shame too because I was about to switch my propane services to you for being willing to come out on such short notice.

Dr. Jason Richards

I was initially impressed with this company when I dealt with the sales side. I received a quote quite quickly and it was easy to sign the contract. However, that's when the disappointment started. It took a week after I signed the contract to hear back about the installation, which "couldn't be scheduled until the permit was obtained." It took another week to get the permit and then the installation was scheduled for the earliest available time--2 weeks later. That meant that it was more than 4 weeks from the time I signed the contract (and paid half of what was due) to the beginning of the installation. The process of installation was never explained, so I had no idea when I was actually going to be able to use my pool heater. After the initial installation of the tanks and running the line to my pool heater it was another week before the inspector came out to approve it and several more days before the installers returned to do the final connections. The process took WAY longer than I ever anticipated (around 6 weeks total) before I finally had gas to use for my pool heater. If this had all been explained to me up front so that I knew what to expect, I would have given a much better review. The sales person was delightful to talk to, the installers were polite and worked efficiently and did a nice job. I am just frustrated about never being told what to expect. Managing expectations is worth a lot!

K Why

Left a voicemail disputing an invoice received for $126, for about 10ish gallons. My line has been off since last October, and I even had the customer service rep verbally confirm I requested no more refills. Today I was charged the disputed amount against my wishes, they did so knowing I am currently serving, and will be out of the country until this February. Hocon does not respect current service members, veterans, or their families, and they surely do not respect Customers wishes. Did not return voicemail I left after I was transferred from customer service either. I requested my tank be serviced since there is no way I was at 80% when I turned off the supply prior to me being away. Their answer was "we can just charge you to get rid of the tank too if you want."

TLDR: their customer service reps are nice, but their admin staff and corporate staff are atrocious, ignorant and lack communicative common sense.

jennifer otoole

We have been customers of Hocon gas for over a year now. Eric came to our house to do yearly maintenance on our fireplace. What a nice guy! Not only is he nice but he’s very knowledgeable when it comes to gas fireplaces, and he did a fantastic job! Tony in the office is great too, he’s always very helpful and knowledgeable, he explains everything in great detail, and never rushes. He pays attention and takes time with every customer. We can’t forget about Iris! She’s awesome! So pleasant to talk to on the phone and always keeps you up to date on any specials for the months ahead. We couldn’t be happier! We are the lucky ones!!! Thank you very much!!!

John and Jennifer O’Toole

Jenn Nolte

Getting set up with Hocon Gas was really easy. I talked with real people who were friendly and responsive. It was easy to get my questions answered and my account was activated quickly. The technician who came out to inspect the propane tank and fill it was friendly and polite, and even showed me how my gas heater for my porch worked (we just moved into a new house).

Y Noam

Update: lowering my review to one star. After much back and forth with their agent Karen (including a cancellation from her end as well as unanswered messages, all documented), we finally had her visiting our home but never received any form of follow up or quote (despite their claims in response to this review).

Even worse, 2 months later, I discovered that this company has been over-charging us for over a year: the lease fee was re-charged every three months instead of on an annual basis! When I called Hocon, they admitted the >$230 overcharge but were impatient and rude (one would think an apology is in place for the wrongful charge?). At least the did their part by crediting me a week later.

I should have seen the red flags during the enrolment process a year ago when they accidentally sent me personal details and credit card information of another customer (I have this email documented; I have alerted their representative at the time of this privacy breach, to which he responded by email, starting with the words “oh my god”. Indeed).

Reading through other reviews, seems that I am not the only one experiencing issues with their customer service. I only wish they would spend more time truly working on improving customer experience and staff professionalism rather than wasting efforts on unhelpful responses to google reviews. I do not normally write negative reviews but unfortunately it seems justified in this unique case.

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We have been customers for over a year. We lease a propane tank for our stove and the service has been so far smooth with no issues.

That said, the company was unresponsive when I tried to reach them to inquire about installing a tankless water heater. I first used their online contact form (found on their website): weeks later - crickets. Honestly, I doubt that they are using this form at all... Not giving up, weeks later I called their office (the same number that is advertised on their website under "call us!" for tankless water heaters): the nice lady on the phone took my contact information, told me that a person by the name of Karen will contact me shortly to take care of everything. 10 days later I am still waiting for the call.

One would think that they should be interested in selling products/ services to customers. Based on my recent experience, I think I will take my business elsewhere.

Ted G

Ouch, I can still feel the pain from Hocon sticking it to me over and over.

I was a customer for almost ten years with little to no problems they brought propane and I paid them by the end of the week of delivery and things were good. I never ran out of fuel, rates were in line with local competitors equipment was serviced as required and kept clean, customer service was great, the way things should be. I would even go out of my way and bring my grill tanks to Waterbury to get filled because the people were friendly and the place was nice.

About two years ago things changed and not for the better, rates started climbing above the local market rates, my tanks would go weeks past when they should have been filled drivers became surly, customer service became rude, if I wanted a tank filled I had to be at the office a half hour before closing or they were locking the door and leaving. The end for me was when they tried to charge me $5+ a gallon for fuel, I called and negotiated it down but still was charged over $4.50 that is insane and way out of line with local market rates for heating, and I was still paying within a week of delivery. I don't know what happened at Hocon, but whatever it was it was not for the better. For now Hocon has taken their tanks and I have taken my business elsewhere, I hate to say this, but the pattern that they are in is the same as several oil companies in the area that just closed up and left literally overnight, I hope it doesn't come to that.

Like I said they were good people to deal with before but now they need to fix whatever got broken and rebuild their reputation.

UPDATE: At the beginning of last heating season the former service manager from Hocon showed up at my door selling propane for another company, he was hitting every person on his old list from Hocon. Thank you again Hocon for keeping my personal information safe.