Dear Mr. Russ,

Thank you for the information provided in the website.  I work with Helen Heckathorn and I have been handling all of the complaints Marathon Petroleum Company has received regarding the Marathon Lake Bluff station.  Currently, the owner, Sonny has contacted his insurance company in which this company is to resolve all the outstanding claims.  I am handing over all reported claims to Combined Oil Company who will intern hand them over to the insurance company.  Combined Oil Company has worked diligently to resolve this issue in which I am very grateful for their help. 

To relay how this Fuel Contamination Claims are handled at Marathon Petroleum Company (MPC) I've outlined the process below:

First, when a fuel contamination claim is reported to MPC we send a reply back to the complaintee requesting further information, please see below:

"1)  A copy of the Marathon receipt (if you do not have the receipt please send me the location's exact address, date and time of purchase).

2)  How was the gasoline paid for, i.e. cash or credit?

3)  If you paid via credit card what was the type and last 4 digits on the account?

4)  What year is your vehicle make, model and mileage?

5)  After filling up at the station please describe in detail what occurred with your vehicle?

6)  Did you notify the station you received bad gas?

7)  Did your vehicle need to be towed?  If so please provide a copy of the receipt and contact information of the towing service?

8)  Your daytime phone number and mailing address.

9)  A copy of the estimate or invoice of the garage/dealership/certified mechanic working on your vehicle and their contact information.  If the garage/dealership has any written documentation on what they found in the fuel please send that too.

10) Lastly, I would recommend obtaining a sample of the bad fuel if possible from the dealership (a quart of the product in an approved gasoline container would work, please make sure the container is clean as any product that may be in it currently could alter the sample)." 

For independently owned stations, the complaint will gets forwarded to the owners of the station for handling and response.  For Marathon owned stations the complaint will be forwarded to the Territory Manager and Station Manager for the resolution.  An investigation will be opened upon receiving the formal complaint, and if it is a confirmed fuel contamination reimbursements for the repairs will be shouldered by Marathon.  Since majority of Marathon stations are independent businesses, they have different guidelines in resolving such cases.  In this sense, Marathon acts as mediators between the customer and the owners, the resolution lies on the owners of the station.

Next, we contact the Marathon Territory Manager and fuel supplier of the station to inform them a complaint was received and ask for them to look into the situation and respond to us.  Pending on what is discovered a next series of steps takes place.

Thank you for such detailed reporting.  Someone should be contacting you in the near future to resolve this outstanding issue.  In the event you do not hear from the "Insurance Company" in a timely manner please contact me back and I will see about pushing things along.  From our experience it can take the insurance company a couple of weeks to issue reimbursement checks.

Sincere Regards,

Rebecca Dennis
Customer Relations Representative
FAX: (419) 421-5717
Email: custrelations@marathonpetroleum.com