BY CRAIG CROSBY

Staff Writer

Hundreds of people who hoped to fend off huge oil bills this winter by installing a pellet stove are being told their orders will likely go unfilled.

Rocky Gaslin of Rocky's Stove Shoppe in Augusta learned Tuesday that Pennsylvania-based Harman Stove Company is unable to deliver more than 300 pellet stoves promised Gaslin just a few months ago.

Harman dealers across the state were given similar notices this week, Gaslin said.

"We sold based on the number they said they would give us. Then they changed (the numbers)," Gaslin said. "I'm extremely frustrated. People are counting on them."

Gaslin, who spent much of Wednesday on the telephone delivering the bad news to his customers, plans to meet with Harman officials in Pennsylvania on Monday and hopes to return to Maine with more information and, ideally, more stoves.

"We have to get some stoves for them," Gaslin said.

A phone message left for a spokesman at Harman's parent company, Hearth & Home Technologies, was not returned.

Mainers have swarmed pellet-stove dealerships across the state as home heating oil prices climbed steadily past $4 a gallon.

Known for being ultraefficient and relatively easy to install, pellet stoves, which run on compressed wood pellets, could pay for themselves in just one heating season, dealers have said.

"You save half to two-thirds on your oil bill, so it's a no brainer to do it," Gaslin said.

He typically sells around 100 pellet stoves each year but had already sold more than 150 by the time April rolled around this year.

Gaslin stopped taking orders nearly a month ago when he reached the 350-stove limit Harmans set last spring.

But Gaslin, who has received just 16 stoves thus far, will get only another six before his supply is cut off for the rest of the year.

"There's such a demand for them that companies are not geared up for this type of production," Gaslin said.

He sells two other brands of pellet stoves and estimates he will be able to convert about 50 of his orders to another model.

But St. Albans Stove Shop in Palmyra only sells Harmans.

"This took us all by surprise," stove shop owner Deb Dyer said. "To let us sell for three months and then pull the rug out...it's awful. It really is."

Dyer was promised 155 stoves a month for September, October and November and, like Gaslin, based her sales on that promise.

She received a fax Tuesday night confirming she would receive just two more pellet stoves and another 22 pellet boilers.

"That's all they're giving us for the rest of the year," Dyer said. "That's 465 stoves they told us we could get that they're not following through with. It's just totally insane."

Both Dyer and Gaslin said Harman dealers throughout the state are reporting the same problem.

"They've put every one of us dealers in a bad situation," Dyer said. "We've all geared up for the season."

She said her store has already purchased thousands of dollars worth of supplies needed to hook up the stoves in anticipation of their delivery. The material can be returned, but only with a 25 percent restocking fee.

Dyer's store also racked up $5,800 in credit card processing fees for her store's sales last month alone. That is coupled with overtime she paid her staff to work the weekends her store was bustling with customers.

Dyer, who said she will seek legal advice, estimated her losses -- on sales, salaries, supplies and processing fees -- will exceed $100,000.

Ironically, Harman sent Dyer a letter in May promising $100 for every stove it did not deliver.

"Near as I can tell, they owe us $46,500," Dyer said.

Gaslin said many of his customers have been understanding. Those with wood heat plan to keep their wood stoves another year.

"They know it's out of our control," Dyer added. "I appreciate people saying that."

In light of the sales explosion that began early in the spring, Dyer fears her customers will have a difficult time finding a pellet stove this year. Many of those customers had already spent hundreds of dollars on pellets, now they are likely to spend thousands on oil.

"You want to talk about devastating, it's paying $5 to $7 a gallon for oil," Dyer said. "They've crippled all of us."

Craig Crosby--623-3811 Ext. 433

ccrosby@centralmaine.com