# Complaints About a Mineral Buyer or Operator: What Actually Works > Where to complain about a mineral rights buyer or an oil and gas operator, in the order that actually gets results: the operator, the state regulator, the state AG, the BBB, and when it is worth an attorney. Source: https://www.berlinroyalties.com/mineral-complaints/ Publisher: Berlin Royalties, a veteran-owned oil and gas mineral and royalty buyer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, buying for its own account since 2014. Call or text 918-984-1645. License: free to quote and cite with attribution to Berlin Royalties and a link to the source URL. Complaints & Disputes ## Something went wrong. Here is who actually fixes it. Late checks, wrong decimals, deductions you did not agree to, an offer that shrank at closing, a buyer who will not return your call. There is a real order of operations for these, and most owners start at the wrong end of it. This page is that order. [Ask a Landman, Free](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) [Call 918-984-1645](tel:9189841645) Berlin Royalties buys minerals, so we are one of the companies people occasionally have complaints about. We wrote this anyway, and we have included the routes that point at us. If your complaint is about us, the fastest fix is to call [918-984-1645](tel:9189841645) and ask for Stephen, and if we got something wrong we will say so and correct it. ## First: figure out which problem you actually have These get treated as one thing and they are not. The right forum depends entirely on which one you are in. | The problem | Who actually handles it | | Check is late, or stopped | The operator first, then your state's royalty payment statute, then a demand letter || Decimal looks wrong | The operator's owner relations, in writing, with your division order || Deductions you do not think are allowed | Your lease language plus your state's rule; possibly an attorney on contingency || Money is in suspense | The operator, then state unclaimed property || An operator is doing something unsafe or illegal | The state oil and gas regulator || A buyer's offer shrank at closing | Your purchase agreement; then the state AG's consumer protection division || A buyer or landman misrepresented something | State AG consumer protection, and the BBB as a public record || You think a deed was obtained improperly | A real estate or oil and gas attorney, quickly | ## Step 1: Put it in writing to the company, once Not a phone call. A letter, sent certified mail, return receipt requested, with your owner number on it. This sounds like a formality and it is not. Most state royalty payment statutes and most contractual notice provisions require written demand before anything else becomes available to you, and a certified mail receipt establishes the date. A phone call to a call center establishes nothing. Keep it to one request per letter. A letter asking for six things gets one thing answered. Our [free letter templates](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/letter-templates/) include ready to send versions for the most common situations: demanding an itemized accounting of deductions, demanding late payment with statutory interest, requesting release of suspended funds, notifying an operator of an owner's death, changing an address, and requesting the lease, division order, pooling order, and allocation factor. Give them a reasonable window, 30 days is standard, and then escalate. Do not send five letters. ## Step 2: Check what your state's statute actually gives you Most owners do not know that late royalty payment carries statutory consequences in most producing states, including interest that accrues automatically. That is leverage, and it is free. Our [royalty payment laws by state](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/royalty-payment-laws/) page sets out, with the statute citation for each state, the payment deadline, the late payment interest rate, the minimum payment threshold, the limitation period, and forced pooling authority for Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Two specific things worth knowing before you complain about deductions: - **Whether deductions are lawful at all depends on your state.** [West Virginia](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/west-virginia/) largely forbids them absent very specific lease language. [Pennsylvania](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/pennsylvania/) permits them. [Colorado](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/colorado/) and [Wyoming](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/wyoming/) protect the owner. [North Dakota](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/north-dakota/) and [Kansas](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/kansas/) do not. A deduction that is a violation in one state is routine in another. - **Several states give you an express right to an itemized accounting.** Pennsylvania's check stub disclosure requirement is one example. If you have never asked for one, ask before you conclude anything is wrong. ## Step 3: The state oil and gas regulator This is the right forum for things the regulator actually regulates: well integrity, spills, flaring, plugging and abandonment, spacing and pooling orders, permits, and operator conduct in the field. It is generally **not** the right forum for a private royalty payment dispute, which is a contract matter. Regulators do have real teeth on operator conduct. Colorado's Energy and Carbon Management Commission cancelled an operator's authority to do business in the state in 2024 after illegal flaring, spills, and failed integrity tests, and the wells were ordered shut in. Our [well records by state](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/well-records/) page links every state's agency and its free public search, so you can look up your own well's status, permits, and filings before you call. Doing that first makes the call far more productive. ## Step 4: The state Attorney General's consumer protection division This is the right route for misrepresentation, deceptive practices, and pressure tactics by a buyer or a landman. It is a real remedy, not a formality. The Pennsylvania Attorney General sued an operator over royalty deductions and settled for $5.3 million in 2021, alongside separate landowner class settlements. That did not start with a class action lawyer. It started with owners complaining. File where the conduct happened and where you live, if those differ. Include copies, not originals, of the letter you sent, the response you got, the offer, and the agreement. ## Step 5: The Better Business Bureau, for the public record The BBB has no enforcement power. What it has is visibility: BBB profiles rank near the top of search results for almost any company name in this industry, which means a complaint there is read by the next owner who gets a letter from the same company. Use it as a public record rather than as a remedy, and be factual. A specific, dated, documented complaint carries weight. An angry one does not. ## Step 6: When it is worth an attorney Sooner than most owners think, in four situations: - **Systematic deductions in an owner favorable state.** If you are in West Virginia and your lease does not satisfy the *Tawney* test, or you are in a state with a strong marketable product rule, this is exactly the kind of claim that gets handled on contingency, often as part of a class. You are frequently not the only owner affected. - **A deed you believe was obtained by misrepresentation.** Move quickly. Limitation periods run, and a recorded deed conveyed onward to a third party gets much harder to unwind. - **A purchase price that changed at closing** in a way your agreement does not support. - **Anything involving an elderly or incapacitated owner.** If a relative signed something they did not understand, that is a capacity question and it needs a lawyer, not a letter. We are not a law firm and we will not pretend to be. We do work with oil and gas attorneys across the states where we buy, and we will point you to one, including when your complaint is about a company we compete with, and including when it is about us. ## What we would tell you not to bother with - **Complaining to the operator about a buyer, or to a buyer about an operator.** They are separate companies with separate obligations and neither can fix the other's problem. - **Posting instead of filing.** A message board post is not a complaint. Send the certified letter. - **Waiting to see if it fixes itself.** Limitation periods run, and in states with dormant mineral statutes like [Ohio](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ohio/), [Kansas](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/kansas/), and [North Dakota](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/north-dakota/), doing nothing can cost you the interest entirely. ### Not sure which problem you have? We will read it free. Send us the check stub, the letter, the lease, or the agreement. We will tell you whether something is actually wrong, which of the routes above fits, and what to send. We do this whether or not you are selling anything, and whether or not the company involved is a competitor of ours. [Ask a Landman](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) [Free Letter Templates](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/letter-templates/) ## Related - [Six free certified mail letters you can send today](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/letter-templates/) - [Royalty payment laws by state, with statute citations](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/royalty-payment-laws/) - [What every line on your check stub means](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/royalty-statement-decoder/) - [Money sitting in operator suspense or state unclaimed property](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/unclaimed-royalties/) - [Who the mineral buyers are, and how to check any of them](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/mineral-buyers/) - [Ten questions to ask any mineral buyer](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/questions-to-ask/) - [Operator directory with current contact information](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/operators/) Berlin Royalties is a mineral buyer and a landman shop in Tulsa, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice about your dispute. Statutes, deadlines, and agency jurisdiction vary by state and change. Talk to an oil and gas attorney licensed in the state where your minerals are before relying on any of this. Last reviewed August 2026.