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Bulk LPG - Cheapest suppliers / supply route?
Comments
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Many thanks for the responses so far. The owner of the house I am soon to buy says she pays £68 a month for her gas . Is this the best way to pay for LPG or does it work out cheaper to fill the tank up front?
I presume the present owner of your new house near Preston has a xx year contract with Shell and has arranged a monthly direct debit of £68. If I was you, I'd ask her for a copy of her contract - and ask how much gas is in the tank at present (and how long that would have lasted her). If the contract looks good I'd ask some of the other potential suppliers (ignoring Flogas!) for their initial price and maximum rate of price rise - and then, well armed, phone Shell. If the Shell contract doesn't look good I'd just ask them to fill the tank at the owner's current price (and pay cash) while you look around. Remember that change of supplier has to take place within 28 days of the old supplier being informed of your wish to switch (unless the old tank needs removing in which case it's 42 days). Your new contract with Shell, or whoever, will be 2 years.
Oh yes -"Is this the best way to pay for LPG or does it work out cheaper to fill the tank up front?" - see page 7 on http://www.shell.com/static/gbr/downloads/lpg/welcome_to_shell_gas_lpg.pdf !
If you go with Shell your monthly payment might be more or less - but it doesn't seem as if you pay extra for direct debit.0 -
Hello all -- I have just received a letter from my 'friends' at Calor stating 'You have recently benefited from a price that has been below our standard tariff and this special rate is due to end on 14 November 2010.
Me too - and I'm not even under contract with them any longer
It would appear that they are sending this out to ALL their customers and sticking them with the maximum price rise they can get away with under contract. What LOVELY people, but then again, am I surprised???
I think, however that they have left themselves a bit exposed, here - I suggest that EVERYONE writes to them and asks them exactly WHAT their so-called "standard tariff" (rather than their current supply price to any particular delivery point) is. I'll bet you that you would receive as many different quotes for a "standard tariff" as people who ask the question - it would be interesting to hear those answers here!!!
If you're not happy with your lovely new price, my suggestion would be check the small print on your current contract very carefully - that's the last contract you actually *signed*, not necessarily the last contract that Calor *asked* you to sign. They don't always get the price rise correct - in my case, they wanted to impose a 3.5ppl rise, but the only legally binding contract I would have had with them stated a maximum of 2.5ppl. There are various contracts out there, typically limiting the price rise to 2.5ppl in any six month period or 3.5ppl in any three month period, so you need to check the terms in your SPECIFIC contract (you'll probably need a rather good magnifying glass!).
If memory serves, if they impose a price rise in excess of your contractually limited rise, you have something like 30 days to inform them in writing that you do not accept the price rise and put them on notice of termination, regardless of how long the contract has left to run and during that period of notice, if they need to supply further LPG, they will do it at the pre-increase price. I would, however make darned sure that you have an alternative new supplier lined up before you put them on notice as you want to do a tank *transfer* to a new supplier (free) rather than termination and uplift (hundreds of your best shiny pounds!)
The bottom line is (as I have said many times before), it really pays to read, understand, remember and enforce the key points of your contract
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Firstly, may I suggest that people read this thread right from the start, it is very helpful and taught me a lot.
Nobody can charge uplift charges for changing suppliers when out of contract, this is explained elsewhere, they now have to let you change over and all the tank and pipes stay in place, just bought up by your new supplier.
Just come across another item to watch out for. I have been having some email correspondance with Carver Gases. Along the way, they mentioned their annual charge for tank rental.....£170 + vat. Thats a whopping 46p per day. Even those highway robbers Flogas only charged 15p... yes 15p per day.....£54 per year. So watch out for that one too.
Methinks the glory days of LPG suppliers and their gullable customers are coming to an end..............................about time too !!!0 -
Calor Letter
Following on from the letter, I contacted Calor and they said that the new price ppl in the letter was not the 'standard' tariff! The standard tariff was in fact 48.9 ppl! So even though they said my new price was to be 41.4 ppl that, it seems was not the standard tariff but my own 'customer' price.
Am I going nuts, I think the letter implied that the 'new' price was the standard tariff. Am I wrong?
Anyway I did a haggle with them and are waiting a reply. The whole pricing of lpg seems arbitrary to say the least. I don't think Calor are any worse or better than any other lpg supplier. They're all a bunch of rogues.
Rant over for now!0 -
Are we now seeing that the suppliers are wriggling out of the maximum price rise per six months, by making a difference between "standard" tariffs, and some special customer tariff given to you at the start of the contract. This sounds downright dishonest to me.
When is a contract NOT a contract ??0 -
GrandadRob wrote: »Are we now seeing that the suppliers are wriggling out of the maximum price rise per six months, by making a difference between "standard" tariffs, and some special customer tariff given to you at the start of the contract. This sounds downright dishonest to me.
When is a contract NOT a contract ??
I don't think that's quite the case! In *most* instances (except where they aren't bright enough to avoid making elementary mistakes), they seem to be putting the price up by *exactly* the maximum permitted amount (i.e., by the maximum they can get away with before you cry "foul" and have any wriggle room on your contract)
As I implied in my previous post, I don't believe there *is* any such thing as a "standard tarrif" - if enough people ask and all are quoted the *same* standard tariff price, I'll be happy to change my opinion on that.
The wording is just a (not quite so) clever piece of social engineering to make the customer think "Ooooh - how lucky have I been getting my gas cheap. I'll not complain about the new price because those nice folks at Calor were giving me a discount up until now".
Of course those of us who actually talk to each other realise what a complete and utter load of.............. err....... no, the mods would delete that word........... and that one......... thinks........ ah yes: "twaddle" that is! :-)0 -
Interested in the Mole Valley farming details above. Can anyone join this. I live in a rural area surrounded by farms but don't farm myself.
Would be interested to see what they could do on LPG for me.
Looks like anyone can join if you're in a rural location for £10 a year. Will ring them and find out what they've currently negtiated in my area. I'll let you know how I get on.
Just called Mole Valley Farmers and they deal with Flogas. They said Flogas would purchase our tank from current supplier (Calor) then the gas would be supplied by either Shell or Calor depending on the best rate. They quoted 37.90 per l + vat. Couldn't quote me a standing charge for the tank but they said that bit would be dealt with Flogas directly. Puts me off a bit after reading some of the post about Flogas on here. By joining MVF you get other discounts on stuff such as tyres, heating oil, building supplies etc.0 -
Ok...this could be Dangerous...I work for one of the LPG suppliers.
Ive sifted through some of these threads and i have to say some of the posts have made me laugth. (Im not laugthing at anyone!). But I have noticed that some of the advice given is absolute rubbish!
One thing that seems to pop up alot lately is how customers are on different prices, and alot of people are saying there should be one fixed rate....Not possible!
I do agree that places such as Mobile home parks etc should be on a standard tarriff but it starts to get more complicated after that. Like anything the more you buy the better deal you are going to get! So a customer using just 1000ltrs a year is not going to get th same deal as a customer using 5000ltrs a year, also your tank size cn factor into this aswell....If you have a small 450ltr tank and use 2000ltrs a year then your going to have to have 4 to 5 eliveries in that year, but if you have a lrge 2400ltr tank then your only going to have 1 delivery which will save on distribution costs, and therefore saving you money! There are more factors that get weighed in on the equation but these are the main ones. Alot of the other comments have been regarding price increases and read how alot of people are unhappy and quoting it against Oil prices per barrell forgetting other factors within this awell!!!! Unlike Mains gas LPG has to be delivered to your door and Petrol prices have rose again which is a factor into this, im not saying this is the leading factor but it isnt as simple as some people on here seem to believe. In the end the LPG suppliers are running a business, and businesses have to make a profit or there would be no point! Did you know that each vehicle that delivers gas costs a minimum of £500,000 to purchase and that there lifespan is usually no more than 6 years!!
I am going to keep an eye out on this thread and if anyone has any questions to ask i will answer thm as honestly as I can...I am not going to reveal which supplier i work for or slate any suppliers I dont work for...Im simply here to be honest!!!!0 -
Looks like anyone can join if you're in a rural location for £10 a year. Will ring them and find out what they've currently negtiated in my area. I'll let you know how I get on.
Just called Mole Valley Farmers and they deal with Flogas. They said Flogas would purchase our tank from current supplier (Calor) then the gas would be supplied by either Shell or Calor depending on the best rate. They quoted 37.90 per l + vat. Couldn't quote me a standing charge for the tank but they said that bit would be dealt with Flogas directly. Puts me off a bit after reading some of the post about Flogas on here. By joining MVF you get other discounts on stuff such as tyres, heating oil, building supplies etc.
I am a member of mole valley.
when I was informed by flogas that my price would rise to 45p I contacted molevalley.
they said the price for flogas was, at that time, 30p. yes 30p.
I was told I had to phone Flogas direct so did so and yes the price was 30p and they lowered my price by 15p with out batting an eyelid.
Ask yourself what their profit margin must be.
since Nov 2009 the price has risen steadilly to around 41p.
I had to sign a contract and it must be said that new legistration is needed to stop this, as it is all loaded their way.
I received an offer letter from Calor last week for £100 of free gas and a price of 39p.
I phoned flogas to query their recent price rise and was told it was a desparate measure by Calor to recover their falling market share.
Someone needs to impose a max price and abolish the one sided contracts.0 -
LPG employee you say it is not possible for all customers to be on one rate, extrafuel customers are all on one rate ! And where do you get £500.000 to buy a tanker from ?0
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