Bulk LPG - Cheapest suppliers / supply route?

bry54

bry54 wrote: »

Thank you for your reply , I've just raised a complaint with Western Power threatening what you suggested.

I also contacted Calor and they said they had written to Western Power several times but haven't received a reply.

2 hours later I received a phone call from someone at Western Power saying there was absolutely no problem with my request ,the person who had been dealing with it before was on holiday! hope it's a permanent one.
At 16.30 yesterday ,door bell rang and a Western Power employee handed me a typed letter with a printed plan of the house and power lines.

bry54

Countrywide 61.00 ppl - up 2.0ppl ( to 63.0 ppl from 8/3/12)

HateLPG

I notice the April wholesale prices has fallen by about 5ppl from the March wholesale (see Wholesale Pricing Graphs).

So hopefully, hot on the heels of the recent OFT statement on pricing and contracts (http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2012/28-12), and given the haste with which the suppliers passed on the Febraury and March wholesale increases, we will now see a flood of price reduction letters flopping onto our doormats.

If not, I suggest a further flood of letters and emails to the OFT is required.

CanAmSteve

bry54 wrote: »

2 hours later I received a phone call from someone at Western Power saying there was absolutely no problem with my request ,the person who had been dealing with it before was on holiday! hope it's a permanent one.
At 16.30 yesterday ,door bell rang and a Western Power employee handed me a typed letter with a printed plan of the house and power lines.

I've had a related problem trying to switch from Calor. My tank was sited beside a fence only a few years ago, but when I approached FloGas about switching, they said new regulations prohibited a tank being beside a fence. There are also minimum setbacks from the road and trees, plus rules the tank must be visible from the delivery truck. All in all, it makes resiting difficult (although I could move the fence). So I can't switch suppliers since my Calor tank (1000L) can't be replaced by another tank, or - apparently - taken over either.

And just for irritation, I live in a growing village of 2000+, less than a mile from a main gas line, but with no mains gas. Does mains gas ever get extended now?

bry54

Our tank also needs resiting ,it's 0.5m too close to our old wooden garage , apparently it wasn't when Countrywide put it there in 2007!

ilikecookies

My neighbour had similar issues regarding location issues when he looked at switching but found the local / independent suppliers to be more flexible.

It doesn't seem at all fair to me that folks get trapped into a supplier due to siting regs. Surely if a tank is not up to the current standards then the current supplier should have a duty to relocate it free of charge given that most tanks are rented from them. How can they justify supplying it if in theory it is not safe? But then of course the LPG supply market is far from being fair!

LittleVermin

CanAmSteve wrote: »

I've had a related problem trying to switch from Calor. My tank was sited beside a fence only a few years ago, but when I approached FloGas about switching, they said new regulations prohibited a tank being beside a fence. There are also minimum setbacks from the road and trees, plus rules the tank must be visible from the delivery truck. All in all, it makes resiting difficult (although I could move the fence). So I can't switch suppliers since my Calor tank (1000L) can't be replaced by another tank, or - apparently - taken over either.

And just for irritation, I live in a growing village of 2000+, less than a mile from a main gas line, but with no mains gas. Does mains gas ever get extended now?

bry54 wrote: »

Our tank also needs resiting ,it's 0.5m too close to our old wooden garage , apparently it wasn't when Countrywide put it there in 2007!

ilikecookies wrote: »

My neighbour had similar issues regarding location issues when he looked at switching but found the local / independent suppliers to be more flexible.

It doesn't seem at all fair to me that folks get trapped into a supplier due to siting regs. Surely if a tank is not up to the current standards then the current supplier should have a duty to relocate it free of charge given that most tanks are rented from them. How can they justify supplying it if in theory it is not safe? But then of course the LPG supply market is far from being fair!

I suggest everyone with this problem writes to the Office for Fair Trading - [EMAIL="sharon.dias@oft.gsi.gov.uk"]sharon.dias@oft.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL] - as tank siting and changing 'regulations' (in reality UKLPG's Codes of Practice - which you can buy here for £24) is a barrier to switching. And, as we know (see here), the OFT is keen to make switching easier for bulk LPG users.
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LittleVermin

If the answer to the question is YES, MAYBE, or NO, please read on!

The OFT (Office for Fair Trading) has launched a

call for evidence on markets in remote communities across UK

It's up to you to decide if you live in a "remote community", but the OFT expects to hear from people in "UK islands communities, the Scottish Highlands, mid and West Wales, coastal and western Northern Ireland and in England, much of the South-West, the coastal parts of Lincolnshire and East Anglia and upland areas in Northumberland and Cumbria". They are/were also running workshops in 7 areas (Devon, Northumberland, Shetland, Highland, Gwynedd, Bridgend and County Tyrone).

One of the markets the OFT is looking at is ENERGY.

Submissions by April 20 - that's just ONE WEEK AWAY

Several LPG users sent submissions to the OFT Off-grid energy study - and several have posted that they weren't impressed by how the report dealt with LPG, but there's been better news from the OFT recently on both LPG and oil (see here and here). This is another opportunity to tell the OFT about the problems experienced by all of us 'off-grid' and using LPG or oil.

More info here: http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2012/09-12

[Deleted User]

From the sounds of my tank is a lost cause...

1) It's under trees
2) Has hedging on two sides
3) The tanker driver has no hope of seeing the truck from the tank
4) At the bottom of a banking

Calor promised work to the tank almost two years ago... Still waiting...

They (Calor) put the flippin thing there :rotfl:

LittleVermin

jeepjunkie wrote: »

From the sounds of my tank is a lost cause...

1) It's under trees
2) Has hedging on two sides
3) The tanker driver has no hope of seeing the truck from the tank
4) At the bottom of a banking

Calor promised work to the tank almost two years ago... Still waiting...

They (Calor) put the flippin thing there :rotfl:

please email [EMAIL="sharon.dias@oft.gsi.gov.uk"]sharon.dias@oft.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]

And thanks for telling us that Calor said they would sort out the problem they had created. Do you have any documentation other people could quote, please?

(my bold red in your quoted post)
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