Bulk LPG - Cheapest suppliers / supply route?

mrhkjh

Found this thread a few weeks ago and as my contract is up for renewal in september decided to find a cheaper supplier than Calor.I paid 45ppl in January the last time I had the tank filled.After a bit of haggling I've decided to change to Flogas.They have offered 28ppl year1, 31.5ppl year2 plus £270 free gas and £80 pa tank rental.I gave calor the chance to compete,but they didn't seem to be bothered if they keep me or not.This is a huge saving for me.Glad I found this thread.

bobmac62

Just received an offer flyer from Calor, trying to tempt me back to them. Offer as follows:-

Switch to Calor and receive:
1 £250 of free LPG
2 A 2 year fixed price of 28ppl exc VAT
3 Plus a saving of over £280. That's the average our customers save when they switch back to Calor. ( calculated using LPG customer switching in figures, based on average year 1 savings made by switching to Calor from another supplier in 2014 ). Really!

Anyone tempted?

The above is subject to a satisfactory site survey and 2 year domestic bulk supply contract with Calor.

markharmer

Hello bobmac62,
That seems a great offer. Do you have any more details of the 'offer flyer' - is there a contact phone/email and any code?

bobmac62

It looks like the flyer is designed for old customers, like myself, who have changed away from Calor.
Contact details:- Tel 0800 022 4169 - Home Energy Team and quote the code "COMEBACK"

markharmer

Thanks bobmac62
Hope everyone will keep the price offer information coming.

Essexuser

Just had a letter telling me that "as my 12 month fixed price of 38ppp has ended" they are putting my price up by the "small" amount of 5ppp! This equates to a 13% increase, not what I call small by any measure.

So I have just finished an irate phone call to them setting out my views on this and quoting some of the prices shown by users on here. All they would agree to is reviewing the price 3 months before before my 2 year contract ends next May.

I made it very clear that if they persisted in this approach then I would be leaving them at the end of the contract whatever price they offered. The lady I spoke to (and I made it clear that I was not upset with her) said she would pass my comments onto the "pricing team" who may, or may not, contact me. The conversation then ended.

Not much I can do now but as mentioned above, I will definitely be leaving them next May even if they offered me 10ppp.

I tried earlier to get the price down but it was during the fixed price period so no joy there either. This reinforces my belief that the whole LPG industry is little more than a racket with "divide and rule" being their guiding principal.

mcmullank

Essexuser wrote: »

Just had a letter telling me that "as my 12 month fixed price of 38ppp has ended" they are putting my price up by the "small" amount of 5ppp! This equates to a 13% increase, not what I call small by any measure.

So I have just finished an irate phone call to them setting out my views on this and quoting some of the prices shown by users on here. All they would agree to is reviewing the price 3 months before before my 2 year contract ends next May.

I made it very clear that if they persisted in this approach then I would be leaving them at the end of the contract whatever price they offered. The lady I spoke to (and I made it clear that I was not upset with her) said she would pass my comments onto the "pricing team" who may, or may not, contact me. The conversation then ended.

Not much I can do now but as mentioned above, I will definitely be leaving them next May even if they offered me 10ppp.

I tried earlier to get the price down but it was during the fixed price period so no joy there either. This reinforces my belief that the whole LPG industry is little more than a racket with "divide and rule" being their guiding principal.

As I posted earlier in the year, you need to be conversant on your contract terms. Do you know if there are any limitations on how much the price can increase? Are there penalty clauses for the termination of the agreement (some contracts do not have any at all).

The old Calor contract that I had stated that they would charge me for their lost profit and I used this as proof that the price had went down rather than increase. Perhaps there is something similar in your contract?

Essexuser

I don't think there would be drastic financial penalties for breaching the contract, just a load of unnecessary grief over a relatively small value (see below).

The real problem in doing so is that in these contracts the tank is rented from the gas provider and (having made tentative enquiries) no new company would be able (or willing) to take the tank over against the will of the current provider. So effectively there is no practical alternative to seeing the contract out. At the end of the day my additional cost exposure is circa £30 to £50 so it just isn't worth doing any more than making my views felt and I will be writing to Avanti Gas today setting them out clearly.

markharmer

There seems to be no way to breach a 2 year contract, as Essexuser says, no new supplier can/will take over the tank before the 2 years is up. The new supplier has to buy the tank from the current supplier and that is effectively impossible while a 2 year contract is in force. Again, we customers are 'over a barrel'.

mcmullank

markharmer wrote: »

There seems to be no way to breach a 2 year contract, as Essexuser says, no new supplier can/will take over the tank before the 2 years is up. The new supplier has to buy the tank from the current supplier and that is effectively impossible while a 2 year contract is in force. Again, we customers are 'over a barrel'.

This is not the case. Each contract that is in force but adhere to the law. In the case of contracts signed before October 2015 the contract must no be unfair as detailed in the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulation. After October 2015, there relevant act is the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

The fundamental principles underpinning both of these are that consumer contracts must be fair to both parties and not cause significant imbalance between the parties.

For example, I would expect Flogas T & Cs from Sept 2013 to be found to be unfair in terms of the UTCCR based on the ability of Flogas to end the agreement for convenience without similar ability on the part of the consumer. Such imbalance is automatically unfair in terms of the UTCCR (Schedule 2 - INDICATIVE AND NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF TERMS WHICH MAY BE REGARDED AS UNFAIR)

(f)authorising the seller or supplier to dissolve the contract on a discretionary basis where the same facility is not granted to the consumer, or permitting the seller or supplier to retain the sums paid for services not yet supplied by him where it is the seller or supplier himself who dissolves the contract;

Similar wording is in the CRA 2015
Schedule 2, Part 1, Paragraph 7
A term which has the object or effect of authorising the trader to dissolve the contract on a discretionary basis where the same facility is not granted to the consumer, or permitting the trader to retain the sums paid for services not yet supplied by the trader where it is the trader who dissolves the contract.

The terms in the Flogas T & Cs was worded as:

Termination by us for convenience
8.2 We may terminate the Agreement at any time by giving you not less than forty two days’ prior notice in writing.

I know it is rather a long winded way of making my point but hopefully some people who are tied to these types of contracts can use this as leverage or actually force the withdrawal from the contract where it is beneficial for them to do so.