Bulk LPG - Cheapest suppliers / supply route?

cairndog

Very useful Hatel but no figures for Calor?
Is there a reason for this as I have only just got to this thread?

mcmullank

cairndog wrote: »

Very useful Hatel but no figures for Calor?
Is there a reason for this as I have only just got to this thread?

You just have to read the last few posts to see that there is no such thing as a figure for Calor. Calor prices each customer for maximum profit and therefore the price is really down to your own powers of negotiation.

cairndog

AdrianC wrote: »

TBH, you're fair game for their shotgun pricing, then.

Shop around, and fast. Sign up with somebody else, almost anybody else. Get yourself shifted!

Yes I've had a similar letter upping my (out of contract) price to 52p variable and offering a 2 year fixed contract at 49p ltr. Wow!

I looked into this last time they hiked price. Trouble is the new supplier has to take over the tank from Calor (been with them for 20yrs) and they have to come and check the tank site etc. There are all sorts of rules/regs affecting where the tank is and they've got much stricter since Calor put this tank in.
Reading them I doubt if new supplier would accept our site position so I think Calor have the upper hand and there's not much competion here in Kent which doesn't leave me much room for manoeuvre.

mcmullank

cairndog wrote: »

Yes I've had a similar letter upping my (out of contract) price to 52p variable and offering a 2 year fixed contract at 49p ltr. Wow!

I looked into this last time they hiked price. Trouble is the new supplier has to take over the tank from Calor (been with them for 20yrs) and they have to come and check the tank site etc. There are all sorts of rules/regs affecting where the tank is and they've got much stricter since Calor put this tank in.
Reading them I doubt if new supplier would accept our site position so I think Calor have the upper hand and there's not much competion here in Kent which doesn't leave me much room for manoeuvre.

TBH, this is a tactic that LPG suppliers are using to try and prevent the switching of customers. It costs nothing to get alternative prices and a tank survey done and the savings can be massive. You haven't given any indication of usage but even taking an average of 2000ltrs, you would be looking at a saving of 21ppl if Calor offered you the same as other posters have been offered. Over £400 per annum would be sufficient for me to spend a couple of hours investigating it.

HateLPG

52ppl? REALLY? :rotfl::rotfl:

FWIW, Calor approached me again a couple of months ago at contract renewal time, aggressively trying to get my business back. They assured me, hand on heart, that they were a reformed company and no longer engage in predatory pricing. They offered a 28ppl flat rate absolutely fixed, no if's buts or maybe's any change and I could cancel and walk away, plus promises of £500 free gas etc etc. Yeah, right!

I think I'm quite happy that I decided to stick with my current supplier, LPG Homeheat :-)

AdrianC

cairndog wrote: »

Trouble is the new supplier has to take over the tank from Calor (been with them for 20yrs) and they have to come and check the tank site etc. There are all sorts of rules/regs affecting where the tank is and they've got much stricter since Calor put this tank in.
Reading them I doubt if new supplier would accept our site position...

That's exactly where we were when we moved in, 3.5yrs ago.

One phone call, and FloGas took their old tank away.
One small concrete slab and a trench (I hired a minidigger from a local farmer and DIYed it in a day - £50 for the digger, 1.5m3 of premix concrete), and Calor were happy to deliver and connect a shiny new tank. No extra cost to me, just the contract price.

Mister_G

Just a quick update.

I've just ordered 1000 litres of LPG at 30ppl exc VAT from my local supplier, HBS in Hampshire.

It's stayed at this price for the past 18 months.

Interestingly, our small buying group (only 8 of us) were approached by Calor, who offered 28ppl fixed until November 2017 and no increase greater than 3.5ppl for the remainder of the 2 year contract. Additionally, there was a tank rental charge of £64 pa but £250 of free gas.

Most of us decided that we really didn't want to change, as we all had unpleasant experiences with Calor in the past.

JerryW

cairndog wrote: »

... I looked into this last time they hiked price. Trouble is the new supplier has to take over the tank from Calor (been with them for 20yrs) and they have to come and check the tank site etc. There are all sorts of rules/regs affecting where the tank is and they've got much stricter since Calor put this tank in.

Oh dear! Let me say where I have got to (I'm in Kent)
- I was with Calor for 20 years. In that time I got to know the company fairly well.
- I would say that as a company they have integrity and a lot of engineering knowledge. Their staff generally are efficient and good to deal with.
- BUT their sales and pricing operation is a total nightmare. No morals, no standards, no holds barred. They will charge whatever they can and milk you like a cow.

Like another recent poster, I was concerned about my tank. So I asked Shell (now called Avanti I think?) to take over the tank .. they gave me a competitive quote, and sent a very nice man along to survey the tank and he said it was the least compliant tank he'd ever seen .. to their credit, when I complained to Calor they not only met the Shell quote but at no cost to me they moved the tank site to a compliant location, replaced it with a new one, and replaced all the pipework between the tank and the house. *Your supplier has a duty to make the tank compliant, if they own it!*

Well that was some years ago, and ever since I have had to fight them over price every two years at renewal time to keep it competitive .. and this thread has been *so* useful!

This year I finally got fed up and told them to stuff it. Instead I have moved to Woldlink, a company which I simply cannot speak too highly of .. I have just ordered some gas from them, at 27.5p/l .. price is fixed until next March and you get a months notice of the next price so you can fill up if it will rise. They supply gas from Flogas, but you only deal with Woldlink. Flogas have taken on the tank, they didn't bother to come and inspect it.

I had a phone call from Calor, saying basically "You're switching to Flogas, but don't you realise that they are as bad as we are, or even worse?" .. but when I mentioned Woldlink, they went all quiet, and left me alone.

I'm not saying Woldlink are the best, but they are up there and there are *definitely* attractive alternatives, for any Calor or other mainstream company user. It depends where you live .. Limagas, Cardiff, Extragas, there are lots of other choices. But *please* don't let these big company sharks have an easy life or take you for a ride. Actually we are not in a bad place now, as consumers, so long as we understand our rights, exercise them, and read the small print carefully!

Good luck to all. This has been one of the most useful threads on the whole of MSE.com for me

AdrianC

JerryW wrote: »

I had a phone call from Calor, saying basically "You're switching to Flogas, but don't you realise that they are as bad as we are, or even worse?"

They do have a point there, tbf.

J_B

JerryW wrote: »

They will charge whatever they can and milk you like a cow.

As an (ex) dairy farmer, can I just say that the milking of cows is seval hundred times more regulated that the supplying of LPG