Bulk LPG - Cheapest suppliers / supply route?

LittleVermin

wind00 - you might like to contact Auntie:

http://heating-oil.blogs-uk.co.uk/heating-oil-contact-bbc/

On HateLPG's suggestion about putting in another order, I'd think twice. A year or two back BP was having problems with deliveries - not because of bad weather - and the tanker driver told me he'd turn up to a place who'd put in an urgent order only to find they just needed a dribble. So he'd have to take an almost full tankerload back to base. Base was Bristol, his 'round' extended to Land's End! [Hah, I never thought I'd be on BP's side! Must be Christmas}

HateLPG

LittleVermin wrote: »

...the tanker driver told me he'd turn up to a place who'd put in an urgent order only to find they just needed a dribble. So he'd have to take an almost full tankerload back to base. Base was Bristol, his 'round' extended to Land's End! [Hah, I never thought I'd be on BP's side! Must be Christmas}

Sounds like they've got a good order processing / management system in place then!!!!

HateLPG

NEWSFLASH!

The "You and Yours" programme (BBC Radio 4, 12:00) is planning to run an item on LPG tommorrow, 22nd December.

They will have a representative from the LPG Association putting their side of the story - should make interesting listening.

howarddiana

mitchy74 wrote: »

Whats the ins and outs of the LPG supply company having to provide a continuos supply then other than them simply breaking their contract??

Struggling to get Flo to deliver despite calls last week and this, around the 5% level now previously up at 20% this time last week.

Hi,

Still waiting after almost a month. DEcided to send all my E-mails re promised deliveries to the director. We are also at 5% and keeping this to keep boiler alive on its frost stat. We are freezing. Director got his assistant to reply saying we would get gas before Xmas but can't say when. There are only 2 days to go and I very much doubt if I will have a warm Xmas. I live in Downham Market, Norfolk. Is any one else from Norfolk experiencing very poor service? I wish Flogas would get their stories straight. They all have different reasons for our non delivery.

overide

howarddiana wrote: »

Hi,

Still waiting after almost a month. DEcided to send all my E-mails re promised deliveries to the director. We are also at 5% and keeping this to keep boiler alive on its frost stat. We are freezing. Director got his assistant to reply saying we would get gas before Xmas but can't say when. There are only 2 days to go and I very much doubt if I will have a warm Xmas. I live in Downham Market, Norfolk. Is any one else from Norfolk experiencing very poor service? I wish Flogas would get their stories straight. They all have different reasons for our non delivery.

We're on Flogas supposed "top up" scheme, which is where they don't seem to think that you might be using more gas in the cold weather than in the summer so you have to check yourself anyway.

We're now out of gas after calling them last week to let them know that it was down to 10% and was promised a delivery today. That was apparently diverted elsewhere even though yesterday I told them we were down to less than 5%.

Emergency line has been engaged for the last two hours but will keep calling and get them to come out in the middle of the night as I don't trust them about delivery times any more.

If you're on the top up scheme, make sure you make a fuss if you run out as we've had £50 credited to us every time it's run out.

If I thought any of the other companies were any better I'd have moved to them by now, but reading this thread they don't seem to be.

DAVID.T_3

Hi,
reading with interest the supply problems being posted, i thought I would let you know whats happening.

Over the last two weeks supplies of propane have become very limited. Virtually all UK refineries are either out of product, broken, or jammed up with tankers with a 15 hour wait. A bad situation has really got a lot worse in the last 5 days. On top of this as some of you have experienced, some suppliers were already failing their customers BEFORE things got really bad

Today we have taken calls non stop from people who cannot get gas from their current supplier, some have been waiting six weeks and are still without supply and very cold, unfortunatley we can't help them or we wont have gas for our customers.

i would urge anyone waiting for supplies not to rely on getting it for christmas, if you can get out in the snow look at buying some electric fan heaters.

HateLPG

DAVID.T wrote: »

Hi,
reading with interest the supply problems being posted, i thought I would let you know whats happening.

Over the last two weeks supplies of propane have become very limited. Virtually all UK refineries are either out of product, broken, or jammed up with tankers with a 15 hour wait. A bad situation has really got a lot worse in the last 5 days.

DavidT,

I'm sure what you said is not what anyone wants to hear, but at the same time, I thank you for your candour. I for one, would rather be told it as it is (and therefore be in a position to take appropriate action in advance), rather than be fobbed off with empty promise after empty promise.... or worse still, jammed call centre lines!

I tried calling Calor a couple of times last week (just trying to tie up some loose ends from my old contract) and was simply unable to get through; I have contacted Shell, via email, regarding my next delivery and was informed (more or less by return) that they normally aim to deliver within 5 working days, but at present (as of yesterday), they are experiencing an extra 4 day lead time on deliveries. Here's hoping - gauge is starting to look worryingly on the low side!

Things are not helped by the fact that delivery to distribution depots is also made by tanker and not pipeline, so I guess some particuarly hard-hit areas are inevitably going to suffer more than others as depots run low

Do you know whether any of the companies is willing or able to offer emergency supplies by 47kg cylinder (and obviously emergency connection), in extremis??

frankie

HateLPG wrote: »

DavidT,

Do you know whether any of the companies is willing or able to offer emergency supplies by 47kg cylinder (and obviously emergency connection), in extremis??

That sounds like a good idea. How do you 'plumb in' the cylinders to the gas supply though?

Seems to me that bulk tanks could be fitted with some sort of dual supply system that would enable bottled gas to be plugged in as a stop gap in the sort of situation we see ourselves in now.

howarddiana

overide wrote: »

We're on Flogas supposed "top up" scheme, which is where they don't seem to think that you might be using more gas in the cold weather than in the summer so you have to check yourself anyway.

We're now out of gas after calling them last week to let them know that it was down to 10% and was promised a delivery today. That was apparently diverted elsewhere even though yesterday I told them we were down to less than 5%.

Emergency line has been engaged for the last two hours but will keep calling and get them to come out in the middle of the night as I don't trust them about delivery times any more.

If you're on the top up scheme, make sure you make a fuss if you run out as we've had £50 credited to us every time it's run out.

If I thought any of the other companies were any better I'd have moved to them by now, but reading this thread they don't seem to be.

My E-mail to the director has done wonders? or maybe a coincidence but Flogas have just delivered! We have been using convector heaters for the last week and although we only had a couple of rooms warm we at least have just about coped. Will keep these for the next Flogas delivery problem. Tanker driver filled us up (apparently most people are getting a 50% top up) as he wasn't sure about future delivery in poor weather to our area. I do hope others get their deliveries in time for Xmas. This has sent warning signals to us for the future, although all LPG suppliers seem to be problematic.

wind00

Well, I listened to the Radio 4 show which was interesting, but unfortunately didn't give any ideas on how to get gas! ;-)

It now seems impossible to get through to BP either by phone (have to registed for a non-existent call-back), or e-mail (no response). I phoned their head office to ask for the complaints procedure, and was told I had to phone the call centre for the complaints department. The lady I talked to recognised the irony of the situation that I had to phone the call centre to complain about the call centre but couldn't offer any other solutions.

So - I see a lot of wood burning ahead of me this Christmas!

Good luck to everyone else in a similar situation !