Possible 5p-10p/litre petrol discount

Rubber_Duck_4

click on view public profile. the option is in there

Bargain_Babe-a-Licious!

Hello MSE folks... :grouphug:

Here is a copy of the e-mail I have just sent to Ben at the pipeline site. If Nick would be happy to respond here on MSE so we can all see the reply asap, it would be more beneficial than only sending a reply to my personal email address.

Here goes:

Hi,

Exactly how much money have you made from people accessing moneysavings on their utility bills? ie. you must receive financial kick backs...
Surely you are not subject to non-disclosure agreement over this information.

Transparency on this matter would restore faith in your intentions.

Many thanks and I look forward to a prompt and brief reply that starts with a pound sign... £

Pipeline member.

So, we are all hopeful & supporting the pipeline cause & would appreciate transparency.
Martin takes pains to ensure the MSE site has transparency for it's members.

rdwarr

I certainly wouldn't grace a letter like that with any sort of reply. And I was probably the first sceptic here!

santana-mx3

santana-mx3 wrote:

Paul, I think this is the one you haven't seen yet:

Paul_Herring wrote:

No. That's the one that I received 6 hours after I posted here.

Err... that would be why you hadn't seen it yet!
Never mind. You've seen it now.

Back to the subject - the email wasn't too encouraging. I'm still not bothered though. I haven't lost anything. Re their use of links on which they make commission, most moneysavers like us probably wouldn't use them as we would go via rpoints, quidco etc. Some may wish to use them to support pipeline like some may choose to support Martin.

Some have expressed concern that they think Ben is using his site just to make money from referrals without actually planning on delivering on the fuel cards. That's not really something I have thought myself, but perhaps Ben would be better off making things clear like Martin does by giving links which support his site and links which don't and explaining the consequences of using either.

Bargain_Babe-a-Licious! wrote:

Hi,

Exactly how much money have you made from people accessing moneysavings on their utility bills? ie. you must receive financial kick backs...
Surely you are not subject to non-disclosure agreement over this information.

Transparency on this matter would restore faith in your intentions.

Many thanks and I look forward to a prompt and brief reply that starts with a pound sign... £

Pipeline member.

I don't think he needs to tell us how much he has made out of referrals - it's not common in general for people to state exactly how much they make from referrals. I don't think the tone of the letter would help too much - I know you use polite words like "thanks" but even so "Exactly how much..... financial kickbacks... surely you are not subject to non-disclosure... brief reply that starts with a pound sign" may be seen as being accusatory, sarcastic and demanding.

I suppose this may become an issue if the fuel card doesn't ever materialise in which case more people will favour the conspiracy theories.

NickCouchman

Here, as requested, is the public response to Babe's query.

Sadly, if it began with a £ sign, there would have to be a minus in front of it.
Our monthly costs are substantially higher than any income we receive.

Pipeline doesn't have any ads, as you may have noticed, it doesn't sell any products, and it doesn't get any kickbacks from insurers or utility providers. It does get a small amount of affiliate income - as this site does - from directing traffic to price comparison sites but that is not why the links are there. They are there because people have asked Pipeline to use their 'clout' to get a better deal on fuels like Gas.

This comparison service seemed like a good compromise that would actually benefit people by allowing them to make accurate price comparisons from ALL the current providers. So far, less than 1% of members have done so and about 10% of that 0.8% have chosen to switch but the facility is there.

We will also, having been given his permission, include a link to Martins site for people who want a lot more detail on fuel costs as well as information on other savings.

Most of the commission that is generated by the small number of members who decide to switch fuels as a result of using Energy Helpline is given to the member as cashback. As far as we know, Pipeline and Martin are the only people who do this.

We could have explained how affiliate linking works but we decided that it would probably only fuel the sceptics and critics. Ben gets some very insulting and accusatory emails sometimes and, as he is funding this whole exercise himself, it doesn't go down well.

The next genius who makes puns about SCAMmell is likely to be unsubscribed without comment. So far *nobody* has been excluded.

You are right. We aren't giving a delivery date any more - we gave an estimate in good faith when we began - but there are a lot of issues still to sort out.

The good news is for every unpleasant or critical email that arrives, there are about nine that are supportive or just requests for information and assistance.
and even the really outrageous emails get polite replies - eventually.

I hope this helps.


==Nick

Ben_About_Town

No Progress, just news letters and all .

They seems to be sending me offers, but no real progress. Was this a cleaver way to obtain a fair few email address ?

lofty_2

a year on still no news. whats going on?

N9eav

To be fair to Nick, it may not be as easy as he thought.
I wanted to reduce heating oil costs in our village, so I tried to get people to buy off the same supplier on the same day. One bulk drop to several houses should save 3-4p a litre.
But the oil companies want to know how many litres I need. I say How much discount would be get? Well how many litres do you need. Well that depends on the discount as to how many people want to join up.
Basically I got no where as no compnay would commit to a price that I could use to attract people to join up. Stupid really... So I have some sympathy.

Mr_Vincent

http://www.petrolprices.com/

Easy enough to use.
Two e-mail addresses will get you 8 e-mail alerts and up to 50 petrol stations at your chosen frequency.
I use them to find the cheapest petrol within my area and I am often not far from finding 5p per litre differences saving me usually around £2.00 - £5.00 for a full tank of gas.

Repeating
http://www.petrolprices.com/

By the way, I too am a member of pipeline which is not convincing at the moment but like the owner says, if you don't like it, leave.