FloGas over 60p LPG price - Is this legal?

tom154

Just got a call from trading standards, it seems there are plenty of people contacting them regarding unfair pricing. They will be contacting flogas, for the second time by the sounds of it.

I urge any flogas customers having the same problem to contact their local trading standards office.

Cheers


tom

HateLPG

lpgman wrote: »

This is below cost price for Flogas and would only be given to you if you use over 18 tonnes each year.

I find it rather hard to believe that ANY company of ANY product ANYWHERE in the world would supply a single commodity to ANYONE at below cost, REGARDLESS of their usage - it's not like they are using it as a "loss leader"!!!!

Are you suggesting that Flogas are soon going to be registering for "Charitable Status", lpgman???

Seriously, though, I am quite sure that NO company would be prepared to supply LPG at a margin of less than 5% (and probably 10%) to include delivery, never mind their overheads, from which I would infer that the wholesale LPG cost to Flogas is substantially less than 30ppl. Fair enough, they've got to make a profit, but prices pushing 60ppl is simply daylight robbery.

savemoney

Mentioning flogas on this program

Its at start

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00slm4t/Dont_Get_Done_Get_Dom_Series_4_Flogas/

longforgotten

I gave Flogas plenty of chance to reduce the price but they did not take it. When I finally moved to Countrywide last year the price with them was £32p per litre + vat..... Flogas phoned up and offered to match the price for six months. Why didn't they do that in the first place ! At this point I thought I'd rather go to another supplier even if it cost me more money in the end ( only a bit more money mind :rotfl:) as I think Flogas just charge what they can get away with !

I'm sure they must still have been making a profit at this much lower level or they would not consider offering it !

lexuslass

Sorry... this is a really long post!!

I have been reading these Flogas threads with a lot of interest this evening!

We always seem to be paying a lot on Flogas bills. My OH rang them earlier today to pay the £335 we owed them and he asked why it is always so much, they asked him for a meter reading which he gave them. The woman disappeared for a while and came back and said "well, actually, you need to pay us nearly £1000!!!".

We moved into this house in May 2009 and have paid Flogas over £3,500. We are not wasteful. Yes, we had the heating on over the winter but we relied a lot on a logburner we have in the living room! We have three children so do need to keep the house warm at night, but the heating was never on excessively (well I don't think it is excessive ...came on at about 7am till 10am and then again at 4pm till 9pm!). The thermostat was never turned up too much either!

Anyway, we thought we'd see a drop in the bills over the last few warm months... the heating hasn't been on at all. The hot water is on for an hour or so a day (just enough for baths, showers etc). We have an electric oven with a gas hob (which is hardly used as I use an electric steamer for veggies, so it's only ever one hob that is used for cooking potatoes if we have them!)

According to a letter we received in April 2010, we are paying £173.25 per cubic meter (or 45 pence per litre), which doesn't seem too excessive after reading some of the posts on here - but what we have paid equates to some 7,777 litres!

Our thoughts now are that there could be a problem with the gas tank (we have a gas tank in the garden but it services four of the houses around us! apparently it is a 10 year contract that is due to run out this year or next year) or even the meter... but Flogas didn't really want to know - they want £250 to even look at it!

I am at a loss as to where to go from here!!

Has anyone had a similar experience?

thanks for reading my post and thanks in advance for any advice!

lamplighter2

this is getting silly 60p a ltr for lpg i am with flogas and i am paying 36p a ltr and this has gone up 4p a ltr since changing.
get hold of your mp something has to be done to regulate prices to a fair price. yes there is transport cost but not to this level.
have a look for a local oil supplier some are doing lpg or try countrywide.
or are you in a village group together and see what together how much gas you use in a year and get a price to fill the whole village it makes it more viable for them to come and fill you all up on a top up system.
martin if you are reading this this needs to be aired on Radio 2.

lamplighter2

lexuslass wrote: »

Sorry... this is a really long post!!

I have been reading these Flogas threads with a lot of interest this evening!

We always seem to be paying a lot on Flogas bills. My OH rang them earlier today to pay the £335 we owed them and he asked why it is always so much, they asked him for a meter reading which he gave them. The woman disappeared for a while and came back and said "well, actually, you need to pay us nearly £1000!!!".

We moved into this house in May 2009 and have paid Flogas over £3,500. We are not wasteful. Yes, we had the heating on over the winter but we relied a lot on a logburner we have in the living room! We have three children so do need to keep the house warm at night, but the heating was never on excessively (well I don't think it is excessive ...came on at about 7am till 10am and then again at 4pm till 9pm!). The thermostat was never turned up too much either!

Anyway, we thought we'd see a drop in the bills over the last few warm months... the heating hasn't been on at all. The hot water is on for an hour or so a day (just enough for baths, showers etc). We have an electric oven with a gas hob (which is hardly used as I use an electric steamer for veggies, so it's only ever one hob that is used for cooking potatoes if we have them!)

According to a letter we received in April 2010, we are paying £173.25 per cubic meter (or 45 pence per litre), which doesn't seem too excessive after reading some of the posts on here - but what we have paid equates to some 7,777 litres!

Our thoughts now are that there could be a problem with the gas tank (we have a gas tank in the garden but it services four of the houses around us! apparently it is a 10 year contract that is due to run out this year or next year) or even the meter... but Flogas didn't really want to know - they want £250 to even look at it!

I am at a loss as to where to go from here!!

Has anyone had a similar experience?

thanks for reading my post and thanks in advance for any advice!

do you each have a meter to see what you are using if not how do each of the houses know what the other is using 7k of lpg in a year for a house i only use 2k and i have a cooker aswell 7k would be more a comercial user not domestic i would get them to check it

lexuslass

lamplighter2 wrote: »

do you each have a meter to see what you are using if not how do each of the houses know what the other is using 7k of lpg in a year for a house i only use 2k and i have a cooker aswell 7k would be more a comercial user not domestic i would get them to check it

Yes, apparently, there are four seperate meters... we (all four houses) ran out of gas over the winter (which apparently shouldn't happen as they come and automatically fill up when it is low).. they checked for leaks etc and came back with nothing.

At the moment, we are noting our readings daily over the next couple of weeks... we cannot see how we have used so much..

During the winter, I was not over-riding the system while being here during the day (which I admit I used to in our old house!). In fact, me and the three children would have fleeces on etc with freezing cold hands!! It's not an old building either... barn conversion but done in around the year 2000.

Before having children, I was an accountant for a company with a lot of commercial branches and in comparison (for somewhere that would have heating on all day...staff leaving things on etc.), their bills were not as high...

Will wait and see what the meter readings tell us!

edit: there are four meters... I doubt Flogas checked if each meter was working correctly when they came (just that there were no leaks etc) ....and I very much doubt any of our other three neighbours would confess that they had an extremely low bill. Silly question, I know, as I don't have the contracts from the gas suppliers (we were renting this place and are in the process of buying it)... but could we get someone totally independant to come and check everything instead of Flogas?

lamplighter2

do you pay a yearly or daily standing charge if either then you pay to have the tank maintained, and if you beleive there is a problem with the meters then flogas s your supplier have to check it without cost.
your other line of action is to get hold of trading standards and say you beleive there is a fault with the meter, as these are calibrated instrements they have to be accurate, if it is found not to be then you have a claim againts flogas.
do you know what your neibours usage is. it is staggering 7k of gas a year just to heat a house and cooker, as in my previous post i have a 1914 bungalow all wood i have the boiler on all the time during the winter and cooking every day and it has allways been around the 2k or less.

DAVID.T_3

HateLPG wrote: »

I find it rather hard to believe that ANY company of ANY product ANYWHERE in the world would supply a single commodity to ANYONE at below cost, REGARDLESS of their usage - it's not like they are using it as a "loss leader"!!!!

Are you suggesting that Flogas are soon going to be registering for "Charitable Status", lpgman???

Seriously, though, I am quite sure that NO company would be prepared to supply LPG at a margin of less than 5% (and probably 10%) to include delivery, never mind their overheads, from which I would infer that the wholesale LPG cost to Flogas is substantially less than 30ppl. Fair enough, they've got to make a profit, but prices pushing 60ppl is simply daylight robbery.

QUITE RIGHT Hate LPG. The comment from lpgman is misleading. The cost for gas at that time would have been around 27p per ltr.If Lister Gases were selling it at 35p per Ltr they were making around 30%. If LPGMAN says that's below flogas cost price maybe thats why they are so expensive, that they buy at the wrong prices. Checked at Lister Gases today they were offering 37p ltr or 45p ltr fixed for a year:T