AvantiGas - holding me to ransom :(

MarkandSarah

Last week, my partner tried to place an order over the telephone for LPG and was told that we could only have the gas if the tank was filled right up (at a cost of £600.00) as we have nearly run out. The last time we had our tank filled was in October 2010 and as I saw the delivery man he said that I did not need to have it filled right up. From around 25% that was in the tank at that time he was able to fill it up to about 75% which suited us as we cannot afford to pay huge sums of money when we do not use that much gas.
So, my partner said he did not want the gas if they would only do it if we had the tank filled right up. He told me what happened and I then looked on the Avanti Gas website order page where there is no minimum order if you have a small tank (1100 litres or less) which we do and so I feel that the information we were given was wrong. I placed an order via the website for the tank not to be filled right up and only requesting 200 litres. I also left a note for the delivery driver saying this. In fact, it was the last time we had a delivery that the driver said that we could leave a note on the tank if we did not want the tank to be filled right up to the top.
I have now recieved an email from AvantiGas saying the minimum order is 1000L. I have emailed them back stating all of the above and saying that in the current economic climate I feel that holding us to ransom by saying we can only have gas if we have the whole tank filled up is outrageous. We simply cannot afford to have the tank filled up at a cost of £600 as we don't have the money.
I used to pay a fixed monthly amount when it was Shell Gas (AvantisGas took over last year) but over the years the amount went up and up even though I was in credit most of the time because we just didn't use the gas and therefore didn't have the tank filled up all the time. I cancelled the monthly credit back in 2010 because they wanted to charge me £78.00 a month (rising from £55.00) which I thought was completely unacceptable what with the other household bills we have to pay.
I am wondering what I can do if they refuse to budge on this. I have taken the liberty of contacting the local newspaper but I don't know where else to turn. I have only ever used Shell Gas and don't even know if there are other suppliers that would deliver to me. Do they have a minimum order as well? I don't think I am being unfair in only asking for what I will use and more importantly afford. I am very upset over the whole thing. People who moan about mains gas have it easy that's for sure!
Sarah Nr St Austell Cornwall

fleurh

Hello Sarah

Sorry to hear about your problems. I was wondering if you'd managed to resolve this with Avanti - I am thinking of changing supplier and so far they've offered us the best deal. But I am wary of signing up to a 2 year deal with a supplier who turns out to be unsympathetic, especially over the coldest period of the year.

By the way, it might be an idea to post your question as a reply to the Sticky thread 'Bulk LPG - Cheapest suppliers......' - this might get you more responses.

MarkandSarah wrote: »

Last week, my partner tried to place an order over the telephone for LPG and was told that we could only have the gas if the tank was filled right up (at a cost of £600.00) as we have nearly run out. The last time we had our tank filled was in October 2010 and as I saw the delivery man he said that I did not need to have it filled right up. From around 25% that was in the tank at that time he was able to fill it up to about 75% which suited us as we cannot afford to pay huge sums of money when we do not use that much gas........
Sarah Nr St Austell Cornwall