Dishonest claims by Tesco on Fuel prices

Horseunderwater

The price usually goes up/down when the fuel lorry delivers. Tesco in our area never reduced prices to what they said in the papers, so we always lost out. But I used to fill up more locally where it was often 2p more because to "save" money I'd have to drive a 12 mile round trip! We use Tesco with the fuel thing about once/month or so.

Wig

agarnett wrote: »

It wasn't the cheapest.

I could have bought another brand down the road at 98p and of course that wasn't Tesco!

agarnett wrote: »

No tricks. I just paid the pump price. It has been dropping constantly and daily - sometimes more than once a day - because of the *** oil price crash *** which also means half price flyaway holidays are now on sale. I'd give Tesco a miss if I were you.

Can you give us the postcode of the petrol station you used.?

runningben16

agarnett wrote: »

Ben, I think I have somehow missed out on some economics and cultural gems that you are obviously privy to - could you tell me where I can gain this fascinating new outlook on the world which you appear to recommend highly? It could save me hours of thinking ...

Sorry, I don't understand... I'm interested in what you think the 'right price' is? £1/litre? Less? And what are you basing this on?

But as a separate issue, I always automatically assume that supermarkets are the cheapest, but a quick look at the petrol stations I drove past on the way to work this morning showed they're not - Morrisons at least is well adrift at the moment

OddballJamie

Wig wrote: »

Can you give us the postcode of the petrol station you used.?

From his previous fuel related posts I believe it was Denmark.

agarnett

Correct. No tricks. They don't easily stand for it.

And the diesel price in Denmark I think has dropped another 5p per litre since I last bought some here before Christmas. I am just back again now.

I got 4p per litre off the diesel 118.9p price at Tesco in Beckton East London after spending £200 on Christmas Eve including £80 on gift cards - the latter part of which didn't qualify even though the cards have to be spent in Tesco.

The diesel price back here in Denmark on my nearest station (which is not the cheapest) was DKK8.31 when I drove past last night. That's 87p per litre. The 95 Octane price was DKK9.66 which is £1.02.

The tax on diesel is less than it is in UK, but the tax on petrol is the same to within a percentage point I think.

Now would any of you sharp minds like to hazard a guess at the "right price" of road fuel, or are you going to continue to insist that MSE'ers should shove their heads back in the sand and shut up?

Wig

agarnett wrote: »

The 95 Octane price was DKK9.66 which is £1.02.

Right so that is 5p per litre cheaper than UK, that's nice but not the end of the world for us.

Why are you quoting Danish prices without making that clear in your post? You think it's not a "trick" to be comparing Danish prices?

agarnett

Wig wrote: »

Right so that is 5p per litre cheaper than UK, that's nice but not the end of the world for us.

Why are you quoting Danish prices without making that clear in your post? You think it's not a "trick" to be comparing Danish prices?

It's not a trick because broadly speaking as at Summer 2014 prices, Denmark taxed their petrol at about the same amount per litre as the UK and Denmark is otherwise known as a high tax country. It is also commonly reported as a happier and less corrupt country, and as I have reported many times over the past few months, its pump prices vary daily - usually twice a day. They play fair. So why don't ours?

I think it is because in the UK we suffer UK petrol retailer cartel tricks, that's why. Plain as day, yet UK citizens don't get out enough so have been generally blind to it.

I could easily have been banging on about the French pump prices I enjoy when I get on and off the ferry if I wished to exaggerate a stonking price difference, but their fuel tax is obviously less, especially in some regions where they actually charge less excise.

However, someone really ought to keep proper track of all the 'before tax' pump prices across the EU as it is becoming so very obvious from the underlying net of tax prices in other EU countries that we in the UK have been systematically ripped off whilst the oil price has plummetted rapidly over the past months. You say a 5p difference isn't too bad. Really? Wouldn't that be a double-digit overcharge on the underlying product? At current prices, I reckon a 7p difference would indeed be about 20%.

That would surely attract your attention, Wig?

At this moment, I think the lowest prices in the UK are probably about 108.9 for unleaded, and 114.7 for diesel at selected supermarkets where volume sales are probably low. I know one that often gets used as a promotion starter in newsreel footage but which is well off any through route and does not rely heavily upon customers arriving by car. But many other non-motorway out of town supermarket venues are still coughing up much more than those prices I found today on petrolprices.com.

I will concede that as the fuel only element of pump price falls further, a relatively higher percentage of the total price is tax in the UK because the excise is higher at 58p per litre flat rate. That higher rigid flat rate is less and less offset by the effect of our lower 20% VAT rate versus the Danish 47p flat rate excise and 25% VAT rate. That difference in approach is however no excuse for not adjusting prices daily. We have the technology, so why haven't they been using it?

agarnett

http://www.ingo.dk/dk_DK/pg1334076701846/INGO/Priserdk.html
http://www.q8.dk/priser/
http://www.ok.dk/privat/priser
https://www.unoxautomat.dk/da-DK/Priser.aspx/benzin-og-olie
http://www.shell.dk/products-services/on-the-road/fuels/fuel-price/historic-prices.html
(there's more where these came from)

In answer to my own question: I think not. What think you?

These prices are I believe maximum prices nationally on the day. More than one of the retailers talks about price wars which may (and very much do continually) affect local pricing :-)

I don't think we need much more evidence than this - it is very clear to me that the UK road fuel retailers are a secretive anti-competitive cartel.

Wig

agarnett wrote: »

I just filled up with 95 octane unleaded petrol for exactly £1.00 per litre at Shell
It wasn't the cheapest. I could have bought another brand down the road at 98p and of course that wasn't Tesco!

DUTR wrote: »

How so?
Do elaborate.

agarnett wrote: »

No tricks. I just paid the pump price. It has been dropping constantly and daily - sometimes more than once a day - because of the *** oil price crash *** which also means half price flyaway holidays are now on sale. I'd give Tesco a miss if I were you.

My point being that on a thread where we are discussing UK petrol prices, you came along and said I just bought at £1.00 per litre. Why bother saying that without making it clear that you are talking about prices in Denmark?

Someone asked you to clarify and you still did not say "I bought it in Denmark" but just said "no tricks".

What you should have said was:
"I just filled up with 95 octane unleaded petrol for exactly 9.56DK per litre at Shell in Denmark"
Then people might have had a better idea of what you were talking about.

agarnett

Wig, I thought you were sharper than this.

Oil is a global product. The price of it started to crash a couple of months ago resulting in continuous price drops in places like Denmark but dishonest pricing in the UK. The price at individual stations in DK changes as often as three times every day and the maximum price for each company is published on their websites, often with a complete history of daily pricing over months or years. The price at Tesco and Sainsburys and Asda and others is announced in unashamed unison one or two days in advance via MSE!

Shell is another retailer that due to its global presence in the oil business publishes a different website for tens of countries - you can select them easily from the drop down list at the top left of any of them. I want to highlight them because they perhaps represent some kind of control case when comparing pricing behaviours of retailers in different countries. In DK, Shell publishes no less than 5 years worth of detailed historic daily pricing! In UK it publishes nothing on pricing except weak excuses.

And yet you have posted about the method a poster used to create some much needed further curiosity on this thread about a very important money-saving topic - one which always seems to get glossed over by so many little Englanders who otherwise seem very reluctant to check the world beyond their noses?

I really would like to know what have you might have to say about the dishonesty and secretive pricing of the UK petrol retailers versus the total transparency of pricing by all the DK petrol retailers? They surely represent polar opposites in approach? Why would that be? Horses for courses perhaps? Is the UK easy going for petrol retailers?

Compare and contrast their behaviour please, not mine