MASSIVE PRICE INCREASE GAS LPG - Public House.

divadog007

Hi,   Can you please advise us.     My business,  a public house (currently closed covid),    in Herefordshire, runs on lpg gas,      When i took over the business in 2016 the supplier was Countrywide farmers and we were happy with their prices.
Since 2018  Flogas have taken over,    at the time they hiked the price up to 38p litre,    which we thought too high ,   since then they have increased it to 44p litre.  I am unable to run my catering kitchen cost effectively,   and in the winter cannot afford to put the heating on,   so the pub is cold.     Have emailed Flogas with our concerns but no help at all, they delivered £700 of gas,     then a few weeks later another £700 (which we didnt ask for,   and am unable to pay).    I am looking for ways to save my business, this on top of everything else,    surely there must be some laws against these large companies squeezing us dry.    Thanks for reading.

Ectophile

Surely you must have some contract with Flogas that determines what they will deliver and when.

Be aware that as a business, you don't have consumer rights.  What it says in the contract is what you get, whether you want it or not.  It's up to you to negotiate the right contract, or take your business elsewhere.

mitchelkitman

As said above it depends on the contract. We are domestic customer with Calor, and our bulk LPG is 51ppL. Contract signed aa year ago said 46p and variable price (ie not fixed). We discussed this with them and they wouldn't give fixed price, just told us if we didn't sign they 'wouldn't guarantee' the price. Smacks of an illegal contract in my book. Although variable, they won't go down, even though I've said oil/gas prices have plummetted.

mitchelkitman

The LPG supply industry was looked at by the office of fair Trading a few years ago (google search shows 'case') and made to allow customers to move supplier. The main players were accused of bad practice but 'dodged the issue' by agreeing to make agreements more transparent and were allowed to self-regulate. Their latest bit of bad practice IMHO is to add new 'regulations' in the last few years (making for example gas tanks minimum 3m from buildings), and then telling the customer their tanks 'don't comply' and sending 2 experts (AKA salesmen) to bully the customer into paying for putting tanks underground. When challenged on the grounds of retrospectively applying their 'rules' they back down. Because of the Cartel these companies are running, the result is that the customer is now captive to that supplier as none of their 'mates' will take on tanks that 'don't comply'. A  friend of mine called it Legalised Crime.