Bulk LPG - Cheapest suppliers / supply route?

bry54 · 6 June 2012 at 10:49AM

Calor have offered us the same terms as yourself , with a free boiler service and £150 credit on our account.

frankie · 6 June 2012 at 5:04PM

alfa*alien wrote: »

Hi all,

Flo gas wanted a standing charge of £115 then lowered to £84 and wanted 49.9 protected for 6 months with no price protection therefter. Oh this is without VAT!!!! They would not negotiate on the ppl!?!:eek:

Calor Well, i didn't even entertain them!

Avanti Gas proved a totally different kettle of fish. £63 standing charge with 43.9ppl for 12 months then after ensure it will not rise more that 5ppl on any 6 months. All this includes VAT oh and deliveries included. Guess I'll be going the Avanti route then.:j

Welcome to the forum.

Read past posts about flogas and pricing, sucks 'em in and spits 'em out!!

Avanti - Is that a fixed price for 12 months then? Deal sounds reasonable. If it is fixed and its a 2 year contract, final six month price on contract should be no more than 53.9ppl.

Deliveries should always be included so no savings there over other suppliers.

There would still be no harm getting a price from Calor, use the quotations so far as bargaining power.

Ace_gas_guzzler · 6 June 2012 at 5:13PM

Our contract with Countrywide expired on 6th of May so before then, I contacted all of the suppliers delivering in our area (CV8 Kenilworth) with some interesting results. Working on the basis that prices seemed to be coming down, plus I had 30% in the tank so a good bit of leeway to play with, here are the latest prices obtained over the past week unless otherwise stated:

Callow 42p per litre frozen to end of Dec
Calor 47.4p frozen for 9 months (April price plus £250 'free' gas)
Carver 42.55p (April price)
Countrywide 43p frozen for 6 months
Energas 43/44p
ExtraFuel 48.99p (April price)
Lister 42.5p frozen to end of Dec
Avantigas 41.9p frozen for 6 months
Mole Valley 46.9p (April price)

I didn't go back to Calor, Carver, ExtraFuel or Mole Valley as they were uncompetitive when compared with the other suppliers. Tank rentals were fairly similar except for Carver (£239.40 inc VAT) and ExtraFuel £126 inc VAT).

Callow deliver to a business centre just down the road from us so I'll get in touch with them to find out if they are happy with price, service and delivery. If so, it looks like Callow get the prize! They even reduce the price when market prices go down, something that neither Calor nor Countrywide did over the past four years, the first two with Calor and the last two with Countrywide!

If anyone has any thoughts on what I should do next, all input would be most gratefully received! Interestingly, the difference per year in costs on 6000 litres usage is nearly £600 between the highest and lowest quote!

bry54 · 6 June 2012 at 5:15PM

Calor came today and resited and relabelled Countrywide's tank free of charge but it cost me £160 to have the concrete base extended , I'm going to try and reclaim this from Countrywide for siting the tank against regulations.

Mbday · 7 June 2012 at 10:26AM

Doing some background research in advance of negotiating a new 2 year deal for our buying group (see previous posts). Rang Flogas and asked for a quote based on my individual (NOT buying group) consumption of around 6,000 litres a year. Quoted 43.89ppl, fixed for 6 months. After that it reverts to variable. However if price increased by more than 5p in next 12 months, I would have right to cancel contract. Contact stressed that it was not a price guarantee or cap, but was made in line with new OFT agreement! I queried what the variable current price was and she said it was what I had just been quoted i.e. 43.89ppl. This didn't make sense, so I checked and asked if, at the end of the 6 months, the variable price would still be 43.89ppl. She said that unless market conditions changed (!), in which case Flogas would write to me, that would be the price I would pay after 6 months. I don't believe a word of it, but she insisted that that was the "current" variable price for customers like myself. Hope this helps those of you currently trying to negotiate a deal.

Mbday · 7 June 2012 at 10:29AM

Forgot to add: I asked if they had any other incentives and she came back with £75 of free gas as well.

mbday wrote: »

Doing some background research in advance of negotiating a new 2 year deal for our buying group (see previous posts). Rang Flogas and asked for a quote based on my individual (NOT buying group) consumption of around 6,000 litres a year. Quoted 43.89ppl, fixed for 6 months. After that it reverts to variable. However if price increased by more than 5p in next 12 months, I would have right to cancel contract. Contact stressed that it was not a price guarantee or cap, but was made in line with new OFT agreement! I queried what the variable current price was and she said it was what I had just been quoted i.e. 43.89ppl. This didn't make sense, so I checked and asked if, at the end of the 6 months, the variable price would still be 43.89ppl. She said that unless market conditions changed (!), in which case Flogas would write to me, that would be the price I would pay after 6 months. I don't believe a word of it, but she insisted that that was the "current" variable price for customers like myself. Hope this helps those of you currently trying to negotiate a deal.

Mbday · 7 June 2012 at 12:06PM

Avanti have offered me (as individual consumer) 42.9 ppl fixed for 6 months or 44.9 ppl fixed for 12. There is a "price cap" of 5ppl in any 6 month period thereafter. As a group they have offered 39ppl for 1 year with 5p cap as above. Haven't investigated tank rental charge. Flogas' was £70 per year.

Gazza01 · 7 June 2012 at 7:42PM

Hi I have terminated my contract wit BP but it has taken them over 18 months to eventually collect/uplift there gas tank!!!
My question is I signed a two year contract back in jan 2007 but they now insist that I have to pay the £180 tank uplift fee.Do I legally have to pay this ? As i would have thought that a two year contract expires after 2 years but the claim it keeps running??
Also when I cancelled the contract I emailed them to say I would bill them for ground rent whilst it was on my land.they say they dont pay un solicitated invoices. Any info on this would be greatly appritiated

HateLPG · 7 June 2012 at 11:49PM

Flogas customers, TAKE NOTE!

[STRIKE]A bit of good news, for once![/STRIKE] (Wrong! See my later post here to find out why I say this)

Although you may not realise it, following an Undertaking to the OFT by Flogas earlier this year (in April, I believe), you now have, as part of your existing contracts, a "price cap clause".

Full details can be found in the short document at http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/consumer-enforcement/SKMBT.pdf

Paragraph 3(a) sets out the nature of pricing clauses that Flogas are permitted to include in their contracts;

Paragraph 3(c) explains in simple terms that any such clauses will be binding on all extant contracts.

I doubt Flogas will be in much of a hurry to tell existing customers about this, so if they try to subject you to (or have recently subjected you to) a large rise, I would suggest pointing this document out to them (and also advising Sharon Dias at the OFT of your experiences).

Flogas now publish their Terms and Conditions online, as required by the OFT (see http://www.oft.gov.uk/OFTwork/consumer-enforcement/consumer-enforcement-completed/lpg/) and although they are not immediately obvious, they can be found at: http://www.flogas.co.uk/226/domestic-contract-terms-and-conditions

And what a convoluted set of terms they are. They are clearly designed to be as opaque as possible to the consumer and to leave Flogas the maximum opportuinty to push their prices upwards:

5.7 Where the cost of supplying the LPG increases due to:
5.7.1 any underlying increase in the cost of LPG as evidenced by reference to the relevant Platts LPG price index for North West Europe (taking into account any relevant exchange rate issues);

5.7.2 any increase in our direct transportation costs; and/or

5.7.3 any increase (not related to clause 5.7.1)in the cost to us of purchasing LPG from our suppliers,

we retain the right to pass on such increases to you by increasing the price of our LPG.
We may increase (in a single step or a series of steps) the price of LPG for the reasons listed at clauses 5.7.2 and 5.7.3 by no more than five pence per litre in any twelve month period. Please note that no such limit shall apply to any increase which reflects an increase in the underlying cost of LPG (as set out at clause 5.7.1). For the avoidance of doubt, the maximum increase in the price of LPG (the "Upper Annual Limit") in a given period is:
(a) the cost increase over the corresponding period due to clause 5.7.1; plus

(b) the cost increase over the corresponding period due to clauses 5.7.2 and/or 5.7.3 together,

where (a) is an unlimited increase and (b) shall be limited to a maximum of five pence per litre in any 12 month period.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: This may not be such good news after all (hence the strikethrough) - see my later post here
to find out why

frankie · 8 June 2012 at 10:30AM

Thank for that Hatelpg.

Well it 'seems' an improvement on what Flogas used to do BUT - There is no chance that flogas will be awarded the crystal mark for using clear language!!

What the hell does all that mean in plain English!!

Bulk LPG - Cheapest suppliers / supply route?

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