Once again the Government has only concentrated on the “big 6” and not bothered with the rural communities who are without mains energy. LPG companies have as usual been left alone and not included which means as usual they are free to set their own prices. We have to keep fighting away to make the government aware of us, remember write to your MPs, complain where you can, make them know that we are not happy!

I have written to Nick Clegg to ask about what he is doing with regard to LPG companies and what plans he has for helping rural communities who are not connected up to mains suppliers.

Apologies to all I have been away but am trying to catch up with your emails and will filter and post them all up as soon as I can.

I see we are up to 278 on the e-petitition  (we were only at 2 some 2 months ago!) Lets keep going on this, tell all your friends and neighbours let continue to sign up and push as hard as we can.

Regards – Dickie

With the usual blurb about ” We are told by the oil suppliers that the market for oil based energy products has risen on the back of rising crude oil costs – up by over 17% since the turn of the year – and LPG has been no exception National news reports of record diesel prices at petrol stations do bear this out”.

Then the bombshell – ” It is with regret that I write to inform you that the price of propane is to increase from the 8th of March 2012 by ……….wait for it…….5.00ppl.

Countrywide go on to say in the lengthy letter, “we are delaying the increase until the 8th of  March so you have the opportunity to place an order in the advance of the increases”,  (great you think), but here’s the the catch…………….

“However please note that we can only accept orders for deliveries to tanks where the level of gas is 40% or below on your gauge“.  As long as the order is placed before the deadline date the old price will apply, even if the delivery is made after that date. (and I love this bit) In the unlikely event of customers placing orders with false reading i.e. tank levels are actually higher, then we reserve the right to apply a delivery charge”.

So a 5ppl price rise on top of a 3.5PPL back in January, plus if you have over 40% in your tank you are scuppered. I wonder whether it says anything about refills at 40% or below in the contract?  I must look it up and check, I would be surprised if LPG came under a governing body like Ofgem if this would be allowed.

What can we do about this horrendous rise? Well when I rang to complain when we had the 3.5ppl, the chap I spoke to said they were always open to negotiation, so any Countrywide customers please get in touch with your local sales managers and start to complain because this is just ridiculous. At this rate nobody but the very rich will be able to afford LPG.

As it is I now have my hot water boiler set to 1 hour in the morning and 2 hours in the evening, the central heating is only  on for only 2 hrs in the evening. I CANNOT AFFORD TO PUT IT ON FOR ANY LONGER!

I am now seriously considering Solar Panel installation for my heating, take a look at this link . It may just save you some money in the long run.

Let me know your views and don’t forget to sign the E petition we need it more than ever!

Regards – Dickie

We started last week with just 2 people today we are 78!

This is excellent, keep up the good work and lets continue to spread the word and get everyone to sign up!

It will be interesting to see who buys this, could be any of the bigger suppliers but my bet would be Flogas.

Regards – Dickie

I was inquiring about 3.5ppl cut clauses from contracts and finding more information about the E-petition scheme. Looks like my totals (4 million was including all non mains users….oops!) Below is the reply i received which was very useful:

quote:

It varies from supplier-to-supplier, and also from contract-to-contract with a given supplier. For example, Calor in recent times have offered contracts with “get out” clauses set at rates of 3ppl every six months, 3.5ppl every six months and even 3.5ppl every three months, so you’ll need to check your contract carefully.

Also, not all suppliers include any such clause at present, Flogas being a notable and probably the most significant example. Previous Flogas contracts have been criticised by the OFT for failing to include such a clause, and this is an area that the OFT are (supposedly) looking to tighten up on. There has been a lot of discussion on these points in this thread over the past year to 18 months, so if you read back a few pages, I’m sure all your questions on this matter will be answered.

Quote:

Nice idea. I am one of the eight who have already signed, so only another 99,992 to go! The problem is finding 100,000 users to sign it. I am going from memory here, but the figure of 4 million is the total number of Off Mains energy users in the UK. The majority of these use heating oil, with a small number using wood stoves or renewables. The number of domestic LPG users in the UK is closer to the 270,000 mark, of whom a signifiant proportion use bottled LPG. I seem to remember that the total number of bulk LPG users was recently quoted as being closer to 150,000, which in the grand scheme of things is a pretty minority voice.

Anyway, no harm to be had in signing – and for those who wish to, the petition can be found here: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/14598

As for moving LPG regulation further up the agenda, the recent OFT study into Off Mains Energy Supply did LPG users no favours at all (plenty on that subject posted in this thread too!); And persistent letter writing to MPs, the OFT and the Secretary of State seems to have no more significant affect than banging your head repeatedly against a (very thick) brick wall, partly because LPG users are such a small minority and partly because of political reluctance to do anything that would discourage any movement away from any non-renewable energy source. I really would like to see this moved up the political agenda but I’m really not entirely sure how this can be done.

Make no mistake, there are a few good and honest guys out there, (i.e. some of the smaller independent suppliers), but the domestic LPG supply industry is self-regulated (via UKLPG) and by-and-large appears to me and to many other users to be dangerously out of control. Despite the Competition Commission Order of 2009 competition simply does not work effectively in this market, indeed, some would even argue that the CC Orders have, in hindsight, served to reduce competition and increase prices! (Incidentally, in respect of pricing, I have also heard some pretty convincing arguments that for many lower-consumption bulk users, moving to 47kg cylinder supply could also work out significantly cheaper than continuing with bulk supply in the medium to long term).

I fear that the bottom line is that, like it or not, every LPG user probably has to accept the the LPG market is likely to stay pretty much as it is for the foreseeable future. So we have to take responsibility to educate ourselves, to understand our contracts, to ensure that we don’t get taken for a ride over price increases, to insulate our homes like it’s going out of fashion, and prepare to move to micro generation and/or renewable heat sources as soon as practically and economically viable (i.e. when your LPG boiler reaches the end of its life, of not sooner). And look on the bright side – Calor, Flogas et. al. aren’t going to look quite so smug or smart when nobody is buying their LPG anymore.

………….All good stuff I think you’d agree! – Regards Dickie

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=78

The chap I spoke to was to be honest sympathetic and agreed that issuing a price rise at the current time and climate was not the best decision Countrywide had ever made. The likes of Calor and Flogas had all issued price rises back before Christmas and Countrywide had decided to hold to see how the market played out.

He said that should customers wish to call they were always prepared to negotiate ( he had received numerous calls today).

So my advice is to ring/ write and tell them how you feel and see what you can get.

He further went on to say that the major energy companies (British Gas, EDF etc) drop in prices was on average 5% but to remember that their increase was approximately 15% so they still had gained a healthy 10%.

Gas at the moment was proving difficult to move, (we haven’t had a winter like last year), so there is a surplus, whether this means there may be a drop in the price later in the year is anybody’s  guess, we will have to wait and see, but personally I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Don’t forget to sign the petition (details in the previous post)

Regards – Dickie

How can we start putting pressure on the suppliers? Well one way would be to start an E-petition Scheme, this is where a petition of 100,000 signatures is raised which then means your petition is elegible for debate in the House of Commons.

So I took a look on the government website and lo and beyold there is a petition:- http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/search?q=LPG

The problem is that it hasn’t got a lot of signatures! Probably because the word has not been spread about, so lets get in there and start signing up!

Two things could come out of this, a large amount of press coverage (which no supplier would enjoy especially if negative) and also the possiblility of getting either a cap placed on LPG prices or the introduction of a regulator. Either way it would be a positive move for the 4 million customers who have LPG supplied to them.

Spread the word and lets start Signing!

Best regards – Dickie

While all the major energy suppliers are reducing their prices (see previous post), one LPG supplier seems to have a different idea.

I received a letter today from Countrywide informing me; “Prolonged economic uncertainty and the Euro region crisis combined to have an effect on the price of LPG. After a period of relative stability the propane market has turned adversely in the last month or so, and we are faced with an immediate price increase. Your individual increase will be 3.5p per litre.”

Has anybody else received price increases from their suppliers?

Countrywide cannot be the only supplier to do this as they normally hunt in packs!

I will be trying to find out further details from Countrywide as to why they have decided to do this. In the meantime please let me know if you have received a letter from your supplier.

Regards

( A very disappointed) Dickie

A further update:

I have written to Countrywide asking for further details as to why they have raised their prices, I will let you know the outcome as soon as I have a reply.

This is great news because it will put pressure on the LPG suppliers to drop their prices. As an added incentive when negotiating you new contracts or haggling for prices make sure you let slip about Britsh Gas and others dropping their prices and what is your supplier going to do about it?

It’s even worth just giving your supplier a call to ask them if they are following British Gases lead! Lets put pressure on them.

Regards – Dickie

The LPG details are on page 127 of the PDF file. It’s lengthy and I ‘m afraid not the ray of shining light that we all wanted but there are some positives.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/market-studies/off-grid/OFT1380.pdf?bcsi_scan_B263DEFA57CEFFEF=0&bcsi_scan_filename=OFT1380.pdf

I’m not going to go in great detail now, but will read through the document to see what snippets are worth publishing  later.

Updates to follow – Regards Dickie