Further to my note yesterday of ringing round to find best prices, I had a good chat with the Countrywide area rep yesterday evening, who informed me that he had received quite a few calls from disgruntled Calor users.
Suffice to say he offered me a deal at 33p PL fixed for my next two refils and £100 charge pa for the undergound tank. Considering my next refil is for Jan 2011 I nearly bit his hand off!
He is coming to visit me next week and Providing we do the deal I will post the details so that others can get in on the act. This is great news and proves that with some haggling it is possible to get a good deal.
I also had further conversation with Calor but it seems they were really not that interested in a syndicate price, quoting me only a penny drop from 45.5p PL. Other supply companies seem to be rather taken back by the way Calor has dropped this bombshell and are not really sure why they have put in such a large increase.
So in summary we have:
Countrywide - 33p PL (to be confirmed, fixed for 2 refils and £100 underground tank rental pa).
Extra Fuel (gas) – 36.29, over a period of 14 months the price will vary each month. Last 14 months lowest was 26p PL to 42p PL. (Underground tank rental £120 per year).
Flogas – 38p PL; I suspect after their drumming on the BBC Dominic Littlewood programme a good bit of haggling will get the price down further, (well worth a try).
However, I repeat the best deals will be with the smaller companies.
I will continue to search for lower prices but it may be a struggle getting below 33p PL!
Regards and many thanks for all your replies.
Articles
Countrywide – To be confirmed
Extra Fuel (gas) – 36.29, over a period of 14 months the price will vary each month. Last 14 months lowest was 26p PL to 42p PL. (Underground tank rental £120 per year).
Flogas – 38p PL
Calor – After a telephone call they wouldn’t budge on 45.5 PL, (but £89 underground tank charges, fyi this is my current user - was at 40p PL. Offered me a 1p reduction and a £100 gas voucher whatever that is!
Speaking with various reps the general advice is to shop with the smaller companies who are prepared to haggle.
Will post more prices later.
Articles
A big thank you for all your comments and it seems from your messages that Calor has been sending out their price increase letters!
Since I haven’t renewed my contract with Calor I thought I’d wait and see what was going to happen next. Sure enough today I received a letter with the first words being
” Economic uncertainty continues to have a servere effect on the prices of fuel and energy products and indeed on our own distribution costs. We have done everything we can to ensure the stability of our prices, however we now regrettably need to apply an increase”. The long of the short being they want to increase the price from 40 pence PL to 45.5 pence PL.
So I am going ot have a little chat with all the other LPG suppliers to see what I can get with some haggling and also talk to Calor and ask them what they thought of the BBC programme that was aired yesterday and see what they say when I tell them I am thinking of of having a chat to Mr Dominic Littlewood. I will also try the syndicate proposal to them to get an idea if they are at all interested.
Once I have some prices I will list them on the site.
5.5 pence per litre is a hell of a rise and there is no way I am going to sit back and let them just roll over me.
Incidentally I shall be writing to my newly elected Conservative MP to see what his thoughts are and also to see if he will team up with Geoffrey Cox the Devon MP who is supposedly raising the LPG issue in Parlament.
Watch this space!
Articles
Did anyone see the programme “Don’t get done get Dom“, an investigative BBC programme which looked in to pricing of LPG from suppliers and in particular Flogas.
I urge you to try and get a download and take a look as it’s all very useful information.
To sum up the LPG prices vary with EACH individual, in other words you could be paying 50p a litre whereas your next door neighbour could be paying 35p, (as shown in this programme). The way to get round this is to combine in to a syndicate and approach the LPG supplier to negotiate a better price.
The Village of Winkleigh in Devonwhich which was shown in the programme, saved on average £400 per person and in total saved £14000!
Get this, a financial expert interviewed on the programme reckoned a good deal would be approx 35p PL or LESS!
I thought I had a reasonable deal with Calor at 40p PL but I’m certain that the price can be brought down further. So if anyone around the Gloucestershire area is buying LPG from Calor then reply to me on this website and lets see if we can get a syndicate going to reduce the price.
There are 4.2 million people currently using LPG in this country and it looks as if we are being stitched up by LPG suppliers who do not have to answer to offgem.
Check out the following addresses for further details.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0070tc5
http://www.geoffreycox.co.uk/search/article.php?id=752
Articles
