I am so proud of us for taking all of the steps over the past few years to reduce our use of independence on LP gas and electricity.
We remodeled with new windows, insulation, and yadda, yadda. Here's a photo grab collage from the blog I kept track of when remodeling. The little house had to have plastic over the windows, and doors. We also would get frost on the inside of the north door pictured in the before shot.
We added a high tech cabin wall heater and two years ago we added a mini split to reduce our cost of heating and cooling.
Viola! We did!
Indeed we did!
I got my fall LP fill of 29 gallons yesterday and the driver left the billing. I was billed 54.00 for the fuel. The next line stunned me. $318.69 was due on the account. Which included 54.00 for the current fill.
Gobsmacked! WHAT?
I called the local office. Guess what?
I only used 184 gallons of LP last year. According to the LP company, that is not enough fuel for them to rent me the tank for the year. [They just started rent charges a year ago]
Imagine...you are on a very fixed budget and you get a $300 fill AND a rental bill for a couple of hundred dollars...OUCH! OUCH!
Sooooo, to encourage me to use MORE LP or get a smaller tank, they up the rent to nearly $300 for the year. I blew a head gasket politely on the guy that answered the phone. Normally we are sent a letter in the summer giving us an opportunity to order an earlier LP delivery at a lower cost. Plus a letter regarding the policy of tank rental.
I said that it was rude and unprofessional of the company to spring a surprise like this without prior notification. He agreed.
Then he explained that IF I wanted to switch to a smaller tank like a 250 gallon tank, he'd reverse the charges and they would replace the 500 gallon tank. See, the excuse is, they need the larger tank somewhere else. [Insert snarky thoughts here. I drive by their place and they have 100's of large tanks in their yards...hmmmm].
I said so if I ask for a smaller tank how do you handle it now? I have 400+ gallons. Do you give me money back for all that LP and deliver a new tank?
Nope.
Come spring they will come out and swap out tanks. BUT, the tank has to be at 30% or less for them to safely do that.
SO. I have to use all that propane before May.
I'll have the last laugh. I agreed to the swap. Well. Sort of. He reversed the charges on the account [we will see].
I will call around to all the other hungry LP dealers and make my own deal for the spring.
The worst part of all of this? My husband helped the original owner of this LP company years ago. He helped repair vehicles, tanks, and whatnot. Hubby would call around to get competitive costs and report back to the owner what other companies charged.
We got huge discounts on our fills for all of that.
Times change, I get that.
But. Seriously? We worked so hard to make a more efficient home to use less energy and then get penalized for it. Huh?
So now I have to use the LP heater more this winter. Otherwise how will they pick up the tank if I only use less than half of the tank for a winter????
Rant over. But at least I've paid for all that LP already so I won't get billed again this year.
Happiness is a well insulated house for winter. Fingers crossed.
That is kind of disreputable, but good work on your part.
ReplyDeleteApparently it is done quite often in this area! I'll be getting some leads on other LP dealers and definitely discuss this tank rental thing.
DeleteThat's your reward for using your brain to become more efficient. Sounds like they are trying to make up for your past savings. Lori
ReplyDeleteIsn't that just the pits???
DeleteWhat a pain-in-the-arse!
ReplyDeleteYou did well advocating. Some days I just don't have the patience.
Well thanks. I figured if I let it go, I'd be out a bunch of $$$ and it seemed awful unfair to charge me for being efficient. But now I get it.
DeleteThat is bad business. We own our tank. The prior owner bought it, it's 1000 gallons. We are paying $2.79/gallon on contract. Remember when it was 50 cents/gallon?
ReplyDeleteI know that by owning the tank, we would be responsible for the fuel company coming out to do inspections and also for repairs. The rental issue was never an issue with the old owner.
DeleteWell, this stinks. Workarounds to get more $$ from a frugal customer. I hope you do better with a new company.
ReplyDeleteApparently this is common now with LP companies in the rural area! So one more reason to move away from their fuel.
DeleteOH the bad words in my head!!!! What the heck???? Whoa. Shoddy and Shady. I would be livid. How dare they not notify you! I am so angry on your behalf.
ReplyDeleteI do understand where you are coming from. Way back in the 80's electric rates were going crazy. One summer I decided to seriously change our usage. With five children, I had to use my washer, but before work and during my lunch hour I would dash home and hang clothes on the line so we did not use the dryer at all. We did not turn on the air conditioner. I used small appliances or the charcoal grill instead of my stove. We economized in every way we could. What did the electric company do? They decided my meter was broken and replaced it. And charged me the same amount of kilo watt hours as I used that month the year before - with the ac and dryer and dish washer and stove. I yelled, I cried, honest I had started out calm. They didn't care. GRRRRR
Oh I know how the large companies work! Disgusting!
DeleteI did a year without a dryer and that was an interesting experiment but actually, I preferred the clothes dried outside, even in the winter!
The power company wouldn't penalize us if we put solar on our porch roof and went mostly off grid. I've considered that here. But not sure I'd stay long enough for the cost to pay me back.
Our mini split has saved us so much money as did the remodeling. It took quite a bit of $$ of front but the maintenance and comfort was worth it.
Grrr indeed!
I'll get the last laugh.
We switched companies. As I recall the new company brought in a new tank and set it and sucked out the the old tank and set it aside for the former company but I am not sure how much was in the tank. We have a 500 gallon tank out back and we buy LP in August this year it was $1.74 a gallon...and I pre bought 700 gallons. Last year we only used about 500 gallons but I do not want to be caught short like one year we had to pay over $3 a gallon...and my poor brother had to pay $5 a gallon...that was a big ouch! We are on a keep fill basis so I don't have to worry about it.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get it all straightened out. Ask your neighbors who they have sometimes there can be a referral where they get a credit on their bill and so do you...with the company we have if I refer someone they will give me a $100 credit if they switch companies.
Yes, apparently they can suck out the tanks at a lower pressure level and not at the fill level. I'll use more LP this winter and then in February set things up with a different company.
DeleteI'll probably go with a smaller tank which is fine since we've almost never used more than one fill a year on the larger tank.
The large tank was so the trucks wouldn't have to negotiate our steep driveway in the winter time. But a corporate company bought out this little company and so they don't bother with customer service.
I'll go find a local company.
PS...our fill was $1.79 per gallon. We always got a spring fill and a fall fill as I explained, no one wanted to try filling us in the winter...
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