I hate to admit it here, but I’ve never been much of a “shop around” guy when it comes to certain things. Sure, when I am looking for a new toy, I do tend to spend a lot of time researching and shopping around for the best price.
However, when it comes to those mandatory things that are not at all exciting or fun to buy, I have always followed the path of least resistance. I’m talking about things like insurance and other things we all seem to need these days.
Dealing with that stuff always seems like a big hassle to me and something I would rather avoid. Hence, I tend to just pick a company nearby or one whose name I recognize and go with that without scouting around for the best deal. That, I am starting to learn, is a mistake. Big surprise, huh? All you serious bargain hunters are laughing at me now.
My home is heated mostly by propane gas. We have the typical big 500-gallon tank in the yard which the delivery truck fills up every few months on our automatic delivery schedule. During the summer, of course, our consumption goes way down, which means we usually get a delivery in May and then not again until October.
Sometime back around April I called our propane company, Eastern Propane, and told them to cancel our automatic delivery. Propane has been following along with gasoline prices for the most part and I didn’t want to be filling my tank with prices so high. I decided to gamble a bit and hope that prices would be lower in the fall when I would have to buy more propane. I knew I had more than enough in the tank to make it through the summer months.
Fortunately, it looks like I made the right move, since gas prices have been coming down recently. About a month ago I figured I better start planning the timing of my propane purchase, so I called e-mailed Eastern Propane and asked them what the current price was. I did not volunteer that I was already a customer. They e-mailed me back the next day to tell me the price was $2.57 a gallon. Frankly I expected it to be lower since it has been staying below gasoline prices for a while, but now seemed to be dropping slower than the gasoline prices.
Up until this time, I always thought the prices of propane would be pretty much the same across all the local suppliers. Sure, maybe a few cents or a nickel difference, but that would be about it, right? Wrong!
I decided to start calling around to see what other local propane suppliers were charging. I learned a couple of things right away. Firstly, there can be very significant differences in price from supplier to supplier. Secondly, they adjust the price they charge based on how much you use. If you use more, you pay less per gallon.
I was surprised to be getting quotes from various companies like $2.39 and another that would lock me in with a price of $2.09 for 6 months after I switched to their service. I also discovered that there were charges that differed from one company to the next for installing the new propane tank. One company wanted about $75 and the other about $40.
I decided to call Eastern Propane on the phone and tell them I was a customer and see if they quoted me a lower price than the one they sent in e-mail. Over the phone they quoted me $2.52 a gallon. Gee, thanks for being so generous, Eastern! I’ve been a customer for 8 years and this is the best they can do for me? At that point, I knew I would be switching to one of the other suppliers.
I happened to be talking to my dad and mentioned to him that I was planning to switch propane companies due to the significant price difference. Being the kind of guy that loves to jump on the Internet and research these kinds of things, my dad started looking around and called me a while later and asked me if I had checked with a local company called Roy Brothers. I had heard of them, but honestly didn’t even know they were a propane supplier. I thought they were just a trucking company or something.
Anyway, I called Roy Brothers and was able to get the best deal of the bunch. They are going to lock me in at $2.09 a gallon until April and install the tank for free. I had found my new propane suppler.
I called Eastern to inquire about any kind of charges they might have for removing the tank or anything like that. Turns out they charge you 60 cents a gallon to remove the gas from the tank if it reads over 5% full. That’s what I wanted to know.
A day or two later I get an unexpected call from the account manager at Eastern because my account had been “red flagged” due to the calls I had been making asking about prices and such. They wanted to be sure everything was OK — or more to the point — wanted to know if I was thinking about switching.
The fellow did not sound too happy when I told him I was switching to another company. Naturally, he tried to persuade me with the usual nonsense about how other companies are lowering their prices temporarily just to beat their price and stuff like that, but I wasn’t buying it. I told them I would call and let them know when they could come pick up their tank.
A while later I got an e-mail from the guy telling me they will match the price and give me a refund on my last delivery. I’m not 100% sure what he meant by the refund, and I did not ask, but I presume they would refund the difference in price between the new price they are offering me and what I paid for my last fill-up.
Here’s what he did not realize. It was too late to start offering me deals. Seeing how much lower some of these other companies were made me feel like I was getting screwed by Eastern. Makes me wonder how much I could have saved over the last few years if I had been with one of the other companies.
Apparently, Eastern Propane is the kind of company that charges the absolute maximum they can charge and still maintain a sufficient customer base to stay in business. At least that’s the way I see it.
As I’ve mentioned here before, I hold grudges over things like this. When I feel like I got screwed, I never forget it, and Eastern Propane is now on my “black list” of companies I will never do business with again.
One of the things the Eastern account rep said in his e-mail was that I have “been a great customer for Eastern and I hate to see you go.” Well, yeah, someone who does not take the time to find out he is getting a lousy deal by staying with the supplier who is charging the highest price in the area is a great customer! Of course they hate to lose a sucker, er, I mean a customer like that!
If Eastern really valued my business they would have been charging a more competitive rate instead of offering me deals only when they find out I am planning to switch suppliers.
I had fully made up my mind to switch by the time I got the e-mail from the account rep and that is exactly what I told him in my reply. The bottom line is simply too little too late, Eastern Propane. Good riddance.
Even if you doubt that shopping around for something boring like propane or heating oil is worthwhile, I urge you to make some calls and check out the competition. You may have an opportunity to save a significant amount of money and not even know it.
Break out the Yellow Pages and start dialing!
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