Not using enough propane!

Flatbedford said:

I got a delivery from Suburban Propane yesterday. It was a meager 75 gallons @ $4.00/gallon! We haven't even turned the heat on yet this fall. Our combined 250 gallon tanks were filled about 2 1/2 months ago. I called and asked about the price, whether there was gold in the propane now or something. They told me that because I am now using less than previous years, my price is higher! What the &%@# Do I have to turn on the heat to save money?
I guess I'll call around and see if I can get a better deal on the 400 or so gallons that we burn per year. Of course, I'll have to have Suburban come and take their tanks away if I switch suppliers and rent from the new seller. Propane sucks!
End rant.

Click to expand...

I canceled my oil service in the spring. I have about 200 gallons in the tank and I can always call one of the local suppliers if it is needed. But I only plan on using it in an emergency. Three years ago? 1500 gallons. 36 months later? Hopefully zero.

3 yrs now with no propain at all. They tried to charge me 167.00 for tank lease and for under usage. Told them to shove it and come and get your tank. I plan on putting in an electric furnace for back up. At least it won't cost to not us it. Propain costs whether you use it or not.

Flatbedford said:

$4.00/gallon!

Click to expand...

THat's a total **** job. Going rate here right now is $1.98/gallon. Some suppliers have a "min" you must buy for your tank size and will charge a small fee. The fee is one line item based on your tank size, if it's their tank, they want min. usage/year for the size of the tank to justify them purchasing that tank for you.
For that size tank, I look into just buying your own 500 tank or 1 or 2 250 gallon ones, they aren't that much. You can usally find 500's on craigslist or various places for $500-700. New from a supplier around here a 500 is $1100. Even if you didn't hit their min's for your tank size, that's still a **** job. I'd demand a lower price for that propane. Then you can get a lower than advertised rate for owning your own tank and buy from different suppliers every time based on price alone, your not locked into one service.

Whatever you do, don't tell them your going to shop around, they'll quickly tell you that your in for a $100+ fee for them to come pick up their tanks and a pumpout fee if your still over 5%. Most places charge this "pickup" fee to come get their tanks. If your going to switch, run your tanks almost dry, then call up and say your moving and you'd like to close your account. They'll leave the tanks there because most "new" homeowners just go with whoever tank is sitting in the yard. Then wait another couple weeks (make sure you left enough propane) and call them up and say you just moved there and you went with another supplier and you'd like these liability hazards removed from your yard. They can't charge "new" people to remove tanks they never had a service with, if they want a name, just make one up, they can't demand anything else from new homeowners.

I don't remember where is read it a couple years ago, might have been here, but ther was a lot of Suburban bashing going on. Never heard anything goos about them.

Had a friend who switched suppliers. He was PO'd because he wasn't on an automatic fill, and they came and filled his tank at the end of winter when the price was really high. He called the company to tell them he wasn't paying, and come and get the tank. He was told he had to send a letter, which he did. He sent two more letters, then sent them a bill for $125/month for six months of storage, which his attorney said was his legal right. Funny thing is, the tank was 80% when he called them the first time, empty when they finally picked it up.

I hated the thought of paying lease on a propane tank, so when I decided to have propane for cooking I looked around for a tank to buy. It took me a couple months, but I found one, 500 gal. for $220 I think it was. I had to buy and replace a gauge [$25]. And I painted it.

Then, before I had it filled, a friend who used to work as a delivery driver for CalGas told me many places won't fill a tank that isn't theirs. I thought, uh oh, but except for his place I've had no trouble. One place, Ferrel Gas, who filled it last time, had their driver inspect my set-up all the way up to and around my house, see if it looked good. He liked it, filled it, and I was in business. There was no charge for the inspection, which took a half hour.

Look around, there are tanks for sale but it might take a while to run one down.

I think that "tiered" pricing is pretty common. Our propane company was going to be over $4 for just cooking, around $3 for hot water and cooking and would be lower if we heated with it. Maybe it was actually tied to usage and they just know what you'll end up using based on what you have hooked up.

I was using Osterman for my propane delivery. Since I got my woodstove, they had increased the price of the propane -- it was up to $4.50 or $4.60 per gallon. I found another company that is charging less than $3.00 per gallon. No, it's not a new customer price or any gimmick like that, it's just a company that charges a much more reasonable price. Shop around!

-Jeff

PS I use propane for hot water and back up heat, and I'll be using maybe 200 gallons a year. And the new company knows that.

I've never bought Propane or had a need to but something is seriously wrong. If I go buy gas (for my car) from a place I normally don't stop at it doesn't cost more!!
If I shop at Wegmans for a month then return to whomever the cost of pop doesn't double because I only bought 2 bottles in the last 6 months. Thats similar to price gouging after a disaster.

I'd want that price and reason in writing and contact the local media with it. See if they would do a story on that company. If they want to use extortion you use black mail.

I'm sorry that you guys and gals that prefer to live a little further out in the country have these type of hassels. You should not be punished because you live in the "sticks". This post may not make sense but that change of price "because we want to for you" just really pissed me off.

Flatbedford said:

I don't even live in the sticks. I was just dumb enough to buy a house that a previous owner installed a propane furnace in. In a perfect world I would convert to oil, but that will not be happening any time soon.

Click to expand...

For my oils is north of $3.00. At $90 a barrel I'm guessing heating oil is at about $3.30 a gallon right now. Probably higher.

Oil? Really? There's more BTU/gallon of oil than a gallon of propane, but bringing everything to cost/btu and efficiencies of equipment, oil is still more expensive to run than anything else, unless oil's cheap out there.. Not many oil furnaces to choose from either, and not much at all in the high efficiency range. .
When I was in college, in Michigan's UP back in the late 80's nearly everything was oil up there, but since most people have converted to propane. First I've ever heard of someone wanting to switch propane to oil, just curious is all.

I have that issue too. My schedule with the short burn times just don't allow wood only heating for me so I'm stuck. I also have Suburban and just got refilled yesterday for a little more then that. Called around last year and didn't get any good offers. They all said the per gallon is figured on usage and I didn't use enough to qualify for a lower tier.

Suburban sucks, buy a tank and then shop around

Well, you know what they say, if you can't beat em, join em.
Buy some stock, that way when they gouge customers like that you can make some money off it.
http://www.suburbanpropane.com/investors.html

Whatever you do, don’t tell them your going to shop around, they’ll quickly tell you that your in for a $100+ fee for them to come pick up their tanks and a pumpout fee if your still over 5%. Most places charge this “pickup” fee to come get their tanks.

Click to expand...

100.00 pick up fee yeh right they tried that one on me too plus the pumping fee of 100.00. With forks on my tractor I just put it at the road and called. Told them where their tank was and they could kiss my a**. They never collected on the pickup fee nor would I ever give them a dime for them to come collect there stuff that as far as I was concerned was their responsibilty. They actually did send me a check for the propain they pulled out. BTW its not PROPANE its "PROPAIN"

Do a search on Suburban Propane and price gouging or related and see what you find. Our local CBS affiliate did a story on them not too far back and found Suburban's rates were much higher than their competitors.

Clearly you are not trying hard enough. Try harder. :lol:

AK13 said:

I think that "tiered" pricing is pretty common. Our propane company was going to be over $4 for just cooking, around $3 for hot water and cooking and would be lower if we heated with it. Maybe it was actually tied to usage and they just know what you'll end up using based on what you have hooked up.

Click to expand...

Must be a part of the country thing. Around here, that's unheard of. Everyone just advertises price. If you have your own tank, price is usually 10-20cents/gallon less. If you need a tank, the size they'll give you is based on yearly usage, usually they want your tank to be roughly 2 times your yearly usage. Well, that's where the surcharges come in, if you don't use 2 times your tank size in a year, they add a "tank rental fee" on your bill once a year, $100 at most places.
But the price of the propane itself is the same no matter how much or how little you use.

Although I don't have propane we do have NG as a backup in case we go out of town etc during the winter. They have increased my basic fee over the past 4 years from $6 a month to $20 this past spring due to inconsistent use. I turned it off to save the money. They(Columbia Gas) also stated that my meter was broken since we were not using ng in the dead of winter. I had them re-connect service this week(in my name to avoid re-connect fees) and they put a new meter on. I don't think they are going to see my usage go up. THey should have noticed the big wood pile about 50 feet from the meter! Sorry to hear about your propane problems, NG isn't much better. I think I will stick with wood, since I control cost and usage myself

Flatbedford said:

I don't even live in the sticks. I was just dumb enough to buy a house that a previous owner installed a propane furnace in. In a perfect world I would convert to oil, but that will not be happening any time soon.

Click to expand...

I think in a perfect world, you'd burn wood when you feel like it, and the house would stay warm by itself the rest of the time (but just a little cooler than when the wood stove is going).

Some of the posters here don't realize the wide spread in retail propane rates across the country. See:
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_wfr_a_EPLLPA_PRS_dpgal_w.htm

As of the latest week, rates per gallon range from $1.64 in Nebraska to $3.55 in Rhode Island.

Instead of the big national chains a better choice is farm cooperatives or small independently owned firms. To get the best rate the best advice is to buy your own tank and shop around.