way higher propane prices with new supplier ?

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abwjms
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Joined: Sat Jun 28, 2008 12:56 am
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way higher propane prices with new supplier ?

Post by abwjms »

we got our first gas bill from suburban propane and are seeing a way higher price per gallon.

Our last bill from united propane/mgs from last April had a price of $2.605/gal.

The new bill from suburban doesn't show a gallon price but dividing the total by the gallon quantity gives $3.65/gal.

An old bill from United Prop/MGS from Jan 13 for an identical quantity to that on the Suburban bill was 29% lower than the Suburban bill - just another way of calculating the same numbers...

The story gets more interesting because we seem to have been getting a discount from United/MGS ? See the following gas price display for DE:

http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHa ... DE_DPG&f=W

note that the price shown here hasn't been below $3/gal since the beginning of 2011. Note also that the current price shown here is within the ballpark of the Suburban price of 3.65/gal.

So:
1. is anyone/everyone seeing the same sticker shock on their first bills from Suburban ?

2. does anyone think that I've made a math error here ? (does any believe that Suburban is charging no more than United/MGS, and there's something I've missed to account for the difference I think I see ?)

3. does anyone know if we were indeed getting a discount from United/MGS ? to account for the difference between their prices and the DE price shown on the website above ?

4. alternative, regional explanation: does anyone know if the price diff is accounted for by United/MGS buying from a different location, or that the price at the website above was an average for the whole state, or for northern DE, and that Sussex had cheaper gas but that Suburban isn't sourcing from Sussex. There's details in there about how far propane can be transported which I forget...

This is worth getting to the bottom of in case there's another vendor who thinks we're a cash cow, or else is just in the habit of screwing their customers. Or alternatively, that we were comparatively lucky to be sourced by United/MGS and are now seeing average prices after they were unfortunately bought by a larger company.

I'll save the editorials about how this isn't the cheap gas economy we were promised, and how the wonders of consolidation precisely don't serve the consumer, for another time.
Last edited by abwjms on Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
huynh_tb
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Re: way higher propane prices with new supplier ?

Post by huynh_tb »

Hi Al,

Thanks for the post. I got the Suburban bill for the last November/December month. Yes, they billed me at $3.65/gal also.

I compared the bill from United Propane on December 2012. The price shows is $2.604/gal.

Toan
edrutecki
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Re: way higher propane prices with new supplier ?

Post by edrutecki »

I did hear of one homeowner being charged $2.44 a gallon. Everyone else appears to be $3.65.

It appears the propane contract set up by Anderson expired in 2013. Patti is currently working on a deal with a new supplier. It wil be very well recieved if all works out.

I am currently looking into a heatpump with electric backup. The goal will be to pull the plug on propane. I did get some information from a current Fairfield resident who did go this route. He is very satisfied with the savings from this conversion.

Ed
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