Bernies heating oil company from new london CT bit the dust today when they declared bankruptcy.

I feel bad for the homeowners that lost any money and I feel bad for the Grobin family.

Dan Grobin is the president of Bernies Fuel Oil and had the pleasure to meet him on a number of occasions.

He struck me as a hard working guy that cared about his business, his employees and his customers.

I’m not privy to the details of what happened but Dan certainly didn’t strike me  as one of the bad guys.

I hope that when the dust settles Dan will be able to make his customers financially whole, dust himself off and start over.

There’s a lesson here folks.

Things happen and when you’re money’s at stake and you need to learn as much about who you are doing business with as you can… especially if you are pre-buying your heating oil.

I’ve been buying COD for a while now and personally the way a lot of the heating oil companies are struggling financially right now you may want to follow suit.

OK readers…. What’s your take?

Stay warm, stay safe and save money.

John

It’s been a tough year for

“Consumers that heat with oil…
Especially in Vermont”

And here’s why …

Unlike Connecticut, Massachusetts, or even New Hampshire,
Vermont does not have an oil refinery so fuel has to be trucked in.

                    “Transportation costs are part of it, as well as the rural nature of the state,
                     if it takes longer or it takes more miles to get to where you need to go those
                    are added costs as well,” says Cota.

That makes it hard.

It gets worse when you have to worry about who you can trust to do business with.

Early in the season I had someone contact me regarding heating and heating oil companies in VT. They had just come from the NY area and had some really bad experiences so they were very gun shy and wanted some advice.

I was happy to oblige.

I did my research and I found Vermont wasn’t all that different from
NY when it came to unhappy customers.

The 3 biggest problems Vermonters had were :

          1.) Failure to respond to phone calls or written requests for assistance or support

          2.) Delivery Issues

          3.) Improper or inferior service

It was a rude awakening for me…

That was until I found a neat little company called Energy Co-op of Vermont. An honest to goodness heating oil Cooperative in Colchester Vermont. I’ve always heard good things about co-ops so I was optimistic.

And I did some diggin’

The Energy co-op of VT is run by John Quinney originally from (get this New Zealand). Yea that island on the other side of the world near Australia.

And he prides himself on offering a fair price while still delivering to his customers a healthy, comfortable energy efficient way to stay warm and stay safe.

Since September 2000, Co-op members have saved more than $500,000 on their heating bills.

I called him and I immediately liked him.

I liked what he had to say, I liked how he thought and his accent was cool too.

I found out they installed oil fired furnaces and boilers and wood pellet stoves in Colchester VT. And those wood pellet stoves saved a lot of money for a lot of people when it came to their heating bills.

They offered a “no run out guarantee” which many companies in New England don’t. Leave it to a Vermonter (even if he is a kiwi) to live up to their word.

But that was only part of it.

I know ultimately you don’t do business with “the company”… People do business with people. So I wanted to learn more about what makes the co-op tick and this is what I found…

There’s a bunch of really nice people that hold the fort down, from the friendly people that answer the phone to the delivery truck drivers that roll up to your house and even the tech service guys.

Get this – their techs have 35+ collective years of experience and are NORA silver rated so these guys are ready to fix what’s broken and keep you warm all season so you’ll have no worries.

What really caught my attention – they wanted to help you lower your heating bill not pad their pockets like so many other heating oil companies.

They offered info on solar incentives, discounts on energy audits and even discounts at other local businesses to help you save money on your energy bills.

The people that make up the co-op care about where they live and they care about their community.
(helping people right now and in generations to come)

So it was easy for me to recommend the co-op especially when John told me he loved living in Vermont because it reminded his so much of New Zealand and why he cared so much. John grew up on a farm in New Zealand, he use to drink water right out of the stream and it was all about doing what you can for the environment and how you can’t take it for granted.

John considers himself a conservative in the best sense and he and his people at the co-op do a great job doing the best they can for fellow Vermonters.

The way I see it, I’d rather do business with people that genuinely like and help people. What’s even better, doing business with these guys is they are fair, they keep their word and they offer great service (that you’ll need with those cold VT winters).

If you’re looking to stay warm, be safe and save money in the Colchester Vermont area I’d be callin’ the nice people over at the Energy co-op of Vermont right away.

John

P.S. These guys are one of the good guys. Remember in this industry it’s not unusual to get taken advantage of by heating companies so when you find someone you trust it’s important to stick with um’.

Go check out their site for heating oil in colchester vt.

Just opened an e-mail from someone that sounds like a heck of a nice guy.

Unfortunately he just took a hit and is losing his job. I’ll call him Sam and he was asking a question I get a lot these days…

It boils down to when’s the best time to buy oil?

Here’s my response….

Hi Sam- good to hear from you and sorry to hear about the situation.

Hang tuff the economy is starting to turn around.

As far as my crystal ball… I’m buying in smaller increments myself right now at 125 gallons at a time if I really need it. Historically its a supply and demand thing with the prices bottoming out in the summer.

At least that’s been the over all trend.

The good news is you can average the price as you buy small amounts over time.
That way you don’t get stuck with the highest price or the lowest.

Its a conservative approach.

If you want to shoot for the lowest price I’d suggest waiting till the tail end of the summer…

Hope that helps.

Keep your chin up and good luck!

Stay safe, stay warm and save money
John

———————————————————————

QUESTION FOR YOU

Have you ever hit it right and bought your fuel low? (if you did felt pretty good I’ll bet)

• Did you tell people the deal you were able to get?
• Mention it at work or wave it in front of your brother in law?
• What where the reactions?

 

Or do you have a story of getting stiffed by the oil or propane company and getting a delivery at the worst possible time with the prices are the highest?

———————————————————————
Go ahead an leave a comment I’m interested which side of the coin you’ve been on and how it made you feel!

Hey folks… it’s just starting .

Based on my research the prices per raw barrel will drop another 9 buckeroos or so.

Right now it’s at $69 I’ll wager it hits a cool $60 bucks before it starts to go higher say December.

So hold on to your tanks for a bit longer, let the price drop a bit more… stock up and then watch the wild ride start again in december.

OK so all you propane, kero and heating oil people out there what’s your take on this roller coaster?

Leave me a comment and feel free to rant about how you were hit last year.

Stay warm, stay safe and save money

John

Don’t buy your heating oil …
or your propane just yet!

The US Fed just released insider details on the inventory for barrels of raw home heating oil/fuel and it looks GREAT for consumers.

The big “speculators” that ran the prices up last year are in for a bit of a panic…

Because there’s truck loads of home heating oil and propane inventory getting stacked up on at the docks here in the US right now.

That means LOTS of supply and still LOW demand.

The price of a raw barrel dropped 3% today and that dropped the price to home owners by a whopping 1 penny a gallon.

So freakin’ what!

Well according to the #’s the inventory is so high that  the expectation is the price is going to tumble down any were from 40-50%

Yep… looks like the price is going to fall like a rock so my suggestion is to wait for a few a bit  and get some decent prices.

At least that’s what my crystal ball says

Stay warm, stay safe and save money.

John

WANTED Good, Honest, Fair Heating Oil and Propane Companies.

And I’m willing to pay YOU $100.00 for every heating company that signs up on the homeheatingoilprices.com site.

Here’s how it works.

It cost’s companies only $1 for the first 30 days to try us out. Month 2 and for as long as they stay it’s only $99.00  a month for them to get in front of millions of people.

And I’m willing to give you $100 for every heating company you get to sign up for at least 2 months.

That’s right you get 100 bucks!

All you need to do is contact your company (any heating company really) and tell them to try us out for only one dollar and when they do just have them mention your name.

If they stay for the full 2 months I send you a $100 check.

It’s that easy.

Any questions just give me a shout.

Stay safe, stay warm and save money.

John

You might be searching the site looking for current prices….

If you’re having a tuff time there’s a reason.

Heating Oil Companies don’t realize that people are actively searching online right now to buy their heating oil (to the tune of over 1 million page views a month on this site alone).

As far as I see it there’s 3 kinds of companies.

1st The good, honest, straight shooting kind that post their prices for the world to see. These people have nothing to hide and even if they are a few pennies more expensive you can generally trust them.

The 2nd group doesn’t want to put their prices up on line and they wait for you to call them so they can “negotiate” their best price with you. The more you cry the cheaper the price.

Reminds me of why used car salesmen get such a bad rap!

And the 3rd post their prices on their web sites but won’t put them anywhere else for fear that a consumer will compare their prices with the company on the same page.

CRAZY! Don’t these guys know that consumers are going to pick up the phone and call their competition next?

So my freinds we are slowly getting companies coming on board that are marketing savy and realize just how transparent the world is thanks to the internet.

They also realize consumers are getting smarter and more savy and realize that there’s a lot more to choosing an oil company then just price.

You can check out heating oil help to see just how brutal some of these creepy companies can be.

So if you don’t see any companies posting in your area? I’d wonder what kind of companies they are. I’d also give them the benefit of the doubt and I’d mention this site.

Besides getting good info on the site it’ll help everyone involved.

—————————————————————

Here’s my offer to you.

Drop me a note and tell me the oil company you’re going to contact. If they become a customer I’ll send you $100.00 for your trouble as my small way of saying thank you.

Talk with you soon.

John

You might want to check out the post on why some propane companies hide their prices

Q – So whaaa’s up with the propane prices John… how come I’m having a tuff time finding propane prices listed on the site?

I hear you and you’re not going to believe it!

1st off we get millions of page views on this site from people just like you searching to buy propane. You’d think a honest straight forward propane company would be anxious to get in front of you and make you an offer in order to gain more customers right?

That’s what I thought too…

So off I went calling propane companies and offering them a chance to try the site out for a whopping $1.00 (one dollar for a full 30 days PLUS a full money back guarantee after 60 days) to see if it would work for them.

Pretty reasonable would’nt you think?

Here’s what happened…  No one wanted to try it out.

I couldn’t understand it.

I dug deeper and this is what I found

Some propane companies have differnet prices for differnet customers. YUP and it’s not what you think!

If you’re a new customer or you’re thinking about it they make you great offers to get your business. In other words they drop their prices to get you in. BUT once you’ve been a  customer for a while they jack up your prices and you end up paying through the nose.

So because of this poor version of  “propane marketing” some of these propane companies refused to post their prices on line or even to have their company listed.

Now look…  I’m a marketing guy and I get the concept of an “irresistable offer” to get new customers. BUT COME ON!

The way I see it is you take care of your long term customers you don’t wack them! There’s other ways to promote your company with out taking advantage of your old customers and it’s better for the consumer and the company.

Bottom line…. many companies in the industry dont want to EXPOSE their prices in fear off pissing off their old tried and true customers.

—————————————–

So in my opinion the companies that list their prices online are true, honest, decent companies that we need to spend our money with. EVEN IF their prices are a little higher at least you know what they are and what you’re getting and you know they treat customers right.

YEA I may have just signed my death warrent in the propane industry but hey… if they used a little imagination and really thought about what they could do to help their customers things would be a lot different don’t you think?

Some great companies in some areas are taking up the torch and setting themselves apart in the industry and are begining to post prices online.

In the mean time I’m calling companies directly and posting their prices so either way the you and I will get the information wether I call or you call. Besides, one way or another if a company wants to sell propane they need to tell us what their prices are.

In my opinion 1 price makes more sense. After all once the older tried and true customer finds out that the lil ol’ sneakey propane company is playing with prices… that’s a sure bet that that tried and true customer will feel used and abused and will bail out on that company so fast that the CEO’s head ul’ spin.

So what’s your take?

P.S. I’m adding prices and doing the best I can to keep up so if you have any info I’m happy to post it.

Refunds to some Conn. heating oil customers OH YEA

YEP- you got that right! 

Seems like one of the biggest heating oil companies (that own a bunch of smaller companies) didn’t play fair. Who would a thunk it?

It happens and unfortunatly I believe it happens more times then consumers know.

You can read the artile below The Associated Press    
Posted Jun 17, 2009 @ 01:19 PM

Not all oil companies are bad

Heating Oil Company Offers its Customers a Chance at a
Personal Million Dollar Stimulus Package

Local company does Obama one better with Mike the oil mans answer to the recession

He’s no relation to Joe the Plummer but if I was Obama I’d be paying attention to what Mike has to say.

CHESHIRE, CT, 4/9/09 – It’s almost tax time, we are in the middle of a global recession and moneys tight… BUT THERE’S HOPE.

Tired of all the negative attention, Preferred Oil will gift any customer who receives a heating oil delivery in the month of April with a free CT lottery ticket PLUS a very big wish of good luck.

Mike Gotowala President of Preferred Oil put it like this, “It’s our way of offering a personal stimulus package, helping the economy, having a little fun during all this doom and gloom and hopefully making one of our customers a millionaire while we are at it.”

“The best part is watching a customer’s face when they open their bill and instead of just another bill they get a lotto ticket and a short note from me wishing them the best of luck. The only thing better is if one of my customers hit the jackpot.” Says Gotowala.

Preferred Oil was chosen as the one oil company in the state of Connecticut to take part in this program that was developed and coordinated by HomeHeatingOilPrices.com an online resource for heating oil, propane and kerosene.

For additional information on Mike the Oil Man’s answer to the recession please contact Mike Gotowala at 203-250-1030 or by email at MulchMadness@aol.com

About Preferred Oil – Headquartered in Cheshire CT, was established in 2002 by Mike Gotowala. The company offers heating oil and full service plus a sense of humor to get through these challenging times. www.preferredoil.com

Thought this was pretty cool to share…

So what do you think?

You can leave your comments below