When I last wrote about propane, I had just received a bill for the $99 fee to lock-in our rate for all of next season. The offered rate was $3.59 per gallon, a full $0.94 per gallon more than we paid last season. With a 500 gallon tank, that could conceivably cost almost $500 more per tank filling. (We never completely drain our tank, so it won’t, but it’s still a huge difference.)
Last week, I called our propane company to ask if this was the best rate they could offer us. Pretty quickly, I was offered a rate of $3.05 gallon. Then I called the local home heating fuel co-op, and learned that their rates vary throughout the season, but would probably cost us between $2.30 and $2.70 per gallon.
The difference between $3.05 and $2.70 per gallon was enough to convince us to make the switch. Doing so would entail paying a $40 service call fee, plus $0.35 per gallon pumped out of the tank at the time of removal. Our tank is currently 65% full – we barely use any propane during the warmer months – so it would cost us $113 to have it pumped out. (Side note: The thought of paying to have propane we’ve already paid for and won’t be using pumped out of tank, kills me!) It seemed worth it, though, so I called our current company to let them know that I won’t be paying the $99 fee to lock-in our rate, since we’ll be switching to the co-op in the fall, after we’ve used up some of the propane that’s currently in our tank. Lo and behold, they offered me a lock-in rate of $2.77! I couldn’t believe it, but I guess the thought of losing the several thousand dollars of business we give them each year was a good enough motivation to lower our rate – again.
Given the cost and hassle of changing companies and tanks, plus the variable nature of the co-op’s pricing, we decided to stick with our current company. Don’t you just love the power of threatening to take your business elsewhere?? I had a similar experience when I called our trash company to let them know that we were switching to another company.
Have you negotiated better rates for anything by threatening to take you business elsewhere? And, out of curiosity, if you heat with propane and have locked in your rate for next year, what is it?
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