Last winter, we replaced our 550 gallon in-ground oil tank with a 275 gallon above-ground tank.  As a result, the oil truck cometh twice as often as it used to, to fill up the tank.  We are on automatic delivery and while we never paid much attention to it before, it is now obvious that we should be paying attention to what we are paying for heating oil. When I saw the oil truck backing down the driveway, my first though was, “Man, it seems like he was just here! We just paid an oil bill about a month ago! We can’t need oil again already!” I ran downstairs to check the gauge and it read ½ full.

We asked the delivery man what oil was going for that day and he said $3.94.9. Wow, that seemed really high – I know heating oil and what we pay at the pump for gas are related, and I know gas started to go up again as soon as the holidays were over, but I’ve always had a problem understanding why a rise in the cost of a barrel of oil today (or an orange crop for that matter!) affects the price of the product which is already in inventory. Anyway, I decided to ask the delivery man to hold off so I could call our oil supplier of 16+ years and find out if they were able to offer a better rate.

I explained to the customer service rep that we still had ½ tank of oil in the tank and asked if the company wanted to offer a better price or if I should just call around myself. She put me on hold for about 45 seconds and came back on and said, “the best we can do today is $3.69.9 a gallon”. That’s a whopping twenty-five cents a gallon! I thanked her, took her name and told the delivery guy he could go ahead and fill us up. While it was great to call and get this discount, I was a little disappointed that this company we’ve used for almost 17 years doesn’t automatically give its loyal customers the best price they can.

Lesson learned. From now on, we will call the oil company, get the scheduled delivery date and then call around and shop rates to get the best possible price. If they don’t put any weight into loyal customers who pay their bills, why should I give them an automatic pass to overcharge us?! The few people I’ve spoken to tell me I am crazy not to shop around – they do every month and it saves hundreds of dollars every winter!

The company probably wouldn’t want us to know either that the delivery guy told us to also tell the company that asking for the “economy oil,” will also save additional money. He said the only difference is that the oil is delivered in an unmarked oil truck. Huh?

Happy January… only 64 days until Spring!!

Posted by:  Kim Simms