Cost of Home heating Oil? (Shirley, Farmingville: how much, buying, landlord)

[Walter Greenspan]

Originally Posted by alexei27

That makes sense to me. After all we do not call up and order a few barrels of crude. We order heating oil or put refined gasoline in our tanks. Good point.

Thank you.

Now, if only Bill O'Reilly could figure this one out .... :think:

[TMing]

Just wondering how many people have an Oil & service contract and who don't. My oil contract is set to expire at the end of march and I'm not sure if I should renew or go with COD oil delivery. Pros and Cons? Thanks.

[totallyfrazzled]

We used to have a contract (with Slomins; terrible service and ridiculously high oil price) but dumped it the last time it expired. We went with a great COD company. As for servicing, I found an excellent independent guy and as a backup I also have a fantastic plumber/heating guy that I've used for more than 20 years. Actually I should clarify: The plumber is our first choice for any heating system problems; the new independent tech would be our backup for him. But for routine annual maintenance, the new guy is first choice because our plumber (since he does super work BUT does everything himself) is always very busy. He comes over in a flash if someone has a problem but for routine maintenance it makes more sense for us to call the new guy. Much fairer to our plumber too.

[fitdude7]

With these COD companies. What if something goes wrong and you need service? Who could you call?

[oceanjunkie]

if you do COD, you should still have your boiler serviced (annually?). there are plenty of companies out there that just do install/service and do not also sell oil (possible conflict of interest as far as I'm concerned). if something were to go wrong with your boiler, you could call up the person that serviced it. they should be on call at any time. you'll pay an hourly rate, which may depend on the time of day/week that they're needed. so the money you save on oil by going COD is basically used to self insure your equipment.

[Samrai309]

Just figured I would vent a bit. I just got a delivery from Petro. My landlord has them for the service contract so we have to buy oil from them. I am so angry right now. I am out of town and my wife tells me they came and delivered about 130 gallons of oil at 2.67 a gallon. A quick check on COD pricing (even if paying by credit card) is at least a buck cheaper. But...I have to use petro b/c the landlord has the contract for service with them. Now I have never had a problem with Petro, always courteous, always efficient and attentive to service requests or calls in the past, but thats no excuse for bending me over on price

I guess the only way I can get around this since I doubt the landlord will change his service agreements is if I purchase on COD in between normal Petro delivery cycles and when they do deliver at their higher price, they deliver a little bit of oil. I guess I just have to time things to offset the cost. What a pain in the arse this is. Sorry for the vent session.

[atypicalLIer]

I paid John's Fuel oil $1.549/gal for a fill (over 200 gal) which was a credit card price. They charge 5 cents more per gallon on the CC. This was 3/17.

[longislandmike]

Residential Heating Oil Prices: What Consumers Should Know

Oil price tumbles on new US inventory report - News- msnbc.com

[Walter Greenspan]

Wholesale heating oil closed Friday's (March 20) trading session at $1.38-34/100 a gallon.

[rh71]

What do you guys do when there's a problem with the system and it conks out at 2am? Serious question - because while I hate my higher prices with a contract, having 2 infants in the house I couldn't risk it. I was relatively problem free this season though so I may skip the contract next year.

But do you just call a plumber in the morning? Isn't it already $50 to get them to show up plus whatever parts need work? What about when a line gets clogged.. a simple filter replacement and such... things like this seem so simple yet will cost you almost as much as a service contract if it happens more than once a year.

Anyway, I wanted to post to ask how you dealt with problems if you don't have a contract with someone.