Sunday, September 14, 2008

FUEL DELIVERY CONTRACTS: YOUR WALLET


For those of you who have a service and price contract with a fuel oil supplier, I urge you caution.

The recurring complaint from so many people in the mid-hudson region is that fuel deliveries are postponed arbitrarily until the contract expires and the inflated cost is passed on to the consumer only days later.

While chatting with Larry Delarose during one of his campaign stops, he mentioned the questions come up throughout the district. From Monroe and Hamptonburgh to West Park and Kingston; the story is the same!

Delarose [pictured above with Tom Hoffay] said: “I’ve been hearing several complaints from local residents worried about the cost of home heating fuel this winter. They are particularly upset by the recent practice of some local providers who delivered fuel this summer in the off season at higher prices than the customer contracted for during the winter. The law in New York State should be amended to provide that any customer who has a price cap contract with a provider does not have to accept delivery of fuel after that contract has expired unless they know the price that will be charged at delivery and agree to it.”

Larry is absolutely right. There should be a law that will stop the widespread sandbagging by home heating oil companies. It shouldn’t fall on the consumer to guarantee their profit. Under the current system, with or without a contract the homeowner is totally at risk for rising prices at the whim of the fuel provider. This is unfair and it should be stopped.

This issue fell on the deaf ears of our State Senator a few months ago, so contact our State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill and ask that he sponsor a bill to address this issue.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I almost cant believe a blogger hit on this issue. I got hit with one of those stealth deliveries 3 weeks ago.
I spent hours playing phone tag before getting to argue with the service secretary about whe underhanded way they socked me with the higher cost.
Who is our State Senator and who does he think he serves? This is real cost of living stuff and it hurts.

Anonymous said...

Im not happy about the fuel prices to start with, but the slick tactics of the local distributers makes me want to move south.

How do they expect to keep their customers after pulling a stunt like that at the end of the season?

I will send Kevin an email, but until someone changes the way we do business in Albany and DC, the citizens of NY will continue to suffer.

Anonymous said...

We had our heating system changed over to gas a few years ago. But I do know that this is going on. I know someone who had a freakout with their fuel guy back in August for doing just this swindle.
It was a local company too. Wont say who, but rymes with heritage.

Anonymous said...

Shouldnt you be blogging about the mindless circle of politician bullshit during the campaign season? Didnt you get the memo? Look at all the other local blogs. Get on board madsen. The mundane spiral of repetitive pandering is where its at. Stop thinking.