There’s a saying that not everything that glitters is gold. That saying can be applied to home energy buying clubs. They may look like the best buy but when the going gets tough, they may not be able to deliver.
We’ve seen quite a few interesting things in our 50+ years in business. A recent trend is buying “co-ops”. These groups really aren’t cooperatives. They aren’t member owned and they don’t provide dividends. What they are is groups of propane suppliers that agree to deliver fuel to at a lower rate to participants. These suppliers are usually big names in the business who provide propane to these groups at a discount. In order to get these lower rates there’s normally a large volume purchase that must be met. Failure to meet this volume, means you’ll be billed at a much higher rate. This isn’t the only catch.
An example was in Dec 17, 2017 – Jan 18, 2018 our area had an extend cold streak. Propane gas supply got tight, but even worse – delivery drivers simply couldn’t keep up. A particular marketer in the Albany, NY region was the main supplier for a buying “co-op”. This supplier just couldn’t keep up and the buying group customers couldn’t get their deliveries. Unfortunately, they ran out of fuel and no other dealers would deliver. All the while the supplier was taking care of their own regular customers.
These buying clubs push greedy gas suppliers to take on more than they can handle. Then when it gets cold and resources get stretched, the first customers to NOT get deliveries are these club members – not their regular customers which they place a higher value upon.
Does this still sound great? Don’t believe us? Try searching the internet for “issues facing fuel buying clubs” or click here to read just one of the articles.
Instead of taking a chance, just go with a dependable locally owned supplier that treats their customers fairly and has the infrastructure to keep you supplied no matter how cold it gets. Combined Energy Services reinvests constantly by improving our storage and distribution infrastructure with over 700,000 gallons of propane stored locally. We continue to add storage to make sure we have supply. In addition, we have over 1.5 million gallons stored in contracted underground storage.
Our fleet of tractor trailers and home delivery tankers work from our 9 local storage facilities across 3 states. We reinvest to make sure we’re there when you need us most. Since 1968, CES has been here for our customers at competitive prices, no gimmicks, or tricks.