Joe:
This week I received my proposed oil budget from DMO for this coming year. To my amazement, it was over double the previous year (600 + per month). This is just for heating and hot water and does not include electricity.
I am curious to see if any of your readers have faced the same fate and how they are going to cope with it. I am sure it affects propane and natural gas customers too. I am looking into other heating methods and am curious what others think.
Thanks.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
35 comments:
I had a credit left over from last years budget plan for my propane from CATO, but this years plan still went from $185 to $250 per month.
I received my budget pymt letter this week. After paying $181/mo for the last 2 years, I now have to pay $322/mo. an increase of $141 a month! I was almost in tears. We just barely make our bills now. I'm considering a 2nd job to make ends meet. The oil is for our hot water baseboard heat & hot water. If anyone knows anyway around this mess, I'd appreciate knowing about it.
I don't know if any of these options are doable for you, since I don't know your structure or finances.....but.....
Wood and pellet stoves are an option for heating, and can save you money. If you have the cash up front and think you will be in the property for more than 5 years, think about a geothermal conversion. When I built my house in 2004, I wish I would have gone that route now.
Here's a link to a message board I'm part of, and the banter on wood vs. pellet stoves. Maybe that will help.
http://barandgrill.proboards81.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=43
I purchased a Pellet Stove 2 years ago and I screwed these guys right back!
I am able to heat my entire home, (and I do mean HOT) for $3.00 a day, or less. I even buy my pellets from Sam's or WalMart, of all places. They're cheaper and I don't care what these pellet guys tell you, they burn just the same as any other, (more expensive bag) pellet!
So if you want to screw them back, get a Pellet Stove. Mind you, I have an open floor plan in my home and it's in the main living room area. I use the ceiling fans to draw the heat throughout the rest of the home.
We're in the same boat. Talk about screwed. We were on the budget plan last year of $215/month which I have paid faithfully every month. I just got 2 letters from DMO. The first said I still had a balance of $975 that had to be paid by 7/31 or I would be kicked off the budget plan. WTF? I called and they explained that my budget should have been adjusted to match the increase but wasn't. So now I need to find $1000 dollars to just catch up. Oh and that 2nd letter. Yeah, my budget plan for the next year will be $575/mo. They're crazy. We're actually looking at alternative sources of heat as well including the pellet stove option. I'll definitely check out that website. We have a lot of questions and are trying to make the best choice for our family. I figure even if I go to my bank and take out a loan for $2500, the monthly payments won't be $575/mo.
Joe! How dare you screw the local pellet guy and buy from Sams/Wal-Mart! You sonnabitch.
j/k.
I typed in the website exactly as numbermonkey had it and I don't get anything from the search. Can you type it again?
We've had a pellet stove for 4 years now. I love it. But even the pellets have gone up now. Not as much as oil but it's still more.
And I've already told the kids that this year, sweaters are a good thing. :D
DMO = Phil Tilghman
It's not just DMO it's every business and person for that matter trying to make there ends meet. I don't know what people are going to do. But I know it's going to be cool in my house this winter.
I would never go on a budget, and pay for someone elses fule. I prepaid this year which is a lot higher than last year but sounds cheaper than some of what I'm seeing here. 3.15 a gallon for 400 gallons for six months is about 210 a month
Don't forget Valley Gas. Their budget payments more than doubled but worse than that is the office manager who used to work with you on negotiating a fair payment has left (I don't blame her) and the A$$hole trying to do her job, a guy named Scott is worthless, can't add simple numbers, does not return calls and could care less about customer service.
Hey 9:39 am
Let me get you there another way.
Go to my profile. Click my website link in my profile. It will take you to a message board I've been part of for a long time. The board is open to anyone who likes sports, since it started on a now defunct sports radio network's website, we just moved the regulars to a private board.
Go to the bar and grill board, and look for the pellet stove thread.
Now I can't vouch for the experiences or advice, but I do know there are some pellet/wood stove users who have real life experience. You can always post questions for those guys as a guest. Tell them T23 sent you. (my handle on that board) They would be more than happy to help.
We have 3 sorces for heat, heat pump, electric baseboard heat, and a wood stove. We have been splitting wood for the last several months and have enough for two winters. Plus I have a source to get more if needed through family and friends. This year due to costs we will be solely on wood for our heat. I have heard the Delmarva Power was looking into a possible rate increase again. It not set in stone but that is the rumor I have heard.
Ali
I also had a credit at the end of my budget year only to find that my budget payment had doubled for the upcomming year. After making a call to my supplier I better understand how this came to be. My budget is nothing more than my estimated cost for the upcomming year based on the gallons I have used in the past, multiplied by the projected cost of the fuel for the upcomming year and then divided into 12 payments. It is no big secret that the cost for heating oil, propane, natural gas, and even wood pellets have gone up considerably, if not doubled, in the past 12 months. The only way I can change the amount I will spend is by lowering the amount I use. I certainly don't blame DMO for the increase in the price of oil, although it would be easy to assume that. DMO certainly doesn't force me to use the gallons that I use either. All they can do is offer me a way to spread out the payments over the year so I am not faced with a $3,000 delivery of oil in December when I will need it the most, and least be able to afford it. I too am using alternative heating methods, along with pulling old sweatshirts out of storage for the upcoming year. This is all a product of the world we are currently living in and it is our responsibility to curb our behavior so that we can make ends meet. DMO is merely offering us an easier way to level out the payments.
I inherited an old house which is heated by oil (hot water baseboard) heat. I am a single working person who can hardly make ends meet NOW, let alone when winter hits. My heating/air guy reccomends a heat pump, but that would require new wiring and the estimate is around $12,000 to convert! I do have a fireplace and I may consider looking into a pellet stove and alot of sweaters!!
Lets move to Florida!
Costa Rico is usually a moderate 78 degrees...:)
I may not come back from our honeymoon there!!!
I heat my entire home with a pellet stove @ the cost of less than 500.00
The same thing has happened to me. During the 2006-07 year, I paid $225 per month. For 2007-08 DMO reduced the monthly amount to $166. Given the dire forecasts about escalating oil prices, I couldn't understand why DMO would reduce payments. By Dec. 07 I realized that, if I continued with $166, I would owe a lot by the end of the budget year (May), so I increased my payment to $250. I was still way behind, so in March I sent in $300; April, $500; May, the balance due, $482.
For next year I am supposed to pay $477, almost three times what I paid in the first part of the '07-08 year, and over twice what I paid for the '06-07 year.
The monthly charge does include the yearly maintenace; I have bought into the best plan they offer. It also includes the charge for capping the monthly amount.
What in the world are people who do not have large incomes and who now live paycheck to paycheck supposed to do? Fortunately, I can absorb the much higher cost, but many simply cannot.
If you had any idea how many thousands of gallons o heating oil that the state and Shore up give away for free in this area you would all would be incensed.When a Delmarva oil company was going to stop delivering outside of Salisbury area I overheard someone stating "I hope not-they bring me MY FREE OIL very month in the winter." WTF?
Does anyone even consider that the cost of oil has doubled over the last year? I'm no fan of DMO but their costs have increased too. How many of you have sent letters-emails to congress insisting that we drill/refine here NOW?
We heat with Propane, expensive, yes. All fuel is expensive now.
As time and money permit we are "insulating, caulking, replacing windows etc."
We have installed an
instant hot water heater, (there are sometimes as many as 6 people here) and we have never had a problem with recovery or running out at shower time, it is vry efficient, and is "on call" but uses no fuel when not on call, unlike other hot water systems.
I think folks should write in to Joe about the ways they are "saving" money, being more frugal, and learning how to "cut out the fat" two degrees less on the air conditioning makes hundreds of dollars of difference, Same goes for heating. We can all conserve, if we share the ways we conserve we all will benefit, not just bitchin' all the time.
Though those business who are "greedy" and harming the helpless should be "reported" and this blog is a great place to do that too...
11:07 AM--come on down to Florida. We survived the hurricanes a few years back, and our insurance and taxes went up, as well as electricity. We have an all-electric home, and our bills went from about $120/mo to $200/mo. This is still cheap, but it was a big increase. We have replaced most of our light bulbs with the "energy smart" bulbs, and our bill has dropped under $170/mo, even in summer.
My cost to heat with DMO has already doubled over the past three years and if you are a few days late with a payment because you are waiting on a social security check they allow you to run out of oil. The repairs that result are sometimes not covered by your service contract. And they cannot give you any information about your oil usage back further than three years because they have changed their computer system. Since SMO bought DMO, service and reliability have gone south. And I don't see any affordable alternative so I guess we will freeze this winter.
I am so amazed at the stupidity, I don't even know where to start. But I will.
I don't care what utility company you may deal with, if you are on a budget, you get a statement just like your credit card bills showing an account balance and your payments. Heaven forbid that you actually take time to read it and make an adjustment on your own doing.
It's not about "what you can afford to pay"-it's about what the market is and how much you use. Winter comes the same time every year, you can't predict what will happen, but you can damn sure plan. You don't dare call the mortgage company and say I can only pay $300 this month-catch you at the end of the year. Or your bank either for a car payment, so wtf? Why is it ok to do that to anyone else-regardless of the nature of the business. If your credit card minimum payment is $100, but you can only send $50-how long do you think they will let you use that card? It is what it is.
You wouldn't pull up to a gas station and demand to be charged the same price per gallon that it was this time last year.
Sit down and go thru your wants and your needs. You don't need internet, you can go to the library. You don't need 6 cell phones in the family-use the pay as you go. Most of the talking is about nonsense anyway. And you will monitor your $$ and do you really need to answer that call?
Cable tv? it's a want, not a need. Turn the tv off, gather w/the family. Exercise, read something educational. Heck-get a wii!
I made a few phone calls. One place last year had a cap of $2.899 and honored it thru the heating season when others who chose not to have a cap paid as much as $3.75 during the winter. I asked the nice lady, how many of those $2.899 customers called to say thank you for the lower price? She said none-they only hear/know what they want to know. I would have to agree w/her. I believe the day's rate when I called averaged about $4.40-$4.50 a gallon.
Hats off to the ones who have to deal with it, I would be fired by the time I told you how stupid you sound.
Last but not least, Phil Tilghman owns his own company dumbass anon 944. To the best of my knowledge, he has nothing to do w/DMO.
smo didn't buy dmo. smo is/has always been the parent company since i have been dealing w/them.
the ladies in the salisbury office are 1st class.
Just curious--how large is the house that costs 600 dollars a month to heat and what is the thermostat set on?
"I am so amazed at the stupidity, I don't even know where to start. But I will."
So will I. Who the hell are you to assume that anyone on here does not understand the difference between needs and wants? Do you honestly believe that we're trying to figure out how we should spend our money...keeping our children warm or keeping 120 cable channels? Let's see...my son suffers from RAD and I need the house to be warm but damn I really love going to Starbucks. Stupidity indeed.
And please spare us the song and dance of how wonderful DMO/SMO are to let us split our payments to make them more manageable. For many of us, whether it's $3000 in December or $600/month, we do not have it. Forgive me if I don't jump on the they're great bandwagon when they're making record profits.
The only thing we do seem to agree on is that I'm also glad I don't have to work for an oil company. I'd hate to know that I'm earning a paycheck for contributing to the misery of others.
If you don't have it to spend then don't use the product! My suggestion is to educate yourself on the facts before placing the blame. DMO is indeed offering a service by breaking out the payments for you and they are certainly not the ones making the record profits you boast about. Do you honestly think for a second that the major suppliers, the same ones that are reporting the record profits, allow DMO to pay them for the oil they purchased to sell, in 12 equal payments? The answer is no! DMO either pays the entire bill the next day or within a few days, and then allows us to stretch out the payments, INTEREST FREE AT THAT, in an effort to make things easier on us. They don't charge you any more than they do a customer that pays cash the same day for your oil. You get it at the same price with the OPTION to stretch out the payments over the year in an effort to give you the OPTION to budget your bills. Do you not think for a second that they would financially be much better off if we paid them as quickly as they had to pay the company they purchased the oil from? There are no record profits being made by any of our local oil providers. The increase in fuel costs directly translate into increase in their cost to do business. I think that if you polled all the providers in the area you will find 100% agreement in that they would much rather be dealing with lower oil pricing. It's just not the case in our world today and it certainly isnt by the hands of DMO or any other supplier in the area. When you look at the national averages for retail gasoline, heating oil, propane, and other similar products then compare it to the retail pricing on the Eastern Shore you will find that we are generally on the lower side of the curve. That's not because those products cost less to suppliers down here, it's because our local suppliers operate on slimmer profit margins. There are plenty of areas to point blame, and it certainly shouldnt be at the companies that have zero control over skyrocketing fuel prices.
Amen Anon 10:06
Anon 616 I am soo happy for you that you are in a position to write a check every month for $300 or more just for heating oil/gas without it hurting you.Come down off your pedestal for a moment and think about a few things.Not all of us live like you do.Look around and actually pay attention.Perhaps this is a suprise to you but for some elderly people thats about ONE THIRD their monthly income.Should they starve to death so they can stay warm?They dont qualify for the Energy Assistance programs that the welfare queens subside on all winter because they worked all their lives,but they cannot keep swallowing all the increases in the cost of living.What do you suggest???
And another thing-if someone cant afford to fill their heating tank at a cost of 400-500 bucks or more what makes you think they can afford a damn Wiii????????That statement alone tells me you are in no position to be calling any of us a dumbass,dumbass!
OK. I will relent. I'm quite sure that DMO had to pay for their oil in one bill but a few points. First of all, they obviously had the funds or they would not have had a supply. And despite this fact, I haven't heard of any layoffs coming from that company so I will assume the bottom line is doing just fine.
Secondly, you're comparing apples and oranges. We're people and they're a company. Let's just say that they spend a million dollars to acquire they're supply. They will surely make that back and then some. When our $600/mo is gone, it's gone. They are not deciding life and death here. The real crisis is not whether DMO can buy their oil...it's whether we can.
The record prices I "boast" about...well, not sure that was boasting. It's a national trend. If they're indeed operating on such slim profit margins bully to them. I'd like to see their profit figures actually. You sound like one of their PR people. Maybe you can give us those numbers so we can stop beating up on the poor oil company.
I am certainly not a PR person for DMO. To be honest with you though I used to work for one of DMO's competitors and battled them, along with the other companies in town, daily for our slice of the market. Before I got into the business I obviously had my own pre-conceived notions about how much those companies made, and how easy it must be. Once I had an insiders view I gained a whole new perspective of just how little they make and must always increase volume to remain profitable. Believe it or not but most of these companies consider it a good thing to have a net profit of a half a cent on a gallon of gasoline!! Be grateful, if at times like this anyone can be grateful when we all struggle, that there is as much competition as there is. There are MANY different companies out there that you can purchase heating oil from. Each come up with their gimmicks to attract business. Each offer attractive plans to promote their customer service. The common denominator for all of them is that they are in a competitive market where marketing 101 teaches you that all the marketing in the world will not guarantee you a single dollar of business if you are not competitive when it comes to price per gallon. I never meant to imply that DMO was crying poor mouth because of their small margins. You are correct in that they can obviously afford to pay for thier product or their access to it would be cut off in a nano-second. That doesnt mean that they are coining cash either and they have had a major reduction in their work force, as have many of the other companies around town. Consumers are cutting back, and rightfully so, which decreases the volume of sales to all the companies. Even though someone may be an employee of a local oil-gas company it certainly doesnt exempt them from the same pressures many of us are speaking of in this blog. Those people too have to pay inflating prices for goods they are buying when they go out and shop for their families. Milk, bread, corn, postage, cereal, and little debbie snack cakes have all gone up considerably. Oil and gas just stick out like a sore thumb because we purchase it in such large quantites that it beams at us like a lighthouse beacon. Also keep in mind that along with the increase in the cost of Oil, companies like DMO are also experiencing record breaking Accounts receivable numbers as the average consumers are having more trouble making those payments. The number of customers who end up at a collection agency are at an all time high because people simply can't affort to pay their bills. I am not saying, and have never said, that pricing is not too high. My point is that it is not the fault of companies like DMO that they are as high as they are. When you see EXXON/MOBIL posting billions of dollars in profits each quarter it is just easy to equate that with DMO and assume they are making similar numbers. I can assure you they are not. If the current trend continues you will see more consolidation in the market among suppliers and the ones that will remain are not the ones with the highest profits...they will be the ones with the best controls to get them through times like this. Let's all hope it doesnt get to that because less competition is almost never good for the consumer. All of these companies offer a service and take larger risks than realized to offer that service. There is not always a clear reward at the end of the story for them.
Well stated anon 513!!!!
To the original poster about the $600 per month payment, how many gallons was that based on? What $$ amount? Just asking, I use propane and right now that's more manageble. I wouldn't be able to pay for fuel oil no matter what I cut back on. Did you call around and see what the other companies were doing? I know there are several in town. My heart goes out to everyone, sure is trying times for all of us.
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