ON January 12, 2015, Northern Energy phoned us to see if they could make a delivery of domestic kerosene as part of our Free Northern Energy Homecare Plan, so 1,649 litres was delivered the following day.

We fully expected to benefit from the large reduction in oil prices since our previous delivery in November 2013. However, when we received a statement on February 3, we were shocked to find that we had been charged £1218.61.

I rang a competitor (BATA) immediately to find out how much we would have been charged for the same delivery on January 13 and they told us it would have been £597.35 – a difference of £621.26.

You can imagine how we felt because like many pensioners we are very frugal with the central heating and carry out careful cost comparisons whenever we have to buy any household appliances.

I rang Northern Energy and spoke to their manager, giving her the above details and asking for a credit. The best they were prepared to do “as a gesture of goodwill” was to offer us a credit of £164.90. That still means we have paid Northern Energy £456.35 more than the price BATA quoted.

How did we find ourselves in this position and what can you do to avoid being overcharged in the same way? When Northern Energy rang to inform us of an oil delivery date they did not quote a unit price and have not done so in the past.

The mistake we made was to trust our supplier (we had been with them since 2004) and not ask them for a quote. The most important thing is to ask for the unit price and do not accept the delivery there and then. Phone other suppliers (eg BATA) for a quote and also obtain one online before making a decisions.

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