The price of heating oil has fallen more than 40 percent from its high point during the summer.
But some customers are destined to keep paying those high prices, because they signed pre-buy contracts with their local dealer.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s David Darman has more.
When heating oil reached nearly 5 dollars a gallon in July, Schuyler Merritz of Concord made a move she now regrets.
I actually quit my oil company and went to another one because they would allow me to get on a budget plan and now I wish I’d waited.
Merritz says she’s now legally obligated to pay 270 dollars a month for oil, even though without a contract, she’d be paying a lot less.
Some people who prepaid for their winter’s oil are asking dealers for relief.
Jeff Taylor of Eastern Propane and Oil says he’s sympathetic, but budget plans and pre buys are set when customers sign up.
I guess its not unlike any business, somebody enters into an agreement with you, they have legal obligations to that agreement….
State law requires New Hampshire dealers to pay suppliers for pre bought oil when customers sign their contracts.
That means oil dealers have paid nearly 5 dollars a gallon for oil even if they deliver it months later.
The law doesn’t allow dealers to wait until delivery time to buy the oil, which this season, has cost them and their pre buy customers.
Managers at City Fuel in Manchester say they looked at the situation this summer, and decided not to offer a pre buy option.
Instead, manager George Winslow says for 40 dollars a month, his company set a ceiling on prices.
Winslow says this ‘cap program’ also allowed customers to buy lower priced oil as it became available.
Obviously with the cost of oil dropping over two dollars a gallon that’s become a win win situation for them because if they bought a thousand gallons of oil it looks like their saving around 1600 dollars a year or so on their petroleum costs if prices stay the way they are today.
The attorney general’s office has received a few inquiries from people looking to escape their pre buy contracts.
But Peter Bealo of Plaistow says he won’t be asking the state or his dealer for help.
Bealo paid for his oil during the summer.
He says he realizes doing that has cost him thousands of dollars.
I’m taking a bath that way. I understand it. But I’m also kind of a realist and you know I put my money down and I placed a bet and that bet is not paying off right now.
The attorney general’s office is girding for more inquiries this winter from people looking to wriggle out of their pre buy contracts.
But they say there is little they can do.
Still, some pre buy contracts may allow customers a way out.
The AG’s office says if customers have any questions, they may want to speak to a lawyer.
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