Boiler juice cancelled my oil order!

[Whatistrumpdoingnow]

I live in a rural area in the Midlands where oil heating is our best option. On Saturday 28th February, Boiler Juice were promoting my postcode to encourage orders. As such I placed my usual timely order at a cost of £313. With things escalating in the Middle East I kept checking that the order was being processed and on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and even this morning the status was 'pending delivery' before Friday 13th March and the amount had left my bank account indicating all was absolutely fine.

Then late this afternoon at almost 4pm I had an email cancelling the order!!!!! I spent an hour trying to speak to someone only to be told they would accept a reorder but it would now be double the price. I could have understood this if it was cancelled on Monday but the price has steadily gone up every day meaning their delay in notifying me is going to cost £100s extra. Sadly both me and my youngest child have a genetic connective tissue disorder which means we need heat especially during a flare up or post surgery (due complex joint replacement surgery next month) when immobile and nonweight bearing.

Anyone else frustrated by Boiler Juice/ oil companies??? It feels like clear profiteering and a deliberate ploy to delay notifying clients so the cost is much higher. I'm not confident Boiler Juice will even honour the current price if I reorder. To add insult to injury they have also kept my refund in my Boiler Juice account rather than refund it to my bank from where it was paid. That will be another hour in the phone to request the refund to my bank and no doubt a two week wait for the refund to hit my bank.

What are others doing?? I have enough oil if careful to last for another couple of weeks but will the prices just keep going up and up??? If anyone has a crystal ball please advise 😉

Well done ladies. I dont use heating oil, but just saw this shared and remembered your thread

Image under review

Excellent news that enough cages have been rattled so questions are being raised at government level and on well respected forums like money saving expert. I hope I'm not being naive in hoping if we can limp through for a week or two we might see some support in place and the situation improve.

Thanks to everyone offering suggestions- what a lovely helpful group you are 🫂. I've looked into local syndicates and suppliers and will definitely be doing things differently going forward. The biggest lesson has to be to have access to a variety of heat sources, build up good relationships with local suppliers and top up at half full not a quarter.

I'm still feeling protective of my oil heating as in my experience it's always been very reliable and not too expensive. At previous addresses I have had various combi gas boilers which were regularly temperamental and had to be replaced much more frequently. We replaced the oil boiler at our current address 12 years ago just because we were moving it from the kitchen to the garage and it was over 25 years old so probably not the most fuel efficient (not that we overly noticed) but it worked perfectly never letting us down just as our current one has too.

Trading Standards?

Isn’t that illegal? I thought red diesel was solely allowed legally for farming vehicles/machinery? I live rurally, but I’m not in farming, so only think that is the case based on what others have said in the past!

I also got skanked by Boiler Juice…. The £313 order I placed on Monday morning and due for delivery today was cancelled on Thursday. By which time the price has obviously rocketed. Absolutely furious!

I am happy ti to see the MP letter- thank you for posting!- as I do not want I to simply accept my refund and shrug my shoulders on this. It is wholly unacceptable. Put it one way… if oil prices had suddenly plummeted, would they be giving me a refund for the price difference? Nope. Precisely.

Rant over!

Never used Boiler Juice, but we ordered from a local company before the current crisis and they sent a text to say it will be delivered on Monday, so fingers crossed.

I remember this happened after the invasion of Ukraine, the price went through the roof and you couldn't order oil from anywhere. Then after a few weeks it/all settled down again.

As usual rural people and our problems are ignored.

Even the local company which we normally use is quoting over £600 for 500 litres. I'm off to put the heating off now and light the fire. Unfortunately we also rely on our central heating to heat the water.

I just can't afford to pay that. Luckily we have an electric shower as well and fortunately I fixed my electricity for 1 year just before Christmas. So unless things improve it will be boiling kettles for the washing up!!

We're not on the gas grid and can't have a heat pump because of space.

We really need to become self sufficient in energy in this country.

Its times like this I'm so glad we have our wood burning stove.

Anyone else noticed a flurry of 5 * reviews for Boiler Juice on Trustpilot all this afternoon stating how reliable and trustworthy they are and how they are honouring their prices??? The cynical part of me wonders how busy Boiler Juice employees and their family and friends were on their keyboards around that time given how many of us have found the complete opposite. Wish they would have honoured my order placed in February or at least told me before late Thursday afternoon as their tardiness meant prices escalated and availability is scarce such that I'm having to wait at least another 2 weeks for delivery and pay at least double if not triple from £313 to over £700.

That's terrible if that's happening. I don't use heating oil but might go and leave them a negative review because of all this!!

They are so obvious!

Sorry, but why do you need your heating on for the hot water? I’ve got an oil tank for heating and hot water, and no electric shower. I can then the heating off but leave the hot water on. You don’t need to have your heating on to heat the water. Do you keep your central heating turned up all summer just to keep water hot? Because you don’t need to do that.

I get quotes from Boilerjuice, along with quotes from at least five other companies, before inviting my usual supplier to match or beat the lowest. I wouldn’t dream of ordering from Boilerjuice, they’re sneaky with prices, adding an admin fee that means they’re really not competitive, and their customer service is generally said to be lacking. Sorry you’ve been let down by them, they’re milking it just now.

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Did they send you an order confirmation email, OP? Have a read of their T&Cs (section 4.2 in particular); as annoying as it is, there's no contract until they do so.

It’s illegal to use it for road vehicles. Given that it’s more expensive than heating oil usually, I don’t think it’s illegal to use for heating a house.

I know people in Ireland can just fill up oil cans at their local garage.

Loads of great advice here. I was just wondering if you’d lodged with the provider that you / your child have disabilities. I think you may be able to get extra support, and also you may look to see if they offer better rates for people who need more hot water / heating than the average bear, I have 2 kids with ND and I had AI diseases so am about to investigate the same

Possibly has an Aga or Rayburn like I had, where you need the whole thing on in order to heat water in isolation of the heating ( for example, in Summer when I didn’t require heating on, but still had to have the damn thing on).

I hated that thing. It finally got condemned after a carbon monoxide leak on Christmas Eve a few years ago. That wasn’t the funnest of Christmasses! 🤯

Excellent!! Thank you! I’ll get onto that with my story, too.

I somehow feel BoilerJuice are finished…. I hope their actions become widespread as certainly they have lost all their regular customers ….and cannot imagine any sane person using them when.. if… prices get “ back to normal”….

Sorry. Not the central heating but the boiler which runs on oil.

Such profiteering bastards!

The oil companies are still selling the oil they have, bought at lower prices.

As I understand it BoilerJuice are an agency or broker rather than a supplier of their own oil, so it sounds like the oil companies profiteering. Just like they did when the Russians invaded Ukraine.

Really sorry for everyone affected , thank goodness we are coming out of winter, not at the start.

We are ok for heating oil but unfortunately my extremely elderly and vulnerable mother in law is running low. She needs to be kept warm and it is very worrying. My DH is keeping an eye on prices and is reluctant to order at the currently inflated prices. I hope there is some resolution soon as her pension doesn’t go far as it is.

Bloody spivs.

It shouldn’t take too much to heat the water if you need to, especially with the heating turned off and the weather is getting milder. Fingers crossed it lasts until the prices come down!