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Heading into the Heating Season

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Summer is Coming to a Quick End

No matter what year after year, season after season, summer always goes by faster than any other season. Each season of course has there own strong points; fall has the leaves and cool nights, spring everything is coming back to life, winter has snow (if you like that stuff), and summer has the beach, pool parties, perfect outdoor weather. The Summer however is quickly coming to an end that means that soon you'll be heating your home again.

We've touched on this subject before but there are plenty of factors to consider when picking an oil company if your new to oil. It's good to take a look at your oil company too, some of the things you should look at is price, service provided, services you'll need, and efficiency.  Many oil companies out there will try to rope people in with a low first delivery price and they jack the price up considerably. It is common for a company to offer a first delivery price, the key is to find out what it'll go up to after the first delivery. Companies that jack up the price considerably should be a red flag to other tactics that they may use.

Determining the kind of service that you want from a company is important as well, if you'd like to manage your own deliveries, calling when you need or want fuel then a COD or Cash on Delivery company is the way to go. They are cheaper then a full service company (more on that later) but they might not offer service. That can be big issue in the event that your heating system breaks down, even worse if it breaks down in the middle of the winter. If your heating system does break you'll have to find a service company to come a fix it, the trick will be finding someone. See if you're out of heat because of how cold it is, there is a chance that others are as well. If you call up a full service company looking to get your heating system fixed, you could run into the following issue. Some companies only service their own customers or they won't be able to get out to your hours because they're servicing their customers. This means that you either have to keep calling around or you have to wait, either way your situation is only getting worse.

 That is the worse case scenario when it comes to dealing with a COD company, for the many COD customers, service is never an issue. That would leave many to believe that the service plans and added bells and whistles of a Full Service company aren't needed. Now a Full Service company as the name suggests an oil company that has service. They can come out and fix and install heating equipment and in many cases air conditioning equipment as well. In most cases they have more staff in the office and in the field. Since all oil companies in an area buy the same oil, the service beyond the product is what makes the price difference. Full service companies will also provide automatic delivery, where they come out to your home to deliver your oil. This is instead of you calling and checking on your own. Most company have some form of software in the office that generates a schedule based on your home and usage for the deliveries. This will prevent you from running out of oil during extremely cold times when your burning more oil than normal.

 Picking an oil company is a huge decision for your family and your home. It's important to ask questions and get the full story, no matter what type of company you go with.
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