New Rant Thread

[Mark12]

I think I can recognise how Steve feels at the helplessness which many people feel - myself included - around the cost of living these days whether it be in your supermarket or your utilities. Day to day life is criminally expensive. I don't engage in politics at all because it can be divisive and quite frankly worrying and upsetting.

I'm sorry the costs have gone up like that Steve. It's poop.

Regards
Mark

 

[R181]

True, but why would the supplier do just a thing?

Simple greed and because they can. Virtually every time there is an upcoming holiday our fuel prices have spiked. Suppliers take every opportunity to gouge and increase their profits.

Bob

 

[Vacumatic]

Simple greed and because they can. Virtually every time there is an upcoming holiday our fuel prices have spiked. Suppliers take every opportunity to gouge and increase their profits.

Bob

Particularly as our energy prices are capped, apart from heating oil.

 

[chazt]

Simple greed and because they can. Virtually every time there is an upcoming holiday our fuel prices have spiked. Suppliers take every opportunity to gouge and increase their profits.

Bob

Yes. I was going to reply similarly.

fwiw, I can actually point to one particular retail shave site which resisted the pull of greed. A few years ago when Fine Accoutrements announced a price increase on their AS splashes weeks before the actual increase, they were selling through their existing stock at the old price. But within days (most) other retailers had raised their prices to the anticipated new retail price. I was in a desperate way; Snake Bite hoard mode. The only other retail website I was aware of that also sold through existing inventory at the old price was Shave Nation. I was impressed with their action to do the right thing and avoid gouging customers.

 

[Paper Plane]

Thanks for the support chaps.

My point was greedy, profiteering, illegitimates in the oil supply business, not politics.

Porcine aviation will be commonplace if international prices drop and customer prices drop as quickly within the same week.

steve

 

[chazt]

Thanks for the support chaps…

Porcine aviation will be commonplace if international prices drop and customer prices drop as quickly within the same week.

steve

And that's not bovine excrement!

 

[p.b]

 

[R181]

Sometimes it is hard to tell if a particular person is actually mentally incompetent or wilfully ignorant in interpreting a situation and consequences related to the outcome of that situation. Either way, it is just bizarre.

Bob

 

[TobyC]

Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ...... What ?

You sound like Donald Rumsfeld

He was a complete dipshit!

 

[TobyC]

We are straying into the area of Politics, which is not good, especially when this corner of this thread was all about the rising cost of heating oil and not the justification of a war.

Steve could quite easily have been making the point that his supplier was profiteering on existing stock and taking advantage on what may be a short term spike in global prices.

Your post is the first negative one I've seen, let people talk as long as it's proper conversation.

 

[Vacumatic]

Your post is the first negative one I've seen, let people talk as long as it's proper conversation.

You are the last person that I would take any advice from, keep your instructions to yourself.

Politics is a banned topic on ATG whether as part of conversation or not and the subject matter was leading towards a political arena when Paper Plane had made a non-political post on the subject of an increase in the cost of his heating oil.

 

[TobyC]

The heating oil you were billed for yesterday was in all likelihood processed, bought and paid for by your supplier weeks or months earlier. It’s a sleazy business practice. I believe it’s called price gouging.

It's replacement cost, if businesses sell their product for what it used to cost they will then need to spend extra money to get more. It's about current value and all businesses do it, not just petroleum products.

 

[chazt]

It's replacement cost, if businesses sell their product for what it used to cost they will then need to spend extra money to get more. It's about current value and all businesses do it, not just petroleum products.

I’m unimpressed with your argument, but I will give you a “Maybe so.” That said, it doesn’t make it right. I am of the opinion that it’s still a sleazy thing to do. The distributor owns the product already. If he sells through his inventory honorably and wants to be perceived as such he should honor his customer’s agreed upon sales price and then notify the customer that the next purchase will be at a new price. (Edited to add: At that point the customer is given the option of agreeing to the new price or finding a new sales agent.)

Many years ago I was in the wholesale appliance and floor care industry. Pretty much all of my accounts sold goods based on the prices they paid, not what they would cost to replace after a price increase. It’s just the cost of doing business. Interestingly, the handful of dealers who slimed their customers were also the ones who paid their bills late.

 

[Cheesepiece]

Not all businesses do it though Toby. Two examples, shave related, that have already been mentioned. Fine Accoutrements and Shave Nation didn't do it.

 

[TobyC]

I’m unimpressed with your argument, but I will give you a “Maybe so.” That said, it doesn’t make it right. I am of the opinion that it’s still a sleazy thing to do. The distributor owns the product already. If he sells through his inventory honorably and wants to be perceived as such he should honor his customer’s agreed upon sales price and then notify the customer that the next purchase will be at a new price. (Edited to add: At that point the customer is given the option of agreeing to the new price or finding a new sales agent.)

Many years ago I was in the wholesale appliance and floor care industry. Pretty much all of my accounts sold goods based on the prices they paid, not what they would cost to replace after a price increase. It’s just the cost of doing business. Interestingly, the handful of dealers who slimed their customers were also the ones who paid their bills late.

I worked as a mechanic for about six years at an Exxon station, and a year at Gulf. The station didn't set the price, Exxon, or Gulf, would call and tell you what the new price was, and you were contractually bound to sell at that price. Sometimes you had to change the prices more that once in a day.

On the flip side, if you bought fuel at a high price and the company lowered the sale price guess who ate the loss? Hint, it wasn't Exxon or Gulf.