Higham Oil Group

There are:

1. The purpose of the group is to collate individual orders, obtain the best bulk purchase price and pass over the orders to the most suitable supplier, period.

2. The group administrator(s) are not there to enquire about deliveries for people. Contact details of the supplier for a given order will be made available so people can phone up themselves should they wish to.

3. The administrator(s) are not responsible for supplier operations. Members should discuss issues direct with the supplier.

4. Order requests after the 6pm deadline will be moved to the following group order without consultation.

5. The group is run on a voluntary basis with limited time. Harassment and/or abusive behaviour will not be accepted and will result in your membership being deleted.

Should any of the ground rules be overstepped then the administrator(s) will remove your details from the membership list and cancel any outstanding order.

Nothing, simple as that! Some buying groups charge a yearly admin fee, we don't. Apart from our time there's no overheads to cover.

Easy to answer this one, it's NOTHING, in fact they make a loss each year. The administrator doesn't get any commission from the suppliers (unlike some oil buying groups). The group is run for free just to help people out. The group does have a volunteer who rings around for the prices, a yearly bottle of their favourite tipple is given as a thank you hence why the administrator makes a loss.

No, this the date I phone around to get the best price. On this date I will choose the cheapest supplier and email the group to tell everyone the prices, Within the following two weeks the supplier will deliver your oil.

When you order your oil we need to pass on some information to the supplier - your name, your full address, a phone number in case of problems and the quantity of oil you want. We could ask for this information every time you placed an oil order, this would get repetitive and off-putting. The order form therefore asks for a subset of this information, the rest will be on our database and will be pulled out when the final order list is made and sent to the supplier.

We could make things easier for you to edit your own details, when you move house for example but that you require members to have a personal login username and password, possible to do but OTT for most members, they just want to order oil, not remember yet another password or PIN number.

Please fill out the online form, the link is at the top of this page. There is no telephone number to call.

The simple answer is whenever you want to. Joining the group doesn't mean you need to order oil, you order when you need to.

Two weeks before the advertised order dates an email is sent around to all the members with an email address telling them that if they wish to order some oil then they should fill out the order form, the form can be found at the top of this page. A password is required to open the form, the password is sent in the email. We use a password to stop people sending in random orders that take time working out if they're true or not.

One week before the order deadline a reminder is sent out, again via email.

On the day of the order a third email is sent out telling everyone the quotes from the local oil suppliers, who was the cheapest and when they are going to start delivering. That's it, nothing more is done until the next order date.

If you want to order some oil in the next group order you but you don't want to wait for the emails to be sent out asking people if they want any oil, just go to the online order form and fill it out. The form doesn't accept orders for the few days between the order deadline and the actual order date. To be safe, wait for the email that lists the oil prices and who's doing the deliveries then add your order, the form will be available at this point.

By listing the buying dates at the bottom of this page you can plan ahead and order when you think you need to.

500 litres, this is set by the suppliers. If ordering my total spend then make sure your total spend is for more than 500 litres depending on the current price per litre.

It is up to the individual member to phone up the oil supplier to either pay in advance or after the delivery. The administrator of this group does not handle the money side of things.

Some suppliers insist on new customers paying in advance. Once you're 'on their books' then they are happy for you to pay any future bills after the delivery. If you pay by credit card, check with the supplier if they charge extra for processing credit cards, sometimes they do. The use of debit cards doesn't incure a charge.

Unlike some national oil buying services, you don't have to pay for your oil when you place your order. You pay after the oil has been delivered or in the case of suppliers who want payment first, this can be paid after the cheapest quote has been found and we know who has got the deal. Paying when you place your order doesn't guarantee that will be the price the oil buying service will charge you as sometimes they place your order with the supplier the day after you paid, the price of oil changes hourly and can go up as quick as it can come down. You may be asked to make a second payment to cover the difference.

"This was a part of our marketing campaign last week, when prices were lower. The 49.97 price was based on 2000 litres of standard heating oil, with a 10 day delivery window and at one of our depots. The prices reflect order and capacity levels, and are based on a live market meaning they can fluctuate instantaneously."

In other words if you live in the right area and order at the right time and prepaired to wait for your delivery then the price advertised will be applicable. This doesn't mean the group is at the right place at the right time.

Yes, the content on this page can be used on desktop and mobile devices.

Once the supplier has been chosen the group will be sent an email telling them the prices and who will be delivering. If the supplier is able to give a date when deliveries will take place then this too will be in the email otherwise it tends to be within two weeks of the order being given to them. Suppliers may not be able to give us a date when the order is placed as they may want to first work out the delivery route after receiving our long list. In this case you may wish to phone them and ask when they plan to deliver to your area.

For those people who are not on the internet, if they phone through an order I will ring them after the best price has been achieved telling them who will be delivering, roughly when they plan to deliver and how much it will be per litre. If the supplier has any particular payment instructions I'll pass this on too.

As part of the 'new members' form and the 'order placing' form there is a space for you to add any other useful information like 'please only deliver in a small lorry as the drive is narrow' or 'please ring before delivery so I can leave the gate unlocked'. This information is passed on the oil supplier when they receive the order list. Most delivery tankers have hoses that reach approximately 30 meters (100 foot). If this isn't long enough please add some extra information when you place your order.

While we do our best to pass on any special instructions were can't quarantee the delievery driver will obide by them, we can but try.

Years ago suppliers would sometimes have spare oil on the lorry when they made your delivery so they could fill your tank up to the top. It rarely happens now but the option is there for you to fill in should the delivery lorry have any spare oil. 95% of the time this isn't achievable.

Just me, Chris, the group administrator.

No. If you want oil then fill out the online order form otherwise just ignore the email, no need to tell me you don't need any this month.

No, not at all. You can order from who you want and when you want, the group is here to help get a better price as we buy in bulk, ordering oil yourself won't have the discount we can get.

The best way is to give them the web address of this page. They can then read more about the group and how it works. They can then use the 'Sign Up' form found at the top of this page, or get in touch directly.

Email higham.oil.group@gmail.com and ask to be removed from the list, easy as that.

Sorry, no, we only use the members' list to send out oil group related information. Use social media, village newsletters or village webpages instead.

A good question. There will be people that live on the boarder of one of the existing served post codes but have a different code. There may also be areas of people and villages that would benifit from the group and are still local, if this is the case then please get in touch so we can look into opening up the forms to accept these post code areas. Possible areas to include might be CB25, CB21, CB9, IP32 and IP33.

The restriction is there because of the way bulk buying works. Oil suppliers know that when dealing with a buying group, they can plan their routes to deliver a number of house holds close to one another on one trip as opposed to lots of seperate trips. Because of this they give us a reduced price. If the area we serve starts to include lots of far off destinations then the suppliers will either stop giving us a good price or simply not supply those distant houses.

If this happens drop me an email. Usually you've not received any email because the email address you provided isn't the one you use anymore, I just need to be told your new address. Other reasons can be:

- You inbox is full therefore the email I send can't be delivered.

- Your email address is black listed with internet providers so they refuse to deliver your email.

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