Questions to ask a fuel company

Signing up with a fuel company takes five minutes on the phone. Living with the terms takes years. Run this checklist before you become a customer — any decent company will answer every one of these without blinking, and how a company handles plain questions in July tells you how it will treat you in January.

Price and delivery

• What is today's per-gallon price for my size of delivery — and is that the full price, or are there per-delivery, hazmat, or regulatory fees on top?
• What is your minimum delivery, in gallons? (Why minimums exist)
• Does the per-gallon price change with the size of the drop?
• Am I on will-call or automatic delivery, and can I switch? (The difference)
• How fast is a normal delivery after I call? An emergency one?
• Do you offer budget, cap, or pre-buy plans — and what exactly do they guarantee? (How the plans work)

The tank (mostly propane, some oil)

• Who owns the tank — you or me? If you: what's the rent, and is there a minimum-use requirement?
• Can I buy the tank later? At what price formula?
• If I buy my own propane tank, what inspection do you require before the first fill?
• For oil: do you inspect my tank before the first delivery, and what condition would make you refuse to fill it? (A company that checks is protecting you both.)

Contract and exit — the questions people skip

• Is there a contract? How long is the term, and does it auto-renew?
• What does it cost to leave early?
• If I switch propane companies, what's the tank pickup fee — and what happens to the gas left in the tank? Do I get credited for it, and at what price?
• Are any fees scheduled to change during the term?

Service and the bad nights

• Who answers the phone at 9 p.m. in January — your office, an answering service, or a call center?
• Do you have your own service technicians, and is burner/equipment service separate from delivery?
• If I'm on automatic delivery and your system misses and I run out, what do you do? (The good answer: the emergency fill and the restart are on the company.)
• Do you offer tank monitors? What do they cost?
• What assistance programs do you work with? (Ohio's Home Energy Assistance Program — HEAP — helps eligible households with heating costs, and fuel companies deal with it routinely.)