Oil FAQ
Short answer November. Long answer, it takes around a week each for the polling and the open buy and the delivery is typically 2 weeks, hence 4 weeks in round numbers for a oil buy. Therefore the last buy before Christmas will be November or perhaps late October (delivering in November), assuming there is the demand then which is usually the case.
It is a oil consolidation club for Sutton Benger and surrounds. It groups individual orders into one large order for a cheaper price.
The "Oil Manger" creates a new oil buy with a close date (usually in a week's time). Everyone who has the site role of "Oil User" is sent an email to tell them about the new oil buy. Those that want oil login and place an order before the oil buy close date.
UPDATE
With current situation with the Ukraine War leading to rapid changes in oil price then ordering is now shortened so the window to be caught in a price surge is reduced. Orders are open Mon-Wed (maybe Sat/Sun-Wed). Boilerjuice price is checked to set a benchmark and a limit over which the order is abandoned. So if boilerjuice is offering oil at 80p then a safety cutoff of 90p is set (BJ+10p). If the oil price rises during the open buy above this cutoff then the order is abandoned. This would be on a Thursday so allows those who must have oil to place their orders direct with other companies or in time for Boilerjuice's buying weekend (Fri-Sun).
NO. We just consolidate the order. You get billed by the oil supply company just the same as if you ordered direct. The only difference is that the price is cheaper.
No.
Click login (top right) and then select register for basic site membership. Then email admin and ask to be made an oil club member (giving your user name of course, or login first which will fill in the name field with your user name). Or just email admin straight after you register, using the email address you registered with, asking for for oil club to be added and I'll both enable your membership and add oil club at the same time.
You can change the oil amount, subject to ordering a minimum of 500 l which is the minimum drop any oil supplier will do, or delete the order right up to midnight on the close date.
Yes, you just need to find someone be your "oil buddy". You make them your agent to act on your behalf. Your oil-buddy creates an account in your name and places any orders for you. They will get your email notification and then check if you want oil.
The online method is simpler to run for the oil manager and offers more features for users. The old method was a group email (and some phoning for the no replies to check email address was correct), then collating all the replies to give a total order, then phoning suppliers for quotes. All that takes time. By using a web site then users are responsible for keeping their email up to date and entering/changing their order. The site does the group email, totals the order, emails the suppliers. The oil manager's job is just to trigger the buy, then to collate the replies from the suppliers to find the cheapest, to place the order and update the supplier details on the buy. The site emails the users all the details. As you can see this saves a lot of drudge work.
If you login and click user on the top menu then the right hand side menu with have an Oil Account item. Plus if you click profile, you will have a new section Oil when you can enter special instructions for your oil deliveries.
Assuming that you have joined oil club (see above) then login, click user, then click oil account on the right hand menu. If an oil buy is in progress you can place your order. If not then a link to the contact form will be displayed so you can request a new buy is started. The oil manager will then poll all the oil users and If enough people want oil a new buy will be triggered.
There are two possible problems, i) is your oil tank locked? ii) will the oil company want payment in advance (some do, some don't)? So you need to find a neighbour who can hold any tank key and leave a mobile number that you can be contacted on when away, or leave a mobile number for family/friend who could pay for you.
In your profile (login, click user on top menu, click profile on right menu) there is a section for oil special instructions (click edit tab to edit your profile and don't forget to click submit button and the bottom to save it after editing). This section is passed to the oil company that gets the order. In can be used for regular instructions such as "oil tank is behind blue door" but also you can use for instructions just for one delivery such as "please see number 42 for tank key and contact my son on 07...... if you need payment up front". But remember to change that after the oil delivery of course.
Login, click user on top menu, click oil account on right hand menu. If you can't see oil account then oil user role is not enabled on your account, have you asked for this to be added? By default new users are just basic users and need to request oil user role or any of the other roles for that matter. When at the oil account page you will see an order form link if there is a current oil buy running. When using the oil order form don't forget to press the place order button.
On the oil account page you'll also see an oil order history with clickable links for past orders. This history will also show your current order (if any) so you can use that to check that you have placed an order. Orders can be changed up until midnight of the closing date.
Basically anywhere within a few miles of Sutton Benger which includes Sutton Benger, Christian Malford, Kington Langley, Draycot Cerne, Seagry, Stanton, Lower Stanton, etc..
Login (of course).
On right hand side menu click "Oil Account".
Click latest oil order.
Click "Edit" tab.
You can now change the oil amount and then save the new amount or click delete order and then confirm in order to remove the order. Note this only works for the latest order and only while the oil buy is open.
The process of an oil order starts with a request to start an oil buy. Unless I'm on holiday then I'll normally pick that up in a day. Then there will be a poll of all oil users to see if there is any demand. That can take say 5 days (if not enough people are interested in 5 days then waiting longer won't change that). Of course if there is a lot of demand then the poll might be answered in 2 or 3 days. Assuming there is the demand then an oil buy will be started and this will be open for around a week. An open oil buy closes midnight of the given day. Oil is ordered the next day and suppliers typically say delivery in 14 days. Hence the total time is Request (1) + Poll (5) + Oil buy (7) + Order (1) + Delivery (14), that is around 4 weeks from request to delivery.
UPDATE
With current situation with the Ukraine War leading to rapid changes in oil price then ordering is now shortened so the window to be caught in a price surge is reduced. Orders are open Mon-Wed (maybe Sat/Sun-Wed). Boilerjuice price is checked to set a benchmark and a limit over which the order is abandoned. So if boilerjuice is offering oil at 80p then a safety cutoff of 90p is set (BJ+10p). If the oil price rises during the open buy above this cutoff then the order is abandoned. This would be on a Thursday so allows those who must have oil to place their orders direct with other companies or in time for Boilerjuice's buying weekend (Fri-Sun).
If you have just missed the order then get in touch as I can manually add you up to about 3pm on the order day (the day after the buy close day). If after this date then still get in touch as I can give you details of the oil order so you can contact the supplier direct and ask to be added. Most will oblige if it isn't too late.