A new heating oil site launched today, April Fool’s Day, which on the face of it seems like an interesting marketing decision. Still, we are blogging about it so maybe it is not such a daft strategy !
The site is called OilForYou.co.uk and according to an entry in Wikipedia it “has been written by a team of web designers who felt that most online sites were taking a profit from orders entered into the big comparison sites”
On their own site is says “We have taken a look around online, and found that most comparison sites take a commission from the fuel that you purchase.”
However, the domain is in fact owned by Tincknell Fuels Ltd who are an oil distributor based in Somerset. So what we have is yet another online heating oil site that is owned by an oil company. Having just tested the site, we can report that there are no price comparisons, so they are either copying the Boilerjuice model where there is a single price and orders are sold to the highest bidder, or they are teaming up with other regional oil suppliers and passing on orders.
I thought it might be helpful to summarise the online heating oil market, because there is little transparency and most sites are built in the interests of the oil company rather than the consumer. Sites that offer live heating oil prices include:
Boilerjuice – owned by DCC, the largest oil supplier in the UK and Ireland
FuelSeeker – registered to Brogan Fuels address
OilSeeker – owned by Brogan Fuels
DirectOil – owned by Watson Fuels
Oilforyou – owned by Tincknell Fuels
HeatingOil – owned by Bayford, part of DCC
HeatingOilScotland – owned by Johnston Oils
Fuelfighter – owned by WCF
WhichOilSupplier - (that’s us) – independent and designed for you the consumer.
