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home > radio > maine news > news story Maine NewsHeating Oil Woes Increase Reports over the weekend that a Lewiston-based oil delivery service had gone out of business are renewing concerns that businesses as well as customers are going to be facing a tough time this winter. Provider Discount Fuel recently, and without warning, stopped offering services in the Lewiston-Auburn area. This left customers like stay-at-home mother of three, Jessica Golder, in the lurch. She and her husband receive LIHEAP assistance from the state to help with fuel bills. After two deliveries, she says Provider Discount stopped providing, even though the oil had already been paid for. It took Golder nearly a month before she could get hold of business owner Mark Cloutier, and she's still not got her money. “I said, 'just wondering when you're going to be coming out - this has now been three, almost four weeks, since the first time I called you,' and he said 'we're not' and I said 'why aren't you?' His exact words were 'because', 'because why?' 'because we're not.'” Golder says she's had to borrow money from her father to make ends meet. “Back in the end of April my husband got laid off. So he was out of work for a little over a month, so whatever we did have in savings, we had to pay our bills for that month. So it’s been nothing but an absolute headache.” A phone call to Provider Discount Fuel was answered by a man who said simply. “They've gone out of business.” Jessica Golder and family are not the only ones who've been stung - she says her neighbor is also owed money by Cloutier. The plight of people like the Golders, says some industry observers, highlights difficulties being faced by both consumers and small fuel providers at the moment. “The story is certainly one of great difficulty for the consumer, but it's also one of great difficulty for smaller oil companies that aren't well capitalized.” John Peters is president of Brunswick-based Downeast Energy, one of Maine's biggest energy providers. He was unable to comment specifically on the case of Provider Discount Fuel in Lewiston, but said small companies are particularly exposed to the current volatility in the energy markets. “When the price goes from $2 a gallon to $5 a gallon or $4 a gallon and you have to carry those receivables, it places a tremendous strain on small businesses.” A point echoed by Jamie Py, executive director of the Maine Oil Dealers Association. “The unpredictability and the volatility to somebody who's trying to buy wholesale and sell retail, particularly in this market, has made it extremely difficult for the average person to run and operate a business.” Which means there may be fewer oil businesses around in Maine by this time next year, as the smaller ones go under, or get bought up. And this of course raises the question of how consumers who prepay for their fuel can guard against the possibility of their oil provider going belly up after they've been paid, but before they've delivered. This is exactly what happened with Biddeford-based Veilleux Oil earlier this year, which folded leaving over 100 prepay customers holding the bag. The state Attorney General's Office has filed a lawsuit against the company's owners, and Attorney General Steve Rowe hopes those customers will be able to get their money. He says that any consumer about to enter into a prepay contract should first of all seek written guarantees from the supplier that they can comply with Maine law, which requires dealers to obtain financial protection so they can deliver the oil at the agreed price. “You want to make sure that this is someone who can deliver. I always say that just because a dealer has a nice shiny truck with lettering on it doesn't mean that they're going to be able to deliver on these prepaid contracts.” Rowe says anyone whose oil supplier fails to deliver on a prepaid contract can call the Attorney General's consumer protection department to issue a complaint. The number is 1-800 436 2131.
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