Bob Silverstein founder of Fuelwonk.com had a give-and-take conversation with Joseph Dejesus CEO of Freedom Energy Group in the middle of the at the 2017 - 2018 heating season.
“We believe we are providing our customers the opportunity to purchase Propane for their homes and business at the lowest price available in the state”. “It has been a record cold winter so far; prices are much higher than last year and are still going up” said Dejesus. “We do not believe customers should pay more than they need to and in some cases they are not fully aware of how much they are paying per gallon” added Dejesus. Silverstein could almost see him roll his eyes when Dejesus described a customer who had received a invoice with only the amount due and no detail as to what was paid per gallon. Dejesus flipped that invoice over just to see if the missing information was hidden on the reverse side. Alas, it was not there either.
“We work hard to insure that our per gallon rate is always significantly less that what our competitors are charging” said Dejesus. “We like what Fuelwonk is doing because they make it obvious that there are big price differences for each gallon from vendor to vendor in the same city on the same day”. In a volatile market, during a cold winter, Fuelwonk makes it easy to check current pricing without making a bunch of phone calls. Freedom Energy Group is staking their success and reputation on the belief that you will always find that they offer the best price in Connecticut.
Both agree that price shopping is not the only consideration when buying. Transparency, honesty, consistency, and integrity are crucial. “We monitor the performance of our suppliers to insure that Freedom Energy Group members are being well served and treated fairly” said Dejesus.
Silverstein and Dejesus see themselves are partners rather than competitors. We both working to break down pricing barriers that have existed since the dawn of the home fuel delivery age. The power of the internet and savvy buyers is making that easier for us.
Towards the end of the conversation Dejesus said he had to run; he was visiting a happy new customer with a TV crew tagging along. “We provide what propane users of Connecticut are looking for. Our big challenge now is increasing our customer base so that we can keep our prices low and provide service to other New England states. Growth will help our customers and us succeed in the years ahead”.
Freedom Energy Group and Fuelwonk.com can be found via their web sites. Silverstein is encouraging all delivered fuel consumers to jump onto the Fuelwonk web site and contribute to their crowd supported pricing data system.
