Well oil be blowed! The cowboys are here ...

The oil suppliers in this region have the Fenland folk over a barrel. No apologies for that slick but puny pun.
We live in a rural area which means we are not connected to a natural gas supply like most urban regions of the UK. Therefore, many people have oil central heating. OK, some have LPG, wood-burners, electric storage heating etc, but in the main it's oil.
Even if you are an account holder with one of these suppliers, they make no concessions until you mention that you're ringing their competitors to obtain other prices. A quote of almost 63p per litre for a minimum delivery of 500 litres can suddenly plummet to nearer 60p. A few phone calls and the price drops from £330 (including VAT) to just over £317. Not much on the face of it, but a significant saving if you have five or six deliveries a year.

Brimming with confidence: Fenland cowboys

The sad part is that the suppliers never initially tell the long-suffering Fenlanders that prices are negotiable and many folk simply pay up without question. Some of you will say that it's their own fault, but people tend to assume they are being given the best price and don't have to go to great lengths to get a fair deal.
Perhaps the suppliers believe they have links to the Ewing family and have taken to wearing JR-style hats. It's certainly not unusual to see a fancy car or two, such as a Porsche, parked in a separate bay at an oil supply depot near us. Mind you, the soft top would have to be down if a good ol' Texan Stetson was part of the driver's outfit. In this instance it might be a case of Dallas Cowboys as opposed to Dallas the TV series. Indeed, there are plenty of horses in these 'ere parts.
But I digress.
In a time of rising fuel prices, isn't it about time the oil suppliers get real and treat their customers with the respect and consideration they surely deserve. That way they might earn some loyalty.