Homebase

[JoeJoe]

It was never going to end up well.

[Harry Bloomfield]

JoeJoe expressed precisely :

Nope, they have been a mess for years...

For the caravan, I swapped over to a certain brand of exchangeable lightweight gas bottle - a great system originally developed by BP, available at BP garages and cheaper than Calor. BP pulled out, Macgas bought the rights, since when access to the bottles has been 'difficult' with so very few stockists. That is except for Homebase. Homebase put in a policy of only swapping bottles, if you had bought the original deposit from them and could produce the original receipt, even then the swap cost was over £32 when with difficulty it could be found from other sources for £24-50, but well scattered.

Last year Homebase dropped the requirement for the original bottle receipt and dropped the price to a much more reasonable £27-50. This year they ramped the price up to a whopping £41-99. I managed to find a stockist selling for £27-50 50 miles away, then a much more local supplier willing to source the gas and deliver it to home for £27-00, who is to deliver later today.

[JoeJoe]

The only thing I can think of are the bonuses the investment bankers who advised them on the deal got as a result ;-)

[tim...]

Only this week did I receive junk though my door telling me my local Homebase was now Bunnings

Anyhow, this was just a complete failure of market research.

they could have just done nothing for 24 months whilst they sussed out what Homebase's customers bought rather than jumping in and modifying the shops as soon as they got them, and been financially much better off than now

[Jethro_uk]

By which time, there'd be nothing left.

There will always be a place for people to go to get things on spec. But generally, if your business plan depends on that, you are doomed in the long run.

[DC]

I've just got one of these for the caravan & also use it on the patio for the BBQ.

£160 investment for the 10Kg, but I own it & the initial fill was the grand sum of £9 for about 16.5l. A third of the cost of a Calor 6Kg exchange, for 50% more gas in a comparable cylinder footprint.

[Robin]

Their site shows not a single Safefill filling retailer within the M25 - nor anywhere near it. Seems to me rather odd.

[Fredxx]

And the smaller cylinders out of stock in the whole of England and Scotland.

Perhaps they take the deposit and runnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

How much longer are they staying in business!

[tim...]

obviously they would have restocked as stuff sold

what I meant was they shouldn't have changed the product mix without first finding out which products sold

tim

[Harry Bloomfield]

I think the Safefill system means you can fill up at any petrol station which has an LPG pump outlet.

[Harry Bloomfield]

It happens that tim... formulated :

He was overkeen to put his own stamp on it, just as quickly as possible. Like a kid with a new toy.

[tim...]

that was a 300 million pound discarded new toy

tim

[Robin]

Not in practice. From the Safefill site: "LPG is now available on many petrol station forecourts however as the industry has had concerns about people illegally filling rented cylinders, you may be refused in many of these..."

[Brian Gaff]

Yes well to be honest any of us could have made a better job of it I'd have thought. Too much arrogance and not enough research.

I'm not sure they should get anything from a future sale aas they will have been directly responsible for loads of job losses and loss of trust by the public. Brian

[Huge]

[23 lines snipped]

s/illegally//

I'd suggest that the cylinder owners restraint of trade is likely more illegal than your filling them. And if it is a problem, beg/buy/steal a cylinder from your local tip.

[tabbypurr]

what's illegal about it?

NT

[Fredxx]

I assume that most bottle hire agreements, where you don't own the bottle, say you can't refill their bottle. Usually on a contractual basis as well as safety.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Fredxx brought next idea :

Refillable designs include an over filling preventer, the none refillable types do not. For safety, the fill needs to be limited so as to allow some gas space above the liquid level.

[Another Dave]

My son-in-law was an area manager for them and, before that, Homebase. He spent most of 2017 trying to prevent them selling barbecues in February and not to refer to things being "tit high" amongst other wonders.

They made him redundant the week before Christmas. He's got another, better job now.

Another Dave

[DC]

Well I'm well outside the M25 & got mine from

who have invested in a propane tank. They sell lots of them but do struggle with getting them due to their popularity.

You can fill these at petrol stations but some don't like it due to safety concerns, so thay have a document for you to show at petrol stations.

I should add they are also light, as they are plastic apart from the gas connections. Also safe in the event of a fire, they will gracefully spring leaks & burn off in a controlled manner.

I think it's 8 refills for ROI campared to exchange bottles.