We heard it was coming - just received this email.
We’ve changed the way Fuel Price Lock works by introducing a maximum saving of 25 cents per litre (see section 16).
If the difference between the pump price and the price locked in by Fuel Lock exceeds the 25 cents per litre maximum discount, the price will automatically adjust so that you receive the maximum 25 cents per litre saving.
You will still pay the lower pump price if the price at the pump is lower than your Fuel Lock price.
Same, was locking in at work and filling up near home.
Damn the local independent servo hasn't seen me in years, guess I am becoming a regular again, especially in the days after the price jump.
For diesel this isn't really the end of the world but for unleaded this is a big deal I've recently been avoiding 711 anyways due to the prices of diesel even with a chopper being more expensive than other independent service station or BP using my 9cent a litre uber driver discount.
It's almost 20c/L different for me, without even spoofing location. The prices of my 5 nearest already fluctuates massively. I don't doubt there will be times I lock in one of the actually local servos and fill up at my nearest one and get screwed by this.
Not to mention my normal chopper savings from my local one is about 30-35c at the moment. Dammit!
Not great news. But still a $20 saving on an 80L tank. Still better than the alternatives.
Anyone going to get a bunch of fuel cans / containers and fill them up before they implement the restrictions?
Yes that's a great idea, spend $100 on jerry cans to save $15 on fuel 👍
bahahaha I was thinking if people already had them
Even then seems like a lot of effort, getting, storing, putting it in the car.
@brendanm: each to their own
a saving is a saving
some won't bat an eye and some would jump on it
but difference recently has been 50-60c so for a 20L that's $10-$12 savings per container
but if you don't already have fuel containers then it won't be worth it
@Poor Ass: It's a pain in the arse. My old boss who was a paranoid prepper type used to do this. People underestimate just how difficult it is to transport large volumes of liquid. Few people have 100L+ containers, and fewer have the capacity to easily transport them. And what, you store barrels of fuel in your garage? Ignoring the danger, are you going to siphon it out by mouth every time to fill up to save a few bucks?
@SydStrand: Haha yeah I agree it's not for everyone
Need close lid good and tight and store upright in a good ventilated place
I use a jiggle siphon and put on a step ladder to fuel up
are you going to siphon it out by mouth every time to fill up to save a few bucks
You store it on the roof of your garage of course, so it flows into your tank by gravity :)
15% return every few weeks… bargain.
it's a max $5 on 20l jerry can.
takes 5 refills to pay off a $25 Bunnings one
https://www.bunnings.com.au/adventure-products-fuel-can-and-…
I'd say it's a bargain.
just 2 refills in Brisbane @ 60c x 20L
I've seen someone in a 4x4 fill up 6 Jerry cans when fuel was around $1 mark during lockdowns.
$1 price glitch in Novermber last year too
Interestingly enough the next RBA meeting is on 6 Feb too
I'll post a deal for tin foil hats on 5 Feb then.
already got the 5G implant compliments to Bill Gates covid vaccine
Any good deals on 5G plans by the way?
Interesting the last part of the email
".. for technical reasons the saving that exceeds 25 cents per litre will not be processed at the time of your purchase. We will honour the additional saving by reimbursing you the amount in accordance with section 16.25, if you fill out the missed fuel discount form under the contact us tab of the My 7-Eleven app. "
Interesting. I wouldn't be contacting 7/11 to get the additional savings. So if i'm going to lock in a price. I would find a price in a state that comes in under 25cents difference.
…or wait for price to drop further
Reading into the 7/11 app - More / Help & Support / Contact us / Missed fuel discount……
They will "send you a gift card if eligible for the discount"
How do they determine if eligible?
…..And there is nowhere to confirm your locked fuel price
How long will that take to process?
And then how long before it arrives in the mail?
And have they worked out the potential loss in thier convenience store sales? …. which is what 7/11 mainly relies on for their profits
I can see them pissing off a lot of customers with or without chopper discounts.
And they will need to put on a team of customer service people just to process the claims.
This is not going to work out well for anyone
Just another reason to start buying petrol from independents. The guy I buy my chop-chop from is offering 98 RON for around $1.40 per litre. Based off this news I'll be taking him up on the offer next visit…
If he is offering $1.40 for U98 then it's not like you would have used 7/11 anyway … The cheapest U98 at 7/11 in Australia is currently $1.835 in Yagoona
I'm curious to know which servo is offering U98 for ~$1.40
got to be a hijacked tanker
98%……… of water
like Conor McGregor trash talk…. "he's just full of water"
Not a servo, the guy has an old petrol tanker in his back yard.
story checks out… hijacked tanker
better sell all that fuel before it expires
I'm sure the guy who parked a tanker in his yard is not adulterating his supply that in any way.
Lol
Usually its risky buying from independents.
Ive had issues myself.
nearly cost me $500 to fix
But you'd think 98 is a safe bet
It was this deal that killed it. Premium unleaded for $1.05
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/814274
I saved over $100 with my jerry cans.
Nah that 0.01 deal was lol
Cool, saved $100 and lose $1000's over the next 2-3 years lol
They would have capped it at 50c if that was the case.
Am pissed, my record was $2.29 down to $1.69. Seems a silly way to treat loyalty but worse, how can there be such discrepancy between service stations…in a week, in a country. Did we invade Iraq again?
I don't think 7/11 really cares about the 'loyal' get to the chopper customers. lol
COVID, war in Ukraine, war in Israel, the Eels lost their match this week, my mother's father's grandson needs the extra money. Pop them all in a jar and shake it all up, draw the excuse for that week
Today its $2.20 down to $1.64
So records are made when price flies up from bottom of cycle
I wasn't a frequent user of the fuel lock, but it's still a bit of a shame. Personally I never choppered and when I did fuel lock, it was mainly to stretch out the end of a fuel cycle so I could get an extra week out of the bottom of the cycle.
With the 25c/L cap, it does makes it a little less useful given that the difference between the bottom vs top of the cycle is quite often greater than 25c. eg the current difference between my closest 7-Eleven vs the next closest one 2km away is currently 50.2c for U91 due to the end of cycle price jump
Same. Closest comment matching my case too. Used it to stretch out the cycle if I didn't need to fill up just yet. The cycle easily jumps over 25c …
The end of cheap money.
Definitely not CHEAP PETROL though
Even at $1.62 its become quite expensive
Damn
Not good news but to be honest everyone who complains about the cap will still use it to save 25 cents per litre.
I may be more selective about which 7/11 to fill up from if the price difference is more 25 cents per litre.
Yeah. Need to use petrol spy concurrently. Tbh, i rarely have difference of more than 25 cents.
You can check the prices via the 7 11 app.
25c is great saving so you can’t blame 7 11
Only worry is when they start reducing the 25 cents lower in the future, like how they raise the coffee price.
In NSW the NSW Fuel Check app allows you to filter by Brand.
So very easy to find cheapest 7/11 in your locality or direction of travel
Does Petrol Spy update their 7-Eleven prices directly from 7-Eleven or do they still rely on crowd sourced data?
Or wait a few days for price to drop
Yet another reason to consider EV for our next car purchase.
Sick of being reamed at the bowser every week.
Will I still fuel up at 711? Of course. 0.25c off will still be better than most others around when they jack up their prices overnight.
Will it make me shop around more, yep definitely. For the past three years i've strictly only fueled up at 711 unless I go to a town without one. But i'm not going to go out of my hassle to go to a 711 if there are cheaper prices then the 25c (cheaper to drive to).
That usually means independents
Can you trust them?
Wondering if some smart person e.g. the owner of Refinery would be able to add some comparison functionality so you could maximize your discount by looking at the nearest petrol stations in your area.
Petrol Spy is your answer
I think that was developed by @vu
I have been using 7-11 religiously since the chopper became available - effectively help 7-11 to beat their local competitors in my suburbs lolz now they are telling me to go shop around… well…. nothing lasts forever…
For the last few years, AMPOL plus Amex credits has been much cheaper at cycle lows around my area because they have some independents a stone's throw away, but it's still handy to have 7-11 for long cycles (don't want the hassle of using cans to tide over). 25c is still handy and more so if fuel prices fall, but less so as they rise with general inflation.
Oh well, at least a number of us OzBargainers got their accounts banned with the U95 near freebie.
Menai $2.17, Yagoona $1.61, 15 min drive. What a disgrace.
Petrol pricing in Menai is a disgrace.
There are 3 servos within 200m of each other (Ampol, 7-11 and EG Fuels) and they all charge the same ridiculously high prices.
There's definitely some price fixing going on.
And $2.20 elsewhere
Any other servo provide fuel lock or equivalent. Fk 711
Sad. End of an era.
There are eight 7/11s all within 5 minutes drive from my home. There are another four within 10 minutes drive. Six I have never been to. The rest rarely. Why? To expensive.
We now have a Pearl Energy close by, unleaded today $165.5. My local 7/11 $181.9
Don’t shop 711 then. Let the new owners learn the hard way.
beware independants
I nearly had to replace my oxygen sensor @ $500 when i was buying fuel from the local independent.
(orange engine light came on)
Ran 98 RON from 7/11 on mechanics advice for a few weeks which cleaned up the oxygen sensor. (orange engine light went off)
Been running my car on 91 from 7/11 since without any issues
Learnt my lesson
I think it's worth noting that 7/11 was bought out by the Japanese parent company for 1.7Billion AUD. So changes were bound to happen sadly…
that's what I said too but upon reading some more it says still managed by existing company…. but for how long that's the question
if they actually introduced decent stuff to buy and eat like in Japan 7 Eleven's that would be good. great dine in experience lol…
I'm thinking too much it won't happen
Locally managed but under directions from International parent company
yeah it's been a good money saver, and instead of dumping it altogether they're just reducing the infrequent usually high discounts.
i just checked, last year I used it 23 times. saved an average of $13.04 ($300 saving). With the 25c/cap, I would have missed out on $22.59 but that would be less as I will now shop around the local 711's and wait a few days for prices to drop. i might even expand my jerry can collection.
i got about 9 x 20Ls
but effort with storing and gravity feed and potential leakage
i just leave them in the cans & tip them in when the tank is 1/3. It's not too bad
Not infrequent for me and I use it legit.
How did you work out your savings for all of last year????
Or just "estimated" based on averages
This is a shame. I used to chopper until they made it harder and I couldn't be bothered getting around it. Lately I just use it to smooth out the ridiculous price cycles in Sydney by locking in a couple days after the cycle bottoms out (before the last 7-11 in the area jumps) and then filling up as it is just about to expire. That way it gets me close to the bottom of the next cycle. This on its own has gotten more difficult because cycles have gotten so much longer at 5-6+ weeks. I wish the ACCC would just do something about the cycles because it is a waste of my mental energy keeping track of them.
wouldn't it suck if ACCC did do something and the end result is everyone ends up paying more "to be competitive" with the market so everyone ends up paying the same price
In my view it would be great if everyone paid the same price based on the actual input costs of petrol rather than not knowing whether rises are due to artificial cycles or real changes in petrol prices. At the length of these cycles, at least in Sydney, only people who rarely drive can time their fills at the bottom of each cycle. The cycle lengths for the last five cycles were 45, 28, 35, 49, and 40 days. Assuming an average range of 600km to a tank of petrol and an average cycle of 40 days that is 15km per day. All that to say, if you aren't one of those people driving <15km per day, you are going to be forced to fill up when the cycle is high a decent proportion of the time which pulls your average cost towards the midpoint of the price cycle anyways. If I could trust that petrol prices were always sitting at that average point, I wouldn't have to waste time checking graphs and guessing when the cycle would bottom out.
I guess you wouldn't know if you were being ripped off if everyone paid the same top inflated price hey
@Poor Ass: It's no different to now. I don't know if the bottom of the price cycle is a rip off as it is. At least I am sure I am being ripped off when I need petrol at the top of the price cycle.
Edit: to clarify, there are obvious things that could be done like pegging petrol prices to wholesale costs that would prevent gouging. The whole point of the ACCC in this case would be to ensure there was no collusion to artificially inflate prices.
@Poor Ass: That was the whole point of what I was saying.
"I wish the ACCC would…"
Never said it would happen. I just can't believe people actually want arbitrary price cycles.
@EBC: Exactly, I don't get why anyone would defend the retailer induced fuel price cycles (which is pretty much unique to Australia)*.
Without the cycles, you would just go off the terminal gate prices AIP, and add the margin, lets say 16c per litre. Then competition would float around the 15c to 20c above the terminal gate price, and get rid of the large spikes.
*Unless you are in WA, where you can take advantage of always being able to refuel weekly at the bottom on the cycle.
@megaclix: Glad I am not taking crazy pills here. This just seems so sensible, but I guess that means it will never happen.
There is nothing else that people regularly purchase that have crazy price cycles. Imagine if things like groceries had this system.
"Broccoli prices have spiked, but a Woolworths three suburbs over hasn't jumped yet so I am going to drive there. Then there is an IGA who hasn't increased pork prices yet next door so I will swing by there. Unfortunately I missed the bottom of the toilet paper cycle so…"
I guess from an Ozbargain perspective I can see the appeal as you can turn effort into savings, and maybe I am just getting old and tired, but I find more and more I don't have the energy to play these games.
ACCC involvement might be counter productive and might REDUCE the the top to bottom of the cycle to just 10c-15c
Bye 7/11. Hello EG.
hello EG ?????????????
EG Woolworths
One of the 7 Eleven stations here has gone up 50 cents/litre overnight as part of the weekly fuel cycle (163.5 to 213.5 for Unleaded).
well at least you can predicted on a weekly basis
Yes, the 25c limit just means I won't go a day or two after the increase, I will just leave until it drops a bit during the week.
I find that one advantage of fuel lock is getting the price of the cheapest day on another day when it is expensive & hence no queues.
The Government fuelwatch website in WA is great - each afternoon it shows the prices for today & tomorrow for every petrol station.
WA is good then
we have 60c and weird 40-60day cycles
Considering the catchment area I work in is currently <$1.75 to where I live being >$2.15 I will have to make sure to fill up near work to get the better price.
But when you have stations that are inside the catchment area raise their price to the difference above, that is going to p!ss people off if they are not passing on the full saving if you are within 5km of the cheaper station.
I am dubious about the price lock however, I've been at a 7/11 station post fill where the price was at least 10c cheaper that the other local ones, but when I scanned for the best price it kept giving me the more expensive one. Tried everything from killing the app, turning off/on location services and restarted the phone but it still wouldn't give the better price.