pmw
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posted on 7/1/08 at 05:04 PM |
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BOC/ArgoSheild ripoff
I've just had my annual "rental" for a rusty bottle of ArgoShield Lite - anothe £60 for a year (Over the last 5 years I've
paid £300!!! Surely I could have bought a damn bottle for that!). That's before I've paid for a filling of the bottle too. Am I missing
something obvious but is there a cheaper way of getting the stuff? ArgoSheild is the best I've used, I know people used pub CO2 bottles, but
when I've used "neat" CO2 the results arn't as good - is it just a case of grin-and-bear their charges ?
[Edited on 7/1/08 by pmw]
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flak monkey
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posted on 7/1/08 at 05:10 PM |
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Know any people who work at fabrication places or in industry? People in the trade get massive discounts from BOC. ISTR that at uni they paid
something like £20 for a pure argon fill for the tig, and about the same for bottle rental.
If you have some friends they might be able to get you a bottle through work?
David
Sera
http://www.motosera.com
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JohnN
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posted on 7/1/08 at 07:01 PM |
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Ditto, and......
I haven't even used it this year
What the hell, it's only money
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Peteff
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posted on 7/1/08 at 07:38 PM |
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It's just over £1 a week.
Have a pint less one night and you've made it back with interest.
yours, Pete
I went into the RSPCA office the other day. It was so small you could hardly swing a cat in there.
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hillbillyracer
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posted on 7/1/08 at 07:42 PM |
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BOC is the only place handy enough for me to use, a lot of folk say Air Products are better.
Is the £60 for a full bottle? I think I'm paying 35-40 for a half size one. The bloke who I see is pretty decent though, he reckons if
you're changing bottles more than once every 6 months then you'd be better off with a bigger bottle & if it's less than once a
year you should be using a smaller one.
When I snapped the tap one one because it was tight he changed it no questions asked, he could have been a c*** about it.
The thing that bugs me most is the "handling" charge, it's £10 per transaction whether you change 1 or 100 bottles. It means
you're better off taking some bottles back with usable gas left if you've got a MIG & Oxy-acetalene like me.
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David Jenkins
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posted on 7/1/08 at 07:47 PM |
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quote: Originally posted by hillbillyracer
The thing that bugs me most is the "handling" charge, it's £10 per transaction whether you change 1 or 100 bottles.
You'd be surprised how much 10 minutes of paperwork and form-filling costs. £10 doesn't pay for much in the business world. Knowing this
doesn't make it any more pleasant to pay it, but after running my own company I started to realise how much these activities eat into the
profits...
Saying that, I only have one gas cylinder now, and that's an ex-pub CO2 one. It may not be so easy to use as argoshield (and that IS good) but
there's no rental, so it doesn't matter if it sits round in the garage for a few years.
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hillbillyracer
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posted on 7/1/08 at 07:55 PM |
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A fair point David Jenkins but it's all automatic, takes him no more than 30secs to input the info, tear the printout off & hand it to me to
sign.
I dont suppose it matters that much, the cost would be on the gas or rental otherwise but it's fact they make it cheaper for you to give them
unused gas back that I've paid for rather than use it completely & refill each bottle when I've got all I've paid for.
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fesycresy
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posted on 7/1/08 at 08:03 PM |
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BOC are robbing b*stards and I'm the trade
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.
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v8kid
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posted on 7/1/08 at 08:46 PM |
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On the other hand they don't get paid for another 6 months if you have an account!
Still I'd like to find a realistic alternative in central scotland
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Wheels244
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posted on 7/1/08 at 09:31 PM |
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Thought I'd share this with the group
http://www.adamsgas.co.uk/stat_ind_product.aspx?ctrl=argon
This is what I was quoted
'Thanks for your enquiry.Delivery is sent by next day courier and our prices
are as follows:
Argon / co2 mix (argoshield) £20.99 + vat
Refundable deposit per bottle £40.00
Delivery per bottle £25.00 + vat
The price for delivery includes the price of the empty cylinder coming back
for exchange.
The cylinders are filled to 137bar
The valve size is exactly the same as BOC and everyone else.'
A rather good idea I think.
[Edited on 7/1/08 by Wheels244]
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David Jenkins
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posted on 7/1/08 at 10:17 PM |
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quote: Originally posted by hillbillyracer
A fair point David Jenkins but it's all automatic, takes him no more than 30secs to input the info, tear the printout off & hand it to me to
sign.
That's only the front end of the administration process... I bet there's a fair bit behind the scenes.
Not that I'm trying to justify this charge - it always used to bother me when I had to pay it.
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Volvorsport
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posted on 7/1/08 at 11:38 PM |
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theres quite a few companies that specialise and are cheaper than BOC .
Shop around
www.dbsmotorsport.co.uk
getting dirty under a bus
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