Pipeline Card Update!

Big Spender · 25 Jan 2006 at 13:39

just recieved this! i hope the cards do get issued soon

Dear Members

Welcome to all our new sign-ups and 'Hello Again' to those of you who joined way back in November. So much for everything going quiet over Christmas - our Pipeline servers have been red-hot with new registrations. We now have over 90,000 registered members and we should definitely be in a position to start issuing cards by April or May.

Petrol prices are slowly heading North again - as we predicted - and are set to increase further, so we need to get Pipeline off the ground as soon as we can. Press interest has continued and we have now been featured in The Guardian aswell as some more car magazines. I have also done two more BBC Radio interviews- see the updated media page - although I still haven't got around to talking to my local paper in Reading!

Once again, thank you to everybody who has done their bit to help us grow, Whether it's simple things like telling your mates, or more techie things like posting advertisements on websites and forums, it all helps to boost our bargaining power - which means cheaper fuel for everybody.

If you haven't done anything yet, it's not too late. We still need a lot more members. Just tell two people about www.PipelineCard.org today and we could triple our membership! Use the recommend page on the website if you like. (www.PipelineCard.org/recommend.html)

Please continue to write in with your queries, suggestions, and offers of help. There are only two of us to answer you - and both of us have other jobs - so please continue to bear with us if it takes a little while for us to respond. We always read every email and we regularly add new material to our FAQ as a directresult of your feedback.

Best RegardsBen Scammell - Pipeline Card Founder

PS Just a thought. You have all registered your partners separately - haven't you?

Scarfacé · 25 Jan 2006 at 14:50

So how does this actually work? Who gives the discount and why?

William · 25 Jan 2006 at 14:54

The idea is that Pipeline negotiates a deal with a major petrol dealer to give everyone a discount if they have a Pipeline card. This increases the amount of customers they get increasing their revenue. Hopefully, other petrol companies will therefore follow suit.

Big Spender · 25 Jan 2006 at 14:54

when a certain amount of people have applied, you are issued a card which gives 5 - 10p off a litre of fuel, not sure on which supplier it will be but it will most likely be shell or BP, you will get more details from the site LINKY

you dont get any spam, and all you have to do is give them your email at the least.

edit - damn, beaten to it, oh well, use the link anyway lol

Scuzi · 25 Jan 2006 at 14:56

Scarfacé said:
So how does this actually work? Who gives the discount and why?

The basic principle is that Pipeline strike a deal with a specific petrol company that every pipeline card holder will buy from this petrol company in exchange for a discounted price. The petrol company gets more loyal customers and therefore can offer them a lower price over normal customers.

Scarfacé · 25 Jan 2006 at 14:57

Ah, I see ... if the fuel companies really wanted to do this... wouldn't they just launch their own cards...?

(Plus, these companies don't have big markups anyway due to the huge amount of compeition... could they realistically drop the price by 10p/litre?)

Oakesy2001uk · 25 Jan 2006 at 15:00

probably more like a few p, but who cares, give em your e-mail address, there is no spam and It cant cost you anything, and may save you a bit!

Scarfacé · 25 Jan 2006 at 15:10

It's just that I was lead to believe that these companies had very slight markups already. For instance, our local Shell garage is closing due to too much competition from the local superstores.

It's a good idea in theory but I just can't see it working... this isn't really a "membership" as such... if Shell get this "contract" with Pipeline... what's stopping all the other fuel companies dropping their prices slightly too? Or offering a "discount card".

Plus, the majority of people fill up at the nearest station when they need to fill up... are people really going to travel further to save a couple of pence per litre? If that was the case no one would bother going to the local ASDA to fill up which is 4p more than the Tescos down the road... but everyone still does.

Simon · 25 Jan 2006 at 15:19

Scarfacé said:
It's a good idea in theory but I just can't see it working... this isn't really a "membership" as such... if Shell get this "contract" with Pipeline... what's stopping all the other fuel companies dropping their prices slightly too? Or offering a "discount card".

Whats wrong with any of that though. Cheaper fuel any way you look at it

Firestar_3x · 25 Jan 2006 at 15:23

Just signed up, been waiting a few months to do it, didn't wanna fall into another world of spam!

William · 25 Jan 2006 at 15:24

I don't really get the idea though, surely the best thing would be to try and reduce tax rather than reduce prices. :confused:

Firestar_3x · 25 Jan 2006 at 15:26

William said:
I don't really get the idea though, surely the best thing would be to try and reduce tax rather than reduce prices.

Thats never going to happen, mr brown needs all the money he can get to help fund our huge deficit and other hairbrain schemes.

eidolon · 25 Jan 2006 at 15:47

I didn't sign up first time round but I've just signed up this time, worth a shot I guess.

kaiowas · 25 Jan 2006 at 15:54

Still looks like a exercise in collecting email addresses to me. Weren't they supposedly close to doing a deal when this first came around months ago? Surely they should have achieved something by now?

Their updates seem completely focussed on getting more publicity and getting more people signed up instead of the important part which is actually gettting a working scheme together.

stoofa · 25 Jan 2006 at 16:14

There are far better ways of getting people's e-mail addresses.
Hell you don't need to - with the aid of any computer you can send spam to nearly every single possible name @enterdomainnamehere.com in a matter of hours.

These discussions (especially on this subject) always seem to go the same way.
It means cheaper fuel for people yet everybody assumes that it's a scam.
Just let yourself go for a minute, think "You know, in theory this might just work" and then have faith.
If nothing happens then guess what - you've lost nothing except the 30 seconds it took to fill in your details at the site.
However on the other hand in 3-4 months time you mayb receive your card that gets you a few pence of every litre of petrol you buy.

Big Spender · 25 Jan 2006 at 16:26

if you've given your email address then theres nothing to worry about, he cant give it to any other companys or mailing lists. he has his privacy policy written up on the website, and if he breaks this, could mean some serious implications

The Running Man · 25 Jan 2006 at 18:23

yea, say shell wanted to increase brand loyalty and wanted their franchised petrol stations to gain more custom, wouldnt it be just as effective, if not more so to drop the prices by a few pence?

im skeptic to the last on this one im afriad, and certainly wont be signing up

ShakenNstirred · 30 Jan 2006 at 19:49

just received this email from Ben

" Dear Members

Just to let you know...

http://www.PipelineCard.org signed up it's 100,000th member over the weekend. Well done everybody!

It will still be April or May before we can send cards out, but these figures will help to give us the negotiating power that we need to get a good discount for everyone.

Best wishes

Ben Scammell - Pipeline Card Founder "

so not much longer to wait by the look of things

ShakenNstirred · 17 Feb 2006 at 15:27

new update on pipeline
got this email today

Dear Pipeline Card Member,

This has been a very exciting couple of week for Pipeline. I did my first ever TV interview - and it went out on ITN news at 6.30 and 10.30. They also showed details of a scheme that is already up and running in Holland offering discounts of around 6 cents a litre. Check out our media page for a link to the story if you missed it and, if you've got broadband, you can watch the actual film footage.

Membership numbers have now increased to over 180,000 and the number of websites and forums linking to Pipeline is over 3000! This is incredible - and it's all down to our members.

http://video.msn.com/v/en-gb/v.htm?g=f704a5b3-a22a-49a9-8e9d-4ff657ca00a4

Big Spender · 17 Feb 2006 at 15:42

heres the full email

Pipline said:
Dear Pipeline Card Member,

This has been a very exciting couple of week for Pipeline. I did my first ever
TV interview - and it went out on ITN news at 6.30 and 10.30. They also showed
details of a scheme that is already up and running in Holland offering discounts
of around 6 cents a litre. Check out our media page for a link to the story if
you missed it and, if you've got broadband, you can watch the actual film
footage.

Membership numbers have now increased to over 180,000 and the number of websites
and forums linking to Pipeline is over 3000! This is incredible - and it's all
down to our members.

Many of you have written in and asked why it is taking such a long time to get
the cards issued. I share your impatience; we all want to get this off the
ground but nothing like this has ever been done in the UK and it takes time to
sort everything out. We are working hard to get the best deal we can for our
members but, as we have said all along, it will be April or even May before we
are ready to launch. We would like to be able to give you more details about
where the Pipeline Card can be used and how it will work but until that has all
been agreed and contracted you will just have to bear with us. It will be worth
it!

Lots of you have asked if we could produce some banners and buttons so you can
link to Pipeline Card from your websites. We have now set up a page on the site
and you can download them from www.PipelineCard.org/linkto.html. We have also
included a downloadable poster for those places the internet can't reach!
Thanks again to everybody who has written in offering support. It all helps us
to reach more people and improve our purchasing power. Keep spreading the word -
we still want more people to register. The more we have at this stage, the
better.

Finally, on the subject of purchasing, we have had dozens of approaches from
companies offering special deals on various goods and services. Most of these
have been wholly unrelated to Pipeline and its aims so we have politely declined
to feature them on the site. More recently though, we have identified some
organisations that seem to offer us genuine savings on motoring-related
services. As you know, our strict Privacy Policy prohibits us from passing on
your personal data to these organisations but we may consider featuring some of
them on the website at some stage if they are good enough.

That's it for now. Don't forget that you can recommend Pipeline by using
www.PipelineCard.org/recommend.html.

Best wishes

Ben Scammell - Pipeline Card Founder