State officials fight slippery oil contracts

Middlebury resident Carol LaFreniere thought she’d get ahead of the game last fall, pre-paying for her family’s winter heating oil and getting a lower per-gallon price in return.

But when the Waterbury company LaFreniere paid $799 to for 500 gallons of heating oil failed to make good on the contract, and the amount of oil in her family’s tank dropped to alarmingly low levels, she had to pay more than $400 to get oil from another firm.

“We thought we were getting ahead, and now we’re further behind,” she said. She’s not alone.

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