I used to do a propane prebuy until about 12 years ago when the price went up high enough that my supplier in Waupun reneged and refused to honor their commitments. I still have the mealymouthed letter they sent. A prebuy is just a futures contract with no means of enforcement on the supplier, but no way out for the consumer if the price goes down. Ultimately they are gambling with your money so that they make a profit off of you if the price drops, but you also lose if the price goes up beyond their willingness to take a loss and then you end up paying the much higher spot price. I will never do another prebuy unless the company actually buys enough futures contacts off of an established commodities exchange to fully cover their commitments. However, as far as I know none of these companies do this.