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HP Gas booking experience

The cooking gas prices keep going up. The subsidy rules keep getting amended. First there was linking with Ration Card and now linking with aadhar card. In between, it was mandatory to take the gas book. Every time the warning is "act immediately else your subsidy would be endangered". The fear of losing subsidy send tremors down our spine.

These days, you need a dedicated resource just to manage your residential gas connection.

We have been using the services of HP (Hindustan Petroleum) gas for last 10 years. They introduced automated system to book the gas using IVRS and it worked well so far.

Last month it failed. True test of any service happens when it fails. All the spurious elements surface to kill your spirits. Yes, YOU the CUSTOMER. Imagine doing that to your customers.

So we booked the gas on 15th January 2013. Immediately got SMS with booking number and agency name  as SLV Enterprises.

On 22nd January an SMS came informing about cash memo number and note that it will be delivered shortly.

We kept calling SLV enterprises (HP Gas agency) and they kept saying it will come in next two days. All our schedules and planning was around how to be there when the gas comes. We ensured that atleast one person was at home to receive the gas.

Days passed and suddenly on 31st January another SMS came informing that gas booking is cancelled, please book again.

So, we booked again and then called up SLV enterprises. After numerous attempts to connect we finally got through. The lady said, there was no one at home so it was cancelled.

I also searched if there was a helpline or someway to connect to HP Gas so that I could raise my concern. Finally, found http://jihaan.hpcl.co.in/booking/ComplaintType.aspx where I raised by concern. After some time I got a reply
Action History
A KUMAR (531855) 01/02/2013 06:26 PM
Dear Sir,

Dear Sir,

We have advised the distributor to inquire the issue and take suitable action to prevent recurrance of such incidents and expedite. Reason for cancellation
the copy of the mail is sent to SLV Entprises

Customer Service Cell
BANGALORE LPG RO
I was expecting the gas agency would wake up. Braveheart, was I?

Sorry, nothing seemed to happen by the complaint that was copied to them. So, called up again, got through to a lady by name Savita, she chatted for a while asking about my details like address etc., and said the gas would come on next day (Sunday). BTW, once you give them your consumer number they can view all details on their computer screen.

Monday morning, today, nothing happened so called again. The lady said cash memo is not ready and it would take 2-3 days. I was furious. She said call me at 2 PM. I had no other job left in world except to court the dear cylinder and their suppliers.

So I also went back to their online help ticketing system and reopened the ticket with below words.
04/02/2013 10:34 AM
Dear Customer Service Cell,

I called your esteemed agency on Saturday(02022012), they said the gas would come on sunday. Today again when I called them they said bill is not released, it will take 2-3 days. After further discussion she asked me to call back at 2 PM so that she can release the bill today. Then the phone line was cut from them.

Is this your standard procedure to harass customers? First cancel the gas and then force the customer to keep calling again and again.

I hope you are capable of doing more than sending a copy of the email to the agency.
And here is the online response. I just cannot help it but its an utter waste of resource to update your customers with such an response which is totally useless. Just being one of the richest company in the country is not enough, you need to develop a care for your customer and give them something that is useful like in this case "What action was taken?" and "when will the request be fulfilled?". Even a layman can make that out.
A KUMAR (531855) 04/02/2013 01:20 PM
Dear sir,


Thanking you and assuring you our best attention always.

Customer Service Cell
BANGALORE LPG RO
I called back at 2 today, Monday. The rude lady informed bluntly that it would take 5 days to bill. I said it was ridiculous. She cut the line.
I called again, the agency did not pick for a while. Now she said the bill was cancelled because they had billed for non-subsidized rate and they had to cancel all bills to make them subsidized. She asked me to call again tomorrow morning as there was no stock now. Don't I have any other thing in life except to keep calling SLV enterprises in morning and afternoon and then get a call cut abruptly? She cut the call again.


HP Gas tag line is "future full of energy". I did not realize that full energy is required just to get a gas cylinder from them.

Are other cooking gas LPG supplier of similar league or do you think they had fared better when they failed to deliver?

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