[Resolved]  Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited — Inordinate delay in supplying of domestic cooking gas

To
The Territory Manager,
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited,
Bangalore

Dear Sir,
Subject: Inordinate delay in supplying domestic cooking gas by M/s Bangalore Gas Agency, BTM Layout IInd Stage, Bangalore

With extreme anguish I would like to bring the following to your kind notice and immediate action

I’m the Customer/Consumer no-11690, to the authority of the above Distributor. The length of the Customership/Consumership is since the year 2003.

I have received the gas cylinder on 30 sep 2008. Thereafter I booked a fresh refill on 19 oct 08 through online booking (www.ebharatgas.com). It was accepted and booking number 290691 was given to me. I understand that as per your company rules, bookings are to be accepted after 21 days of taking delivery of the cylinder and thereafter the gas cylinder will have to be delivered within 5 days of the booking. But I regret to inform you even after 17 days I have not received the cylinder. Therefore I contacted the agency[protected] and inquired about the position. The concerned person instead of helping me spoke rudely and insisted that the fresh booking should be done only after a month of delivery of the previous cylinder and as such he has taken our booking date as 29-oct-08. Thereafter I contacted your consumer grievance redressal cell[protected] and explained the matter and requested for making arrangements for the delivery of the cylinder as both of my cylinders are exhausted. The concerned lady agreed that the booking should have been taken as 21-oct-08 i.e. after 21 days of delivery of my previous cylinder and not as 29-oct-08 and by this time I should have received the gas cylinder. She also assured me that she will see to it that the gas cylinder is delivered positively by today[protected] evening. But to my surprise I have not yet received the same even now (21:00)

As per your own rules the booking should be accepted after 21 days of delivery of cylinder and next delivery should be effected within 5 days of booking. I am at a loss to understand how the concerned agency is insisting that the booking should be done only after 30 days of the delivery. Secondly never in the past 3 years the cylinder have been delivered to me within 5 days of booking. Usually they take 10-12 days and sometimes even 15 days to make the delivery after the booking which means we will have to be without refill gas cylinder for 40 - 45 days. I hope you agree with me, a gas cylinder for a family of 2-3 members can be used only for 30-35 days even with minimum amount of consumption. As such the fresh cylinder invariably has to be delivered atleast within 30 days without which consumers are unnecessarily put into lot of trouble and inconvenience.

For your information I am providing the information regarding the bookings made by me and gas cylinders received by me

Date of Booking Date of Delivery
31/12/2007 09/01/2008
05/05/2008 15/05/2008
10/06/2008 19/06/2008
22/07/2208 04/08/2008
19/09/2008 30/09/2008
19/10/2008 not yet made[protected]:00pm)

From the above you can notice that never a delivery has been made within 5 days
Now even after 36 days of taking delivery of last cylinder and even after 17 days of booking I have not received the refill cylinder and the existing cylinder is also exhausted. My lodging a complaint with your consumer grievance cell has not yielded any results. Now I have left with no choice but to go to a hotel or borrow a cylinder from somebody else. Please put yourself into this position and imagine the plight.
May I request you to look into the matter and take immediate corrective action and instruct the concerned to deliver the cylinder to me forth week.

Thanking you
Yours faithfully
Prasad