[Resolved]  Hp Gas — NO SERVICE WHEN LIVES AT RISK

HP Gas, Chennai, Customer Number:610678

I am a Senior Citizen. My son, Srikanth Parthasarathy is now in the USA on official assigment.

For the past 15 days I have been trying to get 'Sreenithi Gas Agencies' on the phone for booking a gas cylinder. The phone NEVER works. It's either engaged or out of order. (I don't know how they are serving the public).

Today the delivery man came with a cylinder and I asked him to test the cylinder. When he connected it, there was a hissing sound. When I asked him the reason, he said it might be because of the pressure and that it'll settle on its own.

When my daughter-in-law came in the evening and started the gas, there was an awful smell. The cylinder was leaking. She then changed the cylinder to the other full HP cylinder that we had (we have two cylinders), and which, to our horror, turned out to be leaking as well.

We immediately disconnected it and took both the cylinders out of the house and to the street in front of our apartment building.

Since then, we have been seeking help from all concerned with HP, but to no avail. We first tried both the numbers of the aforementioned Sreenithi Gas Agencies,[protected] and[protected] but as always they just wouldn't respond. Then we tried calling the 'HP 24 HOUR HELPLINE'-12665, but apparently their 24 hours don't include the not-so-ungodly-hour of 8 in the evening. My daughter-in-law then tried finding out any HP number (Corporate Office, Mumbai, Delhi, you name it) that we could contact, from the Internet. We tried the HP Gas Leakage number provided on the Internet- 8535846. We were greeted with the 'This telephone number does not exist' melody. We couldn't get through to anyone. Not knowing what to do, we ended up speaking to a person from Coimbatore who apparently used to work for HP Gas Leakage but didn't any more, as their contract had expired. (Phone:[protected]). Meanwhile, my daughter-in-law's brother and his wife were also frantically looking for HP numbers that we could call. And the HP people in hyderabad proved much more helpful, and suggested that we try calling the telephone exchange in Chennai and try to get the numbers.

As a last resort, we rushed to the E4 (Abhiramapuram) Police Station, as we didn't know how else to handle such an emergency. The policemen there first tried calling Sreenithi Gas Agencies and unable to get any response, then contacted the police station in Jam Bazaar, a market in the vicinity of PILLAYAR KOIL STREET, where the office of Sreenithi Gas Agencies is located, and asked them to go personally to their office and get the contact number of anyone responsible, from the agency. Didn't happen as the Office was closed and noone in sight anywhere near it.

The police people then tried contacting the HP helpline in vain.

Finally they called the Fire Brigade and asked them for help. The person there suggested that a constable goes with us and tries to get the cylinder valve adjusted a little bit using a ball point pen. The constable complied, but the leakage didn't stop at all.

Finally the Fire Brigade, with their crew of 10 and all their fire fighting equipment landed in front of our apartment building TAKING COGNIZANCE OF THE EMERGENCY SITUATION FACING THE ENTIRE COLONY, DUE TO TWO FAULTY AND DEADLY CYLINDERS SUPPLIED BY HP.

Hats off to the Fire Brigade team for having realized their reponsibility and having arrived on the scene when it counted, something we can hardly say for anyone from HP.

The fire fighting team, after struggling with both the cylinders, closed them temporarily somehow and asked us to get them replaced ASAP in the morning, since the leakage couldn't be arrested completely. They advised us to let the cylinders remain ouside at a safe distance. The entire colony collected there to watch the TAMAASHA.

The two cylinders, as we speak, are kept outside of our apartment building, awaiting replacement by the callous HP team.

My contention in the whole circus is summarized a follows:

1. The complete and astounding apathy that HP has shown in the incident, that certainly required emergency measures, inspite of the statutory requirement of being there for its customers when an emergency situation arises due to its own products (14 kilos of Liquified and very very dangerous Butane in this case).

2. Gross negligence on the part of HP in a grave situation that could have been resolved by the intervention of just 'ONE' HP technician.

3. Everyone's efforts, not just mine and my family's but also the E4 police Department's , and the Alwarpet Fire Fighting and Rescue team's - could have been saved, had the sole party responsible here, done what it was supposed to do. Goes to show what kind of value HP places on it's customers' lives.