Resident fumes over gas delivery

By DION TEASDALE
AN UPPER Yarra resident has labelled a national gas company incompetent and uncompassionate for taking five days to deliver bottled gas refills to her house.
Elizabeth Smith, who lives with her family in Hoddles Creek, said Elgas failed to deliver gas needed for heating and cooking to her home for five days, despite being assured a driver would deliver gas within 24 hours.
Mrs Smith said she phoned Elgas on Wednesday, 3 August to request an urgent refill of bottled gas but had to wait until Monday, 8 August for a delivery from the company.
“Despite our best efforts to monitor the level of gas in our bottles, we ran out and when I called Elgas I was told an emergency refill would be delivered the next day,” she said.
Mrs Smith, who signed up to monthly service contract with Elgas and believes she was entitled to emergency refills within 24 hours, said when a refill had not been delivered by the morning of Friday, 5 August she phoned the company again.
She said she again told the company of the urgency of her situation but was told a refill would not be available until the following Monday.
“I explained to the operator that we had visitors from the UK coming to stay with us for the weekend and that we could not keep our guests warm or cook for them without gas,” she said.
“When I spoke to a supervisor to find out what the cause of the delay was I was told I should have placed my emergency call sooner.”
Mrs Smith said the supervisor told her she would have to pay a $100 call out fee for immediate delivery.
“I pleaded with the supervisor but she was uncompassionate and unsympathetic,” Mrs Smith said.
“I work in customer service and know the importance of listening to and responding to people, but Elgas don’t seem to understand what customer service means.”
Elgas customer service supervisor Louisa Alexander defended the company’s handling of the matter claiming Mrs Smith was not on a regular service contract and therefore not entitled to a refill within 24 hours.
“The customer was on a schedule contract but opted to go off it. When she called for a refill she didn’t have a regular refill service,” she said.
“The standard procedure for dealing with a waitfororder customer is if their cylinders are empty and we do need to make an emergency delivery to them, they may incur a call out fee.”
Ms Alexander said the minimum timeframe for responses to requests from waitfororders customers was 48 hours and that refill delivery can take up to a week.
She said it was possible that Mrs Smith was told she would receive a refill within 24 hours because the customer service operator could have misinterpreted her client information.
However, Mrs Smith rejected Ms Alexander’s explanation.
“I signed a service contract with Elgas and haven’t ever cancelled it.
“Elgas have mismanaged this whole thing and need to pick up their act,” she said.
To avoid spending the weekend without heating and cooking facilities, Mrs Smith said she was forced to call Supagas, another gas supply company, which delivered a refill within an hour and at a cheaper rate.
Ms Alexander said Elgas would investigate the matter.