Gas Companies are now the lowest of the low

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Networkn
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#2281320 22-Jul-2019 13:26

morphyoss:

We are in the process of changing from El Gas to Kiwi Gas (Local company here in CHCH) after some recommendations from others. I too find El Gas to be hit and miss with deliveries and when going to re-order the latest bottle and finding the price had incresed from $112 to $129.95 with no notification or seeming justifcation. That was the final straw.

The whole gas market to me seems to not be functioning properly, its incredibly hard to compare different providers on things like delivery timelines, cost, customer service etc.

It is. Though to be fair I didn't find a single one with decent google reviews :)

networkn

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#2281321 22-Jul-2019 13:28

Fired off an email to the CEO this morning, I guess I'll wait to see what whomever he pawns that off to says. I am guessing it will be:

It's winter, Sorry for the inconvenience, we will try and do better.

Having missed half a day of work, dinner out with my family Friday and Saturday out with my family, waiting around, I am pretty unimpressed.

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#2281368 22-Jul-2019 13:36

networkn:

Fired off an email to the CEO this morning, I guess I'll wait to see what whomever he pawns that off to says. I am guessing it will be:

It's winter, Sorry for the inconvenience, we will try and do better.

Having missed half a day of work, dinner out with my family Friday and Saturday out with my family, waiting around, I am pretty unimpressed.

Good luck! It's simply not good enough for them to mess you around, if they know cannot deliver they need to be honest and realistic with you. Simple as that. I'd be keen to hear how you get on.

networkn

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#2281371 22-Jul-2019 13:42

The thing with it was, it was a lot of small things going wrong, people not placing orders, people placing the wrong orders. Everyone is human so I get that mistakes do occur, but so many on 1 order, that's insane. Clearly the processes are not correct, and furthermore, there should be clear escalations. I STIL haven't had my call back from Wednesday with a timeframe of 48 hours given. That alone should be concerning.

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#2282188 23-Jul-2019 14:18

Been with Genesis for about the last 8 years on bottled gas. They've recently (last couple of years) taken over their own supply of bottles having previously contracted it out to ElGas. Generally get a bottle replaced within a couple of days of putting the request through on the App. Haven't had the misfortune of been nearly empty on both bottles though.

Genesis seems to have been more reliable than ElGas though.

Is there a reason you have to be home for the delivery? I'm very rarely home at the time and will just come home to find the delivery docket in the letterbox. Even when I am home, they don't announce their arrival other than the dong of bottles being moved around.

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#2282192 23-Jul-2019 14:22

Fred99:

mattwnz:

Based on wha happened with that gas explosion, you want to be careful with gas

Like get a gas fitter to service your heater, and the next day your house gets blown into matchsticks.

I wonder why gas alarms aren't mandatory. I have one on our boat, it's extremely sensitive (I check it occasionally by wafting an unlit cigarette lighter in front of it - the alarm would wake the dead, and it automatically cuts 12v power to a solenoid). I suspect they have a finite life, the detector component inside the unit has a heater element that I guess probably eventually fails, it was reasonably expensive, and you'd probably need several or them in a house with gas water/heating/cooking appliances.

Where does one get a gas alarm? Our house is pre-historic. Our gas cook top (built into the kitchen) gets its gas from a 9kg bottle under the stove, inside the kitchen cabinet.

networkn

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#2282193 23-Jul-2019 14:24

geoffwnz:

Been with Genesis for about the last 8 years on bottled gas. They've recently (last couple of years) taken over their own supply of bottles having previously contracted it out to ElGas. Generally get a bottle replaced within a couple of days of putting the request through on the App. Haven't had the misfortune of been nearly empty on both bottles though.

Genesis seems to have been more reliable than ElGas though.

Is there a reason you have to be home for the delivery? I'm very rarely home at the time and will just come home to find the delivery docket in the letterbox. Even when I am home, they don't announce their arrival other than the dong of bottles being moved around.

When you sign up with a new gas provider, the initial install or replacement requires you to meet their safety standards, and if you aren't there and they deem it not suitable, they just leave. We weren't expecting any issues, but we had a provider a long time ago who had "concerns" and it took quite a bit of convincing to get them to leave them there. As we were nearly flat out of gas I didn't really want to risk it especially since on the phone they were clear that any issues would result in non delivery.

Given how long it took them to get there the first time, I needed that complication like an extra hole in my head.

I haven't heard from the CEO, Customer Services or Management at any capacity as yet. Not even to the formal complaint laid last Wednesday.

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Zeon

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#2282194 23-Jul-2019 14:27

Can you just go and pick the bottle up from somewhere? With 2 people you could get that into a hatch/sedan with the front & back seats down?

Speedtest 2019-10-14

networkn

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#2282197 23-Jul-2019 14:31

Zeon:

Can you just go and pick the bottle up from somewhere? With 2 people you could get that into a hatch/sedan with the front & back seats down?

I have gas now, but no, I wouldn't be prepared to transport a 45KG bottle of LPG inside my vehicle. I extremely relunctantly do it for 9kg bottles.

Bottom line is, without a stupid string of errors, I would have had gas delivered Wednesday or Friday during the day. They only have ONE JOB! :)

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#2282205 23-Jul-2019 14:44

networkn:

The thing with it was, it was a lot of small things going wrong, people not placing orders, people placing the wrong orders. Everyone is human so I get that mistakes do occur, but so many on 1 order, that's insane. Clearly the processes are not correct, and furthermore, there should be clear escalations. I STIL haven't had my call back from Wednesday with a timeframe of 48 hours given. That alone should be concerning.

You would think something like this is totally automated through right?

User places order, it gets processed, driver gets address + order, delivers gas. The only human element should be the driver! I guess in Auckland the other element is the motorway lottery, but they should know the best times to get them delivered.

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#2282285 23-Jul-2019 14:52

I'm another RockGas customer and have never had an issue. Ordering via the app takes about 5 seconds.

I've never really noted how long after ordering the new bottle arrives, as I check the bottles frequently enough that I usually have a few weeks in the reserve bottle at the time of ordering. I'm sure it's never been more than a week though.

networkn

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#2282289 23-Jul-2019 14:58

chevrolux:

networkn:

The thing with it was, it was a lot of small things going wrong, people not placing orders, people placing the wrong orders. Everyone is human so I get that mistakes do occur, but so many on 1 order, that's insane. Clearly the processes are not correct, and furthermore, there should be clear escalations. I STIL haven't had my call back from Wednesday with a timeframe of 48 hours given. That alone should be concerning.

You would think something like this is totally automated through right?

User places order, it gets processed, driver gets address + order, delivers gas. The only human element should be the driver! I guess in Auckland the other element is the motorway lottery, but they should know the best times to get them delivered.

Once you are an existing customer, but as a new customer, you are set up and your first order is placed by a person.

ANglEAUT

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#2282340 23-Jul-2019 18:47

@Zeon: ... you could get that into a hatch/sedan with the front & back seats down?

✋ No, you do not want to do that. 🚩 You are transporting a hazardous & extremely flammable material in a horizontal position when the container is designed for use in a vertical position.

As a reminder, do you want to be sitting next to something, travelling 50+km/h that can do this:

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tdgeek

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#2282341 23-Jul-2019 18:51

ANglEAUT:

@Zeon: ... you could get that into a hatch/sedan with the front & back seats down?

✋ No, you do not want to do that. 🚩 You are transporting a hazardous & extremely flammable material in a horizontal position when the container is designed for use in a vertical position.

As a reminder, do you want to be sitting next to something, travelling 50+km/h that can do this:

Totally inappropriate . The issue in your pic is reticulated. There was a repair, which may, or may not be the cause. To extrapolate that carrying a gas bottle in a car at 50kph is similar is misleading, let alone this tragedy. Its lucky 6 people didnt die. Dont compare this.

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#2282368 23-Jul-2019 19:44

back in the day, I used to regularly fill peoples 45kg bottles that they brought to the service station themselves to get 5-10 kgs to tie them over between deliveries.

of course its now slightly dodgy transporting anything over 9kg in your car.....

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