Backlogs for LPG refills range from 4 to 12 days: distributors

LPG refill backlogs now range from 4 to 12 days as panic bookings decline amid ongoing restrictions, say distributors.

With restrictions continuing on bookings of cooking gas cylinders, distributors say they have been concentrating on clearing backlogs with the limited quantity of refills. Depending on the company and the agency, backlogs have come down and vary from four days to 12 days.

“Panic bookings have come down mainly due to the restrictions and also since we have been able to make deliveries. People now are coming to the agency to find out when they will get their cylinders. They don’t yell and shout any more,” said a distributor in the city.

Distributors and company staff, whose patience has been stretched thin since the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) shortage hit, have been saying that they now shudder at the sight of a mobile call. “After last week, people fell sick. Just in one day we received 6,000 bookings. One agency I know got over 3,500 bookings in just four hours. But we are unable to deliver refills since we are getting only about 50%-80% of our usual quota,” said a distributor.

The distributors in rural and hilly area are in an even more difficult situation as their customers have to wait for 45 days before a booking can be made. “Yesterday, a customer came to our office with her baby saying her cylinder was empty. She was in tears, saying that without LPG she was unable to provide milk to the infant. The single load of cylinders that I received was taken away by those who had booked as soon as the batch landed. The woman had received her refill 37 days ago. So, I told her to wait for seven more days to make a booking,” said a distributor.

Upon suspending connections of those who had not booked gas refills for nine months, consumer activist T. Sadagopan said oil marketing companies had not even intimated the consumers. “Only when they try to book refills, will they find out that they cannot and will have to go to their respective agency and submit KYC to reactivate the connection. This amounts to deficiency of service,” he added.