Dear Amerigas,

You really need to manage your Gualala CA office better. The manager, Joe, needs to be on top of problems and not feign ignorance or try to blame the customer when problems happen. I have been an Amerigas customer at the above address for 12 years. In the past 12 months, I have 'fallen between the cracks' on 3 occasions.

Problem:

Third time in one year they have left my vacation rental without propane. I have refunded 1425.00 to my customers because of Amerigas. Yep, $1425.00 lost revenue nights, refunded nights, extra cleaning fees where people were not scheduled and buying them a hot meal in a local establishment to show them I do care about their comfort on vacation. ((3 nights at 333.00 each, plus 2 cleanings added to the schedule with no income for the substituted home, 250.00: Feeding the really irate family of 5 at a local restaurant when they couldn’t cook 125.00 and the final 51.00 feeding the family of 3 in Feb. The bill for feeding the family of 5 this week hasn’t reached me yet…..))

Problems started this past fall when the driver admitted he ‘just didn’t stop as he was running low on propane BUT planned to come by the next day”. BUT he didn’t come by and I had to call to find out what was going on????...and he hadn't been there in over 60 days??? That renter was REALLY irate, cold, kids...no heat, no hot water, no cooking. Just ask the driver, Cory, or Melissa in the office, they can tell you HE WAS NOT HAPPY….I spent over 2 hours listening to him rant and rave that this was ruining his vacation and it was all my fault.

Okay, so I moved on and sucked it up…..In Feb. 2011, Amerigas changed out my tank WITHOUT NOTIFYING me...which meant, as no one was on the premises, they didn’t relight the pilot lights and LEFT THE PROPANE DISCONECTED. Funny, I have electronic locks (and the staff at Gualala Amerigas used them on the first ‘mistake’ to let themselves in to relight the pilots) and the code is supposed to be ON FILE for emergencies. Oh what fun that was to get a phone call from a vacation renter at 10pm on a Friday night that there was NO HEAT, NO HOT WATER AND NO PROPANE TO COOK WITH. Lucky me, I had a vacancy of one night at another rental 25 miles away and the people were gracious enough (with the incentive of a refund) to stay there until the propane was filled...and then I was so happy to pay a cleaning fee to the housekeeper for the one night unpaid rental (plus the refund of the other house)...

I guess I really am stupid...I didn’t cancel my service then...and now, I have allowed your Gualala Office do it to me again!!!This past Monday, July 11, I received an email at midnight, “the oven doesn’t seem to light’ thought I needed to call Sears for a repairman…BUT… On Tuesday approx 10am after talking to the renters and having them check the propane tank level….EMPTY….I called the Gualala office...The manager in Gualala, Joe, blamed me for the lack of propane???? Funny how they made it monthly from Nov to April without my calling them...but have missed me for the past 3 months. He said "it is all computer generated" Oh?? Then why the skip??? He had no explanation….

I have 4 other rentals and have all set up with Kemgas on auto-fill with auto pay, I’ve NEVER had even ONE problem with Kemgas. Joe could not offer an explanation for the missed Amerigas deliveries nor did he offer to compensate the renters or me….all he could think to do was tell me he has never heard of his branch having ANY problems, let alone MY past problems. I suggested that as MANAGER, he should have weekly STAFF MEETINGS and ASK his employees if there have been any problems or concerns with customers in the past week….OBVIOULSY his STAFF does not keep him informed.

So…..Guess these renters just received a night's refund on my dime...AGAIN!!! As I cannot afford to keep refunding money to paying guests because AMERIGAS can’t seem to get the COMPUTER to generate a TICKET for DELIVERY to my home on a RELIABLE basis...I contacted Kemgas (who service my other tanks) and have given them this account also. Joe didn't seem to care one iota that he was losing a customer. Great way to do business Amerigas. I will be doing my best to spread the word locally that your Gualala office doesn't give a damn about its paying customers.

In this economy, no one can afford an unhappy consumer...I sure can't...as they can leave negative feedback for my rental(s) and that could impact my future earnings. So, you bet, I bend over backwards to make sure people feel treated well by my business.

Guess Amerigas is SOOOOOO BIG, you just don't care about individual accounts???? That is the point of view I was given by your Gualala office….

Really Amerigas?? You care not for your customers and what YOUR mistakes cost us????

Fed up and moving on...but NOT letting it drop. I will do my best to spread my tale of woe and poor customer service with AMERIGAS to any and all who will listen.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Petersen

Sounds like I'm not the first! I received a delivery of 168 gallons of gas on March 24 at $1.79 a gallon. I paid the bill $338.34 on 4/24/10. In August I called and informed Amerigas that I would be moving in Oct. and not to deliver any more gas. There was a delivery made in Sept. of 44.9 gallons for a charge of $131.90. I called back and was told that I would not be responsible for paying for the gas. The new tenant would be billed (obviously I was renting). I moved out the 3rd week of October and the new tenant moved in the beginning of Nov. Amerigas did not go out and read the tank before the new tenant moved in. They read it in Dec. I received a refund check for $59.08. They credited me for 33 gallons. I did not use that much gas between the Sept. Delivery and the time I moved out in October. I have not cashed the check. I have called once a month since Nov. trying to get someone to listen to me. They either agree with me and say they will take care of it or they say they have to contact their supervisor to get it straightened out and then they never call back. I, recently have called at least once a week for the last month and I was told today that after Dec. they don't have any notes in my file because they went to a new computer system. How do we fight this? Are there any honest companies out there? According to them, my old acct # is 5483140777.

We have been an Amerigas custumer for eight years. Three weeks ago I sent my son up to their office with a 350.00 check. The rep informed us that propane was 5.03 a gallon and we needed another one hundred fifty bucks. How dare you charge so much for propane. We are exactly 7 miles from you. I subsequently walked out of my front door and asked the Suburban propane gas delivery person what the going price for propane was, and he told me 2.79 a gal. Called Ferrell gas: 2.69 per gallon. These were not new customer rates. We have been without heat for the second time this year and it was not due to the lack of money. Amerigas provides no customer srevice and no customer loyalty.

Amerigas came out to clean my fire place.. After technician left... Fire place does not work... Then I called Amerigas right the way.. they reschedule for the technician to come out.then he tighten the wire.. did not tell me there is a charge.. receive a bill for $103.. after I paid $113 for the first visit within a week... Now I am on the phone with customer for >30 munites... still no customer pick up the phone to answer my question that I have a week...

AMERIGAS ***... I HATE THEM and THEY WILL LET YOU FREEZ TO DEAD...

I ordered up Amerigas when they met the competition's pricing and offered me 100.00 off my second delivery. Seems like a pretty good deal.

I call up today to order my second delivery and get tell them I have the 100.00 coupon (as required) and I get quoted 2.39 a gallon. I told lady that seemed high as I was standing in teh MFA store the other day when they quoted 1.89 a gallon. She babbled a little more about seasonal pricing... blahh.. blah... blah.

I called up two competitors and their sister store in another town after hanging up. MFA was quoting 1.89/gal, the local supplier was quoting 1.99/gallon... and the Amerigas in another town quoted me 2.09/gallon. Immediately after she quoted me 2.39/gal... that is a 30% premium. That is wrong.

So all Amerigas did was add the coupon value to the price to make it a wash for them...

That irritated me... so I cancelled the order. When this tank runs dry, they can come get it... I'll be going with MFA in the future.

How do you run a company of this size with that kind of screwjob going on? The good news for them is most of us aren't paying that much attention most of the time. If we were paying attention... they'd be out of business