Dear Sir/Madam,
This is to bring to your kind notice the malpractices performed by HP Gas Agency,
M/s Venkateshwara Enterprises based at MES Road, Bangalore. [Dealer Code: 472150].
To better reiterate the games this agency plays I will pen down the scenario in steps explaining the treatment what a consumer gets when he seeks a new gas connection.
Step 1: Scouting for a friendly gas agency (my good old HP)
It’s a new city for me; I have always enjoyed your service in my hometown until the advent of piped gas by Mahanagar Gas Ltd in our area. With the same hope and anticipation I went to this above mentioned dealer for a new connection. The first impression the premise is unclean and consumer un-friendly environment. The ladies at the reception are inhospitable and conceited, well dear sir/madam I don’t expect to be treated the same as when I enter The Marine Plaza, Mumbai where even the doorman gives you a smile sharing the warmth he feels to have me at his hotel.
Step 2: Application for a new connection
I am being told by the agency representative to submit certain pre-requisite documents etc… to get the connection. I am also being told that I have to buy the package (hotplate cylinder) which is a mandate given by HP. I react to this situation telling the manager seated at the agency that I already have a (stove) which I was using back in my hometown hardly 4 months old which we received as a wedding gift. The manager at the agency was relentless on his pursuit of selling us the package and reiterating that it’s a mandate from the company there is no role for agency to play in it. After spending 45mins trying to explain him my situation and pleading to just give us a fair deal, I headed home.
After submitting the application form as asked by them and they wrote down a 5 digit number on my application stating this as the booking number and asked to wait for 15 days upon which I shall receive a confirmation letter by mail, after which I am supposed to visit the agency again and pay them the booking amount.
Now, 30 days have passed by and I have still not received a letter or a courteous call from the above mentioned agency regarding my application. Finally my patience gave up a bit and my wife called the agency enquiring about the application. To her dismay and rude shock the lady at the other end asked. How can you even ask for a connection when you haven’t paid any money? Before giving my wife a chance to speak and explain that we were waiting for the inland mail we are expecting from the agency’s end, the operator banged the phone.
Finally, on weekend I along with my landlord visited the agency asking them an amiable solution to this ordeal if ours, soon we were asked to take the entire package (cylinders hot plates). Upon repeating the entire scenario to the manager mentioned they will send a representative from the agency to check if our existing stove meets HP requirements.
Step 3: Inspection visit by Gas agency representative.
Explained him the entire situation and showed him our existing stove where he started giving me explanation that the regulator tube would not fit our stove. The reason given that the rubber tube which HP provides nowadays is not flexible as the earlier ones where it could fit all models of stoves manufactured by different companies be it Butterfly, Pigeon etc…
Finally he agreed to our situation and promised he will clear our case as it’s a genuine one, for which he slyly asked some tips as return favor and I kindly obliged and handed over Rs.150/-
Step 4: Cylinder Hot Plate Apron Lighter Pen Set???
Waited for 3 more days after inspection thinking finally the ordeal is over and we are not to buy an extra stove. Today my wife gathered her guts and reached the agency again to check on our application status, to her surprise the number written by the agency representative (aforementioned 5 digit number) is not available in their records and we are to do a fresh application all over again. Finally losing her patience my wife questioned the manager at the agency about the delay in this connection. He bluntly replied madam the inspection done at your end was not qualified (whereas the inspection officer cleared us). Giving up all hopes my wife finally agreed to take the package as we couldn’t be more burden on relatives for our daily meals.
I checked on the HP-LPG website where the entire scenario is different the company (HP) respects the users/consumers right for choice. Its very disheartening to understand that my right of choice and a fair deal was denied bluntly and I was kept in the dark for this entire period of 1 month where the blame was given on the gas company for forcing these packages on consumers.
The irony on all this was when our hopes of getting a fair deal was denied and our patience ran out after 30 days and we finally agreed to their terms of buying the package, we were even made to sign a final application document stating that we were not forced to take the package. We haven’t received any proper sale receipt or bill for the gas stove purchased.
If this is the ordeal a citizen of this country has to face to get his basic deserved necessities, I pity the state what our coming generation will face. Where on one hand we talk about a developing & technologically advanced India and on the other side we still follow this red-tapism and greed engraved behavior the country has surely surrendered to rogues
Thanking You,
An Un-satisfied Consumer.
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