by I was told by our Liquid Petroleum Gas supplier, AvantiGas, to place a pre-order on November 3rd, with an expected delivery period of 7-10 days. Two months later we are still waiting. Our tank is now down to 3% capacity and will run out in the next couple of days. We have turned off the heating to save supplies for cooking.
It told me I would get a delivery “before Christmas”, then “as soon as possible”, then, when our tank was at 20%, then 10% and now 5% capacity. It warned me several times that if it expedited a delivery, and the meter was over 10% when it arrived, it would charge an extra £210 + VAT. Now it cites “unplanned surgical difficulties” and says it prioritizes people with medical needs. Is the company going out of business? Have they run out of gas? What’s up?
DB, Hereford
Online reviews tell a similar story, with some customers reporting they faced Christmas without fuel. Earlier last year, a shortage of supplies and lorry drivers led to widespread delays in deliveries across the sector, leaving some of Britain’s 200,000 off-grid customers without heating in the final weeks of winter.
Other major suppliers, Calor and FloGas, tell me that delivery times are now 10-15 days after a challenging year, but AvantiGas appears to have informed households that they will not even accept an order until their capacity is below 5%.
Your order was delivered shortly before I contacted AvantiGas, but other customers are still waiting anxiously while supplies dwindle. The company blames supply shortages and unscheduled maintenance work at a key gas terminal.
It would have been helpful if it had warned customers about these issues and kept them updated. Vice President Brad Steadman tells me: “AvantiGas is taking this matter seriously and is putting new measures in place to improve communication and transparency around deliveries.
“In these challenging times for the industry, we have to review the meter readings of our customers and prioritize those that run out first, which means that on rare occasions customers will receive a delivery with a lower meter reading than they are normally used to.”
LPG customers can refer complaints to the Liquid Gas UK Ombudsman Scheme https://www.utilitiesadr.co.uk/ provided their supplier is a member.
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