“This is a copy of the letter I sent to the Guardian yesterday.
I have just read your article about Avantigas in today's Guardian. I was not surprised about how badly these customers have been treated because I am being treated with contempt, as a vulnerable 68 year old man who has had a heart operation and a stroke. Until March 2023 I was completely unaware about the LPG code of practice including the position of their tanks. It is stated nowhere in their contract! I was an LPG Direct customer until that company was taken over by Avantigas in 2019. Avantigas caused me no problems until early 2023 and then we had a visit (actually 2 visits) from their engineer, theoretically to check on the tank valves. He informed us that the tanks, which had been in place for over 40 years. were incorrectly sited. I made a complaint which Avantigas rejected and subsequently complained to their ombudsman, cdrl utilities. This was also rejected.
Both were rejected because my tanks had become non compliant with their code of practice, although nobody has been able to tell me when this rule was imposed. Please note that Avantigas did not take reasonable steps to ensure that these tanks were compliant with their code of practice before accepting this business;it is not a legal requirement. Nor did they refuse our business when we offered new contracts to them in 2020 and 2022.
Avantigas stopped supplying me with LPG last year and no other company would supply me. Unlike your other readers I AM STILL in CONTRACT. My tanks have been empty since last October and yet Avantigas still expect me to pay a maintenance charge! On empty tanks! They previously stated that there is a 12 week turnaround on removing their tanks from my property. After this time I reminded them of this and received a really unhelpful email explaining that it is a MINIMUM of 12 weeks??
I have actually missed something out. After that 12 weeks I sent a further letter to their CEO/ Managing Director. I am afraid by this time, only a year after my original complaint, I had lost patience with this and it does come across as an angry letter, which I attach below.
I would be most grateful if you could let me know if you can help. It has cost us £11,298 for a new electric boiler and water heater as there is no mains gas in our village and we are anxious to recover at least some of this, as well as to get Avantigas tanks removed from our property.
Yours sincerely,
CLIVE WILDERSPIN (Tel 07856 219811)
Quarry Top
Pippins Paddock
Ingleby Road
Stanton-by-Bridge
Derby DE73 7HT
07/03/2024
Customer/Complaint no. 000524029
The Chief Executive Officer
Avanti Gas Ltd
UGI House
Gisborne Close
Chesterfield
Derbyshire S43 3JT
Dear Sir or Madam,
Let me start by saying that I understand why you have an apparently all-encompassing contract.
I refer you to my recent failed complaint and all the correspondence relevant to my case. Please note that my complaint failed both directly with your company and also with your so- called Ombudsman, CDRL Utilities. The sole reason was because my tanks (2) which had been in situ for over 40 years were mysteriously found to no longer meet your Code of Practice, because they were deemed to be sited too close to our house. We were only told about this last March 2023 after you had been supplying us for 5 years. According to your engineer there was nowhere else suitable to site them and your Code of Practice exists to protect your customers.
For this reason, your company decided to stop supplying us with any more LPG as at December 2023, having previously said that they may supply us with a small amount. For most people this ‘might’ be acceptable but for a vulnerable 68-year-old like myself who has had open heart surgery and simultaneous stroke it seemed extremely harsh treatment. Neither your complaints handler nor CDRL Utilities even alluded to this in their very ‘selective’ complaint responses. By the way I did not choose your company: you bought my contract as part of the LPG Direct purchase in 2019.
I strongly request you to read ALL the details of my complaint so that you fully understand my predicament and how your colleagues have responded to me. The amount of time I have had to spend in making this complaint to yourselves and CDRL Utilities is more than significant, yet justified.
Since then. I have received numerous reminders about maintenance charges which I apparently owe despite having had no LPG left in the tanks since October 2023 and repeatedly asked that this should stop. I received the most recent one only last week. It appears that your company is very poorly organised and different departments do not communicate with each other.
It is most interesting that these tanks were due to be changed or replaced this year, 2024. The visit by your engineer, apparently to change the valves, appears to have been a cynical attempt to avoid paying for this !!?? Or was it simply coincidence??????
BUT by far the most annoying thing has been the NEGLIGENCE shown by your company in continuing to deliver LPG for the last few years despite the fact that you must have trained them all about siting of tanks – or was this also NEGLIGENCE on your part; failure to provide adequate training????
May I also draw your attention to the fact that your company promised me that they would remove your tanks etc from my property within 12 weeks. This time has now passed and I have not heard from anyone within your organisation!!!
CLOSING
As a result of your company’s actions, I have had little choice but to spend over £11,000 on a new electric boiler and water heater as there is no mains gas in our village and no other LPG company will supply us.
From the above, I sincerely hope that you, at the very least, sympathise with my situation and feel very guilty indeed.
In conclusion, I do expect a meaningful reply, not least regarding the SAFETY issue, your company’s NEGLIGENCE and your inability and/or unwillingness to remove your equipment from my premises.
The buck stops with you. OR DOES IT? In your reply I do NOT want an apology or meaningless platitudes. I expect well considered words and actions directly from your own brain and do not expect you to delegate this to your subordinates! You can consider this as a new complaint if you so desire.
I am aware that I can take this through the press and/or social media. In the light of the Post Office scandal, I shall be very persistent in following through on this. I don’t care how long it takes!
Yours faithfully,
Clive Wilderspin”
“STEAR CLEAR!!! Appalling service.
Run out of gas again, will now have to spend the whole Easter bank holiday with no heating. Was promised a callback after the first phone call, no call back!
I phoned them again to be told the head office was now closed and I would not receive gas for at least five days.
Would like to score a zero star review, but the minimum you can put is one.”
“We were pushed into signing a contract. Then sent an email saying our price was increasing before we had even had a delivery at the agreed price. Was told this was due to “wholesale gas price”, but Ofgem shows this has declined. So, placed an order a week ahead of price hike - no delivery and now been told we will be charged whatever the price is when delivery happens. Surely that is not legal? Certainly not ethical!!”
“A terrible company. Why do they wait until our tank is virtually empty before promising a delivery? We have been at zero for five days now. I have elderly inlaws living in my house, so we now have the prospect of no hot water or heating, with a cold snap forecast in the next couple of days. They have zero responsibilty to their customers. If this was British Gas there would be items on consumer programmes on TV and Radio about the terrible service. Why is this not headline news?”
“Simply awful, told we were priority due to elderly vulnerable parents. Told it would be delivered, never turned up, told it would be the next day, never arrived. 5 days later and it hadn't even been out for delivery as apparently the tank ran out of gas 2 days ago?! 7 days without heating and hot water. Simply awful, then told if WE were lying that the gauge was at 0% we would have to pay. After a week of lies from various people, passed from pillar to post. Countless call backs that never happened. Avoid like the plague. A sham of a company.”
“I no longer need the tank
They have asked £700 to uplift it
Beware if you go into contract and might not need it in future
It can stay where it is will grow clematis over it it has 40 percent LPG in it
Not sure who would be responsible if it leaks”
“This is the most useless company we have ever delt with.Today we have no gas even though our order was placed FIVE weeks ago because they have no delivery drivers??Our Business now can not function without gas.Absolute disgrace.”
“Useless, they have failed to top up my tank that is now empty. Can not get thro on phone and website will not recognise my e mail address. Regrettably I have not found the CEO contact info but will waste as much of his time as he has mine. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY IF YOU CAN AVOID IT!”
“I reiterate all the previous reports . Gas order in November 2023 . Tank down to almost zero . Been told if it’s not zero they will charge me £215 plus vat fine . Quite unbelievable if I don’t accept this they won’t escalate it !!”
“It looks like a scandal is brewing. I have always experienced all the difficulties in trying to order gas. A general email was issued a month ago stating that there are LPG shortages.
Today I have attempted, repeatedly to order online..an erroneous 'site safety' notice has been put on my account page.
Customer services confirmed in a email that it is an error but just told me to order via customer services by phone. Despite my having told them that no one answers the phone.
When I tried to reply to the email from Customer services. all my previous messages disaspeared and an automatic reply from customer services said I should not attempt send more messages.
I have made repeated calls of over 50 minutes to not avail. Just the same mindless music and the recorded message saying You are in a queue. We value your custom and will reply shortly. They don't.
I am in a contract. I cannot just terminate it. Or can I? I need LPG for my hot water and heat. I have made a formal complaint on their web page.
It is clear that they do not want to deal with their customers.
Can this be taken up by the media? It is truly scandalous.
It is happening NOW. FEBRUARY 2024”
“Absolutely shocking company. We are on the automated delivery system which has been fine until now. I received notification on 29/11/23 that an order would be delivered the following day. Nothing arrived. I have been unable to do anything via the online portal because an order is 'pending'. Today, 12/02/24, still no delivery. Gauge is now at 5%. No replies to emails. On hold for in excess of an hour and still no answer.”
“Systematically delaying and obstructing our household LPG switch to a new supplier for months with unfounded excuses and almost complete absence of any responsible response and resolution despite being chased numerous times with complaints email by us and also our new supplier.
Instead Avanti Gas is trying to shift blame/responsibility to their cathodic test company for a test done over a month ago which results commonly take 24-48 hours and without these switching to a new supplier is not possible. Now the tank is almost empty, freezing temperatures are more frequent and we are not only risking interruption of our normal family life, extra heating costs with electricity, but also in case of sudden frost the risk to our house water pipe work getting frozen as well.
We cannot go to another supplier as Avanti Gas still holds the rights to our LPG tank and won’t transfer these over to the new supplier, we cannot order a refill by anyone else, we cannot get a resolution from them for months. Their latest suggestion was to pay them £1200 for a full refill when available until the issue is resolved..
It’s astonishingly concerning how a company with so many bad reviews and complaints (Trustpilot, Reviewsio, Trustburn, Trustmeter, Resolver, Google) is allowed to operate and behave is such unethical manner, with no accountability.”
“Absolutely useless company, zero customer service. They do not care about customers, they do not answer emails, or call back. If you manage to get through on the phone after an hour or more every time they cut you off or are zero help and promise call back then no one calls you back. The only time this company is proactive is when you cancel your direct debit😂. The you will receive hundreds of threatening letter and emails 😂😂.”
“Avanti gas I am disgusted with your service. Waiting since the 18 Jan for my delivery and my tank is now on zero.
You need to sort your issues out - I ring every day and am told my request is urgent ~ that is a lie . Stop treating loyal customers this way and deliver our gas that you collect money for each month”
“We were supposed to get a gas delivery on 8/01/24, waited in 6am to 6 pm and no one appeared. Did ring at 4 pm and were assured they were on the way! Eventually another delivery was arranged for 31/01/24, which did arrive. The delivery drivers are always lovely. Got an e mail to say what money we owed on 2/02/24 by which time I couldn’t get onto our online account. We hate owing money so paid it through our bank with details from a month before when we had paid the annual service fee. Now we can’t get onto the online account still and have had no receipt for our money. This morning we received a bill for the money we have already paid and still no receipt! The stress of the whole procedure is making us ill and no one will help us.”
“Have been without gas for 12 days now, constantly getting the run around, got a text to say they were delivering last Friday, did not deliver. even to make a complaint its 72 hours at the earliest for a reply. Still waiting. Bigger question is - is the company in trouble. All of these reviews say the same thing.”
“The exact same as all the reviews below. We have been asking for a delivery for weeks. They rarely respond to emails and never answer the phone. Stopped using heating to save gas and now just using hot water occasionally. Gauge reads zero.”
