Calor Gas customers are being urged to ‘use gas sparingly’ – as warnings of more snow and ice are issued by weather forecasters.
Many people in rural areas rely on bulk tanks filled by the LPG company which is suffering a ‘major delivery backlog’ and admits some customers have completely run out of heating fuel.
Call centres have been swamped with demand, despite extra staff being drafted in, after ‘supply issues’ earlier this year were followed by severe snow and ice in early March.
A statement by the company – which is reported to have made pre-tax profits of £79.5m last year – said: “We are extremely sorry if you are affected and assure you our delivery drivers, distribution depots and customer service teams are working very hard to clear the backlog and get gas to those affected.
“Some customers are experiencing lower than normal gas levels. In extreme cases, some customers have run out of gas.”
The company has asked customers not to order gas until their tank is less than 25% full – but one customer in Kilcreggan who ordered gas 18 days ago saying the tank was a quarter full has still not had a delivery, and was told this week that Calor could not give a date for his heating fuel to be delivered.
“I rang the call centre again today but gave up after being on hold for an hour,” he said.
”There’s no response on the Facebook page either – I’ve been a customer for nearly 20 years but they just don’t seem to care.”
Calor said this week: “All refinery closure issues are now resolved and our exclusive focus is on delivering as much as we can, as quickly and as safely as we can.
“In the meantime, we would advise that customers use gas sparingly to prevent tanks from emptying before we can deliver.”
The Met Office has issued a yellow alert of snow and ice, from today (Friday) into Saturday, while temperatures on the Rosneath Peninsula are expected to fall below freezing over the weekend, exacerbated by strong east winds.
Interesting, Our tank was down to less than 8% when they finally came, after phoning and messaging them. Things used to be better when the drivers worked out their own schedules, but has been a disgrace since they went over to a computerised system.
Got a letter from them yesterday. States much the same as your article. Still a load of bull. Totally unacceptable.