Derbyshire gas firm blames industry supply issues for customer complaints

AvantiGas, which has headquarters off Fan Road, was the subject of a recent phone-in on Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 programme, with numerous customers calling in to raise concerns about deliveries which sometimes arrived weeks later than expected.

Similar stories have been rife on social media and in online reviews, with many adding further criticism about the company’s approach to customer service.

Among them was Angela Hibbert, a 53-year-old scientist living in Marple Bridge, near Stockport, whose family ran out of LPG completely, despite paying for a system which should automatically schedule a delivery.

She told the Derbyshire Times: “We’ve been with AvantiGas since November 2022, after being with another supplier for many years, and we’re on a system which is supposed to send out a tanker when our storage levels get low so we never run out.

“We’d never had problems with it before so it hadn’t occurred to us to keep an eye on it until we ran out in a really cold period in mid-January when it was snowing. The delivery should have been ordered at the start of the month. It was absolutely freezing. We had to go and buy electric blankets.”

Suddenly deprived of heating and hot water, Angela says she attempted to contact AvantiGas but struggled to get any response.

She said: “I tried through various means and found there were lots of other people in a similar position complaining online. We just kept trying and trying, sometimes we’d be in phone queues for up to an hour, and we didn’t hear anything back for a week. They don’t seem to have the customer service channels there to support people.

“I eventually found an email address for the chief executive, and that did trigger a call back and they told me there were issues with one of their main suppliers – but looking at the reviews it seems there were problems with Avanti last winter too.

“It feels like they’ve lacked preparedness and failed to learn the lessons to prevent a repeat, and they’re not being honest with customers. There’s nothing in place to help them out and no backup plan.”

She added: “We were then told our order was out for a delivery one day, and it never arrived. We just kept being fobbed off.

“When it did finally arrive, the driver said we hadn’t been down for a delivery that morning, and he’d been asked to make a last minute change to his route.”

Such stories are common in complaints from AvantiGas customers, which were also reported by the national press in January 2023.

The situation also highlights an issue of regulation, given that LPG suppliers are not subject to the same Ofgem protections which cover the gas and electric grids.

Angela said: “We’re tied into a contract for two years, which is a real frustration, and it explicitly blocks any other supplier from filling our tanks even in situations like this.

“If other people have a power cut for something like 48 hours they’re entitled to compensation and the regulator keeps an eye on suppliers. There’s nothing like that for LPG, other than an opt-in scheme which allows weeks to resolve complaints.

“We could still be without gas now and there would be no consequences for the company, and no one to hold them to account to make sure they improve in future. It just feels like people who are not on the national networks are not being safeguarded at all.”

After the Derbyshire Times raised Angela’s case with AvantiGas, regional vice-president Brad Steadman said: “In response to the customer comments around not receiving their delivery on time, we can confirm that a member of our quality and resolutions team had already been in contact with the customer referenced, where it was communicated that there had been two failed attempts at delivery.

“We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. The failed attempts were due to snow and ice which resulted in unsafe access to the property. Images were provided to the customer to show proof of weather conditions. Safety is our core value for both our customers and our drivers.”

“We are also aware that a small number of our customers may be facing increased delivery times for their LPG deliveries, and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.”

He added: “These delays are due to a reduction in product availability from UK refineries that the LPG industry is facing. We are working internally and within the industry to reduce these delays and supply LPG as soon as possible.

“The UK LPG sector continues to invest heavily to improve storage and supply chain facilities, both to help improve supply resilience for customers, and to enable the future use of new renewable liquid gas fuels.”

On the question of customer service, Brad said: “In the past year we have launched a new account management platform ‘AvantiGas MyAccount’, acquired further vehicles, increased service staff, improved the process to provide emergency supply, and upgraded many of our customers with telemetry units to receive live gauge readings.”

"We recommend that customers access their AvantiGas MyAccount to update their gauge readings which will help to prioritise deliveries. The MyAccount service also allows customers to view their expected remaining days of gas supply and is the quickest way to receive information. We also encourage that customers opt-in to receive delivery notifications, which they can also do via the MyAccount platform.”

That company’s explanation was disputed by a rival supplier on the Jeremy Vine programme, who offered a different view of the situation.

The representative for BDS Fuels in Lancashire said: “There’s no shortage of LPG. Unfortunately the big, national companies have undercut the independents on price when it’s come to renewals and then taken on so many customers they can’t actually service them. They haven’t got the drivers or the employees.

“We get customers all the time ringing us, especially from AvantiGas but from the other big ones too, saying they can’t get through to anybody, they can’t speak to anybody, they’re in tears.

“Times are hard for everybody and every penny counts and people look at the bottom line – ‘I’m going to save £30 this year by going with the big boys and not the independent’ – but they don’t take on the fact that you’re getting the service from an independent, you can speak to somebody and not get put on hold for an hour. We’re not a robotic system on a computer, you speak to somebody, you get an answer and you get a delivery.”

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