Dial 1800-2333-555 when there is Gas leakage – Great Service.

Dial 1800-2333-555 when there is Gas leakage – Great Service.

Today 13^th Sept 2018 is Vinakaya Chathurthi ~ the festival of Lord Ganesha .. .. people worship Vigneswarar in various forms, offer Him fruits and .. .. tasty kozhukattais (both sweet and savoury) – they taste really delicious.  Festivals, being holidays – celebrations are rather relaxed  .. .. this day, as my wife almost  completed the offerings – some task assigned ! ~  not one to be relished (is there any task that one relishes ?)

The cooking gas cylinder became empty – simple job, gentlemen, just roll the second cylinder to the kitchen – rest taken care of – the knob removed and connected to the regulator fixed to the oven .. .. then came the scary hiss – the pungent smell hitting nostril – sad, gas was leaking out of the cylinder.  Calmly, she closed, it called me – together we searched for the technician mobile no. realizing fully well that on a holiday none could be reached !

Literates, we know them too well - LPG contains gas, which, under pressure is highly flammable. There could be two main kinds of health hazards associated with a gas leak — inhalation – when inhaled, the gas can displace air, deprive  lungs of oxygen and cause hypoxia leading to suffocation.  Another more threatening – possible explosion .. ..  the smallest spark or flame can ignite gas fumes – so panicky sets in .. ..

there is always Google master – make a web search -  easy result -  Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have helpline ‘1906’ - round-the-clock LPG Emergency Helpline services for all types of LPG leakage complaints. On Web it reads – this  number is operational 24/7 to respond to emergency calls throughout pan-India. The '1906' service is also available in, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, and Telugu, along with Hindi and English. .. .. sadly, one curses – it is not working .. anyway, reaching for help on a Toll-free – with multiple commands ‘Press 1 for English’;  Press 1 – if you are an existing customer; Press X for services .. .. .. and et al makes one furious – and most are immediately to say, that they are always better- off talking to people rather than machines .. but believe me, this is only negative para in this post .. sure, it ended so, well !!

We are customers of Indian Oil.  Indane, is a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) brand developed and owned by Indian Oil Corporation in India. It is the world's second largest LPG marketer. The brand was conceived in 1964 to bring modern cooking to Indian kitchens. The first Indane LPG connection was released on 22 October 1965 at Kolkata.

4 decades ago, there were less than a handful of houses which had it – cooking was done by kerosene stoves and kerosene was the most sought after commodity.  Housewives were afraid of pressure cookers too.. there were lot of jokes of wives forgetting the close the gas stoves, coming to see movies and calling back their nearby homes to check whether they have switched the stove off – remember that there would be slides in Cinema theatres urging the people to ensure that they switch off the gas stoves immediately once the cooking is over…..  and those days, the red cylinder became a prized possession .. ..    The distributor is a very important person and the arrival of gas delivery boy is heralded with happiness. 

Domestic LPG today is subsidized and hence are distributed only by Public sector Oil marketing companies. LPG for domestic cooking purposes is available in 14.2Kg capacity cylinders with authorized LPG distributors of IOCL. Markets where transporting the 14.2 Kg cylinders are inconvenient, LPG is also marketed in 5Kg cylinders.  Indane is very friendly to the housewife if used in the safe and specified manner. LPG installation for a household consists of ISI approved Gas Stove, Regulator and Suraksha hose. The commercial ones also come in 19 kgs and 47.5 kgs. The gas that we use at home LPG  has an explosive range of 1.8% to 9.5% volume of gas in air. This is considerably narrower than other common gaseous fuels. The auto-ignition temperature of LPG is around 410-580 deg. C and hence it will not ignite on its own at normal temperature. LPG has only a very faint smell, and consequently, it is necessary to add some odourant, so that any escaping gas can easily be detected.

Leave away this and any other info .. .. note down this all important Tollfree number :  1800-2333-555 ~ that doubles as LPG emergency helpline too. 

My call landed at a Call centre (perhaps in Noida) – after pressing couple of 1-1-1- it landed on desk and a woman’s voice greeted me, telling Namaskar and wishing a good day … I was in a hurry – started speaking hastily – that I have a problem of gas leak at home.  The voice was so reassuring – she requested me to follow some simple safety instructions like :

•          Do not panic

•          Remove the regulator from the cylinder and close the knob

•          Keep all doors and windows open allowing air circulation

•          Do not light a match stick / or lighter or any lamps

•          Try to keep all electrical switches off

•          Do not use mobile near the cylinder

By now increasing in confidence, I told her that all this has been complied with already – she tole me that the complaint has been taken, a ticket no. would be received through SMS – taking my registered no. she reeled out my details including address, which further reassured me.  She assured that a mechanic would turn-up within 2 hours and in an hours time, we would receive a call from the mechanic. 

We started wondering at the efficiency and yet had some doubts ! in mind.  The mechanic did turn-up, identified it to be some faulty washer, replaced it (all within 2 hours on a holiday, when every one was celebrating Ganapathi Bappa moraya !). the man after attending to the fault, requested that we log in again and confirm that the complaint had been attended to, lest he would be pursued again ! ~ sure, we did.  We received another follow-up call from the Emergency Cell, asking whether the leakage had been attended to and whether we are comfortable now.

Really great service by the Oil Companies (understand this tollfree is common for all Oil Companies including Indane) – thank every one, the system, the tele-attendant, the all important mechanic and the follow-up.  Thanks for bringing comfort to us. Great service

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

13^th Sept. 2018.