If you are a customer of Indane gas cylinders, and you do not book the cylinder at least once in 90 days, your customer number gets blocked and you have to make the trip to the dealer, produce a proof of residence, and get the block released.

People who live alone or travel a lot are particularly harassed by this senseless rule. If I have a history of low usage of the cooking gas, surely I can be registered as such, and I need not be troubled each time I want to book the cylinder?

And in today’s scenario of petroleum products, one might think that low and careful usage of cooking gas would be something that Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Indane would appreciate, rather than penalize this way. 

Are other cooking gas companies also doing this? Where should I appeal to reverse this senseless rule?

A friend of mine, Geetanjali Dhar, lives in Nisarga Layout, beyond Bannerghatta. Her distributor is 15 km away, and she made the trip there…to be told that it was a holiday. The standard response: "Come tomorrow". So easy for the clerk at the counter to say. Geetanjali has wasted half a day, and will waste similar time again on Monday.

We have no information about how and when this rule came into being. I remember an earlier rule which penalized customers for booking within 30 days. Surely these rules contradict each other? 

 When are we going to have a different mindset about consumer services?

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