ComplaintsforCrown Gas

• Initial Complaint

  08/18/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I called in for a gas odor, and was told a service person would check on it. This is a potentially dangerous situation that other companies do not charge for, and I was not told there would any fee associated with it. Instead, this company charged my credit card for $162 without prior notice or authorization. I still have no idea what they did, as they have never disclosed their "service" to me. They met with my tenant, who showed them the property for a few minutes. So 5 minutes for $162?When I called to dispute the charge, the woman on the phone was extremely condescending and unhelpful. I will not mention the nasty and unhelpful parts, except to say that this woman should not be in customer service. Instead, I will tell you the useful bits. She told me that they were legally required to respond when I called in a gas odor, which was free, but that if they didn't find a cause they would charge me a fee, and that this was in my contract. She agreed to send me a copy of my contract, which she never did, so I dug it up myself. There is absolutely nothing in there about this. I have attached the contract here. They only fees listed are for termination and emergency gas delivery - and nothing was delivered here.This is not a fee I was made aware of, or that I agreed to. This is nothing in my contract or on their own website about this charge. The option to decline this overinflated fee was never given to me by this company, and I would have declined it if I had been made aware of it. This is not a fee I am willing to pay. If this is not resolved here, my next step will be a charge back with my credit card company, which will be much more costly for the business. So I am given them an opportunity to instead resolve this here, as prior to this incident I have not had problems with their service. I am hoping they choose to do the right thing here.

  Business response

  08/29/2023

  Crown LP Gas responded to a call on 8/14/23-Customer-**************************;********************************************************************* for a gas odor.

  The call was dispatched to one of our service technicians who responded and performed the necessary leak testing on the existing system.  The testing indicated that the system was leak free.

  
  

  We do charge a service fee if we do not find any problems with our equipment (tank or regulator).  If we had found an issue with either the tank or regulator there would not have been any fee to correct the problem.  We deal with a hazardous material so we respond first to determine the issue.

  
  We did not inform this customer about any charges that *** be billed prior to arriving, therefore, we will cancel the service fee of $162.19.  The customer's credit card will be given credit for this amount.

  Customer response

  09/02/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  

  However, I do not yet see the refund on my credit card statement. As soon as this refund goes through I will be satisfied that this matter is resolved.

  Sincerely,
  
  ***************************
  
  
  
   
  

  
  

  Business response

  09/19/2023

  Please be advised that Crown LP Gas has given *************************** credit for the labor fee of $150.00 + Tax totaling $162.19.  ******************* credit card was issued a refund in this amount on 9/13/23.  Transaction ID *********** / Reference Transaction ID ***********.  The refund to her credit card normally takes place within **** business days.

  Regards,

  Crown LP Gas

  Customer response

  09/21/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have the following statement:

  The bank is not the bottleneck; the merchant is the bottleneck. Claiming **** business days is an excuse, as anyone who knows anything about banking will tell you. The bank is not arbitrarily holding onto money - they will credit the funds as soon as the merchant releases them. The fault here lies entirely with the merchant's bad business practices.
  
  Please keep in mind the timeline here: I have had this false charge on my account for over a month, and needed to contact the business multiple times before they finally made good on my refund. They initially promised a refund on 8/29, 22 calendar days - or 15 business days - before a refund was finally received. And after several reminders by me. There is no excuse for this.
  
  In this case, I am accepting this answer only because refund finally came through, very conveniently, on the date of the merchant's last response, 9/19.
  
  I would avoid this shady company at all costs. 

  *******
  
  
  
   
  

  
  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩