COIMBATORE: Heavy rush of consumers wanting to register for the DBTL Scheme has prompted some gas agencies to suspend allied services such as effecting a transfer of ownership/names from existing allottees.
On Thursday consumers who headed to a leading HP Gas distributor in Coimbatore found a prominent notice hung up at the office which read: “All name transfers are stopped until further orders”.
The distributor B Rajendra said, “Though we have put up the notice, we have started accepting forms that need a name change due to the death of the connection holder,” he said. Nonetheless, the agency has allotted Saturday as the day to look into all those forms that need a name change due to death. After this, they will start looking into third party name change requests.
In Chennai, Madurai and a few other places though gas agencies did not official declare the same, the staff were reluctant to entertain applications for name change and the like as they were unable to handle the rush of consumers.
“I came here to request them to change the initials of my wife’s name but the distributor has asked me to come after ten days saying they don’t have clarity on the procedure for this,” said Jayendran, a customer at a HP gas agency in Coimbatore.
However, some agencies of the Bharat Gas and Indane have created a special cell to handle only name transfer applications.
Velumani, from Pattanpudhur said, the process is confusing and it could have been simplified. There have also been complaints of gas agency staff being rude to customers who come in with request for change in names. “Since the agencies are too crowded, the staff does not have the patience to answer to every one of us,” said Vinodh, a consumer.