The Log Dog Blog: No Propane

We had two snow days at the end of last week due to icy conditions, sleet, and freezing rain, so I spent Thursday hanging out with Ginny while C worked. She and I always wrap up in blankets, regardless of the season, so I didn't notice anything unusual, but when C came upstairs around 4 pm, he asked, "Why is it so cold in here?" Once I got out from under the blanket, I could immediately tell that it was much colder in our family room than it typically is.

C checked the gas fireplace, and the pilot light was out. He then checked the fireplace in our bedroom and the main pilot light in the basement and both of those were out, too. Finally, he went outside to check the tank, and lo and behold, it was empty.

What did this mean? No heat in the basement or on the main floor, and no hot water. Not a great discovery when it's quite cold and windy outside.

Thankfully, the heating system for the second floor runs on electricity, so we knew we'd have heat in our bedroom. For that, we were exceptionally grateful!

C called the propane company to report the empty tank and we were told that they weren't doing any deliveries that day due to the dangerous road conditions. Totally understandable. We were assured that we would have first priority on Friday morning because our tank was empty. They also said we had to be home because the driver would have to come in to light the pilot light in the basement.

We piled on the blankets and were fine on Thursday night. By Friday morning, our house was very cold with the exception of our bedroom (C had closed the vents in the other bedrooms to maximize the heat coming into our room). We waited all morning, and no delivery occurred. I called at noon to check, and we were once again assured that the delivery would happen that day. I stayed in our bedroom all day with Ginny, but C had to work, so he was in the freezing basement with a space heater. We tried to be patient because at least had some heat and we had power.

By 9 pm, we still had no propane, so C called, got the after-hours answering service, and was promised that our concerns would be passed along and we could expect a call back shortly. That never happened. We went to bed under the mound of blankets again and awoke on Saturday morning to an even colder house. I could barely tolerate the kitchen despite the sweatpants, hoodie, and thick socks I was wearing, and I pride myself on being from Canada and not being bothered by the cold!

We made phone call number four, spoke to someone in the office, and were told the delivery had been assigned to a driver the previous night and they couldn't explain why the delivery hadn't been made. This was followed by a promise that they would look into it because there wasn't anything they could do to re-assign the delivery. My patience was wearing thin at this point, but we took them at their word.

The morning came and went and when we called for the FIFTH time at 12:30, the office was closed and we once again spoke with someone from the after-hours answering service. They, of course, had no power to do anything except take our information.

Finally, around 2 pm, a truck showed up. C went outside to speak with the driver, and he had NO IDEA that our tank was empty and apparently thought he was just making a routine delivery. He also did not come in to light the pilot light because he had no directions to do so; we ended up doing it ourselves while hoping we didn't blow up the house. (Admittedly, that was just me being concerned about that!)

Overall, it was a very aggravating experience. Not because we didn't have propane – we could have gone to a hotel if we'd needed to – but rather because of the incredibly poor communication and customer service. Why did we have to call five times, speak to two different offices and a total of five different people, only to learn that none of our information even made it to the appropriate person? We felt like we got the runaround during every single phone call! And being told we had to be home so someone could come inside when the propane was delivered was clearly nonsense.

Thankfully, we had no burst pipes or anything of the sort. The house took about eight hours to warm up to normal temperatures and the hot water is functioning properly now. Everything is fine. We are fine. But I would have appreciated the propane company just being upfront and telling us they couldn't get to us until Saturday instead of repeatedly assuring us a delivery was on its way. It's not the driver's fault that he wasn't told this was an emergency situation because our tank was empty, so we certainly don't blame him for not knowing! The breakdown in communication is what is unacceptable, because while we are fortunate to have a secondary heating system in the house, others might rely solely on propane heating and this kind of incompetence from the company could have really had a negative impact in such cases.

Very grateful things are back to normal!