Saturday, January 12, 2013

Waiting for Godot - oops - Cooking Gas Cylinder Repairman

I hope Shekhar Gupta is right that Indians are now willing to pay. This would require enough people who are not able to expedite service thanks to either their connections or their wealth. However, they have to be well off enough to be able to pay.

Our gas cylinder consumption is fairly low. It would not be much of a dent in our standard of living if we were to pay the market rates. Would we volunteer to forego the subsidy - Heck no! Would we go to an alternate supplier who provided good service - Very likely yes.

Replacement cylinder was leaking. The emergency number of the distributor did not work. The phones to the office invariably said that the person is on his way. It will take 20-25 minutes. A typical north Indian response - yes, it is being done. How does one respond even if one knows that it is just bullshit.

On a number of occasions, the repairman has come and changed a rubber ring. For the life of me, I cannot understand why the refill factories have such a poor quality control. It would seem like a trivial process that the rubber gasket should be routinely replaced on each refill. After all, gas leak is a risk.

I was also wondering if anyone has ever sued Indian Oil for a gas cylinder tragedy?

I hope private gas suppliers can resume operations. They were a boon for me when I was transferred to Bangalore in the late 90's.

No comments:

Post a Comment