Amid booking issues, dealers in Delhi deny shortage

NEW DELHI: On Wednesday morning, Rohini resident Vishal was among a group of five-six Indane customers who landed up at the agency to book a cooking cylinder as they could not complete the formalities online or over the phone.

"They should keep trying. Book through the app and keep trying; it might happen after some time. There must be a 25-day gap from the last delivery. Maybe there are issues due to the war," a worker at the gas agency in Rohini sector 3 told TOI.




TOI visited several outlets in the capital and came across many complaints of booking related issues.

"I have been calling up and I keep hearing 'invalid number' when we try to book by phone. When we come here, they ask us to keep trying. This response is not at all helpful," said Vishal.

Another IndianOil agency in Rohini blamed the problems on the servicer with a staff member saying that the booking system was affected. She said the issue may take a day or two before it is resolved, increasing the nervousness among customers who were seeking to ensure that there was a spare cylinder at home amid fears over shortages.

Waiting outside the agency, a woman customer, who did not wish to be identified, said that she had been trying to book a cylinder through WhatsApp, but with no success.

At the agency, customers waiting in the queue said deliveries were delayed despite bookings being confirmed.

Dealers, however, maintained there was no shortage of cooking gas cylinders at least for domestic customers and the supply from oil marketing companies such as IndianOil, BPCL and HPCL was normal.