Soon LPG customers will have the option to opt for a distributor of their choice. The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas on Friday announced about the new facility in which customers can choose distributors from where they want their LPG refill delivered.
The pilot phase will be launched shortly and consumers will be able to choose their “Delivering Distributor” from the list of distributors catering to their address within their Oil Marketing Company (OMC).
The service will be initially launched in Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Gurgaon, Pune, and Ranchi
Typically, at the time of booking an LPG refill through a mobile app/customer portal using registered login, the customer can now see the list of delivering distributors along with their performance rating.
Once the facility is launched, customers can opt for any of the distributors from the list applicable for his/her area to refill their LPG. This facility is also aimed to infuse healthy competition amongst the distributors who will in turn offer the best in class services to the customers besides improving their performance ratings.
On the back of technology, OMCs have extended help to customers for booking and payment for LPG refills through various modes including portal and mobile app, refill booking through IVRS and SMS, missed call facility, and WhatsApp as well.
Apart from the above digital modes, customers can also book their LPG refills through the UMANG (Unified Mobile App for New Governance) app or the Bharat Bill Pay System apps and platforms. Additionally, customers can book their refills and make payments through popular e-commerce Apps viz. Amazon, Paytm etc. also.
The upcoming facility of Online Transfer of LPG connection to another distributor serving in the same area has been extended to LPG customers through respective OMCs web-portals and Mobile Apps.
After logging into the application with the use of registered login, you can choose a distributor of their OMC from the list of distributors serving in your area and opt for the porting of LPG connection.
In order to convince the customer, the source distributor can also connect with the customer and if they agree then the portability request acan be withdrawn within the stipulated time of three days. Otherwise, the connection gets transferred to the target distributor automatically.
Therefore, the customer can avail online portability to another distributor of the same company operating in the same market without visiting the distributorship.
Also, note that the facility is free of cost and customer won’t have to pay any fee or transfer charges for this facility. 55759 portability requests have been successfully completed by OMCs in May 2021.