Rant, Calor Gas Ayr branch, lazy twits with no father.

ambulancekidd

ambulancekidd

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Since 1964 Gosh that makes me feel old.
Hazel Mrsambulancekidd went into Calor Gas Ayr branch today (its not a bank holiday here) & despite it being just after 4pm, the shutters were down & no sign of life!
This isn't the first issue we've had with these twats, they're website claims that they're open on saturday mornings, WRONG they never have been.

Hazel wasn't the only one looking bewildered in the car park, a motorhome pulled in just after she arrived, they were totally stuck for gas & not local to the area.

Surely this business is there to cater greatly to the leisure industry, how the bloody hell can you do business this way?

Hazel has informed me that she is about to phone the Glasgow head office, it seems that they are open to 5pm, watch this space.
 
With the rumoured shortage of calor gas maybe they had sold out or only selling to commercial customers via delivery. It seems unlikely they would just close an hour early without reason.
 
These strange and unenlightened times, give rise to any opportunity to be less than the customer would/should expect and to offer an excuse for non existent service/care. Ditto the provider may consider many are unappreciative of the efforts they have made just to open!

HOWEVER, there are lots of folks out there in all sorts of (sometime thankless) Jobs who are doing their bit. and thankyou. Have been served (shop/restaurant) a few times and been surprised by 1) attentive service. 2) pleasant and cheerful welcome. 3) shock from them when you leave a tip to say thanks for 1 & 2.

With luck we will eventually achieve a position where folks say thank you for letting me go first past a parked car - or whatever. Rant over. NEARLY, manners costs you nothing but earns you lots.
 
Wanted to swap a butane that I picked up from my son for the equivalent propane. Checked our local Calor gas centre out today online and they are totally out of all sizes of propane cylinders!
 
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It does say on the website that the ayr branch is temporarily closed due to Covid.

And the opening times are listed as Monday to Friday. No mention of Saturday mornings.

Of course, I could be looking at the wrong branch 🤔 Or they could have updated the website in between Mrsambulancekidd phoning up the Glasgow branch and me having a look.

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The Norwich Calor depot will NOT serve gas to motorhomes, which I find unreasonable. The depot at Risby in Suffolk will fill for you and charge at domestic rate, I thought this was all one company??
 
No problem at the other end of the country here in Southampton. I picked up a 6kg red last week, the only problem is none of the suppliers are discounting they are all charging the same.as Calor
 
camoyboy said:
The Norwich Calor depot will NOT serve gas to motorhomes, which I find unreasonable. The depot at Risby in Suffolk will fill for you and charge at domestic rate, I thought this was all one company??
Click to expand...
May be a franchise, don’t know.
 
Never had a problem with refusal to serve motorhomes at our depot in Cardiff.

The staff are very obliging, the prices are very high in common with all Calor gas. I keep considering Refillables but haven’t got around to it yet
 
Apparently theres been a 45% increase in demand for bottles due to covid stay at homes using bbqs and the increase in mhs and caravans.
Allegedly they are refusing to sell bottles to new customers and will only deal with people that have existing bottles!

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Landy Andy said:
Typical UK business. Couldn’t give a toss and you will have to fit in around them.
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Have you been to France? 😂 Once went to use a ski lift for a mountain bike uplift, no you can’t pay cash and we shut in 5 minutes for 2 hours. You need tickets from just there and they don’t open for an hour...... What! 🤣

As an aside, I hate Calor with a passion, once they ran out of lite bottles and assured me I could have a heavy one and just swap back. Went to swap both back and they wouldn’t, unless I paid for a new rental agreement at £70 each!

Horrible company that without the monopoly they enjoy, wouldn’t survive minutes.
 
I thought shops and businesses were free to open and close whenever they want. Also serve whoever they want to.

They can do anything within the law.
 
I rang the Risby depot on Friday to check the times for refilling, informed they are closed for the forseeable future.
 
camoyboy said:
The Norwich Calor depot will NOT serve gas to motorhomes, which I find unreasonable. The depot at Risby in Suffolk will fill for you and charge at domestic rate, I thought this was all one company??
Click to expand...

The ones in the Carlisle branch aren't much better. I had to bite my lip and go in to their shop to help out a newbie van owner last year to exchange butane for propane, it was like pulling teeth.
If they didnt have a near monopoly and weren't trading on their past history of being the "only known" gas bottle supplier to casual users, they'd have gone bust years ago.

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ambulancekidd said:
Hazel Mrsambulancekidd went into Calor Gas Ayr branch today (its not a bank holiday here) & despite it being just after 4pm, the shutters were down & no sign of life!
This isn't the first issue we've had with these twats, they're website claims that they're open on saturday mornings, WRONG they never have been.

Hazel wasn't the only one looking bewildered in the car park, a motorhome pulled in just after she arrived, they were totally stuck for gas & not local to the area.

Surely this business is there to cater greatly to the leisure industry, how the bloody hell can you do business this way?

Hazel has informed me that she is about to phone the Glasgow head office, it seems that they are open to 5pm, watch this sp
Click to expand...
We drove past Ayr depot on Thurs.... all shuttered up.
We phoned to enquire if still doing autogas and got diverted to Glasgow who said Ayr closed.
I usually get my autogas from there but last time I went.....pre covid their pump was unservicable. Don't know if awaiting repair or being removed....thus reason for phone call.!!!!
 
After all my years in motorhomes, last year I finally invested in safefill bottles. Luck for me I have an independent supplier just 2 miles away, so just take the bottle down in the car and the man fills it up. 👍 Think it's 54p a litre BUT not far away in Wolverhampton there is a company (carvers) doing 22p !!?
Only done one fill abroad and that was in Germany last September, no issues.
I didn't use enough gas to justify gaslow or similar plus most times I was in Spain where bottles are cheap.
 
Well their head office are are as much use as a chocolate teapot too.
I phoned and all you get is an AP message asking you to place your order as a recorded message, lets just say that the message I left was not an order.:swear:
I can't speak for others, but the Ayr branch has ALWAYS been a pain in the :moon2:.
Always a law unto themselves, closed on a Saturday when the sign on the building and the web site say they are open.
It has always been hit & miss with their opening hours and while I hope that none of them have been hit by covid, I have a funny feeling that they are using the situation to suit themselves.
I wish another reliable company would show up and step on their cocksure toes.
The staff when you do find them open are polite & helpful, you just don't often get the :swear2:to witness it.:banghead:
 
Have you tried flo gas , ours deliver so works out cheaper. The driver puts it in the back garden if I am not there.
 
sueandjohn said:
Calor service in south lakes has been abysmal. They don’t even pretend to open here
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Yep. Visited the Calor depot in Kendal (it's very close to my MoT garage) for a tank refill. Closed even though the website said it was open.

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https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-...0001&campid=5338547443&icep_item=323786855989

All gas bottles usually have a label on them saying 'property of and only to be filled by'.........

This ebay device has a left hand thread and screws in to an EMPTY LPG gas bottle.
In a world where filling EMPTY LPG gas bottles was allowed at LPG filling stations then this device would allow said filling. Strange that they are sold on ebay as technically you are not allowed to use them.

LPG is sold in Litres and bottles are in KGS.
A 6KG gas bottle would hold 12L of gas BUT they are only filled to 80% full.
ie, 80% of 12 = 9.6L etc etc

A Gaslow or Gas-it type filling system has a built in 80% over fill protection.

My advice is if you use a lot of gas in your leisure vehicle buy a Gaslow or Gas-it system as it's half the price { Once you have bought and installed the system }.

If you use a lot of gas for heating your leisure vehicle maybe consider fitting an Eberspacher, Webasto or Chinese Diesel Heater as they use diesel as fuel not gas.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which MHF may be compensated.
I have had a Gasit large and small bottle for some time now. Just had a family walk and son was asking where to exchange his empty Calor Patio Gas 13 Kgs propane bottle. I told him where so he phoned to check they would be open being bank holiday. Cost to swap empty for full cylinder is - wait for it - £44!!

Ow Much!!!!!
 
Mrsambulancekidd What size cylinder is it you need to exchange? If it's 13kg you can use Gottle Gas for free delivery.

They cover Scotland up to Perth (with the usual exceptions), though obviously there is a lead time for delivery.

www.gottle.co.uk

13kg Propane Gas Cylinder -* Free delivery * Screw Fit Regulator* 5-7 lead time SOUTH EAST check postcode before you buy.

If no Calor cylinders to exchange CRA* required (Click Here for CRA Terms and Conditions) This product cannot be used with the Green Patio Gas regulator. *Cylinder Refill Agreement Delivery on 13kg propane gas cylinders is typically within 10 working days of order placement. Price includes...
www.gottle.co.uk www.gottle.co.uk

No use obviously if it was a refillable that you wanted filled (no idea what you have or if Ayr depot do that), but may be of use to others with 13kg calor cylinders.

I use them for the 19kg cylinders for at home.
 
Bought a gas bbq from a garden centre in July. The garden centre didn't supply gas; no problem thinks I, B&Q will supply a bottle of Patio Gas, B&Q it turns out will not provide a new bottle agreement because they have been told not to by Calor as there is a shortage. If they did, Calor would not supply them with another to replace it, wtf. Tried other local vendors, including garages all with the same story. The Calor depot in Portsmouth is still closed because of Covid, god knows why, it is just a shop after all selling bottles of gas. Luckily I had an empty Calor 6Kg Lite Propane Bottle which I could swap out at a local garage. I just needed to replace the Patio Gas connection/regulator on the bbq with a standard Propane regulator and pigtail. I doubt I will be swapping back; the cost of gas in the standard bottle is cheaper than Patio Gas anyhow, again, god only knows why, it is the same gas after all.

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