Amerigas minimum use / tank rental fee Rip Off! Dillsburg, Pennsylvania

Well the endless string of consumer complaints about this company Amerigas says it all! My sore spot is with Amerigas policy of minimum use amounts and tank rental fees. The home I purchased 12 years ago already had a buried 500 gallon Amerigas propane tank so I assumed the contract with Amerigas from the prior home owner. Not thinking at the time it would ever be such an unreasonable company to deal with year after year.

The original contract was for automatic fills and soon after my first couple of years at the residence I discovered I was not hardly using any propane at all (single person does not need 500 gallons a year). This was realized when I was invoiced for $600 of propane that was never even delivered. When I questioned Amerigas about this charge for propane never delivered, I was advised that they will charge a minimum usage fee each year if no propane was purchased.

They then offered to put me on the tank rental program for $100 per year and I would not be obligated to purchase any propane, which I was glad to agree to. Each year since then (2008) the rental fee has increased a little each year and last year (2011) the fee was $121 which I was still OK with. I just received my new invoice for 2012 rental fee of $233.20, ABSOLUTLY ridiculous increase. 

It is a crime that I am doing all I can to conserve energy as the rest of the world is trying to do, but yet penalized by this company Amerigas because I don't consume what THEY think I should. If the tank was not buried I would have done away with Amerigas a long time ago. Amerigas has so many other fees attached to their policy if one was to remove the buried tank it would take several years to recover the loss of removal expense.

 Other concerns of poor customer service are related to Amerigas Auto Pay option program. I am or was on the auto pay program and have always paid my bills. Recently my credit card that was on file with the Amerigas auto pay program was compromised and I had to close that card and needed to update my account with the new active card information. I tried to contact auto pay department to give them new information on 2 separate occasions and was on hold for 1 hour each time, finally my patience expired became frustrated and hung up.  Still unresolved issue.

What has me so dissatisfied with Amerigas is simply "Principal" of a reasonable offering of services and fees.  For a customer that has a buried tank with Amerigas, is just that "Buried" and implementing over a $100.00 increase for tank rental in just one year is absurd and unfair business practice. As so posted in many of the other negative post I have read on Amerigas, I Strongly encourage anyone considering getting involved with this company to, NOT!