We get many complaints here at 7News from unhappy members of the public who feel they’ve been slighted, short changed or cheated by the water company, the light company, or even their supermarket. And that is just what happened yesterday when Dorla Jorgenson came to complain about her butane company. She says she bought butane gas on Friday but instead of butane – she got gasoline. It sounded bizarre to us and so we checked it out. Keith Swift has the story.
Keith SwiftReporting,
The Jorgensons say that when they turned on their stove to cook on Monday, they observed this orange liquid – flowing out of the butane tank and into the stove.
Christine Jorgenson, Butane Customer
“When I the cook up now I see some liquid the flow out of the tank into the stove. So I turned off everything. The first thing I out off was the gas and then I cut off the stove and then I called my brother in law and then he came and checked it. And then he called my father and two of them started to check it and my father said it was gas.”
Gasoline flowing out of a butane tank? It sounded incredible to us and so with the butane tank in our hands, we took the Jorgensons to the Phillip Neal Depot where they bought the tank of gas. An employee we met there wanted the Jorgensons to show him the evidence.
Employee of BWEL,
”Tell me where the liquid is.”
Christine Jorgenson,
“I nuh tell lie and I witnessed it.”
Employee of BWEL,
“Well that’s why, you told me your tank had liquid so I want you to explain to me where it is. You always want us to look bad for $7.”
Dorla Jorgenson, Butane Customer
“You all know how it got in there because you all pumped it in there.”
Employee of BWEL,
“It was that coming out there it would have come out of the tank.”
Dorla Jorgenson,
“So where this came from?”
Employee of BWEL,
“If I open this one, you see how the gas came out – pressurized gas right.”
Despite the testy back and forth, a supervisor was convinced enough to fill the Jorgenson’s tank with $11 worth of butane. A happy ending? Not quite for the Jorgensons.
Dorla Jorgenson,
“I still nuh satisfy even though they give me my gas and he is coming now to bring me the hose to connect the tank I am not satisfied.”
Keith Swift,
“Why?”
Dorla Jorgenson,
“I still ‘fraid.”
Keith Swift,
“You don’t believe the explanation?”
Dorla Jorgenson,
“Hmm….no.”
We are told that after we left Phillip Neal Butane Gas Company, which is now under the umbrella of BWEL, bought the Jorgenson’s a new hose and connected the tank to their stove and everything is working fine tonight. The butane company however maintains that it is impossible for them to have sold the Jorgenson’s gasoline because they don’t sell gasoline – they sell butane. And more than that, the company says it is impossible to fill a butane tank with any type of liquid gas.
We checked with personnel at the Fire Department who after inspecting the liquid substance told us it is not gasoline. The best explanation they could offer was that it was residue left in the tank which became liquefied.
