AmeriGas Propane Is Accused Of Falsely Claiming Tanks And Price Gouging Its Customers
Fayette County, GA – (Special to ZennieReport.com) – AmeriGas Propane Company, a firm owned by UGI Corporation, is the firm that supplies propane to the African American 90-year-old-mother of the author of this post. In research on AmeriGas, there’s little in search results that reflects the social media posts reporting horrible service by legions of Americans. This is part of an effort to change that. One of those matters of complaint is in the area of ownership of the propane tank.
In the case of the mother of the author, AmeriGas is proposing that it will pick up the tank on June 2nd and for the wild reason that the African American 90-year-old-mother “is not satisfied with” AmeriGas service – something she denies. This reflects the family’s complaint that AmeriGas has price gouged during two States of Emergency issued by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp in January and March of 2025. Such an action is illegal by Georgia law (website reference here):
Although competition and demand drive prices in our free-market economy, during a declared state of emergency the Governor may prohibit price increases on items that he considers to be “necessary” to preserve, protect, or sustain the life, health, or safety of persons or their property. The Governor must identify the specific goods and services to which the “price gouging” law applies. Price increases on the products and services specified by the Governor are only permitted if they accurately reflect an increase in the cost of new stock or the cost to transport it, plus the retailer’s average markup percentage applied during the ten days immediately prior to the declaration of a state of emergency.
The Governor can declare a state of emergency in response to, or in anticipation of, a natural disaster or a national security emergency. All counties in the state are covered, unless the executive order declaring the emergency is limited geographically to certain counties. The Georgia Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division has the authority to investigate allegations of price gouging. Violators can be fined from $2,000 to $15,000 per violation.
But AmeriGas, represented by Michael Sharp, it’s new CEO hired in December of 2024, could simply correct the price; instead, the propane firm customer service “advocate” just increased it. For reasons unknown to the family, AmeriGas did an about face and threatened to stop service. One AmeriGas representative who claimed to be associated with AmeriGas CEO Michael Sharp, told the author’s 90-year-old mother that “we just don’t want to be associated with you”.
Some customers report that AmeriGas falsely claims ownership of propane tanks the homeowner already owns, leading to incorrect billing and difficulties in obtaining propane refills from other vendors. AmeriGas customers have reported being charged for tank rental, even after demonstrating ownership, and having trouble getting other companies to service their tanks without documentation of ownership.
Little News Reporting On AmeriGas Propane But Many, Many Complaints
The research on AmeriGas reveals that the firm is, among other things, not a member of the Better Business Bureau, the Alpharetta, Georgia-based non-profit organization. The Better Business Bureau “people find businesses they can trust” and provides an area where consumers can reach dispute resolutions with businesses.
Even though AmeriGas is not a member of the Better Business Bureau, that has not stopped the posting of 5,019 total complaints in the last 3 years, with 1,181 complaints that AmeriGas has responded to in the last 12 months. That breaks down to 4.712 complaints about AmeriGas everyday.
Here is but one example of the many complaints regarding AmeriGas and propane tank ownership, as posted on the social media site Reddit:
From bibliotecarias. AmeriGas claims they own my tank – but it is branded Keen. (From 4 months ago, this year 2025.) It’s a 500 gallon tank that’s buried in my yard. I don’t pay to rent it. I don’t have a lease. No mention of the tank in my online portal. I don’t have a contract with them – the previous owner didn’t mention a contract in the disclosures. How can I verify ownership? I’ve been on hold with them for 45 minutes.
Tell them to show you something that proves it.
Either way, they can’t just show up and take it. It isn’t worth it to them to bring equipment to your house to dig up a tank that is in dispute. If hey can’t prove that they own it, tell them to pond sand. If they can prove that they own it, (unlikely) you can probably just buy gas from them and they will forget about it.
Call the company who wrote your title insurance policy when you bought the house. They should have identified any leins, encroachments or leased equipment on your property – they are the insurance company, let them cover the cost of the tank for you. Don’t bother negotiating with the gas company.
Then, here’s a complaint about AmeriGas Propane from the social media website Facebook:
Amerigas propane is a complete rip off!! I hope this reaches others in the area about how much they charge for propane. I own my tank and they were at $3.17/gallon a month ago when I needed gas. Did not order and went with Krist for a $1.49/gallon. So I called to cancel my account today and pay final bill and they said they could give me a discount of $3.10/gallon. I said no thanks. I Just hope others see this and cancel them. There are better options out there!!
On Consumer Affairs The Reports About AmeriGas And Propane Tank Ownership Are Just As Bad As At BBB
On Consumer Affairs, the company that is an “American customer review and consumer news platform that provides information for purchasing decisions around major life changes or milestones”, AmeriGas has over 1,100 “one-star” ratings versus just eight five star ratings. Here’s what “Michael” from Jacksonville reported in February of 2022:
My wife and I recently bought a home in Jacksonville, FL. The previous owner could not recall nor provide documentation indicating whether he or Amerigas owned the 120Gal tank buried under his driveway. I called Amerigas and three different “Customer Experience Advocates” verbally indicated that the tank was customer owned. When I asked if they would provide an email indicating the tank was customer owned or at least that Amerigas did NOT own the tank, Amerigas representatives refused. No other Gas company will provide gas line service or propane because of this. I find it ironic and disturbing that Amerigas will not back up their statements in writing. A sure sign this company could not care less for their customers beyond the economic value they derive from them.
And more recently, here’s LaToya from Ellenwood, Georgia, April 20th, 2025:
AmeriGas has incompetent technicians and I believe unethical business practices. We became new customers, when the first technician came to do a check he put down that he was unable to perform the check because he could not find my home. He was sitting in my driveway and didn’t get out of his truck yet we were charged $199. When I went outside he said the line failed and had to be re-inspected. I said, “You didn’t get out your truck and haven’t checked the line.” Then he put a lock on the propane tank. We had to have another inspection days later, another $199 and he said it passed and propane would be delivered the next day.
The next day there is no propane delivery. We call and they say we need another line check. We said it’s been checked and passed. After he leaves we get a bill for 200 gallons of propane. We told the technician to give us a receipt and it said 0.00 No propane delivered. We call AmeriGas and they say we were charged and propane delivered, but the tank is on zero! The representative said she would schedule a delivery but could not because the system shows it’s been delivered. So she sets up a technician appointment and I say no! We are at $740 no propane at all and we will be fighting the charges.
Here another AmeriGas customer from Georgia, Jerry, who on Feb. 21, 2025 reported:
I’ve been trying now to get my tank serviced with gas already paid for now going on 2 months. The first attempt of delivery the person showed around 5 PM for a couple of seconds and drove off. I call Customer service to find out that my tank was not filled and found out it was red tagged by the delivery person for something the agent had no idea of what it was and claimed safety. This tank is/was installed by AmeriGas over 3 years ago. Now there’s an issue. I pay rent on this tank and Amerigas does not maintain it properly. What is up with this? The customer service agent (out of country) set up a delivery date in 3 days. When this didn’t happen I called again, to find out that they did not set up appointments and still could not tell me what the issue was. All I received was apologies and misinformation.
2 weeks later on a scheduled appointment a tech showed up in the rain only to tell me he found the issue (the tank too close to the house) and could not do anything due to the weather and heavy truck messing up my yard. Again had to wait another two weeks for another tech to perform the service. On the scheduled day, I get home from work only to find out the work was not performed due to me not being there. I found attempted phone calls around 4 PM in the evening of missed calls and the service was not performed. Be advised that I told the call center that I was not able to take calls while at work and have dogs. I had the dogs put up and still no service. Contacted Customer service again and no action can be taken but wait another 2 weeks.
Please note that when this started I had 20% gas in the tank and now have been at 0% for over a week. Amerigas just doesn’t get it. The customer service people cannot speak English clearly and difficult to talk with and do not try to escalate the issue. All they do is pass you on to another person who cannot do anything except offer excuses and wait another 2 weeks for no service. This Started in early January and I still have no gas.
Mark, yet another AmeriGas customer from Georgia, has a report also from February of this year 2025 and sandwiched between two State of Emergency’s issued by Governor Kemp in January and March 17th:
If anyone in earshot of me uses AmeriGas for your propane, do yourself a favor and move to a local company as soon as you can. I’m never the one to bash a company no matter how peed I am. I’m that person that can get terrible service at a restaurant and still leave a large tip. But let me tell ya, I’ve never had as bad of an experience with any company as I’ve had with Amerigas. They’re completely incompetent bordering on thievery. Look them up and you’ll see that they’re involved in lawsuits for price fixing among other things.
I ordered propane from them and It never got delivered. They took my money but failed to put in the order. This caused my tank to go dry and my weekend rental cabin had no heat during extreme cold temps. Then I spent many hours over multiple days on the phone dealing with a call center. Trying to rectify the situation and get the propane delivered but to no avail. After I finally just canceled my service it took weeks to get my money back. Now after I’ve switched to a local company and finally felt like the nightmare was over, I get a $419 bill from them for picking up their empty tank. Unbelievable!
Jim, an AmeriGas customer from Athens, Georgia, wrote of his bad service January 18th, 2025, during the winter, and during the State of Emergency that was imposed January 9th, 2025 and ran through January 25th:
This review does not reflect in any way on the front line service employees, you know the ones that are actually closest to the customer. I suspect the Customer Service Centre number 800-263-7442 is not located in America (AmeriGas). I have been an AmeriGas customer for 28 years and up until maybe the last three years I never had to really worry about propane service.
Our 250 gal is considered full at 200 gal (80%), at 15% the level gauge is the red zone a good guess would be 30 gal, we made our first of four calls at 12% which was at 6% on delivery leaving 14.5 gal and given the upcoming weather event we would have been out of propane in 1 1/2 days, that’s three short of the projected delivery date. IMHO, their algorithm fails to include upcoming weather events and the short sidedness of this customer dissatisfaction and creates unsafe working conditions for their delivery drivers due to forced emergency deliveries. Edit; Sorry no photos or receipt included. Delivery date was 01/17/2025 at 186.5 gal
The next entry is from “Pissed Consumer” and dated May 12, 2025, and refers to North Georgia:
The natural gas mergers in North Georgia have been VERY detrimental to Amerigas Customer Service. Before the family-owned businesses were gobbled up by Amerigas, and even before Amerigas got too big for themselves, Customer Service was a BIG DEAL. Not so more. You cannot get past the non-English speaking people in the call centers. I spoke with people in Chicago, New Jersey, and overseas – in the SAME DAY! There is no way to reach the Local Blairsville GA office. I even went by the old office which is mostly closed and a big sign on door, saying “Not Open to Public, Call the BS 800 number” which leads to an hour of wasted time. I sent 2 letters disputing my charges and both were completely ignored. I finally paid the bill and late fees today to avoid more late fees. Ignoring your customers IS NOT good customer service. I will only think a few seconds next time I even think about doing business with this monopoly again. User’s recommendation: *** NO
What you’re reading are selected entries from Georgia, but only part of a large set of nationwide and Georgia-based complaints.
Can Any Organization Step In And Cause AmeriGas Stop Its Illegal Actions?
As of this writing there’s no U.S. Government Congressional-approved federal organization that can step in where the state organizations will not. Georgia’s Attorney General representative claimed a backlog of complaints about AmeriGas to Zennie62Media, Inc.. Google’s “A.I. Overview” reports that “AmeriGas in Georgia has received numerous complaints, with issues ranging from billing errors and customer service problems to delivery delays and hidden charges. Some customers report difficulty getting their propane orders fulfilled, while others have experienced unexpected fees and issues with account management”
That said, The Fifth Estate, which is what some call blogs, vlogs, and social media, can provide the reporting and direction that either causes AmeriGas to improve performance, or be driven out of business by crowds of people discouraging using AmeriGas. One fact: AmeriGas is a large company, but has one equally large problem: it’s operating from a negative feedback loop.
AmeriGas Must Stop Its Managerial Negative Feedback Loop
In system dynamics parlance there is what is called a “negative feedback loop”. As this author is an expert in system dynamics modeling, and has been since the early 1980s, it’s easy to conceptually explain what a “negative feedback loop” is, and how it applies in the world of AmeriGas.
Very simply, a “negative feedback loop” is a set of actions that causes a something to get constantly worse. Translated into system dynamics the “something” is a called s “stock variable”. Stocks increase or decrease in population. The “set of actions” are the variables called “inflow” and “outflow”: inflow variables cause the stock to increase, outflow variables make the stock decrease. And finally, we have “converter variables”. Converter variables regulate the rate of inflow and outflow.
Right now, the simple model that is a stock, inflow, and outflow, and converter variables is balanced: equal inflow to outflow. A change in outlflow causes a constant stock decrease. That is negative, but it’s not a “negative feedback loop” .
A “negative feedback loop” is developed when we introduce another stock. So, let’s say the stock is AmeriGas customers, and the second stock consists of ex-AmeriGas customers. The outflow variable is governed by two converters, one called “price level”, so the higher the price the more customers leave, and the other called “bad service” and so the worse that gets the more AmeriGas customers head for the exits.. They go to the inflow to the second stock that consists of ex-AmeriGas customers. The more ex-customers there are, the more another converter attached to the stock and called “social media” communicates their displeasure.
The second stock consists of ex-AmeriGas customers also communicates displeasure to inflow customers, causing a slow down in that rate as the stock of ex-AmeriGas customers grows. Now, you can see where the growth in the second stock of ex-AmeriGas customers becomes what is called “self-reinforcing”.
As Kelly Wardman says in her websiteThe Systems Thinker “self-reinforcing” “means they compound change in one direction with even more change. Unstopped, they continue to reinforce a particular behavior.” In the case of AmeriGas, that ” particular behavior” is a constant loss of customers.
So, AmeriGas has two primary drivers: price and service, but it also has another driver that it has not addressed: social media. Moreover as we drill down and further define the components of customer attrition, we also understand what the actions that produce more customers are. Sometimes they simply call for AmeriGas to stop having high prices and bad service, and communicate that to social media.
The trouble is AmerIGas does not use system dynamics or systems thinking. It relies on the experience of managers, some that respond to crisis with an emotional response – and at times that action is to push more of the bad actions, which just makes things worse.
AmeriGas could improve if it discovered systems thinking and realize better credit ratings in the process.
Stay tuned.