Texas Gas Service

I would give negative stars if I could. It took 2months to get someone to turn on the gas after over 5 missed appointments that I had to take off work for because they are 9 – 6 windows. Then we you call to ask where anyone is, they make you out to be a liar saying there is no record anywhere of that appointment.
Finally got gas, then they shut it off after saying they were going to adjust our bill to waive the set up fees etc. Then two more missed appointments since then. No gas currently, told us we owe the full amount and will not get gas until it is paid.
I will not be paying, there is zero guarantee a technician will show up. I would gladly pay an old man to breath hot breath on my water heater before giving Texas Gas any money.
On top of all of this, they genuinely do not care. I have emailed their customer service department, with the VP of Ops on there too, no resolution.
Should also mention I am forced to use this company.

I would give this monopoly 2 stars if the website pay system would allow for a set date to autopay. Or at least for a one time payment. I can also say when I changed my bank, I was unable to set up the new account because i already had an account. I’ve not been threatened with disconnection (yet) but much like many of the other reviewers here, I have a bill I would like to set up payment for on a certain day. Why is that not available? I know Unilocal reviews of a utility company is pretty weird, and is ineffective, but I was compelled when I saw so many others have the same terrible experience with a terrible monopoly. I wish there was a choice.

Their website says they will give you notice PRIOR to turning off your service.
I received no notice, and you think this company would at least CALL before they disconnect your service, but they did not do that, either.
Instead, I came home and there was a notice on my door that they had come to turn off my service, and nothing else.
HORRENDOUS way to treat people! Horrible service no matter WHAT your business may be!
The final nail in the coffin was when they told me they would REFUND ME the B.S. $ 25.00 «service fee» they charged me to reconnect my gas, but they did not, so here I am posting this review as promised. (Think about that for a second. Say someone is struggling to pay their bill, which is why they are behind in the first place, and then they charge a fee that amounts to over half a month’s service on top of it! Incredibly cruel, isn’t it?! And no, they have no sympathy for unemployment, either.)
This company is a rather blatant and poorly behaved monopoly.

Dear Texas Gas Service please read my review below but also know I have filed a complaint against you to the following agency:
Gas utility service is regulated by the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC). Complaints about your gas service should be directed to the RRC.
Website:
Office of Public Assistance (toll-​free): 1−877−228−5740
You may write to the RRC:
Railroad Commission of Texas
P.O. Box 12 967
Austin, Texas 78 711−2967−−−−−−−
This company fails on so many levels, from their online processing to their face to face interactions. A). The online or by phone payment system SUCKS it’s inoperable and useless!
I dont trust these guys with my card number as I can only imagine what lame security they must have for cards just judging by their idiotic customer service. So I am left writing monthly checks to these jerks.
B). Recently they cut off a friends service (she’s a single mom with 3 small kids and money is tight) she had a bill of a little over $ 100.00 dollars they cut her off on a Wednesday, she payed the bill that day and was told they could not cut it on until MONDAY! Heartless, lazy, a_​_​holes
in my opinion.
Does the top executive Mr. Robert S. McAnnally realize what a sorry company he runs? Has he ever looked at all aspects of this business and done anything to improve it, at first glance NO, NO, NO… He’s lucky he runs a large company because in my opinion if he owned a small business he would be out of business, I promise you that.
His menions in the business Caron Lawhorn and Mr. Jim Jarrett are obviously no better at running a company because they are CLUELESS to their customers needs.
Dear Mr. McAnnally, Mrs. Lawhorn and Mr. Jarrett please don’t hold yourself out as equal to any executive in this country because you are not, you are running this company like the monopoly it is, and if you had to compete on any level all three of you would be fired on the spot because in my opinion you are horrible at your job. So when you are bragging to the neighbors or at the country club please don’t believe the lies you tell to yourself about your own business acumen, because I don’t believe there is an ounce in all three of you combined as it is obvious at every level of your business.
I leave you with this, treat your customers better because they deserve better than the way you three are running the company.
PS) — You are making the other hard working employees of this company look really bad with your non leadership.

From a customer service standpoint, Texas Gas Service belongs in Soviet Russia. Monopolist indifference at its finest. Thanks City of Austin!

I would give Texas Gas Service 0 stars if I could. I live in an apartment, and they refuse to go go the leasing office to get the key to service your apartment. They also refuse to work with you if you can’t be there for a portion of the day. They are rude and condescending if you cannot have someone there for the day. Basically, if you can’t abide fully by their terms, you are dirt to them. They truly do not care about their customers, and to try and pay your bill, you have to be transferred several times, and even getting a hold of them takes about 10 – 20 minutes before you can talk to anyone initially. And to try and schedule a visit… all said and done, it takes about 45 – 60 minutes, sometimes longer. Lousy customer service!

Meh. In the grand scheme of things and in fairness, Texas Gas Service is no better or worse or different than any other gas company anywhere else in the country. In other news, I have never lived in a place that had more than one choice for a service provider for gas and they are all about the same. Which of course is just pretty damned Brontosaurus brain slow stupid crossbred with a Velociraptor nasty attitude.
And of course they are not going to show up on time! They don’t care so just accept that they don’t care. Hire a house sitter/​gas service tech. watcher to let them in if that is what must be done. But also just be aware your hired helper may be back more than once and if it happens you may as well not even bother getting pissed off! You are wasting your valuable pissed off energy points so save them for the DMV or someplace where you at least have an audience!
But here is a little tip to bypass the idiocy of the phone system and the people who set appointments because they are incredibly inept at even understanding the product/​s they sell or even have available. DO request to speak to a service technician or service technician manager if you have a problem or you want to add an additional gas appliance to your residence or business. Unless of course you are a dumbass who doesn’t know nothin’ either so in that case don’t waste your time or theirs.
Here is another tip to get inside information if you cannot get a call returned to get a basic question answered– If you see a service tech somewhere in your hood just stop, say hello, introduce yourself and ask a few questions. I have gotten more direct information that way than ever calling into their mind numbingly slow system. And the real truth is that most of them don’t like the Texas Gas Service management anymore than you do so don’t take it out on them! ;-)
NOTE: If you don’t pay your bill and you get your gas cut off, then SHADDAPP !
because you can count on an already slow moving and confusing system causing even MORE problems in addition to the problem you already now have of your gas being turned off. The pain you will endure from trying to get your gas turned back on is TEN times the misery so be forwarned and DON’T let this happen because THEY DON’T CARE. You are wasting your time whining about it! Just like with all gas companies they LOVE to find any reason to turn off your gas so they can charge you an extra service fee if they can get away with it and even try to get a deposit.
So take it from your olé’ Unilocal buddy Madman! When dealing with Texas Gas Service, DO keep your expectations low to avoid an inevitable increase in your own blood pressure. Mmmkaaay? Cuz guess what? They couldn’t give three flyin’ shits if you have a stroke! PLEASE don’t act surprised by this information fellow Unilocalizens!
You can believe these people have seen more hissy fits, mental breakdowns, full blown ragin’ fit temper tantrums, popped forehead blood vessels, strokes, and massive heart attacks than most paramedics or hospital emergency room workers. They don’t have the cure because they bring the actual cause! And my suspicion is that they are damned proud of it too!

I live in an apartment. Every time someone else moves out of the building MY gas gets shut off! It has happened twice in one month so far! Don’t they train their technicians? Then when you call to complain that they made a mistake they show up and leave a note saying the meter was shut off! THANKS FOR STATING THE OBVIOUS GENIUS! But do they turn it back on? Nope! Apparently, I have to make an appointment for THAT too! So, not only have they interfered with my morning by not having any hot water for a shower, now I have to wait for them to come back again in the evening, because the first technician was too lazy to go to the office and have them let him into the apartment. They didn’t need to come in in order to shut the meter off, so why do they need to come in to turn it back on?! AND why can’t they get their meters straightened out so I don’t have to deal with this in another month when someone else moves out?! WHAT A TERRIBLE SERVICE! And this is how you treat your PAYING customers?! This is insane!

We had an appt and due to my wife and I both working were not going to be able to stay all day for an appointment time between 8am and 8pm. Because of this we set it up with our complex to let them into the unit and set it up. Simple right? Not so, the technician called my wife twice within 5 minutes and then, because she couldn’t answer her phone at work, left. They are going to be out at the complex working on another unit on the same day but will not even consider asking the technician to set our unit up while he is on site. If there was any other option outside of drilling my own gas well i would love to tell them to kick rocks. Monopoly= terrible service.

These people are all going to hell.

Note that Texas Gas Service is a monopoly regulated by the City of Austin. As such, they do not face any competition and thus do not have any incentives to provide good service (much like cable providers). You can file complaints about them with the regulatory agency. Via Austin’s utility complaint service website, this is the Railroad Commission of Texas via the form at the bottom of this page:
I set up auto-​payment on my account, and things were okay. Then after redoing our family budget, we decided to move gas payments to her side. Apparently, this was a mistake. There was some issue with the auto-​payment from her bank, which is a small one in New Hampshire, and they contacted her to let her know that this «sometimes happens» and so they need to do the transfers «by paper.» They then said they would mail her the forms, but then they never arrived.
We get a late notice with warning of impending disconnection. So I make a single payment on their site. For the next three months, bizarrely, my bill arrives saying, «Credit Balance — Do Not Pay.» I chalk it up to an accounting error on their part that they’ve corrected, somewhat annoyed that I’ve essentially prepaid for several months of gas.
The last one of these I get is in August 21, with a credit balance of $ 10.79. On September 22, I get another «DISCONNECT NOTICE» saying service will be turned off on October 1^st. This time, I’d kept the August statement, so I call them up. Turns out there’s a pending payment from my wife’s account since February that’s still pending, and they can’t figure out why. I tell them of the disconnect date and whether they will delay it because this is an issue on their end. They merely say the actual disconnect date is October 2^nd.
I made the last payment and asked them to switch back to an account that worked before, one that was already in their system, but they said all they could do was cancel the exist one, and I had to go on the website to enroll the original account again. I told them the website said to call the number, but the representative reiterated the information.
As of the 27^th, the website would not let me enroll because it says I already am and to call the number. And I get another notice in the mail from them that says, «Do Not Pay» due to a credit balance of $ 13.74. Yeah, not at all reminiscent of the Keystone Cops.
We’ll probably get this settled before it turns off, but suffice to say that this is a pretty sad level of service and professionalism.

I don’t write reviews often, but when I do, they were either exceptional or so poor that I felt an obligation to inform the public. I regret to inform this is latter.
I set up auto-​payment with the company so that I wouldn’t have to worry about service. For some reason, while I am reasonably competent, my auto-​payment registration was not accepted. Upon receiving mail correspondences, I logged back in and attempted to correct the issue. Again, it was rejected without any feedback other than mail.
Special Note: This is not a matter of a hundred something dollars in my bank account. It is an issue of their internal systems, processes, and controls being worse fracking next to a public pool.
Without any warning other than random mail (which most americans under 30 don’t check often), my service was shut off. I took a cold shower this morning and will again tomorrow.
It was during that cold shower that I realized how much I hate monopolies that are utility companies. I’ve called them, talked to them, and… unfortunately, the only way for me to not take a cold shower in the future is to have to deal with their poor sociopathic like customer service.

This company is unable to keep appointments. I made an 8am to 12pm appointment. At 12pm, they informed me that it will be sometime today. I only work 25 minutes away from home, but they are unable to call me 25 minutes ahead of time. It’s more efficient for them if I use a vacation day, and stay at home all day waiting. Don’t trust their appointment times. If possible, try to schedule appointments with them on a day where you don’t have to use vacation, and a day you were going to be home anyway.
Once they started working at 1pm, then the job took 2 hours and was a huge help by installing a new gas shut-​off valve and new gas meter, which makes the house a lot safer for emergencies and installing gas appliances.

This company is a monopoly empowered by the City of Austin. As such, they are constrained on jacking up the rates to increase their profit.
So, how does this privately-​owned company get rich? Reduce expenses.
The first way they can reduce expenses is invisible to the consumers: sourcing cheap natural gas. The market for natural gas is priced cheaper today than it was ten years ago. Consumers don’t see this price drop on their bill. More profit for Texas Gas Service!
The largest opportunity TGS has for enriching itself is minimizing operational expenses. This means they staff as thinly as possible without violating the service levels they are contractually obligated to provide per the City of Austin. If you look at all the one-​star reviews here for Texas Gas Service, all of these complaints can be traced to skimping on service. They outsource the disconnection of gas because there’s little liability in having a third-​party contractor shutting off gas. The main rub is that turning the gas back on carries potential for disaster, so only trained employees of Texas Gas Service are sent in the field for this task. Per the company’s intent of minimizing expenses, the headcount for field technicians is kept low. They run a waiting list of a week or more for turning the gas on so their staff are kept at 100% utilization.
How can City of Austin provide better oversight on this monopoly? Next time their contract with the city is up for renewal, a clause could be added that customer satisfaction must be maintained above 80% lest they receive a financial penalty. This satisfaction could be measured by surveys sent out to existing customers.

I would give a zero if I could. I live in an apartment complex, gas is obviously leaking when I get home from the grocery store, so I call. The first call was a ringing phone, no voicemail, no prompting. After the phone cut me off, I called and spent 10 min on hold, was answered by an extremely rude agent who then hung up on me. When I calledd back, I got the same agent who rudely informed me I should not be on my phone with a gas leak (the out of town area code should have given it away that it was a cell number. And I told her as much 3 times during the previous interaction). When I inquired about a possible wait time or if there were several service requests in front of mine she rudely informed me all emergency calls are responded to ASAP. Still no hint of time frame.
She also had a bad connection BOTH times I spoke to her which involved multiple interruptions in a condescending tone. I would not call your emergency line if I did not need to. It’s (almost) enough to make me on win not cooking and cold showers. Almost. TGS– you are terrible.

I called to cancel my gas service a couple of months ago. I was a little disappointed that it was going to take them a couple of weeks to change over the meter, but I decided I’d just suck it up and pay the new tenants first week or so of gas.
The real infuriating part was looking up a month after the last bill was paid and realizing I was never refunded my deposit. I called asking when it would be credited back to my account, and they told me they would be sending a check.
Now what would make sense to me is for them to just refund my deposit to my bank account since that’s how I paid the bills. I assumed that’s how they were going to do it, because they never asked me where to send the check to. It wasn’t even brought it up when I was canceling the service.
I asked them where exactly there were sending this check, and they said they had no idea. The check had been printed, but there was no address. The woman I got on the line indicated that it was sitting like this for a few weeks. I wonder how many customers of Texas Gas Service have un-​claimed deposit checks just sitting unaddressed in their office, while some intern periodically shreds them as the legal window for customers to claim it passes.
But what really knocked this review down to one star is the representative tell me to expect the deposit back in 4 to 6 weeks. That is completely unacceptable to me. If I told them that I would get their payment to them in four to six weeks, they would have charged me late fees or cancelled my service. It doesn’t take that long to process and send anything… especially since it has already been printed.
I really wish they were as efficient at giving my deposit back to me as they were at taking my money from me. Shady monopoly business at its’ finest.

Initially made contact via the web on ⁷⁄₃₀ for service activation appointment available ⁸⁄₅. No confirmation was given, no follow up occurred, appointment remained unfulfilled. Later found out (in the context of ⁸⁄₇ forced reschedule) that initial request wasn’t received until ⁷⁄₃₁. Processing is slow for an already obviously understaffed company.
After realizing ⁸⁄₅ would end without activation/​service transfer, called on ⁸⁄₆ to schedule activation for ⁸⁄₇. On ⁸⁄₇ service tech called twice, but phone calls were missed. Tech left voicemail to inform us that we would be skipped and would have to reschedule. We were awaiting the call and were home.
I Called Texas Gas back within 15 minutes of the second missed called and while the one policy disclosed was aligned with what had happened, I was taken aback by the wholly unapologetic tone from the customer service rep. Without any concern for the lack of hot water or operable stove she proceeded to force feed me the policy notes, while informing me that we would not be able to get service before ⁸⁄₁₂.
Now, again this would have been fine if we had made the mistake, but my wife was told on ⁸⁄₆ that if we weren’t home when the tech arrived that our door would be «tagged» and that we would be charged a fee for the service tech’s trip. That is not something that you can’t imagine.
Long story short, after more than 45 angry minutes of discussion, with 2 separate reps and on 2 separate calls, Texas Gas proved that they are a company that is undesirable to work with. The first rep — at my request — provided me the contact info of an alternate Gas company without informing me that they have a contract (and in effect a monopoly) to service the area where I live. Furthermore, before reaching a resolution that got the activation appointment moved to ⁸⁄₈ instead of ⁸⁄₁₂ their office had to review the recording of the call on which my wife made the request! That’s just outrageous. They have infrastructure and resources to review recorded conversations for the purpose of making customer service decisions, but are uninterested in allocating resources to better serve their customers. Here’s to hoping the BBB can motivate Texas Gas to be a little better.

I have to agree with the masses… terrible.
If we had a choice I’d be elsewhere right now. We’ve gone a week without hot water and the tech was supposed to come out yesterday. I chose the «call me 30 minutes ahead» option so that I could make sure I’d be home. At 9:03 the tech called and unfortunately it went straight to voicemail. He told me this was my 30 minute heads up and that I’d get one more call 5 minutes prior to his arrival. If I didn’t answer that second call then my appointment would be cancelled. What? I wasn’t informed of that. I put my ringer on extra high and made sure the phone was right by my side. I got another call FIVE MINUTES LATER that also went straight to voicemail and he cancelled my appointment immediately. I called Texas Gas within 30 seconds of receiving the second call but the appointment was already out of the system so there was «nothing they could do». I was l-​i-​v-​i-​d.
Nowhere in my conversation was I informed that my appointment would be cancelled by selecting that option. Furthermore, how hard would it have been to send the tech back to my house? He couldn’t have been more than a stone’s throw away by the time I reached Texas Gas. Seriously, not that hard. Also, I didn’t ever get an ADEQUATE heads up. I got a five minute heads up and then a cancellation. That’s unacceptable.

Incompetent employees. Not only are they not sure how to answer simple questions, but then they are short & rude about it. Yay, just what I expect when I pay for a service. NOT! They charge for you to pay your bill, unless you mail it, but you better get it there well before the due date, or it will be considered late, even if it’s postmarked prior to the due date. They refuse to work with people & their deposits. If I had a choice, I would use another company… Too bad they have a monopoly on Austin.

Worst service ever. I called in to start new service and all they had was a date 10 days after. I told them that I had a kid and its difficult to live in a house with no gas but that didn’t help at all and the representative just apologized for the time it would take. Anyways, on the tenth day, I get two missed calls within 5 minutes of each other at 11.09 and 11.14 AM while I’m taking a shower and when I get back and hear the voice message, its the gas technician asking me to reschedule since I didn’t pick up the phone. Ridiculous.
I called back Texas gas service immediately and they gave me another date since I was unable to pick the phone within that 5 minute window. They expect us to wait 10 days to get the service started in our house but their technicians cannot wait for 10 minutes. They operate in a monopoly and can do whatever they like. Absolutely unacceptable.