Indane LPG refill booking system crashes after calls surge 8-10 times

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• Indane's LPG booking system crashed from 8-10x call surge
• Domestic cylinder supply cut by 50% due to high demand
• Customers advised to book via alternate channels and off-peak times

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Indane’s LPG refill booking system across the country has crashed after call volumes surged to 8-10 times the usual levels, sources told Moneycontrol.

In an internal communication to dealers, accessed by Moneycontrol, Indane said: “We are currently facing an unprecedented situation. As informed earlier, the number of calls we are receiving for LPG refill booking on our IVRS and missed call numbers has increased significantly and is now 8–10 times higher than the usual volume.”

Indane, the LPG brand of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), provides household cooking gas services to over 15 crore kitchens across India.

The government has recently increased the minimum waiting period for booking a domestic LPG cylinder refill to 25 days from 21 days.

Also, read: Iran war: OMCs ask LPG distributors to supply commercial cylinders only to hospitals, educational institutions

However, Indane said there is no technical restriction at the telecom network level to prevent customers from attempting to book a refill within 25 days of the last delivery. “As a result, every call made by customers is reaching the IVRS and missed call booking applications,” it said.

“Due to this sudden and very high call traffic, the entire system is coming under heavy load, which is sometimes causing difficulty for customers to connect to the IVRS and missed call booking numbers,” it added.

Meanwhile, consumers unable to book refills through the system are thronging distributor offices, leading to chaos. “The vendor invoice management system is also down. In addition to this, supply of domestic cylinders has reduced by 50 percent while demand has increased by 50 percent. Customers cannot book refills, so they are coming to our offices and creating trouble,” a distributor in Bengaluru said.

An Indane customer in Ramamurthy Nagar told Moneycontrol: “Earlier, I could get a cylinder within one or two days, but now even after a week of booking there is no cylinder. So I came here to get the receipt and plan to go to the godown to collect the cylinder, as we cannot live without it.”

The company said several steps have been taken to improve the situation, including increasing system capacity and reducing the number of audio prompts so customers can complete the booking process faster. “However, because of the ongoing panic and repeated booking attempts by customers, the system continues to experience tremendous pressure,” it said.

For now, the company has urged consumers to use alternate booking channels such as WhatsApp booking, IndianOil ONE mobile app, customer portal (indianoil.in), and BBPS platforms such as Amazon Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm.

Indane also advised customers to try booking during off-peak hours, preferably after 6 pm when the system load is relatively lower.

The company added that the system enters a non-business hour processing cycle after 10 pm every day. “All booking requests received between 10 pm and 6 am are processed after 6 am the next day, and confirmation messages are then sent to customers. Distributors are therefore requested to inform and guide customers who visit or contact the distributorship about the current situation and advise them to use alternate booking channels or attempt booking during non-peak hours,” the communication said.