Amerigas Found A Leak At My Sick Grandma’s House, Capped The Tank, And Now Won’t Come Back Until January 8th (unless We Pay $$$) – Is This Even Legal/are We Completely At Their Mercy?

Edited: This is in Greenville, South Carolina

I’m hoping someone out there with more experience can help me figure out what is going on, because I’m completely new to all of this. I don’t have any HVAC or propane background, but the situation just seems insane—especially considering my relatives are both sick with influenza A and B, and have no heat in the middle of winter.

Here’s the rundown:

A couple of weeks ago, my aunt tried turning on their furnace (it runs on propane through AmeriGas). The furnace wouldn’t kick on, so they called AmeriGas, thinking maybe they were out of propane. AmeriGas told them one tank was full, so the problem had to be the furnace. We got an HVAC tech out, and he suspected the old burners. We waited two weeks for the parts to show up, but once they arrived, the technician changed his mind and said the real issue was that barely any propane was reaching the furnace.

By this point, everyone in the house had caught the flu, so I stepped in to help. I called AmeriGas and spent about an hour and a half on the phone to get an “emergency” propane fill. A tech came out late that same night, filled the tanks, and then discovered there was a gas leak. Instead of just shutting off the valve, he capped the tanks—I’m told this is different than just closing them—then said someone would be by in a few hours to fix the leak.

Well, the next morning my aunt calls me freaking out because nobody came. We’re about to get hit with 20-degree days, and it’s already in the 50s. I made three separate calls to AmeriGas, each close to an hour long, to figure out what on earth is happening. Eventually they told me that the HVAC company needs to fix the line before they’ll do anything. In the middle of those calls, an AmeriGas technician apparently called my aunt and said that the earliest appointment they had was next week, or she could pay a $500 fee for same-day service, apparently this message was delivered with an extreme lack of empathy and possibly a bit of malice, maybe because I was hogging their emergency line. She hung up out of frustration, exhaustion ect.

Now we’re looking at running a brand-new line from the furnace to the propane tanks, which we’re waiting on a quote for (should happen this Monday). But the biggest kicker? AmeriGas is refusing to come back out and remove their cap until January 8th, because that’s apparently the earliest they can schedule a technician—and they’re charging my aunt $120 just to take off the cap. It also sounds like there might be another charge for them putting it on in the first place.

Honestly, I’m floored. Are they even allowed to leave old folks with no heat like this, especially when they’re sick? Don’t they have some kind of emergency liability if they find a leak? I get that safety is priority, but it feels like they’re holding my grandma hostage until we pay a bunch of fees or wait nearly two weeks in the freezing cold. Does anyone have advice on what to do here or know if there’s any legal recourse? I feel like they’re taking advantage of people who are already down on their luck. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!