Menu
Login
I ran out of gas late on a sunday afternoon, so I went to a blue rhino site, paid 22 dollars for the propane and an 18 dollar deposit for the cylinder. Now I want to return the cylinder because only Blue Rhino can fill it and I have my own cylinder and I'm told "that's not how that works" and the dealer will not refund me my 18 dollars although I will no longer be using Blue Rhino. Seems I purchased a tank from Blue Rhino that only they can fill. It says right on the cylinder that no one else should fill it. They totally suck!
Yup, Blue Rhino is totally a scam. Any other service where you pay extra up front for the container, it's reasonably assumed that it's a deposit, and that they will return the deposit when you return an empty container. But not Blue Rhino. They dupe you into thinking it's a deposit, but only buried way at the bottom of the hard to find FAQ page on their website it indicates that it is not a deposit. So when you go to return an empty, they say they'll happily take it back in an exchange for a full tank, or they'll take it back empty for free. But you say that you paid an extra $30 for the tank? Tough... exchange or nothing. To make matters worse, when you go asking around about this seemingly crazy situation, everyone (in person and on most online forums) treats you like you stole some tanks and are trying to get cash for them. Nice way to treat your customers. So what if you bought a few extra tanks for a big event... or you are moving and the movers can't take the tank? You're SOL. And all this doesn't even get into the scandal where the FTC accused them of colluding to reduce the amount of gas in the cans while keeping the price the same. Stay away from Blue Rhino, in vest in your own tank, and get it filled somewhere local where they know how to treat a customer right.
Yes they do suck. They are obviosly trying to pigeon hole their customers from going anywhere else. Which I would be OK with if I didn't feel like I was being ripped off. My experience has been their tanks are under filled by about 3 lbs and the last time I used them (and I do mean last time) it took 3 tanks before I found one that functioned (1st one leaked because of a bad rubber gasket and the 2nd had defective valve which wouldn't open). And all I get for customer service is a minimum wage worker from a giant hardware chain store saying "I'm sorry".