Several frustrated customers affected by bad gas sold at the Bearspaw Centex gas station in July are now considering legal recourse against the company for the financial strain and emotional stress it has caused. On July 19, the Bearspaw Centex (not Bearspaw Gas in Morley) shut its doors after multiple complaints of faulty gas caused cars to work slowly or not at all. The cause was said to be from a defective tank which the gas was stored in. James Niblock spearheaded a group initiative to explore legal action, and while nothing has been filed yet, he said he hopes to explore all options. Niblock, who incurred a bill for $1,000 and has been repaid by Centex, said part of the reason he wants to explore legal options comes down to the principle of it. “The way that they’ve been dealing with people ...They seem to be not paying people the full amount of their claims and lots of people now haven’t been paid for (a month).” However, his 2016 Town and Country Chrysler is still acting up and he worries he will have major bills in the future. “Three weeks on and the engine light is coming on quite a lot and the engine is losing power. We paid $40,000 for the vehicle and it’s not in a driveable state, the engine keeps clopping out. I have to put a fuel injector cleaner into the fuel quite regularly to kind of clean the injectors out,” he said. “Even though it’s working just about, it’s going to be what’s going to happen next year or the year after because the vehicle is damaged.” Several other fed up Centex customers are considering hopping on board the potential legal movement. Harpreet Sandha said she has had to pay $4,078 out of pocket and only around $2,900 has been paid back to them by Centex. A portion of her expenses came from getting a car rental and getting a taxi to work on the day she filled up because her car broke down. Meanwhile, her husband had to work from home that day since the couple shares one vehicle. “I don’t understand why I’m still short about $1,100,” Sandha said, who now worries she won’t be repaid the rest because she was told Centex would only cover the damage to her car. “All expenses I incurred were directly related to the bad gas. I would not have incurred any of these costs had I not filled up at (Centex) station,” she said. “It’s such unnecessary stress and costs that I have to carry that affects your credit later on down the road as well.” Ryan McKay said his bill has come close to $5,700, some of which came from more than $300 of towing from his Monterra home to his Crowfoot dealership in Calgary. McKay has not yet been repaid. “I talked to them on the phone, I emailed them my original gas receipt, they said well you need to send us the repair bill saying it was bad fuel that did the damage. We need to see a copy of your bank records, the original gas receipt. I sent that off to them and I’ve heard nothing back,” he said. “I emailed them a few other times since then just asking if they’ve received my stuff or asking when I was going to be paid and I have heard nothing.” He said a number of problems cropped up in his nearly brand new Chrysler 300 including a fried fuel pump, fuel injectors, plugs and fuel sensors. The Chrysler dealership warned McKay that the warranty on his vehicle, which only has roughly 8,000 km on it, might be void due to the damage caused by the bad gas. “Because my insurance didn’t get a chance to do an adjustment on it to actually look at it, now I can’t claim it through my insurance if Centex decides not to pay me,” McKay said. “I still continue to have problems with it, my car will sputter once in a while, there’s been a couple times where it almost wouldn’t start, it just turned over and over and eventually started, which should not happen. I’ve dealt with Chrysler again – I’m just a little gun shy to take it in and get it re-looked at it because my bill is almost $6,000,” he said. “It’s all out of my pocket.” Centex is pursuing legal action against the tank manufacturers according to an email statement sent to the Cochrane Eagle by Centex management. As well, the management confirmed they have reimbursed 170 customers to date. “We are diligently processing payments as the vehicles are repaired and we receive invoices with paid receipts for reimbursement. In a few cases customers have asked for reimbursement without invoices ... we are unable to process payment without proper documentation and we will quickly process payments as soon as we receive the repair invoices,” read the email. We stopped selling fuel as soon as we found out about the leak but it is a very busy site.” The company also reiterated that the gas supplied to Centex is not affected.
