Leak in house pipe

[Miv]

I have a small three family ranch. My tenant called the gas company saying he smelt gas. They came and put a sniffer under the crawl space behind the stove. They then did a test on the meter and said it failed. They closed the gas off and said there was a leak on the main pipe. The next day I got a call from my tenant in 3rd apartment saying he had no hot water. It appears his hot water heater is tied to the 1st apartments line, I checked under the crawl space.

I thought that in order to do a test on the meter, all the appliances had to be turned off. I was hoping that the test the gas company did on the 1st apartment meter was not correct because the hotwater heater in the 3rd apartment was running. Would this be true? What should I do? Thank You.

 

[user 4883]

call the gas company, explain to them what you found and ask them to come back and do a retest with ALL gas appliances turned off.

 

[Miv]

Thank you for your help.

 

[havasu]

I'm confused. If a tenant smelled gas (like from an appliance) they were correct in contacting the gas company because it is a free service they offer. He puts his sniffer behind the appliance and the machine lights up, indicating there is in fact a gas leak. So instead of helping the customer out and correcting the problem (most likely a loosened gas fitting), he shuts down all gas from the meter? That is bad customer service, plain and simple.

Just two days ago, my wife smelled gas in our kitchen and I instructed her to call the gas company, because I was too busy to come home to help. Within two hours, the service man was at my door, put his sniffer to use, and found a loose fitting below our oven. He coated the threads with Rectorseal # 5, and tightened it up. Problem was done, but he wasn't. He inspected my oven, found a loose thermostat, replaced it, and went on to inspect all my appliances, making certain all the fittings were leak free.

That my friends, is what customer service is all about! And before you can ask me, I already have a nice thank you letter (attaboy letter) which we will be sending to our gas company!