Centex said it has reimbursed 170 customers for vehicle repairs as of Wednesday, a month after the Bearspaw gas station was shut down due to a ruptured tank.
“We have diligently compensated and continue to compensate all the customers that have been affected,” said Badru Laiwalla, Centex’s vice-president of operations, in an email Wednesday.
The company said it has made payments to dealerships that have been repairing affected vehicles for customers who couldn’t afford to pay up front and wait for reimbursement.
For other customers, Centex said repair payments have been made directly to the customers after they submitted the invoices to the company.
“We are diligently processing payments as the vehicles are repaired and we receive invoices with paid receipts for reimbursement,” Laiwalla said.
“In a few cases, customers have asked for reimbursement without invoices. As you may appreciate, we have informed them we are unable to process payment without proper documentation and we will quickly process payments as soon as we receive the repair invoices.”
The gas stopped pumping at the Bearspaw Centex station on Jul. 19 when customers complained of car trouble after buying regular gas there.
Centex said there was a defect in the new fiberglass fuel tank — a rupture that caused a leak.
“The tanks have two fiberglass walls, the space in between the walls is filled with an interstitial liquid,” Laiwalla said. “If the liquid level goes down then you know you have a leak. Unfortunately, there was a rupture in the inside wall of the new tank and the interstitial liquid contaminated the fuel.”
“This was not caused by bad gas. It was a mechanical defect in the tank.”
Centex said it’s taking legal action against the tank manufacturer, ZCL Composites.