A three-person team of islanders who are leading a local response to serious and ongoing customer complaints against the propane provider, AmeriGas, have reported some headway in their quest to improve the company’s service on Vashon.

On Jan. 4, the trio of activists — Joan Wortis, Pamela de Ryss and Neil Weisblott — convened a meeting of AmeriGas users on Vashon, in an effort to help forge a collective response in terms of their options going forward with the company.

The meeting was unexpectedly attended by Robert Davis, the director of Northwest Operations for AmeriGas, who pledged to personally oversee solutions to some of the complaints made by islanders, which included weeks-long delays with the delivery of propane and other serious customer service issues.

Since that time, Wortis, de Ryss and Weisblott have additionally corresponded and met with Davis and another AmeriGas manager, Bruce Warren.

These meetings, Wortis said, have yielded results — including the hire of an additional driver on Vashon, and an assurance that AmeriGas’s holding tank on Vashon will remain full.

The company has also provided a second working truck, and now has plans to hire four additional backup drivers to support the work currently being done by the island’s one AmeriGas driver, who Wortis called “heroic.”

However, Wortis said that additional, systemic problems with the company have yet to be resolved.

These include its lack of transparency in pricing, its often-inaccurate online account data interface, and its opaque escalation process for unresolved issues.

For the short term, Wortis and her colleagues advised island customers to contact the company’s customer service director, Brilynn Johnson, by emailing brilynn.johnson@amerigas.com or calling 916-216-7715.

“She has been helpful to several customers,” said Wortis.

Wortis also urged local AmeriGas customers to continue to provide her team with information about their experience with the company, by emailing changagas@gmail.com.