Where Can I Get a Propane Tank Refilled?
This is the story about how the idea for WhereInDE developed.
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I needed to get my propane tanks refilled. I use propane tanks for my BBQ grill and for a portable heater used in my garage. Why not exchange the tanks, you might ask? Well, long story short, my dad is in the propane business and he strongly recommends refilling rather than replacing.
To begin my quest, I tried to find a local propane tank filling station by googling that term. Then I tried adding Wilmington, DE to the search. Then I tried several other possible search terms. The result? Well, nothing – at least nothing useful. I got search results all over the place, not just in North Wilmington, as I wanted, and there were many bogus results for local gas and service stations – some of which I knew did not refill propane tanks.
Annoyed – I turned to my 350+ Facebook friends, and my network of 300+ Twitter followers, and ask, “Where can I get my propane tank refilled (not exchanged) in N. Wilmington?” Within 20-30 minutes, I received 4 responses, of which two were not in N. Wilmington, as I had requested. The third, technically, was in N. Wilmington, but was still further than I wanted to travel. And the fourth was a winner.
The point? I spent probably 20-30 minutes screwing around on the computer trying to find the right answer and couldn’t. I engaged my social network, and got a positive result reasonably quickly. But my social network is bigger than a lot of people out there.
What if there was a way to engage an even larger social network, and someone else filtered out the irrelevant responses? That’s the purpose of WhereInDE.com.
I hope you find it useful, contribute to the community, and provide feedback on how to make it better.
-Phil Woods
p.s. I got my propane tanks refilled at the U-Haul on Gov. Printz Blvd, in Wilmington. They charged per gallon, rather than flat rate, so it ended up being just $12-$13 per tank. Plus they gave me a sticker to put on my tank that gets me $1 off subsequent refills. Awesome!
[...] tells the story of how I came up with the idea of WhereInDE.com – and answers the question Where can I get a propane tank refilled? In third place for most visits was a surprise to me. I had no idea people were so interested in [...]