Getting ripped off at the pump

[bmg88201]

5qts of diesle=1.25 gallons here in the states ,not 2.5gals

I filled up two 5 qt jugs, that’s 10 qt’s which equals 2.5 gallons.

 

[bmg88201]

Oh. The price is displayed on the pump along with the amount dispensed. How did you not notice?

I didn’t notice till I got home, I was in a hurry. Then I got to thinking, hey that was a lot of money for 2.5 gallons. The guy from the state told me it is very difficult to change the pump to pump an inaccurate amount of fuel but all it takes is a few clicks on a key board to change the price per gallon at the pump. The station said that corporate sets the price remotely and was keyed in with the wrong price. But hey those people working in there ring up fuel all day long, they should have noticed that huge a price increase all the while their sign says $4.79 and the pump was charging $7.55.

 

[Oaktree]

I do wonder how independents can underprice the majors and keep doors open?

The beautiful Shell station off the freeway is consistently 60 to 65 cents a gallon highe than both independents within 2 blocks which always requiring jockeying to fill up because non stop they are that busy where almost never a car at the flagship Shell.

Can't say I've seen significantly lower prices at independent stations vs the chains, in fact they're likely as not to be slightly higher. Certainly nothing like what you mentioned...maybe 4 or 5¢/gallon, but at today's prices hardly worth going out of your way for.
The independents might be a little slower to increase prices, but I'm guessing they just sell less and wait 'til the next delivery to adjust prices as opposed to corporate adjusting prices daily.

Around here Irving usually has the best price, but again, it's only pennies a gallon.

 

[ultrarunner]

Fortunate no need to go out if my way but getting in and out to the pump can be a challenge...

One of the gad tracking sites had the stations listed and word has got out.

60 cents buying 20 gallons is $12

 

[oldpilot]

I went to a station and got two 5 qt jugs of diesel which comes to 2.5 gallons. I paid and left but then realized I had paid way more than the sign said which was $4.79 per gallon. I paid $18.89 for 2.5 gallons. Divide 2.5 into $18.89 = $7.55 per gallon.

Well, what was the date, and what was the state?

The local Irving station charges $4.99/gal for diesel according to Gasbuddy today (NH Apr 25).

 

[rScotty]

Well, what was the date, and what was the state?

Look at message #1.

 

[JasperFrank]

You got ripped off, when the truck you bought got 18 miles to the gallon.

 

[Tony H]

It’s got nothing to do with the accuracy of amount of fuel being pumped but the price gouging that happened. The sign was $4.79 and the pump charged me $7.55. It was at a ConocoPhillips station in my town. The fella from the state said he made them print all the diesel tickets for the last 48 hours and some of them were $300 -$400.

Too bad The State put the $30K in their pocket and didn't, at least, give you what you were owed.

 

[bmg88201]

Too bad The State put the $30K in their pocket and didn't, at least, give you what you were owed.

It’s not worth it to me to go in that station and try to get my money back, what they owe me is only about $8 since I only got a small amount of fuel. I won’t go in there again, ever. But I feel for the ones who spent hundreds and probably still don’t know they got ripped off. But I was very impressed with the representative from Weights & Measures Dept. He followed up on my complaint quickly and spent time telling me what the station did wrong and what he did to stop it. Someone asked where this was, it was in Quitman AR.

 

[mo1]

Oh. The price is displayed on the pump along with the amount dispensed. How did you not notice?

Not all pumps have a price per gallon or even a total sale display on them. A company that is one of the largest bulk fuel and propane suppliers in the state has a large number of unattended card swipe stations in my state. I buy red diesel for my tractor at a pump at one of these stations. The pumps they use for these are all mechanical pumps with just a meter for volume dispensed. The price per gallon is only listed at the little card swipe kiosk where you swipe your card before going to the pump and pumping the fuel.

I read an article years ago that most federal testing was done by pumping 5 gallons of fuel into a precisely marked container so some stations figured a way to make it pump the correct amount up to 5 gallons then it pumped slightly less each gallon afterwards.

At least here in Missouri the state handles verifying that fuel pumps dispense fuel accurately. I have seen the state's Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures Division trucks several times and got a good look at one once. They have pickup trucks with three tanks in the bed with what look like giant metal Ehrlenmeyer flasks. The tanks have a float mechanism pushing up a metal ruler to give a precise volume of fuel dispensed. They look to be somewhere between about 3 and 5 gallons in size.

I have only ever seen two pumps that failed weights and measures certification. One was here in Missouri, it had the plastic bags over the nozzles and had a note taped to the pump saying it was out of service due to weights and measures. The other was in Nebraska, it had a sticker from the weights and measures division stating it was out of service due to inaccuracy. In both cases the gas station had several pumps but only one had failed testing.

Most pumps are computerized pumps and it would be easy to give a variably inaccurate reading on the display vs. what has actually been dispensed. One would just need to alter the programming in the computer, and it could very easily be something like "until gallons = 5, display gallons = actual; then display gallons = actual * 1.5" to shortchange a customer.