Wrong Reading on Petrol Pump

[phumy]

Anyone offer any help please, my son this morning went into a petrol station to buy some petrol, he takes the nozzle from the pump, puts it in the filler in his car and presses the trigger to reset the pump, it took ages so presses again and notices it zero'd then immediately went to 20.01 pounds, so he didnt press any more but tried to attract the attention of the till operator. He couldnt get their attention so put the nozzle back in the holster and went it to the shop to tell the till operator, he gets in there and the till operator says, youve had 20.01 pounds worth you must pay. My lad insisted he hasnt had any fuel and explains what happened, the till monkey says youve had it you must pay or i shall put it into the hands of the Police. My son, very worried by all of this thought, well ive done nothing wrong, so gave the operator all of his details, address and reg number of car and left the garage. He has since had a call from the garage manager and he is saying saying they have looked at the CCTV and has said he has taken fuel and will be contacting the Police. Ive told my son to get hold of the CCTV footage and to ask for any calibration certificates of the pump he used. Is there anything else we should be looking at getting as i know my son is not a liar and didnt take the fuel, do they take the fuel tank readings and pump reading at the end of each shift/day? This should tally everything up and show any discrepancy or not.

The odd thing is my son asked the till operator how much was charged by the person who used the pump before him, guess what..... it was 20.01 pounds, he told the till operator thats one hell of a coincidence to be exactly the same as the last person, and was told, "no it happens all the time".

Any help appreciated..

[tribbles]

I had that happen to me - I complained to the shop assistant (who eventually gave me a form to fill in), and while I had to pay for the petrol I hadn't used, I did get a refund a couple of weeks later.

[marshalla]

Get Trading Standards involved - they are responsible for checking calibration and correct operation of pumps.

[screem]

Tell the police exactly what youve told us.

Im sure the cctv will show how long the nozzle was in his car and will prove that it was physically impossible (based on pump volume ltrs per minute), that your son took £20.01

HTH

[phumy]

He wasnt told about any forms to fill, just that the Police will be notified and that they will be in touch. I have mentioned to him to inform the Police in advance, not sure if he has done this yet, would that be advisable do you think?

[screem]

phumy said:

He wasnt told about any forms to fill, just that the Police will be notified and that they will be in touch. I have mentioned to him to inform the Police in advance, not sure if he has done this yet, would that be advisable do you think?

Cant do any harm.
just dont ring 999 !!!

[Dan_The_Man]

Just a thought, he went there to fill up with petrol, did he actually get any ? would be a bit strange to drive away without filling up, especially if you went there specifically to fill up.

[phumy]

Dan_The_Man said:

Just a thought, he went there to fill up with petrol, did he actually get any ? would be a bit strange to drive away without filling up, especially if you went there specifically to fill up.

No he didnt put any in he went elsehwere, would you carry on shopping in a shop who had just accused you of stealing from them and so adamant that you did too?

No i didnt think you would, nor would I!!

[Storm 911]

I had a similar situation with Tescos (charged for fuel I didn't have). I complained, they tested the pump and found it to be faulty. They couldn't issue a refund at the time as some fuel had gone in, and told me to take it up with the manager on the Monday.

Manager refused to help, despite more fuel going in my car than physically possible and the test proving the pump was faulty.

Contacted head office, who also refused to help and advised me to contact a lawyer if I wanted to take this further.

Nice going Tescos. As I estimate I was down about £20/30 I didn't bother trying to take them to court. Stupid situation.

[Kevin VRs]

phumy said:

Anyone offer any help please, my son this morning went into a petrol station to buy some petrol, he takes the nozzle from the pump, puts it in the filler in his car and presses the trigger to reset the pump, it took ages so presses again and notices it zero'd then immediately went to 20.01 pounds, so he didnt press any more but tried to attract the attention of the till operator.

Just a point for future reference, squeezing the trigger does not reset the pump. The sequence is:
Take out nozzle - this notifies cashier of request to use pump
Cashier activates pump - this starts the pump motor
Squeeeze trigger - fuel passes

I always wait for the display to zero before squeezing the trigger to confirm it has reset.

It is possible that the display had a time delay before zeroing, whilst he was pumping fuel, however £20 is rather much for that. What is the reading on his fuel gauge compared with going into the garage?

[phumy]

Kevin VRs said:

phumy said:

Anyone offer any help please, my son this morning went into a petrol station to buy some petrol, he takes the nozzle from the pump, puts it in the filler in his car and presses the trigger to reset the pump, it took ages so presses again and notices it zero'd then immediately went to 20.01 pounds, so he didnt press any more but tried to attract the attention of the till operator.

Just a point for future reference, squeezing the trigger does not reset the pump. The sequence is:
Take out nozzle - this notifies cashier of request to use pump
Cashier activates pump - this starts the pump motor
Squeeeze trigger - fuel passes

I always wait for the display to zero before squeezing the trigger to confirm it has reset.

It is possible that the display had a time delay before zeroing, whilst he was pumping fuel, however £20 is rather much for that. What is the reading on his fuel gauge compared with going into the garage?

His fuel gauge was the same coming out of the garage as he went in, as no fuel had passed the nozzle into his tank, in fact you can normally tell when fuel goes in as the fuel lines pressurise...he categorically says that nothing went in.

[jazzyjeff]

Storm 911 said:

Nice going Tescos. As I estimate I was down about £20/30 I didn't bother trying to take them to court. Stupid situation.

Understandable - but worth pursuing on principle.

My father has had at least two run-ins with Tescos (not regarding petrol, admittedly) and they refused to co-operate. They did however in each case settle just before the court hearing (which shows that they are prepared to push people to the limit, but will back down in the end).

Don't let big business grind you down!

JJ

[Jayho]

phumy said:

Dan_The_Man said:

Just a thought, he went there to fill up with petrol, did he actually get any ? would be a bit strange to drive away without filling up, especially if you went there specifically to fill up.

No he didnt put any in he went elsehwere, would you carry on shopping in a shop who had just accused you of stealing from them and so adamant that you did too?

No i didnt think you would, nor would I!!

I would probably refuse to use that branch ever again until it was rectified. I've still refused to go to a petrol pump which made an error in my favor, purely because the equipment was faulty. People were taking the piss and filling there tank when the equipment was faulty, and when asked how much they filled up they said £10 for a £50 tank. I had said £30 odd, couldnt remember exactly, and then they still only charged me £15 because they were too lazy to go out and check!

But bottom line is it was a systematic error of the petrol station, and although it was brought to there attention they had refused to co-operate in rectifying the problem, if your son was out and out trying to steal fuel, do they really think he would go in and broadcast it to them? Wouldn't he save himself much hassle of just driving away, as its obvious that the clerks weren't paying attention when he tried to wave them down.

[phumy]

Jayho said:

phumy said:

Dan_The_Man said:

Just a thought, he went there to fill up with petrol, did he actually get any ? would be a bit strange to drive away without filling up, especially if you went there specifically to fill up.

No he didnt put any in he went elsehwere, would you carry on shopping in a shop who had just accused you of stealing from them and so adamant that you did too?

No i didnt think you would, nor would I!!

I would probably refuse to use that branch ever again until it was rectified. I've still refused to go to a petrol pump which made an error in my favor, purely because the equipment was faulty. People were taking the piss and filling there tank when the equipment was faulty, and when asked how much they filled up they said £10 for a £50 tank. I had said £30 odd, couldnt remember exactly, and then they still only charged me £15 because they were too lazy to go out and check!

But bottom line is it was a systematic error of the petrol station, and although it was brought to there attention they had refused to co-operate in rectifying the problem, if your son was out and out trying to steal fuel, do they really think he would go in and broadcast it to them? Wouldn't he save himself much hassle of just driving away, as its obvious that the clerks weren't paying attention when he tried to wave them down.

Thats exactly what he thought, if he was there to steal it he would never have gone inside to ask about the problem plus he would never have offered them all his details, address and car details, which they had on the CCTV anyway. Either that or maybe its a scam set up by the garage workers, who knows.....

[Landshark]

If you son gave all the details to the cashier at the time (did you son get the cashiers details??) then i wouldn't be worried about the police, this is a civil dispute and not one that BIB should really get involved in.

[phumy]

Landshark said:

If you son gave all the details to the cashier at the time (did you son get the cashiers details??) then i wouldn't be worried about the police, this is a civil dispute and not one that BIB should really get involved in.

But if they accuse him of theft, how is it a civil case are you saying the Police will not want to know?

[PHmember]

Generally if the garage have your details then the police are reluctant to get involved as they (used to anyway) claim it is a civil matter.

[Starfighter]

I cannot see how they would show an intent on his part to deprive them of the fuel (or the cash value of it) which would be required to make the offence of theft complete.

He has provided his contact details so that they can pursue him for payment. He has disputed the charge being requested due to a fault. It would have to be shown that there was an ability to pay for the fuel.

[motco]

phumy said:

His fuel gauge was the same coming out of the garage as he went in, as no fuel had passed the nozzle into his tank, in fact you can normally tell when fuel goes in as the fuel lines pressurise...he categorically says that nothing went in.

He should have showed the gauge reading to the attendant and asked where the hell he thought the twenty quids worth had gone.

[Cyberprog]

motco said:

phumy said:

His fuel gauge was the same coming out of the garage as he went in, as no fuel had passed the nozzle into his tank, in fact you can normally tell when fuel goes in as the fuel lines pressurise...he categorically says that nothing went in.

He should have showed the gauge reading to the attendant and asked where the hell he thought the twenty quids worth had gone.

As £20's worth of fuel is erm 16L of fuel, he should have (without moving the car more than a pump away) filled his tank to capacity then shown that the difference between tank capacity and what he's put in is <16L.