What if you can't pay at petrol station?
What if you can't pay at petrol station?
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Discussion

ajame5

Original Poster:

1,391 posts

176 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
A situation at a supermarket got me thinking the other day... I did a huge shop for food etc and got to paying and my card didn't work. Turns out rent had come out earlier than it should for some reason (something to do with new year and xmas) so no funds in there.

Now, that got me wondering what would happen if I'd filled the car up and it was declined? This happened to anyone before?

Matt172

12,415 posts

273 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
I assume that you would need to get someone to come out to pay for you either with cash or a card that works

a311

6,401 posts

206 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
They take your details and give you 24 to 48 hrs (company policy dependant) to pay before they contact the police. Pay at pump eliminates this but after having it never happen to me in 12 years of having a car I forgot my card twice in as many weeks last year at non-pay at pump stations.

ETA

Above only applies if you fess up i.e. don't do a runner would expect the consequences to be far worse....

Vulgar LS2

1,785 posts

212 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
They give you a little slip (invoice) and you need to pay within 24 hours normally, I found this out when I picked my RAC card up instead of the bank card.

TigerS6

521 posts

279 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
My missus forgot her card and filled up our car.
She filled in what looked like some form of declaration form 'promising' to return within 24 hours following which it would be reported as a drive off.

I can't recall if she had to leave anything with the attendant as collateral (probably did), but seeing as she was in uniform (police), it wasn't an issue. She just paid the next day on her way to work.

Kong

1,503 posts

200 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
Vulgar LS2 said:
They give you a little slip (invoice) and you need to pay within 24 hours normally, I found this out when I picked my RAC card up instead of the bank card.
These days I've noticed a few places have signs up saying you have got to sort out payment before you can leave. Must be the cost of petrol or more that people are leaving false details.

robmlufc

5,229 posts

215 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
Kong said:
These days I've noticed a few places have signs up saying you have got to sort out payment before you can leave. Must be the cost of petrol or more that people are leaving false details.
No point leaving false details when they have your reg. Although the system doesn't seem that accurate, my mate got pulled by the coppers for having a drive off against his car reg even though he had never been to the petrol station in question. In the local Morissons you can see the monitor with the car regs on and it never picks mine up correctly.

standfree93

3,001 posts

216 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
My dad had this problem a few weeks ago, he accidentally looked at the amount going in rather than the price!
He just had to use a sort of I.O.U type note and pay within 24 hours smile

ajame5

Original Poster:

1,391 posts

176 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
Good to know they've got things like that in place. Sounds like it happens more frequently than I thought.

smugglersvin

1,944 posts

223 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
I think you can come back and pay up within 24hrs as I found out as I was getting threatening letters on a regular basis from supermarket chains after some Asylum seekers were filling up a stolen car with my number plates which was coming back as my car.

G0ldfysh

3,318 posts

286 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
As a student worked in petrol station, standard action when someone did this was to get them to fill in a form, take a note of the number plate and instruct them to pay in the next 24 hours.

Never had any problems with people failing to return the following day with the money, fair number of genuine mistakes of this nature.

Was also possible for them to pay by post and cheque if they where only passing the station.

CBR JGWRR

6,583 posts

178 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
I once filled up my scooter without having the money to pay - I was heading to the bank at the time, to get some money to fill it up.

Didn't realise until I was getting the wallet out to pay...


They let me go to the bank to get the money on the condition I came straight back.
Which I did, not wanting to get done for stealing petrol.

MadeinWigan

224 posts

252 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
I had this when I was driving a truck and the amount was about £350. They took a thumb print and gave me 24hrs to pay at which point they would destroy the thumb print.

The only time that i've ever had my prints taken.

iphonedyou

10,415 posts

186 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
Tesco give you a week. Happened to my brother last month.

Accelebrate

5,677 posts

244 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
Always useful to have more than one method of paying. I seem to wear out the chips on debit cards at an alarming rate, I've also had cards retained by faulty cash machines or lost whilst abroad.

Riccardo1973

50 posts

215 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
This happened to me a few years ago I filled up & realised I had left my wallet home when I went to pay. I just had to leave my name & address and agree to come back within 24hrs to pay.

Didn't have to leave any collateral, but guess they would have reported it to the police if I hadn't come back.

matthias73

2,901 posts

179 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
I went to a petrol station, filled the car up, then ended up chatting to a passer by who I used to go to college with. When I went in, the bloke inside said that he had forgotten I'd filled up and taken the till offline for the night.

He gave me a peice of card they normally give out, with a 24 hour notice on it, but said I'd have 3 days as it wasn't my fault.

So based on that, I guess it happens quite frequently.

GingerWizard

4,721 posts

227 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
Yep happend to me a number of times when i have swapped wallets and forgotton to check for cards, simple IOU and los of red faced embarresment....

Or like my local pace, they just open an account that you settle montly once you have provided decent ID details....

Vulgar LS2

1,785 posts

212 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
Kong said:
Vulgar LS2 said:
They give you a little slip (invoice) and you need to pay within 24 hours normally, I found this out when I picked my RAC card up instead of the bank card.
These days I've noticed a few places have signs up saying you have got to sort out payment before you can leave. Must be the cost of petrol or more that people are leaving false details.
I've got an honest face hehe

kieranjholland

3,606 posts

199 months

Monday 23rd January 2012
quotequote all
G0ldfysh said:
As a student worked in petrol station, standard action when someone did this was to get them to fill in a form, take a note of the number plate and instruct them to pay in the next 24 hours.

Never had any problems with people failing to return the following day with the money, fair number of genuine mistakes of this nature.

Was also possible for them to pay by post and cheque if they where only passing the station.
This has happened to me a number of times, two examples here:

1st occasion:
I filled up my car with ~£85 worth of diesel, picked up some dairy milk and popped to the till to realise I'D FORGOTTEN MY WALLET which was 29 miles away on my desk at home.

2nd occation:
I filled up with ~£70 worth of petrol, popped to the till and MY CARD WAS DECLINED, clearly I spent too much money that month! My other half had money in her account so I would need to pop the 2 miles home and pick her and her bank card up and take her back.

Outcome:
both had the same outcome, I filled in the bilking form with all my details, car details and contact details and popped back the next day (1st occ)/a few minutes later (2nd occ) to pay. On the first occasion, they asked me to leave some kind of insurance... as I know the garage well, I had no qualms leaving them a little possession at roughly the same value.