Esso petrol station Ascot - ripping customers off
Esso petrol station Ascot - ripping customers off
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Discussion

edar

Original Poster:

463 posts

220 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
quotequote all
Over the last few months I've noticed that whilst making a quick splash and dash at the Esso petrol station in Ascot that the pump counter keeps rolling over an extra penny with the amount of a £20.00 delivery. I'm always careful (anal perhaps) not to go over and have never had the same problem at any other petrol station I've been to over the UK. As it seemed to be such a regular thing I've always made a point at always putting in the same £20.00 amount just to see if I'm not being paranoid. No matter how careful I've been not to go over, I've now noticed the counter always jumps from £19.97p to £20.01p. So as an experiement I filled up the other day and watched the counter. £10.00 and £15.00 amounts were dead accurate but carrying on, yet again the counter jumped from £19.97 to £20.01. Every £10.00 delivery there after was accurate until full.

It's become a bit of a obsession but I'm absolutely sure the pumps there are fixed to charge an extra penny with a delivery of £20.00. It's become too coincidental and I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this? The staff there are sure that it must be me but every time I've put £20.00 of petrol in at other stations - BP, Tesco etc - it's always been accurate. I don't just stick in £20.00 everytime (although it's nearly £1.45 per litre for super plus) but I'm confident that Esso Ascot are ripping people off. I know I've been overcharged by 10 pence so far but it's the principal. Any thoughts?......

hyperblue

2,907 posts

209 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
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Bit strange, but there's better ways of ripping people off at a petrol station... Buy something in the shop hehe

hewlett

2,186 posts

250 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
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They make very little on fuel sales, all the profit's from the shop sales. They're basically newsagents/general store owners with fuel sales to get the punters in the door.

Landshark

2,117 posts

210 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
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I've noticed most sainsburys stores do it too, I can normally stop dead on the exact amount and by the time I've put the nozzle back it's added a penny!!! ( I need to get out more!!!)

edit: if your sure your being ripped off contact the council trading standards to check

E31Shrew

5,963 posts

221 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
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Di you ever see the Rowan Atkinson sketch where he was working in a service station? Tried hunting for it, but sadly to no avail.
He has a special switch, that adds an extra penny when drivers stop on a whole pound....Could be him!

SVTRick

3,633 posts

224 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
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A lot of the problem is with the pumps metering units.
The fuel is getting so expensive per litre maybe the metering is having a job keeping up with the cost in relation to the amount passing through.

Feel however the garages are making a bit more on fuel than we think.
Yes the shop helps boost the takings and infact some things from a garage are a downright rip off

Dieel in the BP on A4 at Hammersmith is cheaper than the one in Bagshot
by three pence per litre
Fancied a Magnum Ice cream for the trip home £2.09p robbing s

shimmey69

1,525 posts

207 months

Wednesday 23rd March 2011
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I try to always use sainsburys at the moment one because it's cheaper than most but 2 is because they have trading standards out on a regular basis to check the pumps are accurate, will usually find a "fair measure" sticker on each pump with it's last test date!

john_r

8,354 posts

300 months

Wednesday 23rd March 2011
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edar said:
<keeps buying petrol from somewhere he thinks is dodgy>
Yet... you keep going back? confused

If you lend someone a tenner and they don't pay you back, do you lend them another tenner to see if it was a one-off? hehe

fido

18,827 posts

284 months

Wednesday 23rd March 2011
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john_r said:
edar said:
<keeps buying petrol from somewhere he thinks is dodgy>
Yet... you keep going back? confused

If you lend someone a tenner and they don't pay you back, do you lend them another tenner to see if it was a one-off? hehe
+1. Next time put in 19.95, and waste their time.

Furry Exocet

3,011 posts

210 months

Wednesday 23rd March 2011
quotequote all
Landshark said:
I've noticed most sainsburys stores do it too, I can normally stop dead on the exact amount and by the time I've put the nozzle back it's added a penny!!! ( I need to get out more!!!)

edit: if your sure your being ripped off contact the council trading standards to check
I usually have the same with Sainsbury

530dTPhil

1,419 posts

247 months

Wednesday 18th May 2011
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D4bky said:
ramblings
'I hope this makes fence'

Er - No!

D34NO87

832 posts

201 months

Wednesday 18th May 2011
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I think its down to the fact fuel is so expensive. Before it went over the pound mark you had to sqeeze the nozzle a few times to get that last penny to round it up, now that tiny sqeeze costs 2/3p.

Oggs

8,817 posts

283 months

Wednesday 18th May 2011
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530dTPhil said:
D4bky said:
ramblings
'I hope this makes fence'

Er - No!
I agree I couldn't work out what he said.

johnvthe2nd

1,292 posts

226 months

Wednesday 18th May 2011
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D4bky said:
if it's at a petrol station that only uses there name ( frenchise )
hmmm

Mike Rob

1,017 posts

220 months

Wednesday 18th May 2011
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D4bky said:
Hey just signed up n noticed this topic I can certainly agree with the esso petrol station problem I used to work for one un till I found out how much they rip people off without discussing to much info at some esso petrol station the pumps r fairly old especially if it's at a petrol station that only uses there name ( frenchise )

Basically there Is a trick to stop that happening, I used to get customers in all the time infact 1 in 3, saying I stopped bang in £20 n now it's £20.01 n after having a go myself a few times I had the same prob till I spoke to ( unamed ) n he told me what to do, basically u press nozel fuel comes out u stop nozel fuel stops well that's what u think once u stop the nozel the pipe that runs from ur car to the outside of ur pump in a kinda u shape while inserted in your car still contains fuel, wait for it here is the bad part once u stop n start replacing the nozel the bit of fuel that is in the pipe is sucked back in causing it to tick over to 20.01 so not only do u loose a little fuel but u also get charge for it.

The best thing to do is fill up when u stop take the fuel pipe by the pump (not in car) n lift it running towards the nozel in ur car that way u empty the pipe fully n don't get charged 0.01p for loosing fuel

I hope this makes fence n like I said I did used to work for one of them n found out y it does it I used to actually go out n show some customers so they never went over ( the ones that used to question y)
Is this written in Martian?

CypherP

4,450 posts

221 months

Wednesday 18th May 2011
quotequote all
D4bky said:
Hey just signed up n noticed this topic I can certainly agree with the esso petrol station problem I used to work for one un till I found out how much they rip people off without discussing to much info at some esso petrol station the pumps r fairly old especially if it's at a petrol station that only uses there name ( frenchise )

Basically there Is a trick to stop that happening, I used to get customers in all the time infact 1 in 3, saying I stopped bang in £20 n now it's £20.01 n after having a go myself a few times I had the same prob till I spoke to ( unamed ) n he told me what to do, basically u press nozel fuel comes out u stop nozel fuel stops well that's what u think once u stop the nozel the pipe that runs from ur car to the outside of ur pump in a kinda u shape while inserted in your car still contains fuel, wait for it here is the bad part once u stop n start replacing the nozel the bit of fuel that is in the pipe is sucked back in causing it to tick over to 20.01 so not only do u loose a little fuel but u also get charge for it.

The best thing to do is fill up when u stop take the fuel pipe by the pump (not in car) n lift it running towards the nozel in ur car that way u empty the pipe fully n don't get charged 0.01p for loosing fuel

I hope this makes fence n like I said I did used to work for one of them n found out y it does it I used to actually go out n show some customers so they never went over ( the ones that used to question y)
Lovely first post. Can see you'll fit in well here...

Oh, and that bit in bold sounds like absolute horse st to me. How on earth would fuel being taken back into the pump then cause the counter to charge you more? I can understand the OPs post completely. Yours however relies too heavily on the Urban Dictionary to decipher and I haven't got the time to translate every sentence.

ETA: Happy fencing and frenchises to all.


Edited by CypherP on Wednesday 18th May 08:53

playalistic

2,270 posts

193 months

Wednesday 18th May 2011
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So somebody signs up and for their first post gives a reasonably insightful response (OK perhaps not grammatically) and all they get is belittled. Real nice welcome!

CypherP

4,450 posts

221 months

Wednesday 18th May 2011
quotequote all
playalistic said:
So somebody signs up and for their first post gives a reasonably insightful response (OK perhaps not grammatically) and all they get is belittled. Real nice welcome!
Sorry but when a post is almost unreadable due to severe lack of punctuation, it is no longer helpful, especially when some of the information doesn't even sound credible. The point I was making wasn't so much on the spelling, but more on the information source, as I can't physically see how it could work.

johnvthe2nd

1,292 posts

226 months

Wednesday 18th May 2011
quotequote all
playalistic said:
So somebody signs up and for their first post gives a reasonably insightful response (OK perhaps not grammatically) and all they get is belittled. Real nice welcome!
It's not just grammatically appalling, it is in fact unreadable. How long would the forum last if it was populated by posts like that?
I'm just not convinced he has researched his target audience.

Motown Junk

2,041 posts

246 months

Wednesday 18th May 2011
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Bloody Frenchise!

Cheese eating surrender monkeys the lot of 'em