[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by hothatchaway

Coming to the topic at hand, I think we are reading too much when we blame Indian society for these petty scams. I always step out and stand next to the pump when tanking up and I am yet to face an attendant acting funny and I have driven in all major indian cities and most states. Dishonesty can emerge from every social strata. Many crooks are wealthy and it makes no difference to their bent ways. I can wager that the number of honest people with limited means are many times that number. You have to remain vigilant if you don't like to be conned. True in India, true everywhere.

Happy weekend to everyone!

I also follow the method of stepping out and filling fuel, rain or shine. And indeed, just because someone is poor doesn’t mean he is a crook. I remember the line from an abridged extract from Les Miserables which I read when I was very young in a school text book, about Jean ValJean. It said, ‘His Only Crime was that He was Poor.’ Came resoundingly back to me when watching some of the early episodes of the TV Series ‘Lupin’ where the protagonist Assane’s Dad Babakar, is falsely accused and incarcerated by his wealthy and evil employer in collusion with the Corrupt Police officer.

Scams are everywhere. The magnitude is what differs from case to case. The underlying dishonesty is the same. And indeed, there are loads of crooks sitting in the wealthy strata. All we need to do is look around us at these Politician Ogres and Real Estate Demons.

(I also lost money while filling petrol 2 months ago, in Luxembourg, of all places, where there is no human interface but only a fuel machine, by swiping a card for a supposed ‘pre-auth’ , which took away a 100 Euros which I never got back! I ve raised it with my bank. Let me see what they say.)

Best thing to do is to protect yourself by being as vigilant as possible. What one has lost, best put it down to experience and move on.

[Revvatron]

Originally Posted by curiousnewbie

Same scam different city. That small talk was a major red flag. Gave it away
So I checked the rear dash cam footage and viola.
This fella tried to scam me last time as well when he mentioned the fuel quantity instead of total value of the fuel when I asked for the amount to be transferred on gPay. Fuel quantity was 48.74L while the amount was 4654 or something like that. I have started to like this guy though. He deserves the money for coming up with such ideas

Trying to understand this so that we all can be aware of this method as well. So instead of mentioning amount he is adding the extra to the quantity and mentioned that. Isn't that more noticeable though, because most of us will be put off by the huge quantity. For example in my case if the quoted quantity is let's say 40L i will immediately notice as it exceeds my tank capacity. Even if we go for smaller amount say 2000 and the guy says 22 litres that might still be noticable due to the price we have in mind.

[curiousnewbie]

Originally Posted by Revvatron

Trying to understand this so that we all can be aware of this method as well. So instead of mentioning amount he is adding the extra to the quantity and mentioned that. Isn't that more noticeable though, because most of us will be put off by the huge quantity. For example in my case if the quoted quantity is let's say 40L i will immediately notice as it exceeds my tank capacity. Even if we go for smaller amount say 2000 and the guy says 22 litres that might still be noticable due to the price we have in mind.

I guess I didn’t explain it properly. On the final page of gPay where you enter the amount, I asked him for the exact amount I am supposed to transfer. He replied 4894 (48.94L) instead of Rs. 4654 (48.94*price per litre).
Luckily I cross checked the dispensing machine before transferring.

[TheARUN]

Can't label it a scam, it's more of hoodwinking.

I'm one of those 0.001% who fill Shell diesel. In fact the attendants are shocked when I ask for diesel. The normal diesel there is around Rs.126 and premium is around Rs.130.

Now for the 'scam'. When you say you want diesel, they immediately reply "diesel rate is Rs.130 per litre Sir". If you say OK, then they push the premium fuel into your vehicle! You have to check with them if normal diesel for Rs.126 is available, to which they reluctantly nod yes and go on to fill your tank.

I've even checked with them if selling premium fuel gets them incentives, they say no. Don't understand why they keep pushing premium fuel. Surely its not because they want us to get the best of the best fuel for our vehicles

[Vinod_nair]

As a thumb rule, and as someone has already mentioned, I go to the same pump and same dispenser and always never ever fill for round off amount it's always 990/- 1490/- 190/- etc, my father who worked in Caltex, always did this, I inherited the habit.

His logic and experience, while on surprise checks they were taught to do this, all pumps meters if tampered will be for round off figures.

In the good old days, mixing kerosene oil was their biggest headache,

[medicineman1987]

Thanks to TBHP I was saved from falling victim to the full tank scam. Stopped to fuel up in rural UP somewhere outside of Gorakhpur. I specifically asked for a full tank and the attendant started filling up the tank while a second attendant tried distracting me with some random small talk. The first attendant then said "oops.. I've set the pump to 500 rupees, do you still want a full tank?" and I instantly remembered the script from this post. So I told him 500 rupees is sufficient for me to reach my destination. Loved the look of disappointment on their faces. The pump stopped at 500.14 rupees confirming my suspicion since if he had actually set it to 500 it would've stopped at exactly 500.00 rupees. I wanted to confront the attendant but there were at least 5-7 bikes with no numberplates and all seemed to know the attendant. So I just paid and left quietly. And of course the bill printing machine wasn't working as expected. Thank you Bhpians!

[condor]

One simple way to get around this scam at unknown bunks is to ask him to start filling, and that you will tell him when to stop. This way, he would not know what your requirement is.

[Swapnil4585]

Is it possible that you ask him to fill petrol of Re 2500/-, he starts filling, dispenser shows Re 2500/-, but the fuel that has actually gone is of Re 2300/-?

[rosh_aveo1.4]

So I am based in Kochi, Kerala and in all my years of filling from various pumps, never came across this kind of issue. Either that or I missed it but very unlikely (didn't notice any posting about Kerala in this thread so far). I usually fill until cut off and in general the attendants ask us to check the fuel pump to make sure it's set at 0 itself and no one asks anything in between, I stand there in front until I myself hear the cut off. It's been like this ever since I remember.
Maybe the only 2 things that go wrong, is when they overfill even after cut off (once the liquid gold overflowed from the tank!) and a recent case is when an attender was arguing with me that my Petrol Jeep is not petrol and it needs diesel! Hence the 'I will always stand in front of them to see what they doing' stance works well.

[Revvatron]

Originally Posted by Swapnil4585

Is it possible that you ask him to fill petrol of Re 2500/-, he starts filling, dispenser shows Re 2500/-, but the fuel that has actually gone is of Re 2300/-?

I don't think this range of manipulation is possible in these days. That's why they keep coming with innovative ways to scam people as machines are strictly monitored.

[Swapnil4585]

Originally Posted by Revvatron

I don't think this range of manipulation is possible in these days. That's why they keep coming with innovative ways to scam people as machines are strictly monitored.

I have this doubt because I filled petrol of Re 2500/- in Jalgaon in last week and of Re 2500/- from Pune last week. Jalgaon is about a rupee and few paise costlier than Pune, yet the quantity (as evidenced from the gauge), I felt, was different.

[SR-71]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

There are really three different options

Fill your tank, walk inside and pay the cashier
Next to the pump there will be a credit/debit card. You put your car in and you can fill up your tank. The total amount is automatically deducted from your account
Before you fill up you pay a cashier or authorise a certain amount on your debit or credit card.

In Western Europe and the USA the first two option are the most prevalent. Probably 98% of the time.

I have not seen much of option 1 in the US barring a few rare occasions, its option 2 or 3 (mostly east coast). Option 3 was popular until the chip and pin enabled cards arrived, I suppose. Before the chip and pin because a norm it used to ask for zip code and I had difficulty using a zip code with my corporate issued Amex card. So, I used to default to option 3.

UK on the other hand surprisingly has option 1 in most places. I believe IOCL started a self-dispensing pump in Delhi a few years back. I am not sure if it's still around.

[schumi_pete]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

This problem was solved many years ago in many countries. Just about all fuel stations are self service. I have been filling my own petrol and diesel for at least 30 years across 3 continents with the exception of our years in India!

Of course, the downside is that customers now drive away without paying!

There are really three different options

Fill your tank, walk inside and pay the cashier
Next to the pump there will be a credit/debit card. You put your car in and you can fill up your tank. The total amount is automatically deducted from your account
Before you fill up you pay a cashier or authorise a certain amount on your debit or credit card.

In Western Europe and the USA the first two option are the most prevalent. Probably 98% of the time.

Finding an attended petrol station in most of Western Europe is almost impossible.

I concur with the assessment in Western Europe. I am yet to see a single station with an attendant to fill up your tank in all my 16 years of living in this part of the world.

I don't see why we couldn't adopt the self-service model in India. With the way digital payments have transformed the landscape in the last few years, I would definitely wager that the fuel distribution business is ripe for a shake up! Pretty much everyone has a phone and the ability to pay digitally these days, and there is always the possibility for someone to pay at the counter and fill up at the pump in case needed.

[aarcynic]

Originally Posted by furyrider

I too started doing this after I fell for a similar scam at the ICOL pump beside Miyapur metro station. If they stop filling, I pay up and leave. They magically remember the correct amount the moment you pull up your wallet to pay. As you said, the look on their faces does leave one grinning ear to ear. No arguments, no dramas. The fuel station which tried to pull this off on me will remain in my blacklist forever!



Was this the IOCL CoCo bunk beside lemon tree in Madhapur by any chance? They usually try to fill air and say that the valve is kaput and will charge around INR 80 to change the same. I almost fell for it once.

I had something similar while driving out of Bhopal. I felt my car steering a little heavy so I thought of having the air checked. The attendant while filling was like “sir aapke age wale tyre mai puncture hai.” I as stupid as always was surprised. But I had seen how they check tyre puncture with soapy water(obviously) i asked him to check with it. He sprayed it over the tyres there were no bubbling spots indicating that I didn’t have any puncture. I suddenly realised he was trying to scam me. I generally give a tip of 10 rupees to the attendant at the pump but my friend didn’t get any.