[Gansan]

What is the need to round off while swiping a credit card? Why not bill the exact amount? That is what Shell does.

[rdna]

Did you guys know that even Shell cheats!??? Initially I couldn't digest this and I thought that I was imagining. The first instance of Shell cheating was at the new outlet opened close to Gopalan Mall on Mysore Road. I asked for Rs.100 to be filled and I KNOW the quantity I should be getting. I was in a tearing hurry and wasn't sure if my vehicle would die on me and it was a quick fill. So this guy pours and tells "Aithur saar"(meaning, done) and I was like WTH!! :O I wanted to argue and get my money's worth of petrol, but I didn't want to be late to office

Next instance, the twin petrol bunks just after BHEL, again on Mysore Road. This time, it was for 14 liters. The attendant is filling and suddenly the fuel pipe gags. He goes "air sucking saar" What is THAT supposed to mean? I didn't know that they would be this stop-fill even after entering the amount. I had seen numerous times that these guys hold on to the petrol gun even after a fixed amount is entered. I generally keep an eye on the swirling plastic thingy which shows if petrol is really being dispensed for the amount which is being countered.

After the first incident, I though of filing a complaint with Shell, but kind of drift away. I'm really serious now and I'm writing a complaint on their website. Let me see if they really live up to their quality.

[Iluvcars]

@aargee & @Gansan: I fully endorse your view. Why should anyone round off when the merchant can very much charge correct to the paise? Rounding off is sheer dishonesty. Has anyone heard of rounding off to the nearest rupee which is lesser than the actual amount (say Rs. 130.15 rounded off to Rs.130)? Seldom, if not never!
What's the element of laziness here? - I fail to comprehend the laziness component - if one is so lazy better close the establishment and sleep at home!
Maybe but once in Bangalore I happened to make two STD calls from a public booth for some Rs. 15 and change and the other for Rs. 16 and change (if I remember correctly). But the point is, in spite of a computer billing and a calculator at hand, he rounded off both the figures to the next BUT HIGHER Rupee value and then added them. I refused to pay the sum of the rounded amounts but was ready to pay the rounded off amount of the sum of the numbers as they are. He, quite easily, gave me two figures - one the sum of the rounded off figures and the other rounded off figure of the sum of the figures as they appeared and asked me, quite sarcastically, "is this what (75 paise or whatever) you were trying to save?". I shot back, "if that 75 paise is cheap to you, can you take it off from the total"? There stopped the exchange of words!

[dadu]

I can understand all that, but rounding off is done if you are paying cash as you dont find change in the denominations of paise's, 15, 18, 35, 48, and such numbers.

Neither the shopkeeper nor the customer has such change, I usually round off to nearest round numbers, 15.25 to 15 and 15.60 to 16.

For credit cards too, I have seen some stations rounding off similarly, lets say if the amount is 2000.18. They charge 2000 only while swiping.

Some can continue justifying this as right or wrong, but someone get me a change for 18 paisa please.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

GTO, not letting them fill after the auto-cutoff is a good practice.
However, you also need to ensure that during fuelling, they do not stop and start the fuelling process. If they do that in between, it is usually with a wrong intention.

Sorry but I don't understand how this works. If he's set it to auto cut and before the auto stop he stops and starts the nozzle a few times, how is that reducing the fuel going into your car. The same amount of fuel has still gone through the nozzle right? Also, if the excess fuel goes back into the pipe, does it not simply then go into the next car without it getting recorded as fuel dispensed for the next car?

Sorry if this is a silly Q but am trying to understand how they're carrying through the con so I can pre-empt successfully.

Cheers,

[janitha]

Originally Posted by Axe77

Sorry but I don't understand how this works. If he's set it to auto cut and before the auto stop he stops and starts the nozzle a few times, how is that reducing the fuel going into your car. The same amount of fuel has still gone through the nozzle right? Also, if the excess fuel goes back into the pipe, does it not simply then go into the next car without it getting recorded as fuel dispensed for the next car?

This has always been perplexing to me. As mentioned in the posts, I have been asking them to push the auto stop button but even after doing so, they are always reluctant to take their hand off. Most likely, there is something fishy but not able to figure out what or how!

[aargee]

@Gansan Sir, do you want to know the latest update? They wrote an email to me back marking a copy to HPCL as follows...

"You have filled petrol in our outlet on 28/05/2010 and opted to pay through credit card. But the sales person who swiped your card rounded up the billed amount with out your permission. We would like to clarify that we don’t round up the billed amount to all the customers who use credit/debit cards. We do it only for the customers who request for rounding up the amount for accounting purposes. The salesman involved in your transaction is rather newly appointed and inadvertently swiped your card for rounded up amount. We regret for the incident and would like to express our apologies to you. We assure you that such laxity will not be repeated in future. Once again we apologize for the incident and request you to patronize our outlet and experience CLUB HP standard service."

And this was sometimes during last week & I've given back a good reply to them. Lets see how things goes from here.

[aargee]

Just back from the regular BPCL outlet after filling for Rs 400 + 50.

The price of per litre is Rs 57.09 & I asked to fill for Rs 400 & the total litres showed up as 7.00. I was little apprehensive on the top up & did the math.

57.09 per litre X 7 litre = Rs 399.63

So I asked the pump manager on this & they said it was the setting by BPCL & its a known issue with Veni dispensing machine. They were saying that folks at BPCL also know about this issue.

Has anyone heard or come across this kind of trick before?

Again its me who's reopening this thread Why me?

[avinaush]

That day I emptied my tank as I wanted evacuate the adulterated fuel that I put in the previous bunk in outskirts(Poonamallee)...

At BP Opposite to Pachaiyappas College on PH Road, before the New Avadi road left...

Was there yesterday to Fuel my bike for 100 rupees. The attendant started filling and when the meter was somewhere around 38 rupees, another guy who was collecting the cash suddeny looked at my fuel tank and said, "Sir dont allow dust to stay on the tank, u'll hav starting troubles if the dust goes in, do u have any waste cloth?" By the time I turned to the meter it was 100. Over. Cheated.

I know to what level my Fuel indicator needle rises for 100 rupees... But this time it dint rise up so much. But their Quality is excellent!!

[vineetmanghani]

The BPCL pump in Medavakkam, Chennai tried the Rs. 100 trick with me a few months back (I was pretty new to Chennai then).

I asked the attendant for a tank full, but he promptly filled for Rs. 100 and stopped. I repeated, tank full boss. So he continued filling to some amount (say Rs. 1800). He never reset the pump to zero.

After filling up, he punched in Rs. 1900 into a small machine kept there (independent of anything in the pump) and gave me a small printout saying "Saar 1900 rupees". Having read thru such threads here, I called their bluff. The person had the audacity to say "Saar machine printout saar..no cheating saar"!

When I held my ground, he started calling all the attendants in Tamil, and they surrounded me and started saying some stuff in Tamil (don't know what they were saying but their tone was pretty aggressive). I started shouting back at the top of my voice in English and Hindi, about how they were cheating the customer, and I would report them to the company. It is a busy pump, and all the customers there started looking at the scene. The attendants then backed off, said sorry, and charged 1800 from me.

I switched to Shell thereafter and never went back to that pump again.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by avinaush

Was there yesterday to Fuel my bike for 100 rupees. The attendant started filling and when the meter was somewhere around 38 rupees, another guy who was collecting the cash suddeny looked at my fuel tank and said, "Sir dont allow dust to stay on the tank, u'll hav starting troubles if the dust goes in, do u have any waste cloth?" By the time I turned to the meter it was 100. Over. Cheated.
I know to what level my Fuel indicator needle rises for 100 rupees... But this time it dint rise up so much. But their Quality is excellent!!

yes sir, we all learn through such experiences, I never move my eye from the counter and never talk to anybody at the pump till the filling has stopped. Some small tips:
never open the fuel lid till you see the zero mark.
dont maintain eye contact with the attendant, keep looking at the counter even if you speak with him. this is important as then the only trick he can try is the stop start.
tell the attendant to fill in fuel by entering the amount and leaving the nozzle in the tank.
after filling, ensure that the pipe is emptied in your tank. attendants have a habit of pointing the nozzle upwards so that any remaining fuel goes back
dont hesitate to ask them to exceed the rupee point if you think he is stopping before
never pay anything extra if it is his mistake.
dont get distracted by the other useless fellows standing around. they will talk you about dust/ weather/ your bike/ mileage/ sun, moon, stars but will loose all interest once the fuel is filled.
dont pay the money while being filled as the guy will start saying that fill for 100, if you are filling for 50. in the meanwhile fuel is filled only for 30 and he will charge you 100
what to do saar, we are like this only

[supremeBaleno]

A colleague had dropped in at the BPCL pump at Guindy (at the corner where the Velachery road meets Sardar Patel Road - opp old Concorde Motors) last Sunday to fuel up his Alto and as is his usual practise, he asked the attendant to fill up the tank, which in his case takes up around Rs.1700 worth of petrol. As the car is being fuelled up and while the meter is at Rs1400, another attendant comes over and tells him that the front tyre of his car has a flat. He moves to check out the tyre, which looks OK. Meanwhile the attendant mumbles some garbage about how using nitrogen to fill the tyres is a better option etc.

When my friend's gaze returns back to the fuel-meter, he sees to his shock that it has been reset to zero by the attendant who was filling fuel. On questioning why he reset the meter, the attendant says that the car had taken in a full tank of fuel coming to Rs.1700 and so he had reset the meter. Though not convinced, my friend pays up 1700 and leaves.

For anyone who is familiar with the cheating done at Chennai petrol-pumps, this is a clear case of diverting the customer's attention to cheat. The part about tyre being flat, when it is not the case, is a clear indication of fraud. Anyway, after some 150kms of driving around, the fuel-gauge in his car is at half-tank position, while it usually reaches half-tank only after running 200-odd kms. This is a clear indication to my friend that he has been cheated by atleast 4-5 litres and like any normal person, it is not a good feeling.

I tell him that he has been cheated, but there is an option to get back. All he needs to do is go back to the pump, ask to meet the manager & request for the complaint-book which each gas-station has to maintain. I tell him that in all probability, the manager will dissuade him from entering his complaint and instead will make up for the loss.

Around 10PM I get a call from my friend. He thought he had nothing to lose out in trying out my suggestion and had gone to the pump. He told the manager what had happened the previous day and that he had been cheated. The manager predictably told him that they don't indulge in such practices. My friend calmly tells him to give the complaint book so that he can atleast make a complaint.

As I had told him, the manager tries his best to dissuade him from making his complaint and instead says that he will not only take action against the errant employee, but also make up for the loss by giving petrol for Rs500, which is more than what he had been cheated off. Friend accepts the deal and tells me that he is feeling good now.
In most cases, we are not aware of what to do when faced with a similar situation. Knowing the next course of action makes all the difference, as it did for my friend.

[fine69]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

In most cases, we are not aware of what to do when faced with a similar situation. Knowing the next course of action makes all the difference, as it did for my friend.

Wow! Now that is something. Does this work for BPCL pumps only or does everyone have to keep this complaint book and is every pump so scared of even getting even one complaint in the book?

I still wonder though if the audit mechanism is so strong that they would want to refrain so badly from getting any complaints in the book. I'm sure they can settle it with the auditors also, what say?

[supremeBaleno]

Works for most Govt owned pumps - no idea about Essar/Shell/Reliance etc. From what I understand, it is pretty serious to have a customer enter a complaint about cheating on price/quantity, which is the deterrent for the pump owners.

[zoom_vroom]

I had got a 250Rs fuel filled in my ANHC sometime back at HPCL pump at Jasola,New Delhi.
The DTE showed around 85 kms and the fuel meter had one point over red mark. That was the time before the recent fuel hike. After the guy filled in the fuel i started my car and went for a few metre or so to realise no change in DTE and fuel meter. Straightaway went back to the pump and asked an explanation. He said this is a common problem in ANHC. I got a clue of their intentions, asked for their manager and gave him what he deserved. He apologised and said that you drive for few kms and let us know if the issue is still there.I went till my office and the DTE kept decreasing and to my horror i got the low fuel warning withing 10 kms of mine refuelling. This was too much for me.Straightaway wrote an online complaint and went back to the pump in the evening. The manager said that this happened with another ANHC today again, maybe trying to convince me. I just raised my voice so that everyone there could hear that this pump cheats. The manager willingly offers me fuel for Rs 250 which i gladly accept and go.Few days later i get a call from HP and to my surprise even that guy was convincing me that this cannot happen at HPCL pump. I just ignore him and say that i would not advise anyone to fill from that bunk.To me it seems even the inspector of these pumps and all those at complaint cell have their palms greased and don't care about complaints.
With corruption all around us, i fear that my suspicion could very well be true.