Short Fueling Tricks At Petrol Stations

[venks]

Hi,

I got cheated at a BPCL fuel station on the highway between Madurai and Tirunelveli. I stopped at the bunk and asked the ‘cashier’ to fill up diesel for Rs 500. After taking the money from me he asked whether I am planning to use card !. I was surprised at that question as I have given him the money. But did not realize then that it was a tactic to divert me from looking at the meter. Then he asked me whether I have loyalty points card pointing at his card logo in his shirt. Again another diversionary tactic, which I did not realize. By this time another person started putting the fuel in and I could not check the meter. I wanted to check it after all these and for couple of seconds, this cashier guy blocked my view. After the meter hit Rs 500, they stopped filling and I wanted to immediately check the fuel gauge sensing something unusual. As expected, fuel gauge was showing less fuel than what I expected. Since I was using my uncle’s car, I was not sure about the tank capacity and could not get into any argument with facts. I told them that they have not put ~10 liters as expected. He tried to convince me that they have not done anything wrong. At 11.30 PM with my wife, daughter and mother-in-law in the car, in the middle of nowhere, I did not want to get into further argument and left the place as a confused person. These guys have cheated me by filling 4-5 liters of diesel less. Unfortunately I did not take the receipt and felt really bad that I did not do anything, which could deter them from doing this in the future! At least I could have lodged a formal complaint with BPCL. Could I have done anything different?

Just thought of sharing this story so that others could be benefitted. Now I am very careful and get down from the car and stay close to the pump when they fill in the fuel.

Thanks

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by venks

Hi,

At least I could have lodged a formal complaint with BPCL. Could I have done anything different?

Just thought of sharing this story so that others could be benefitted. Now I am very careful and get down from the car and stay close to the pump when they fill in the fuel.

Thanks

You can still lodge a complaint with BPCL narrating the incident. Oil companies are quite responsive to such complaints and I have had good responses from BPCL and IOC for my complaints.

[philgrac]

Originally Posted by venks

Hi,

I got cheated at a BPCL fuel station on the highway between Madurai and Tirunelveli.
Just thought of sharing this story so that others could be benefitted. Now I am very careful and get down from the car and stay close to the pump when they fill in the fuel.

Thanks

It was kind of you to share your bad experience for the benefit of fellow BHPians. Thanks. However, could you give the name/location of this bunk so that we can be careful while dealing with them. Info about all BPCL outlets can be obtained from the "BPCL Fuel finder app" which can be downloaded from BPCL website or from google maps.

[selvagp]

Originally Posted by venks

fuel gauge was showing less fuel than what I expected

@Venks
I had a similar experience. My brother claimed he had filled diesel for Rs. 500 at a BPCL outlet, but the fuel gauge was still showing empty. What we did was to go back to the pump talk to the manager and he assured there was no way they would cheat. We then decided to get the tank full. It's a Duster and we know the capacity is 45, the auto cutoff happened just around the 34 liter mark and we were happy that it was not a case of cheat.

I have also heard in few (maruti) cases the fuel gauge takes a bit of time to reflect the refill.

I am not trying to defend the pump, I have a feeling that in most of the pumps the staff ask you to look at the zero before they start fueling and that is normal behavior. In your case the suspect behavior would have lead you feel you may have been cheated. But I think you should ensure that you were really cheated before you take this further.

[venks]

Sorry folks, got busy with work, hence couldnot respond back earlier.

Originally Posted by speedmiester

You can still lodge a complaint with BPCL narrating the incident. Oil companies are quite responsive to such complaints and I have had good responses from BPCL and IOC for my complaints.

Yes speedmiester, I am going to do that. Trying to figure out some pointers about the bunk that can be mentioned in the complaint.

Originally Posted by philgrac

However, could you give the name/location of this bunk so that we can be careful while dealing with them. Info about all BPCL outlets can be obtained from the "BPCL Fuel finder app" which can be downloaded from BPCL website or from google maps.

philgrac, thanks for your suggestion. I kind of back-traced through the incident and figured out that this bunk comes after Kayathar checkpost close to Tirunelveli. I used google maps to check if there is any BPCL bunk in the vicinity, but could not find any. May be not all the bunks are mapped in Google maps. Unfortunately I don't have any android phone to try "BPCL Fuel finder app". They don't have iOS app.

Originally Posted by selvagp

@Venks
But I think you should ensure that you were really cheated before you take this further.

selvagp, agree. I had this confusion. So next day I put petrol worth the same amount when the fuel gauge reading was at the same point. That confirmed by belief that I got cheated as fuel gauge moved to a much further.

[ashwin.terminat]

Originally Posted by selvagp

My brother claimed he had filled diesel for Rs. 500 at a BPCL outlet, but the fuel gauge was still showing empty. What we did was to go back to the pump talk to the manager and he assured there was no way they would cheat.

Happened with our Jazz too. I filled for Rs. 500, no go in the fuel gauge. Then I filled for another Rs. 500 and the gauge was showing fuel for Rs. 1000(earlier 500 and the just filled 500)!

I asked Honda why this odd behaviour and they said that there has to be at least around 8L of petrol in the tank for the sensors to detect the amount of fuel.

Perhaps something similar with the Renault as well.

[DwarkaDelhiWala]

Originally Posted by noopster

This ......

There is a special place in hell reserved for these shortchargers. This particular petrol pump is the only fuelling station in miles so they get emboldened to play these tricks.

I will second that.

On a different note, i do not expect anything else but cheating from these guys as majority of them got their dealerships through cash/favours to those in power. So their story starts right there in corridors of Ministry of Petroleum.

And its payback time to general public at retail outlet.

[Cruiser_D]

Just thought of sharing my recent experience in HP outlet in Chennai (Pallikarani-Velachery main road, near Kamakshi Hospital).

Usually I follow full tank (stop after auto cut) method and this time as well did the same. I made sure that meter was reset to zero before filling up and was having a close look during the process. The meter reading was showing some where around 1,800 Rs when suddenly another attender started usual conversations like cash/card, credit/debit/payback etc. By the time I gave him my card, auto cut happened and the attender who was serving me till then had taken the pump back, but I was shocked after seeing the reading on the machine.

It was showing 2,231 Rs (which means 36.2L as per the latest pricing). My tank capacity is 35L! While I got engaged in a heated exchange of words with him, the other attender who took my card had swiped it already for that amount (I had given my payback card which doesn't have PIN protection). I walked to the near by manager cabin to report this, then they started apologizing for the mistake and begun cursing the machine for some unknown errors. They did something on the machine and then the actual readings (I believe so) came in. It was 1,878.50 Rs. Since I had an eye on the readings till 1,800 Rs, I got convinced that this could be the actual amount. The surplus amount was returned back in the form of cash.

Had a conversation with a person who pretended to be the outlet in charge and he gave some explanations on what probably could be the reason for this which I didn't understand at all. I was enroute to the office and was already getting delayed. Hence I thought of moving on.

Still I have no clue on how this happened. A fake reading on the display initially then followed by the actual one upon some adjustment. Have anyone faced this kind of troubles? Could you please throw some light on this?

[freedom]

Originally Posted by Cruiser_D

Just thought of sharing my recent experience in HP outlet in Chennai (Pallikarani-Velachery main road, near Kamakshi Hospital).

Put a formal complaint on HPCL portal.
You got your money back but other people may get fleeced.

[suresh_gs]

Folks
Considering all such tricks played by the bunk guys , i usually fill petrol in my car in the following way.
Say i am going to chennai by car. The distance of my in laws home in chennai from my home in bangalore is 332 kms. I usually turn the AC on for the entire journey. I have roughly checked the fuel efficiency of my santro with AC on. It is about 18-19 kms/litre on the highway. If I were to fill the fuel to cover this distance , it would come to 332/18*63.05 (price of petrol in bommanahalli as of today) = Rs 1162. Say I round this off to Rs 1200.
I dont fill fuel for the entire amount. I break this into Rs 500 or so in Bangalore, another 600-700 rs in Tamil Nadu as the fuel is cheaper there when compared to KA.
By doing so, I minimize the chances of me getting duped by the bunk guys. Of course I can be cheated even for filling petrol for Rs 700 but when you compare the possibilities of the loss incurred while filling the complete tank, this loss is minimal.

[vennarbank]

Originally Posted by Cruiser_D

Just thought of sharing my recent experience in HP outlet in Chennai (Pallikarani-Velachery main road, near Kamakshi Hospital).

Usually I follow full tank (stop after auto cut) method and this time as well did the same. I made sure that meter was reset to zero before filling up and was having a close look during the process. The meter reading was showing some where around 1,800 Rs when suddenly another attender started usual conversations like cash/card, credit/debit/payback etc. By the time I gave him my card, auto cut happened and the attender who was serving me till then had taken the pump back, but I was shocked after seeing the reading on the machine.

It was showing 2,231 Rs (which means 36.2L as per the latest pricing). My tank capacity is 35L! While I got engaged in a heated exchange of words with him, the other attender who took my card had swiped it already for that amount (I had given my payback card which doesn't have PIN protection). I walked to the near by manager cabin to report this, then they started apologizing for the mistake and begun cursing the machine for some unknown errors. They did something on the machine and then the actual readings (I believe so) came in. It was 1,878.50 Rs. Since I had an eye on the readings till 1,800 Rs, I got convinced that this could be the actual amount. The surplus amount was returned back in the form of cash.

Had a conversation with a person who pretended to be the outlet in charge and he gave some explanations on what probably could be the reason for this which I didn't understand at all. I was enroute to the office and was already getting delayed. Hence I thought of moving on.

Still I have no clue on how this happened. A fake reading on the display initially then followed by the actual one upon some adjustment. Have anyone faced this kind of troubles? Could you please throw some light on this?

This is the petrol bunk i regularly put my petrol. Now i am scared. Also i put petrol for my bike in Shell petrol bunk, Porur. The attender asked for amount and set the amount and then without resetting to Zero tried to fill. Being used to this, i did not even opened the lid. I asked him to reset to zero and he did. After that he was not even able to see eye to eye. Really felt bad since i thought Shell bunks are above this tricks.

[asingh1977]

I usually fill petrol on the Golf Course Extension Road, GGN. Most of the pumps there have a habit to talk to the car owner and distract. It happened to me once. The filler asked about CC payment (when he saw me holding INR 500.00 in my hand), card points, and if I want a bill. In the end I realized, after driving off, that less petrol had been put in. During this whole time I had been looking at the meter. But was distracted. Usually two fillers do this. The one handling the pump gun will keep quite, another one at an angle will force you to look at him (since he stands separate) and make eye contact, and you look away from the oil meter. Overall: one should keep staring at the oil machine till it times out to the desired output of oil.

[carwatcher]

I got cheated in exactly the same way in Pune. The Goa Regn No. of my car surely attracted the attendants.

I wonder if this is the nationwide phenomenon, are the attendants trained to do that in the sense they are trained to alert the customer to ensure the zero reading before filling.

Originally Posted by asingh1977

I usually fill petrol on the Golf Course Extension Road, GGN. Most of the pumps there have a habit to talk to the car owner and distract.

[asingh1977]

Originally Posted by carwatcher

I got cheated in exactly the same way in Pune. The Goa Regn No. of my car surely attracted the attendants.

I wonder if this is the nationwide phenomenon, are the attendants trained to do that in the sense they are trained to alert the customer to ensure the zero reading before filling.

I wonder what they exactly do. In a few seconds, how can they make the meter reach INR500 and XXXXL of fuel. The final readings seems fine, if you look at them in the end. But they have dispersed less fuel into the tank. They force a hop in the loop somehow. Like they are jumping from INR 200 ----> INR500 and toggling the equivalent fuel graduation too. How..?

[TheTeacher]

Why on earth do pump manufacturers build in the ability to do these kinds of shenanigans? If pumps didn't allow this abuse, the attendants can't do it.