Faulty Pump?

Gareth56

I'm always very careful and meticulous when I put petrol in our car and only put multiples of £10 worth in it e.g. £10, £20, £30 etc So I went to my local petrol station today and carefully put it £10 which clearly showed on the pump dial after I'd replaced the nozzle back in the pump, however by the time I'd reached the paypoint inside the garage the price had gone up to £10.02p There was no point querrying this with the person behind the counter because they weren't interested they just "worked there".

Has anyone else experienced this mysterious increase in the total price post putting the nozzle back in the pump?

harveybobbles

Quite a lot of pumps do this. It's quite normal.
you should put multiples of litres in. 10 litres, 20 litres etc. Or just fill up...

lincroft1710

I've put what I thought was £10 in but in fact was £10.01, but I've notice price increase by 2p between pump and paydesk

Gareth56

harveybobbles wrote: »

Quite a lot of pumps do this. It's quite normal.
you should put multiples of litres in. 10 litres, 20 litres etc. Or just fill up...

How can it be normal if the display on the pump shows one price then when you get to pay you get a different price? Also why does it happen?

hewhoisnotintheknow

this happened to me, i refused to pay, lol

he had a spare 2p so gave it to me

tomstickland

I prefer to use even multiples of Pi litres into my car for economic reasons.

cyclonebri1

I got caught out by this several times so watch every time now. If I had say 21pence in chance in the pocket I would put £20.21 in the tank to get rid of the change.:money:
What happens is this, you stop the pump when you havethe required value in there but the pump ticks over while you are rattling the tank or putting the gun back in the holster. You never seem to look back again and when you return to the pump the cashier has reset so not checkable.

Fuel is such a cost these days that 1p is a minute amount compared to what it was a few years ago, making the pump tally much more sensitive.

The Esso garages in our area always have a penny pot on the counter, usefull if you need the odd copper;)

Gareth56

Surely once you release the handle on the pump no more petrol should get through, therefore the pump display should remain at the value that it was when you released the handle.

Also 1p or 2p may seem a minute amount w.r.t. the total price of petrol but just multiply all those 1p or 2p's by however many times it's happening per day and you have a lot more money going into the backpockets of the petrol companies than should be.

cyclonebri1

Gareth56 wrote: »

Surely once you release the handle on the pump no more petrol should get through, therefore the pump display should remain at the value that it was when you released the handle.

Also 1p or 2p may seem a minute amount w.r.t. the total price of petrol but just multiply all those 1p or 2p's by however many times it's happening per day and you have a lot more money going into the backpockets of the petrol companies than should be.

Untill the gun is back in the holster a minute amount of fuel may pass the valve in the gun. As I said this is usually when you rattle the tank neck, (anyone else notice folks doing that), or as you replace the gun. Eitherway you pay for it whether it goes in you tank or on the deck:money:

You are quite correct, in a perfectly designed bit of kit this would not happen, but it does.;)

Gareth56

"may pass the valve in the gun"...yeah

Anyway I've handed the matter over to Trading Standards so they can investigate if the pump is erring on the side of the retailer.