Petrol prepay

georgiasmum

I had to buy petrol last night on the M4 services at 1.30am (expensive I know but I was desperate) and they have prepay after 11pm. ok, I think as I understand that people drive off without paying BUT when I went to prepay £10 they didn't do it but insisted on taking my card, I gave it to them reluctantly but did query the process. I said, 'what about fraud, skimming etc etc' but they didn't seem to care/understand. Is it legal to do this?? Prepay after 11pm is fine but I don't think I should have to handover my card, isn't there a better and safer way for me and them??

hjb123

This does sound a dodgy way of doing to me but I guess what is there to stop you putting more than the £10 you said you were going to put in in and then going?

hawkwinddotcom

The petrol stations have video/CCTV so whats their problem?

I dont prepay when doing other purchases that i could clear off with, so why petrol?

I thought we are meant to keep the card in our sights at all times?!

This happened to me coming back from Cornwall early hours (6am) told the cashier to stick his petrol and drove to the next garage.

littlemissfrugal

the problem is that doing a "drive off" is not technically a police matter and the company either has to bear the loss or persue the monies through debt collection agencies all of which adds to the overheads and in turn expensive fuel costs. So even with CCTV the garage is open to fraud, the police will not act on theft of petrol in 99% of cases.

IvanOpinion

It is a sign of the times we live in. To try to minimise losses (in case of theft) they obviously want to keep the amount of cash on the premises as low as possible and therefore seem to have some sort of a policy that only accepts credit cards.

I am afraid to say that it is one of those situations were you either lump it or like it ... if you don't like it then you still have the choice to go elsewhere.

Ivan

biblejohn

I guess tesco "pay at the pump" service is already similar to this. Where you scan your card in the pump first before you are allowed to fill up. I always use this anyway when i fill up as i cant be bothered to go through queuing at the tills to pay in the mornings.

Fifer

littlemissfrugal wrote:

the problem is that doing a "drive off" is not technically a police matter and the company either has to bear the loss or persue the monies through debt collection agencies all of which adds to the overheads and in turn expensive fuel costs. So even with CCTV the garage is open to fraud, the police will not act on theft of petrol in 99% of cases.

Why wouldn't it be a police matter? I can't see that it's any different to me walking out of M&S with a shirt I hadn't paid for.

MooseRich

Fifer wrote:

Why wouldn't it be a police matter? I can't see that it's any different to me walking out of M&S with a shirt I hadn't paid for.

The police are only really interested if you have on CCTV, full reg and clear picture of the person who filled up. Not worth chasing else and I'm sure you know what most CCTV systems are like, very poor quality. Also, most people that fill up and drive off don't have the car registered to them, so it's impossible to track them down.

Cath_S

I used to work at a petrol station in my student days. They didn't have cameras installed as it was considered a low risk area but we had at least 1 drive off a month. If it kept happening to the same cashier then it was considered dodgy and the money came out of the cashiers wages.

Please remember that most of the time it's not the fault of the cashier if they have to ask for pre payment. The company probably insists on it and to be honest I can't blame them. I could go on and tell you some right old stories.............

The life of a petrol cashier is not rosey

smcaul

DONT let them have your card whilst you are filling your car. I have worked as an HGV driver for a number of years and it is common practise to leave the card before filling up (400ltr at a time is a big loss to a garage), But I along with many others have had cards charged for the wrong amount and even been given the wrong card back, I would never do it with my own card -I would also think that if any funds were taken without your knowledge then you would be liable as you have handed your card over and then walked away, it was not stolen. They have the ability to shut off the pumps when it gets to a certain amount, it is just them being lazy.

littlemissfrugal

unfortunately the Police are not even interested if you have all the details the following up of petrol theft is another victim of under resources - the only time the Police are interested in CCTV is if the offender is possibly involved in more serious crimes, and lets face it if you were burgled or mugged and your local coppers left you waiting for days whilst they dealt with this sort of petty crime you would be well hacked off - i know i would and i manage a petrol station.