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Oil Company RipOFF

why is it that petrol companies advertise their petrol on the forcourt say 130.9p per litre yet when u put a litre in at the pump it says 131p am i missing something here or is that against trading standards? why dont they stop the .pence as there is no such coin and just round it up to the nearest penny. also why dont they intoduce 5,10,15,20 and 30 pound buttons on the pumps the pumps go that fast now a lot of people who want to put jut £20 end up putting £20.01 in instead imagine how many people do that in one day comments please
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Comments

  • Kilty_2
    Kilty_2 Posts: 5,818 Forumite
    What about when you put in enough for it to round down?

    Is your life really that boring you need to analyse this that much?
  • rev_henry
    rev_henry Posts: 4,965 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Well we have had this discussion before. You're not getting ripped off. If you want 10 litres at 130.9p a litre you will be charged £13.09, not £13.10. If its in between pennies it gets rounded UP OR DOWN so you're just as likely to be charged 1p more as 1p less.

    Your idea about buttons for certain amounts is good though; I've seen this in Spain once (where its all pump attended service, or was when I went), but they weren't actually using the buttons because they were in Pesetas and it had just switched to euros so it wouldn't have worked properly.
  • wealdroam
    wealdroam Posts: 19,180 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 9 March 2011 at 10:55PM
    Maybe when you pay £1.31, perhaps you are getting £1.31's worth of fuel.

    Is that a possibility?

    If that is what's happening, then it is probably not appropriate to describe it as a 'ripoff', is it?
  • Livingthedream
    Livingthedream Posts: 2,643 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    dekor8tor wrote: »
    also why dont they intoduce 5,10,15,20 and 30 pound buttons on the pumps the pumps go that fast now a lot of people who want to put jut £20 end up putting £20.01 in instead imagine how many people do that in one day comments please

    Lol, that does annoy me too, nozzle trigger fully squeezed until around £9.50 slow flow up to £9.98, get it to a £10 just about to release the trigger and £10.01, Noooooooooooooooooo
    Whoa! This image violates our terms of use and has been removed from view
  • oldagetraveller
    oldagetraveller Posts: 3,653 Forumite
    edited 10 March 2011 at 11:40AM
    Lol, that does annoy me too, nozzle trigger fully squeezed until around £9.50 slow flow up to £9.98, get it to a £10 just about to release the trigger and £10.01, Noooooooooooooooooo

    Me too. Then try and round it to £10.10 only to achieve £10.11, then try and round it to £10.20 etc., etc., etc.! It must be some kind of "disorder" because it really isn't THAT important.:p
  • Gordon_Hose
    Gordon_Hose Posts: 6,259 Forumite
    Debt-free and Proud!
    No garage I go to makes me pay the 1p if I go to £40.01 if I'm paying cash...some even have a penny tray you can take a penny from.
  • fivetide
    fivetide Posts: 3,811 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    £10 of fuel wouldn't get you off most forecourts now!
    What if there was no such thing as a rhetorical question?
  • Inactive
    Inactive Posts: 14,509 Forumite
    fivetide wrote: »
    £10 of fuel wouldn't get you off most forecourts now!

    Good point, and once you have used up your £10's worth, the next lot will cost you even more.
  • dzug1
    dzug1 Posts: 13,535 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Yet another poster debasing the word 'rip off'. We need a new word for things that really are.

    And it's well within trading standards tolerances anyway. Don't know what they here but in one US state they are within 0.5% - which means between £29.85 and £30.15 would be acceptable prices for a nominal £30 worth of fuel.
  • alexlyne
    alexlyne Posts: 740 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    you're better off giving the nozzle and pipe a good ole shake before replacing it... making sure there's no dip in the pipe for fuel to collect. How much is each drip worth? 0.1p?
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