Motoring delay caused by petrol station error

GoFind

A petrol station we used in Germany last week mistakenly had put diesel in their unleaded petrol pump. We didn't know till we had problems and called out the breakdown service - the ADAC mechanic knew of the tanker driver's error at that fuel station and we ended up paying to get the diesel drained from our petrol tank.

The whole episode lost our family of four 5 hours of our holiday (i.e. most of the day).

The oil company has admitted liability and supplied a claim form. It's easy to claim for the cost of the removal of the diesel etc, but does anyone have any guidance of how much we should claim for 4 of us losing 5 hours of our holiday?

Incapuppy

How does a big fat nothing sound? The world's gone compo crazy!

phatbear

GoFind wrote: »

The whole episode lost our family of four 5 hours of our holiday (i.e. most of the day).

Im pretty sure that 5 hours isn't "most of the day" just accept it as "one of things" and get over it.

Voyager2002

I do not agree with Incapuppy: time is money.

The value of the time of the adults in your party could be estimated by calculating the hourly equivalent of your gross salaries. That figure could at least give you a starting point.

phatbear

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I do not agree with Incapuppy: time is money.

Made me chuckle as I remember sitting on the narrow gauge railway going up snowdon many years ago and the little chuffer kept breaking down some old git kept looking at his watch and huffing eventually his wife asked why he was huffing and he said "time is money" if that was the case then why the hell would you be sitting on a little train going no where?

Consider this I flew back from the U.S on friday and my plane was delayed by 2 1/2 hours do I deserve compensation after all its reduced the amount of hours I had to myself prior to coming back to work today

GoFind

I agree that compensation culture has gone too far, but I can't agree that we didn't have that day ruined so should receive nothing. We broke down at mid-day on our way to somewhere and didn't get going again till 5pm so never got to our destination - that was indeed most of the day gone! Five hours in the afternoon in a seven day annual holiday is not an insignificant amount of time wasted. There's a guideline for compensation available to airline delays on the moneysavingexpert website and if I stick diesel in a car because it's coming out of a pump labelled "petrol" I think it's only fair to be compensated properly for the incompetence of an oil company's tanker driver.

thegirlintheattic

Apart from the fees to get the diseal out of your tank what financial loses did you suffer from the delay?

You claim compensation for money lost, not because you had to spend 5 hours waiting for the car to be sorted.

joerugby

There is no compensation culture in Germany, you can forget any ideas of that kind - just put it down to experience

GoFind

As a "newbie" to these forums I'm disappointed at the lack of expertise here. The German HQ of the oil company immediately faxed through a compensation form and have asked me to put in a claim!

And anyone who thinks losing virtually a day of a week's holiday shouldn't be entitled to any compensation may be interested to read this...
Search moneysavingexpert: travel flight delays (sorry unable to post URL as website won't allow)

Caz3121

the argument about flight delays does not really help the case as currently there is a stayed court case where the airlines are arguing that they should not be paying out compensation for delays (Cancellations yes but delays no) There are rates quoted for delay over x hours = £££, but no-one can get this currently because of the Sturgeon case. There should be more info on the case in 2012

Bob_the_Saver

Sh*t happens