Petrol Station Con?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

yes, a sooker oot button, but calibrated to only take out the excess.

Ebe_Scrooge

My local Tesco station has buttons that allow you to pre-select either a specific value or a specific volume. Never used it myself, though, I just fill up when I need to.

Joe_Horner

It' not a con and happens for a mix of two reasons.

The first is simply the price of fuel combined with the speed it pumps at. A penny's worth is less than 10ml (2 teaspoons) of fuel. Even pumping as slowly as possible, twitch and you'll miss it.

The second is that 1p is now less than the minimum metering quantity. Pumps measure in 0.01l (10ml) units and 0.01l is around 1.15 pence worth. The pump then rounds down to the nearest 0.01l for payment. That means that, no matter how careful you are, there are some values that you simply can't stop at because (say) you've got to £9.995 worth and it'll charge you £9.99. But, if you put that extra 0.01l in, it goes to £10.010 in value and will charge you £10.01.

The boundaries where that happens will change with every change in price per litre, so sometimes it's noticeable (usually when it hits a round £5 or £10) but most of the time it's not.

AdrianC

[Deleted User] wrote:

yes, a sooker oot button, but calibrated to only take out the excess.

Even ignoring the contamination risk, how do you think the nozzle would get past the anti-syphon design of all modern filler necks* to extract the fuel?

* or the wire mesh in the neck of my ol' Landy, clearly designed to strain dead sheep out...

Double_V

They have that all over EU.
UK is bit behind in terms of all gadgets and technology.

Spicy_McHaggis

AdrianC wrote: »

Even ignoring the contamination risk, how do you think the nozzle would get past the anti-syphon design of all modern filler necks* to extract the fuel?

* or the wire mesh in the neck of my ol' Landy, clearly designed to strain dead sheep out...

Same way as you get into them to dip a tank looking for the likes of red or green diesel maybe.

AdrianC

Except they typically tap the filter drain, precisely because it's so difficult to go in the filler neck.

marleyboy

Its not a con, else I would have the same issue at the pump, somehow I always manage to get the price dot on, so it must be down to timing it right.

AdrianC

It does make me chuckle when you watch people trying so hard to get _right_ on to a round amount of fuel - then go and pay with a card, or buy some sweets or other stuff at the same time.

Spicy_McHaggis

AdrianC wrote: »

Except they typically tap the filter drain, precisely because it's so difficult to go in the filler neck.

Not at all straight down the fuel filler, it's not difficult at all with the correct technique.