Not charged for fuel - what should I do?

globetraveller

TF03 wrote: »

Hi all,

After some advice please.

I am currently away with work and went into a petrol station to top up the tank in my car, which came to £15.
Went in to pay, grabbed a sandwich and headed to the till.
The lady wasn't particularly attentive, it was noisy and I was still half asleep. She asked me any fuel, to which I replied with the pump number.
I then held up my card against the contactless reader, it took the payment, I waited for my receipt and left. Jumped in the car and off I went.
When I got to my destination I went to store the receipt with the others (that I use to claim back with work) and it only had the sandwich charged on in. A quick check on my online banking shows only the sandwich as well.

What do I do in this situation? Firstly, I obviously don't want to get done for fuel theft even though it would be pretty rubbish criminal behaviour to go in and buy a sarnie!
Part of me is thinking, well it wasn't my fault. I went in to pay but surely the error was from them rather than me?
But part of me is wanting to not risk getting a black mark against me/car reg. It's not like it's a huge amount of money. The problem is, the petrol station is over 100 miles away and I won't be returning to it any time soon.

Any thoughts?

Not sure why you are having a dig at people. It's quite clear in your post. What advice would you need if you absolutely are going to pay? It's pretty obvious you would need to contact them and pay.

fatrab

If you were in a restaurant and they forgot to charge you for something which you didn't realise until you were 100 miles away, would you go chasing around to get the payment to them?

I'm not saying that morally you shouldn't pay, but I wouldn't be pursuing it. Their cctv will show you offering to pay. Let them do the legwork. You're not going to get prosecuted for bilking. You didn't fill up then jump into your car with false plates on it and drive off into the sunset with £70 worth of fuel.

As stated above, their staff need to wake up/be re-trained.

z1a

Do you normally just wave your card at machine without looking at amount?

fatrab

z1a wrote: »

Do you normally just wave your card at machine without looking at amount?

Valid point! He did say he was half asleep though..

Aylesbury_Duck

fatrab wrote: »

If you were in a restaurant and they forgot to charge you for something which you didn't realise until you were 100 miles away, would you go chasing around to get the payment to them?

I'm not saying that morally you shouldn't pay, but I wouldn't be pursuing it. Their cctv will show you offering to pay. Let them do the legwork. You're not going to get prosecuted for bilking. You didn't fill up then jump into your car with false plates on it and drive off into the sunset with £70 worth of fuel.

As stated above, their staff need to wake up/be re-trained.

CCTV footage won't show the OP offering to pay, because they didn't. The OP made a mistake by not checking the amount as did the retailer by not charging the correct amount. There was an opportunity to pay but because of those errors, it didn't happen. That's not the same as offering and doesn't mean payment isn't due.

Would the OP have started a thread with a dilemma if he had gone into the shop to buy just a sandwich and the assistant had mistakenly added another customer's fuel purchase to the bill? OP didn't check the amount in his real situation so he would be equally as likely to not notice his sandwich costing £50. Would he have put that down to being his error and let it go? Of course not, so why is it a dilemma the other way around?

fatrab

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

CCTV footage won't show the OP offering to pay, because they didn't. The OP made a mistake by not checking the amount as did the retailer by not charging the correct amount. There was an opportunity to pay but because of those errors, it didn't happen. That's not the same as offering and doesn't mean payment isn't due.

Would the OP have started a thread with a dilemma if he had gone into the shop to buy a sandwich and the assistant had mistakenly added another customer's fuel purchase to the bill? OP didn't check the amount in his real situation so he would be equally as likely to not notice his sandwich costing £50. Would he have put that down to being his error and let it go? Of course not, so why is it a dilemma the other way around?

Of course it will, there will be a camera at the cash register, it very well may record sound too. Think about any forecourt you've ever been on, when you're asked what pump you'll usually notion towards the forecourt in some way or another.


As I stated, I'm not saying he shouldn't pay. Just that he shouldn't be the one to do the legwork. People don't deliberately steal £15 worth of fuel then go into the shop and buy a sandwich. £50 wouldn't have gone through on contactless anyway so your hypothetical situation is irrelevant.

Head_The_Ball

TF03 wrote: »

..I am currently away with work and went into a petrol station to top up the tank in my car, which came to £15.
Went in to pay, grabbed a sandwich and headed to the till.
The lady wasn't particularly attentive, it was noisy and I was still half asleep. She asked me any fuel, to which I replied with the pump number.

Any thoughts?

Yes, I have a thought.

Do you regularly drive while half asleep?

boliston

debsy42 wrote: »

...
So, could be that the cashier, who is probably on minimum wage, has funded your petrol and is £15 down. ....

Surely they can only deduct enough to reduce wage to statutory minimum wage, so a cashier already on minimum wage could not have the deduction even if contractual as statute always overrides contract

n217970

z1a wrote: »

Do you normally just wave your card at machine without looking at amount?

I do - the most it could be if contactless is £30 and if I was expecting to spend £15 + sandwich then whatever just take my money. To be fair to the OP if it were me I would still be none the wiser, the receipt would have been chucked into the pasenger footwell/scrunched up in my pocket and the bank account is the wifes domain.

Given this forum I am amazed nobody has interrogated the OP as to wether they have business use insurance on the car.

SuzieSue

n217970 wrote: »

I do - the most it could be if contactless is £30 and if I was expecting to spend £15 + sandwich then whatever just take my money. To be fair to the OP if it were me I would still be none the wiser, the receipt would have been chucked into the pasenger footwell/scrunched up in my pocket and the bank account is the wifes domain.

.

I agree. I try to remember to check the amount but I know I rarely do. I don't know why because I am usually very careful (look after the pennies etc), but when it comes to paying with a card, I often forget to check the amount.