Petrol pumps and the extra penny

Stephen_Leak

For my last 3 fills, using the same pump at the same ASDA, I've been "done" an extra penny.

The first time, I put it down to ham-fistedness and/or paying too much attention to the lady driver opposite. The second time, I was concentrating on the job in hand and put it down to co-incidence but noted that I was using the same pump.

The third time, I saw that the same pump was free and deliberately used it. At first, I thought everything was OK, but the extra penny registered as I was walking back to the pump to hang the nozzle up. I mentioned it to the attendant, but was told that the pumps had recently been calibrated.

Even the tartan bits of my DNA aren't concerned about my 3p. However, over time and given the number of other drivers using that pump (even assuming that only that one is faulty), all those pennies are going to add up.

I will mention it at the customer service desk when I visit next.

Who deals with this sort of thing now? I thought it was the local authority trading standards office, but several online sources mention HMRC.

scbk

I'm sure I was watching a fly on the wall prog and it was trading standards testing the pumps. Just give them a quick bell, they might be interested

wannabe_a_mum

Our office is located across the road from ASDA and I am usually at ASDA every lunch........last week for about 3 days on the trot, various pumps at the filling station were closed off, and there were yellow notices, men with clipboards and white vans dotted around and they were going to each pump in turn.......wonder if they are going round testing them because os something like this????

goldspanners

even although you have been charged an extra penny,did you put the exact same amount of litres in every time?

daveyjp

It's getting more difficult to stop on a set amount of money because fuel is costing more, but the delivery speed of fuel from the pump hasn't been slowed down - to deliver 1p of fuel is now quite difficult to do. When next refuelling look how quickly the pennies on the pump go up.

taxiphil

This has happened to me a couple of times too, but at Shell.

I can accept life's minor mistakes and irregularities, but find it harder to swallow mistakes and irregularities that always go in the retailer's favour. Because as the OP says, all those pennies that no-one bothered to complain about soon add up to a lot of extra profit.

I always wonder exactly how accurate these pumps really are, and if the legally permissible margin of error is always tipped in the retailer's favour?

And I wonder if Trading Standards really test them as much as we'd like to think they do.

taxiphil

It reminds me of something I once heard Peter Kay say on the radio.

He made a fuss over being overcharged for something by 20p in Asda, and the CS woman made a sarcastic remark under her breath, "I'd have thought you could have afforded to lose 20p"... to which he replied "I think you'll find Asda can afford it more than I can... now hand it over!"

Stephen_Leak

goldspanners wrote: »

even although you have been charged an extra penny,did you put the exact same amount of litres in every time?

Yes. According to the 3 receipts involved it was 25.03 L @ 99.9 p = £25.01.

goldspanners

do the maths in a calculator,it comes to 25.00497.im guessing the pump rounds up to the next nearest full pence.you will find most retailers do this.
dont think im jumping to the defence of the retailer,just trying to point out what has hapened.

david29dpo

One thing i have always wondered, If i buy 1 litre, how do i pay 99.9p? Can i hacksaw my 1p in to tenths?

Lorian

usually 2 litres is the minimum spend, so you'd have to buy £1.998 worth to try it out. You'll find the display has only 2 digits for pence though.

Anyway, tell me where I can get it for 99.9 !!!!