How petrol pumps cheat you

I had written about this some years back and forwarded it to as many people as I know. These practices that I mention below still continue. Do your part and spread awareness to everyone you know.

If any of you have any ideas on how this can be addressed, let's discuss that. For my part, I watch them when people ahead of me in the Q are getting their fill and warn them when they say things amiss.

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There are many possible tricks and variations in the repertorie of fuel pumps to cheat customers of money. Here are a few that I have seen with my own eyes and at times experienced. The principal handicap is that there is no way to prove that the fuel pump cheated us unless we videotape their every move.

1. The simplest. The operator starts filling your tank without resetting. He sometimes even feigns to reset.

2. You ask for X (say Rs. 500) worth of fuel. The operator puts in Y (say Rs. 100) and stops. He acts as if he misunderstood you. So he says he will put X-Y (Rs. 400) more, but he doesn't reset the counter. He lets the counter run till X-Y and says he has put in X-Y *more*, effectively cheating you of Y (Rs.100).

3. When you are distracted the pump operator, stops at an arbitrary amount. Then before you can see, he inputs whatever value you asked for into the counter. So if you asked for Rs. 600, he stops at Rs. 450 and punches in 600 before you notice anything amiss (this happened today to a poor guy at the HP petrol pump on JP Nagar Inner Ring Road.)

4. This is a combination/variation of 2 and 3. Even before he fills, the operator punches in a number and says he has put in that much. Again he has misunderstood how much you wanted and so proceeds to put in the difference. At this juncture, he might put in the correct difference or he will not reset and cheat of more as in 2 above.

Remember, there are many such tricks that they use. The key to all these tricks is to keep you distracted. Asking for your credit card, indicating your clogged overflow pipe, etc. are just some of the ways they distract you.

Beware of these blatant cheats!! Awareness is key.