Royal Farms refuses to fix a broken gas pump that charges customers even after the gas stops flowing. The pump in Abingdon, Maryland has overcharged Tom on five separate occasions, and Royal Farms refuses to issue a promised refund.
Tom sent us his letter to Royal Farms:
On July 8th, 2007 I pulled over at one of your Royal Farms gas stations to fill up my car.What occurred at this Royal Farm gas station was a complete shock to me. I swiped my credit card and began to pump gas into my car. While the gas was pumping I got a very important phone call, which I needed to answer. I answered the call and took a few steps away from the gas pump.. The pump continued to pump the gas, however, at some point the pump stopped pumping. I remember hearing a loud click sound when the pump shut off. As this was a very important call, I talked on the phone for a few more minutes.
When I finally got back to the gas pump I was shocked to see that the meter was still running; eventually it slowed but still continued to run. Both the gallons number and the dollar amount continued to increase even though the gas was no longer flowing. I removed the pump handle from my car to make sure.. While holding the pump handle in my hand, I watched both the gallons number and the dollar amount still continue to increase. At this point I called the county police station to report fraud; however was informed that they wouldn’t come out unless I go no cooperation from the gas attendant.
As far as I am concerned this is stealing and is no different than me getting gas without paying for it.
I called the gas station attendant to show him what was going on.
He witnessed the problem.
Unfortunately, he was unable to do anything about this and was unable to offer a refund.
I was given the name and phone number for the store manager with instructions to call her the next day. As instructed I called and spoke with the store manager. She promised to issue a refund back to my credit card which of course hasn’t happened yet.
On 10/18/07, I returned to this same Royal Farms gas station and the same thing occurred again. At some point the gas stopped flowing however, the dollar amount kept on increasing.
On 10/31/07, I returned to this same Royal Farms gas station and the same thing occurred once again. At some point the gas stopped flowing however, the dollar amount kept on increasing.
On 12/6/07, I returned to this same Royal Farms gas station and the same thing occurred once again. At some point the gas stopped flowing however, the dollar amount kept on increasing.
On 12/13/07, I returned to this same Royal Farms gas station and the same thing occurred once again. At some point the gas stopped flowing however, the dollar amount kept on increasing.
Call your credit card company and chargeback the excess costs for as many visits as they will allow. Next, call your local department of Weights and Measures. They have inspectors who love discovering leaky pumps. You will make their day. Finally, find a new gas station! One that charges for the amount of gas pumped.
(Photo: jrdnjstn)
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@mgyqmb: Yes, I agree with you. But only to a certain point. But since it happened more than one time, he is a HUGE moron. He went FOUR more times within a month before the first problem got resolved. And of those trips, he never said he, according to the post, complained.
Now, if he was stuck in the middle of nowhere, I could possibly see this problem arising. But not like he could get off the phone, or use a headset, and watch the KNOWN trouble pump. Oh the humanity!
Wait a minute… so the police will come with sirens blaring when some does a “drive off” without paying for gas, but wont do anything when the pump basically dives off with your credit card # ?
@ClayS: Certainly a car has more available energy, but as you stated, the fuel/air mixture would have to be just right and there would need to be some sort of break in your spark plug/coil insulation and the fuel/air mixture would need to rise to the level of your coils/wires.
Your exhaust pipe would be a more likely source of ignition (I have not measured the temperature of an exhaust pipe, but I assume that it is above the Auto-ignition temp of gasoline.
Probably the most likely (but still not very likely) source of ignition would be the pump itself especially if it were not well maintained.
To borrow a line from MythBusters…Ignition of gasoline at a gas station by a cell phone, car exhaust, car electrical system, static electricity or a fuel pump…Plausible, but unlikely.
@Rachacha:
About 8 years ago I had tiny gas leak in my old 89 ford bronco’s gas tank. It must have been a rust hole or something between the gas tank & the skid plate surrounding it because the leak would only drip. And it would drip directly onto the HOT tailpipe. Never ignited or anything & who knows how long it had been happening before I first discovered it. And I did check that it was gasoline. I had to have the whole tank replaced.
@ibanix: Actually, mythbuster put to much gasoline into their test, so that the air was too saturated to spark. I wish people would quit quoting them when because they have too many flaws in their testing procedures.
I had the opposite thing occur once where a pump jumped up a few cents (like a nickel) as soon as I activated it, but before putting it in the car. In my case I got a little refund directly.
@causticitty: No, it isn’t. Not unless your battery blows up. You’d notice if you had enough fumes to ignite by anything less.
I can (barely) see why he went back the second time. It’d been 3 or so months, and maybe the problem was fixed. That’s not wholly unreasonable.
The rest is just stupid. More so if he never got anything for the first time.
Unless he provides proof this man is a liar. Pure and simple. Ive gotten gas at this station literally HUNDREDS of times (my old office was a block away) and its not only always busy, but Ive never had a problem. I have no problem believing this happened once, cause hey, shit happens, but to believe that he willingly went back 4 times after no receiving a refund is beyond belief.
Oh, and its not like he didnt have a choice, there is a WAWA literally across the street with like 10 pumps that is usually 1-2 cents cheaper.
@lukobe:
No it’s not:
[www.m-w.com]
@causticitty: Mythbusters says no.
1st mistake? Walking away from the pump to take a phone call AT THE GAS STATION! Unless you enjoy catching on fire, I’d suggest letting it go to voicemail. Also, by walking away you have no idea how much you should actually have been charged for the gas. 2nd mistake? Going back there again, multiple times! Not to say you deserve being taken advantage of, but you should have learned after the 1st time, especially when you received no cooperation from the management about the problem.
I enjoy the way that things work out. A device will malfunction to screw you over but never, even for a second, cut you a break.
I’m sure the best practice here was to increase your problem by returning there FOUR MORE TIMES.
WTF is wrong with you???
@m4nea: too funny!
@benn09: You’d have to produce a spark with the phone to catch fire. Other than shorting the battery or taking the battery out of the phone AND having that produce a spark, the phone isn’t going to ignite anything. The ringer produces no electricity of its own nor does it involve a mechanical switch, so that’s out too.
Gasoline doesn’t burn that readily without a good ratio of air, 14:1.
@Bubs:
lol yeah.
I watched an investigative piece on weights & measures & the gas stations they inspect/test.
Seems there are unscrupulous gas stations who have electronics installed in the pump that cheat people. They often have a switch at the counter so they can turn it off & on at the attendant’s whim. It was like a cat & mouse game. The attendant would see who is filling up & judge whether or not if THAT person was a good target to scam. And the weights & measures testers would have special vehicles outfitted with special gas tanks so it just looked like they were just a regular customer & not an inspector.
From what i understood the cheaters wouldnt do it too often, because they never knew who was an inspector or a regular customer. But the Sad thing is that most state’s weights & measures inspectors are far & few between. VERY understaffed. So it makes it easier for cheaters to cheat their customers.
I wish there were a database where one could look up the most problematic gas stations …. so i could avoid them.
I figure the incentive to cheat the customer is higher than ever … becuase of the insane price of gas these days & independant gas stations struggling & not being able to keep compettitive with the big chains. I have seen so many gas stations around here go out of business since gas went thru the roof that it isnt even funny.
they should created an device that you put on the end of the gas nozzle to measure the gas yourself.
anytime i suspect a gas station is screwing me over, (for one i don’t gas up there 5 more times at the same pump), i get my ONE gallon gas jug from home, and pump exactly one gallon of gas in the jug. if its wrong (which has happened once), i went in and told them that i’m not paying the bill because i didn’t get one gallon like i was supposed to and that either i was walking away scot-free, or i was calling the dept. of weights and measures. they just gave me the gas, but i still called the DOW&M on them.
@snoop-blog:
Good for you! However…. the savvy cheaters dont run their pumps night & day with the cheating device running…. they select certain people to scam or have the electronics set up to where it will only cheat the 30th customer or so. So filling up a container would raise a savvy cheater’s suspicion that you were possibly testing them or were with the weights & measures dept.
However in your case its possible that the pump was malfunctioning & the owner didnt know it (or you had a really foolish scammer ripping every customer off). But it still needed to be reported. So again I say … good for you!
@snoop-blog:
Actually…. I was thinking…. that measuring device idea is a pretty good one. But instead of putting it on the nozzle …make one into a gas cap that has a little plug in it so you could remove the plug, stick the nozzle of the gas pump in it & the gas cap checks the amount of fluid is passed thru it.
Of course…. electronics & gasoline doesnt mix well. Maybe if it was a mechanical setup… something akin to how a non-electronic pedomiter works.
@forgottenpassword: wow you took my good idea and made it great! i will now follow your comments!
a digital dash that told you down to the hundreths how much fuel was ADDED. not what the whole tank contains. that would be sweet! just make sure your dash matches the pump!
No way is this a legit letter. He is not stating the address or state of the particular station, he was given the name of the manager — doesn’t mention her name or phone number, no indication of how much was overcharged on any of the occassions — he doesn’t even seem to be asking for anything.
I dont think I’ve ever been to a Royal Farm station — don’t know where they ar — seems unfair to this company to allow some nut case to damage their name if he isn’t providing facts.
@Xkeeper: seems to me like he’s trying to collect evidence against them. There’s no financial harm if he can reverse the illegal charges. After getting enough instances to show that they’re not going to fix it, that’s when you call weights and measures and go elsewhere.
@xtc46: You mean Wikipedia?
@Buran:
Crazy like a fox, he is! You’re really giving him the benefit of the doubt. The fact is, he has no evidence besides his log of his purchases. Why did he go to Consumerist? If the gas station fixes the pump before Weights and Measures inspects it, they will be no consequences.
WTF?? I’M Tom from Abingdon, MD!
The “fix” for this is to call or write your Better Business Bureau and the state Attorney General or your local city/county Inspectors…..There should be some specific group that inspects/checks fuel pumps. Report it to one of your area TV “consumer advicate”. When the cameras show up these people straighten their act up..at least for awhile.
The other “fix” is to “NOT GO BACK THERE”………..What’s that old joke? The Doc says does that hurt when you do this? The person says “yes”. The Doc then says “well stop doing that”.
OMG! I used to live near that Royal Farms on the opposite side of 40 and I95. Given the proximity to Edge-”hood” I’m not surprised the thing is ripping people off. He should be lucky the Royal Farms hasn’t hired the crips or bloods to force people to over pay for gas.
@startertan: Wow that was remarkably racist.
@NoThru22: dude, stop going back to that gas station!!!
@Tracy Ham and Eggs: Against..? Unless you’re implying that gangsters are only a certain race.
..which would make your comment the racist one..
@benn09: Haha, do you read other comments before you post?
[www.knowgangs.com]
[www.usdoj.gov]
[gangs.umd.edu]
[wjz.com]
[www.securityinfowatch.com]
[www.examiner.com]
[www.wbaltv.com]
@Tracy Ham and Eggs: 6 second search on Google (searched for Harford County gangs). It’s called news not raciscm.
@coren: You beat me to pointing out the obvious. =D
There are reasons why people who know those areas call them Edge-Hood and Havre Disgrace.
I think the comments about calling the police are a bit strange. If I were a police officer I would ignore such calls. Tell the manager they have a week to issue a refund and if they don’t you will issue a charge back. Then follow through. I have done this 3 times (various reasons not all mistakes by a retailer) with Bank of America and they always put the money back in my account while I am on the phone, I love instant gratification. Then it is up to the the retailer and the credit processor to work it out.
Gee Doc, it hurts when I hit my forehead, so the Dr said, well stop hitting your forehead. After the 2nd time I am sure most sane people would have enough evidence or a video camera and wouldn’t have had to return 3 more times to get screwed again. What a moron!!!!!!
After reading this blog yesterday, a Maryland Department of Agriculture Weights and Measures offical went to the only Royal Farm Store in Abingdon, Md. at 2603 Old Philadelphia Road. The inspector found the station had replaced all of the gas dispensers with new ones since the last inspection date. The only violation found was on dispenser number 2, where the indications would continue to advance after releasing the nozzle and stopping product flow. The dispenser was condemned for repairs and taken out of service on January 8, 2008.
That’s my picture I took at a Dia de los Muertos celebration! awesome!
This story reminds me of the WI gas station who employee accidently changed the price from 2.98 to .298/gal.
The station closed but allowed pumps to run by CC purchase in absence. When long lines lined up in the middle of the night, the error was noticed.
The station owner of a fairly small town was hurt that her neighbors and customers would “steal” from her. Yes, steal, she felt it was theft. What are your thoughts?