You probably wouldn’t try to leave a retail store without a receipt, but you might not think about it when you’re at the gas pump—after all, it’s not like you’re going to bring the gas back for a refund. But a reader points out that you should always have your proof of purchase just in case you end up in an awkward situation:
I pulled out of the lot, turned left, and I wasn’t more than 200 yards away when a cop comes up behind me, lights flashing. I knew I couldn’t have been speeding so I was genuinely confused. He said the woman at the United Dairy Farmers said I drove off without paying for gas.
Here’s Chris’ full story:
I had an interesting experience on Friday and a life lesson I think is worth passing onto other readers. On Friday I stopped at a United Dairy Farmers (local Cincinnati convenience store/ice cream parlor) to fill up while gas is relatively cheap. I pulled up to the pump, swiped my card, filled up, and paused before printing the receipt. Usually those things just end up wadding up in my pocket or under the seats of the car, but what the hell, I hit yes anyway. I then went inside to get a soft drink.
“Anything else?” the cashier asked. I said no, paid in change, and went back to my car. I pulled out of the lot, turned left, and I wasn’t more than 200 yards away when a cop comes up behind me, lights flashing. I knew I couldn’t have been speeding so I was genuinely confused. He said the woman at the United Dairy Farmers said I drove off without paying for gas. I said that was incorrect, and he said “She said it was a silver car, and she pointed at yours.” I do drive a silver car, but I had paid for gas, and wait! I told the officer I had my receipt, and he wrote down the details: Amount, pump number, last 4 of my credit card, and the time. I also pulled out the credit card I paid with and my license, just to verify everything was on the up and up. He was cool about it, apologized, and I was on my way.
Lesson here is to always print that receipt out. I rarely check it against my statements now that I don’t fill up as often. But without that 3×1 strip of paper I would have had a totally different story to tell. Needless to say I won’t be taking my business to United Dairy Farmers anymore – being falsely accused of theft is a dealbreaker.
(Photo: Getty)
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Aww, don’t just drop the place because of that. Mixups like that happen sometimes.
I haven’t seen a pump in recent years that would let you start it without without some type of payment or cashier intervention first. So no drive-offs even possible, unless the cashier turns the pump on to allow you to fill up.
200 yards = 600 ft @ 20 mph = 20.5 seconds. Is it seriously possible to dispatch a cop that fast? Almost always the call goes through a dispatch center and then to the cop. If he really showed up that quick I wonder if the cashier called before he drove off, for some malicious reason.
I wonder what the figures are, if everyone in america DIDN’T print their receipts.. wonder what the ecological output would be.
Just to add, maybe the driveoff really did occur, but occurred minutes before the OP, and was in a similar car, thus a mixup. That seems plausible.
Or maybe let the cashier know you paid at the pump if you go inside to buy something else?
@timmus: …or maybe the cop was getting coffee there and the cashier caught his attention. Is it really necessary to nit-pick this point?
Debit Card + Cellphone access to bank account = Proof of payment
I always pay at the pump.
I often enter the store afterwards for a soda beverage.
I have never been pulled over for suspicion of stealing gas.
I have never had a friend or acquaintance that this has happened to.
I will not fear any random, rare occurrence that happened to someone else someplace 800 miles away.
I will continue to not print a receipt.
It’s also a good idea to get a reciept for another reason–where I live they had a run of cars get ruined because they filled up at a station that had lower gas prices than the rest. Turned out that the station was using way more alcohol than they were supposed to in their fuel. The people who ran into that problem are, of course, asking for damages. But the ones without a reciept are pretty much out of luck.
I once accidentally drove off without paying. It was decades ago, about ’84. I got home and realized I probably didn’t pay. I called and asked if someone had just drove off without paying. They replied, “Yes.” I apologized profusely and said I’d be there in a few minutes to pay it. So I drove all the way back and paid.
Because of that, I always get my receipt. Not to give to a cop, but to give to myself to ensure that I paid.
@TalKeaton: he paid with his card the clerk can check that. yes drop that store.
You could also pull up your pending transactions on your iPhone, if it were so necessary.
@TalKeaton: I would say being harassed by a police officer because a store clerk screwed up big time is a pretty good reason not to patronize the business any more.
I, too, will continue not to print my receipt and skip the overpriced car wash.
@DeanOfAllTrades: Yeah, I wonder if a cop would let you call in to your bank/cc issuer and get proof from a rep there that there is an authorization for funds.
I’ve been printing receipts off anyway so I can check my gas mileage later.
Oh, I love being accused of being a thief and being guilty by anyone that can point a finger until I prove myself innocent in this country.
I’m sure the store would also have record of payment (such as a receipt journal) if one didn’t print a receipt and should happen to be pulled over. It would take more time, but I’m not going to print receipts just because of a freak accident that happened to one person ONCE.
Lost me in the first sentence, for 99% of my retail transactions if I could leave without a receipt I would do so.
But otherwise I agree, printing gas receipts because of the details of this story would be a bit like me installing a giant trampoline over my house to repel meteors because of the news story about a house in Australia that got hit by one.
@felixgolden: It depends on the area. In Michigan, most of the places I’ve seen don’t require pre-pay, except possibly at night. When I moved to Florida for college, all of the places I’d seen were pre-pay.
Why doesn’t United Dairy Farms just have someone standing at the driveway to check your receipt when you leave? Problem solved!
Sure, having a receipt may save you a little hassle, but it’s not your responsibility to prove you didn’t do a crime. It’s the other party’s responsibility to prove you did.
Here in NY, our local stations (like Stewarts) have signs up saying “We have camera’s on the pumps at all times, this prevents you from having to prepay for your gas” Most of the time, our local stations don’t require you prepay, they just turn the pump on for you. But I guess we live in a trusting area…? But that blows. Thanks for the tip, OP! I’ll remember to tuck my receipt in a safe place next time, instead of throwing them out in a day or two.
@simplegreen:
It would cure cancer.
@CSR: It’s called a bank or credit card statement.
I always print my receipt, but on the occasions when the printer jams, or is out of paper, I don’t worry about it. I’m paranoid about stuff like this, and especially in this day and age of high gas prices and drive-offs, we should be careful to protect ourselves.
A receipt helps, but it’s probably better, if you pay at the pump, to move your car away from the pump and park in front of the store if you want to go in to by something. This will avoid mix-ups and will also free up the pumps for other customers.
@captadam: BUY something, not BY something.
What was the point of paying at the pump if you were going into the store anyways? The whole point of paying at the pump is to get out of there fast without wasting time going into the store. Suits her right for the cashier thinking something shifty was up. Of course the cashier could have always asked her why she wasn’t paying for her gas.
@timmus: Interesting catch.
This doesn’t make sense. Retailers are supposed to have records of *all transactions*. The customer should have insisted the officer get the transaction from the retailer. If the retailer has it (which is an obvious yes), that was a false police report (and obviously intentional since retailers have access to the data and could have checked). That’s criminal in just about every place in the US.
The receipt is YOUR copy… but the retailer has a copy themselves.
Even in cases of cash… There should be a security camera anyplace a transaction takes place. So the customer should have requested the officer check the security tape. When the proof is played… the retailer should have really been arrested for a false police report.
I’m a little disgruntled that the customer didn’t insist the officer investigate if it was a false police report.
I’m guessing some people will just go back and pay cash, essentially double playing. A nice way for gas stations to make up for those credit card fees.
Maybe this was the Cops way of getting your phone number. Was he cute?
@theninjasquad: No, it doesn’t “suit her right”. I’ve done that all the time, usually because I didn’t feel like going in to prepay or preswipe my card before pumping my gas.
That is why I do just that. Never been stopped before though. Good move, submitter!
I don’t know why people would willingly leave without a receipt.
What happens if you visit an unethical gas station or there’s a computer error and your $20 fillup says you pumped $200 worth of gas? How do you have any proof that you didn’t indeed fillup for $200?
Yeah, 99.9% of gas transactions are problem free, but I don’t think you’d want to be fighting an error like the one mentioned.
Another reason to always get a receipt from the pump…it closes out the transaction. My friend’s dad a few years ago had his card get charged because the pump’s computer got hung up and not only charged him for his gas…but also the next 6 people to get gas at that pump.
He was able to call and get the charges taken off…but still…why take the chance?
@Hawk07: OK, now there is a situation that would cause a charge back!
Long ago, my Army Reserve unit had a similar encounter down in Georgia while passing through to an exercise in government vans. We had stopped to get gas for all of our vans and after we had left, our lead vehicle was pulled over, with the accusation being that they had driven away without paying. As is standard procedure, the driver had a receipt since he had used the vehicle’s government card to pay for it, so it ended happily for us.
@craiggers: Shouldn’t have saying ‘No’ to the receipt ended the transaction too?
In El Paso you cannot pump then pay. By law all gas purchases must be pre-paid. This has eliminated drive-offs and calls to police.
@Troy F.: Then we would have stories about people being harassed on their way out of the gas station after refusing to show their receipt!
OK, you no-receipters, riddle me this. You’re obviously smart people. Why would you not want to keep a record of your purchases? I use them to reconcile the transactions on my statements, just to make sure the merchant is being honest and accurate. Are you that sure that the pay-at-the-pump systems are so accurate and secure that you’d walk away with no record of the transaction for yourself? Yeah, it’s a little paper, but I’d rather know that I’ve got a little ammo at least if things went wonky at the pump, or if the kid I handed my card to at the drive-thru didn’t punch in an extra 20 bucks to take out of the till…
I can’t imagine not having a receipt. I mean, CCTV would have a record of you paying inside I guess, and there would be an electronic record of paying with your card, but yeah, I’d never go there again-I don’t think that’s overreacting, not suing or filing charges, or smearing them, just voting with your wallet against a place that sends the cops after you on a whim
@palookapalooza: Speaking of which, a local gas station has been using the ol’ bait n switch. The price it charges at the pump is .05 higher than posted. Didn’t notice until I looked at my receipt
Same thing happened to me, except it was at a Clark station.
Paid for gas at the pump via credit card, but then went inside and bought coffee.
In my case, the cop showed up at my door, instead of pulling me over. I showed him my receipt and he left.
I always wondered how they tracked me down, since I paid cash for the
coffee. Did somebody up the credit card transaction that I supposedly
didn’t make or did they check the video tape that included my paying
for the gas ?
@theninjasquad: What are you talking about? It’s easier to swipe a card than wait in line or interact with someone. If I want something I’ll go in while my fuel pumps
There are places where you can pump gas without having to prepay?
*the more you know*
@Murph1908: Actually, there’s a good reason to print the receipt. It allows you to look at your fill-up later and see if it fits the pattern for your previous fill-ups. My car usually only needs 12 gallons to fill-up, but everytime I went to this one Exxon statio down the street I would need nearly 13 gallons. Turns out their pumps needed to be recalibrated.
@digitalgimpus:
Wrong. Calling the police about a suspected crime is not tantamount to filing a police report. Are you saying that someone who calls about suspicious activity in their neighborhood should be charged with a crime when no arrests are made? Is calling the police about a suspected DUI a crime when the person is found not to be intoxicated?
I’m no lawyer, but I understand the difference in a police report and calling the police.
It’s really infuriating when people recruit random laws that do not apply to help their argument. A personal favorite is the right to free speech. Example: “I was banned from Consumerist for posting things against the comments code – they violated my right to free speech!”
@cmdrsass: How is this harassment? The cop answered a call. Pulled her over and got the proof he needed to realize it was a mix up and APOLOGIZED. At no point did she have to get out of the car and put her hands behind her back, had a gun stuck in her face, was yelled at, or tazed. In fact, she said he was cool about it. She didn’t seem that upset.
Getting pulled over is not harassment. It was an error. It happens.
If she didn’t have her receipt, then they would have to look it up in the computer and it would have been straightened out. And then major amounts of apologies had better occur!
@CSR: that doesn’t make sense why couldn’t they just bring in their credit card statement?
@palookapalooza: Because in my decade or so of using credit cards, of all of the erroneous charges that I’ve had (there are only a few I can recall), none of them would have been prevented or corrected by saving the receipt. I think ten years of not having to constantly flush my car/pockets/wallet of little bits of paper is well worth any potential trouble resulting from not saving receipts…