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violations
350 Of New Jersey's Gas Stations Are Violating State Regulations. Here's A Map Of Them.
A recent sweep of New Jersey gas stations by state and local inspectors resulted in over a third of them receiving citations for posting the wrong gas prices on road signs, changing the price of gas too often, and other other violations. The New Jersey Star Ledger made a very helpful map of the violator stations, available inside. More »
pain at the pump
Gas Station Bans Credit Cards Because Of High Fees
It's not only the customer who is taking a hit from high gas prices, some gas stations' profits are being entirely mitigated by credit card interchange fees. The AP reports that gas station manager Roger Randolph was fed up with losing money on credit card fees. His solution was to place new signs on his Chevron gas pumps that read "No more credit cards." Details, inside... More »
gas stations
Why Are Gas Stations Charging More For Credit Card Purchases?
Yechial wants to know why his Chase BP Visa card, which offers 5% rebates on gas purchases, costs him more to use at BP stations than if he pays with cash. He asked a BP station owner in Pennsylvania about this and the station owner told him it was because credit transaction fees had gone up—"When I told him that I would report his station to BP and to Chase Bank, he said, 'Screw you! I don't care, report me. They are the ones charging us more money for the transactions.'"
Now Yechial wants to know, are BP stations simply charging more to negate the 5% rebate on the Chase BP card, or are they really dealing with higher fees on their end? This L.A. Times article published last week says it's the second reason—which means any rebate your credit card promises you on gas purchases is going to be inherently less valuable so long as expenses keep rising for station owners.
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exxon
Exxon To Exit Retail Gas Station Business
Exxon says the US retail gas station market is "too challenging" and they'll be selling the roughly 2,220 service stations the company owns. There are 12,000 Exxon/Mobil branded stations in the United States, but about 75 percent are already owned by others. More »
gas
Some Gas Stations Resort To Half-Gallon Pricing
To deal with pumps that don't have enough numbers on them to go above $3.99 per gallon, some gas station owners are selling gas by the half-gallon. Another problem is that pumps with dials on them are wearing out faster as the dials have to spin faster to keep up as the dollars per second coming out of the pump is greater. There is a seventeen-week backlog for replacement pumps that let the price show above $3.99.
Old Meters Mean Double the Price at the Pump [NYT]
(Photo: Morton Fox)
fuel
Help! My Gas Pump Doesn't Even Go To $4.00!
It sucks to be a "Mom & Pop" gas station owner these days. Gas station owning isn't as profitable as you might think (the oil company gets most of the money) and now it seems that thousands of older pumps just don't have the ability to charge more than $3.99 per gallon — and also can't charge more than $99 for the total sale, preventing truck and SUV owners from filling their tanks up all the way. More »
rip-offs
Faulty Check Valve Sometimes Cheats You, Sometimes Gas Stations
Meet the faulty check valve, a little gremlin that lives inside the gas pump. It could be pilfering your pennies. Or it could be pilfering the gas station's. It really doesn't care. According to an AP article, a faulty check valve inside a gas pump is difficult to diagnose and often goes ignored. The pricing errors it produces could either be in favor of the gas station or the consumer. How does this work? More »
identity theft
Gas Station Attendant Busted For Re-Using Customers' Credit Card Numbers
A 23-year-old gas station attendant in Massachusetts has been charged with identity theft after a customer noticed that her card was used to make additional purchases a few hours after she'd been at the station. The attendant told his employers that the customer had come back to buy gift cards for her nephew, but police say the employee wrote down the card number and expiration date.More »
id theft
Card Skimmer Harvests $10,000 From 45 Victims At California Gas Station
Police suspect that a card skimmer installed at a gas station in El Monte, CA is responsible for $10,000 in credit card fraud, says KNBC:"It looks like the victims were gassing up here and using the outside pump terminals, and their credit card information was compromised," El Monte police Detective Brian Glick said.More »
weights and measures
1/3 Of South Florida Gas Pumps Failed State Accuracy Tests
More than a third South Florida's gas station pumps have failed the state's accuracy test in the past three years. An analysis of state inspections reveals that slightly more than half of the broken pumps err in favor of the consumer. The state inspects all pumps every 12-18 months.The Sun-Sentinel analyzed state inspection reports from 2004 to 2006. The analysis found 580 of more than 2,500 stations in South Florida had at least one pump dispensing more gas than customers paid to purchase, while 477 provided less fuel than they should.More »
id theft
Gas Station "Skimmers" Steal Your Credit Card Info When You Pay At The Pump
In case you weren't aware, a skimmer is a tiny device that reads your credit card number and delivers it to the bad guys. More »
features
Why Is Gas So Freakin' Expensive?
Did you know that gas price gouging almost never occurs as prices rise? Rather, it's most often when dealers keep prices artificially high even as their costs fall. More »
2:46 PM on Tue May 29 2007
By Carey
48,340 views,
80 comments
clips
Protect Yourself From Purse Thieves At The Gas Station
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