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?

Do_They_Get_It

jrdnjstn78

marylandagriculture

nebraskabill

RobertW.TX

@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.

startertan

..which would make your comment the racist one..

@benn09: Haha, do you read other comments before you post? :)

coren

erica.blog

Tracy Ham and Eggs

startertan

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".

oldthudman

NoThru22

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.

ClayS

Angiol

Buran

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.

Hoss

snoop-blog

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

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!

forgottenpassword

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

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.

forgottenpassword

Gasoline doesn't burn that readily without a good ratio of air, 14:1.

Solo_Racer

snoop-blog

m4nea

Bubs

benn09

UpsetPanda

No it's not:

[www.m-w.com]

Landru

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.

Tracy Ham and Eggs

The rest is just stupid. More so if he never got anything for the first time.

coren

TechnoDestructo

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.

Major-General

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.

forgottenpassword

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

forgottenpassword

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!

sven.kirk

ShastaMcNasty

lukobe

As for the attendant not issuing a refund, if Royal Farms is anything like Valero, then the poor attendant has no authority to do anything but say "call my manager tomorrow".

Andrew

xtc46

1) Voltage (an "AAA" battery has a nominal 1.5V, a cell phone battery is generally 3.7V nominal)
2) Short Circuit Current (Any alkaline battery will give you about 5-7Amps instataneous (all that it needs). Lithium batteries generally have a short circuit current of 7-10A or higher), and
3) stored energy in the form of a capacitor or inductors (internal circuitry from the cell phone.

Static electricity is an issue as well, and I don't contest that.

The point being that the area surrounding a fuel pump is considered by fire marshalls as being a potentially explosive atmosphere, but only in case of an accident or a fuel spill.

Hey Consumerist...can you start a sister site, maybe "Scientist.com" so that we can argue scientific theories !

Rachacha

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JohnMc

[www.snopes.com]

The New Paltz incident is specifically mentioned at the end and the fire department determined it wasn't the phone. Cell phones produce very, very low levels of electricity. You are at far greater risk from static electricity generated from getting out of the car than by having a cell phone ring.

@Rachacha: "In a laboratory environment, I am able to ignite a gas/air atmosphere with a "AAA" battery. A cell phone battery has significantly more energy."

Voltage alone isn't the issue; load, amp hour rating play into it. Also, generating a spark off a battery contact isn't all that easy and assuming it will happen if the battery falls out is a huge leap.

Perform an experiment where you ignite fumes with a cell phone, and then I'll buy into it being more dangerous than static electricity.

Solo_Racer

Wouldn't you agree that starting a car is much more likely to start an explosion than using a cell phone?

There can actually be some arcing with relays and solenoids being energized. Yet how often does that happen? The key as you say is the fuel-air mixture needing to be just right, which isn't likely.

ClayS

You make a very good point!

ClayS

rbb

dapuddle

noorct

bhall03

Would the store have let me pump gas and then say to them, have your manager call me tomorrow and I will issue payment then??? I don't think so...

bhall03

ibanix

I filled up my tank at the local station, but their credit card readers were down. He did the carbon copy thing, and phoned it in while I was standing there. He gave me my receipt, and I went on my way. 2 months later, the charge still hasn't shown up on my statement. Should I go back to the station and let them know of their mistake? Or should I just appreciate the free gas?

shortergirl06

On Dates 1, 2, 3 and 4 I was overcharged at your station because of a faulty pump. The pump readout continued to climb even though I had stopped fueling my vehicle. I estimate the total of the overcharges as $x, which I expect to receive in the form of a check within 30 days.

That's it. No one cares about the "very important phone call" or that you think it's wrong to steal.

b. Why would you call the cops because you were overcharged for gas?

c. What kind of idiot experiences this then goes back FOUR MORE TIMES?

iMike

However, the credit card co. might have a hard time believing you filled up 5 times at the same faulty pump. You gotta admit that was pretty stupid of you.

DallasDMD

In a laboratory environment, I am able to ignite a gas/air atmosphere with a "AAA" battery. A cell phone battery has significantly more energy.

Is it POSSIBLE to cause an explosion with a cell phone...YES
Is it LIKELY that a cell phone wuold cause an explosion...NO. Conditions have to be just right, and there would have to be some sort of fault ot accident involving the phone to cause an ignition.

Sorry for going off like that, but that MythBusters episode just REALLY pi$$ed me off :-)

Rachacha

After paying in cash, the gas starts to minimize flow around the time the customer has .30 or .25 left worth of gas to pump. The consumer notes that the gas stops running but the cash meter continues. Let's assume that there are other pumps in the same station and that both the meter and gas still run after the handle is released: Customer goes inside to pay for $20 worth, person goes back out to car and pumps gas. Whether or not the cash meter stops at $20 or not, as it normally does after pre-paying in cash, chances are that gas is still being pumped in the car. If the cash meter on the station still runs, the extra gas being pumped in the car is at the cost of the station owner, not the customer as he or she had just paid $20 worth earlier.

emax4

snoop-blog

Think about this. The gas station stole this man's money. The police should have come right then and there and gotten an answer. Instead, they said that the gas station could "make things right". Even if they did, and refunded this man's money, they are still guilty of defrauding customers.

To me, this is analogous to the story of the man who stole the $3 steak, then went back later to pay for it. He had a chance to make it right, and attempted to, and was arrested anyways. Again, the customer gets the shaft while the companies skip away scot-free.

ihavetogonow

freshyill

snoop-blog

The real culprit of gas-station explosions? People getting back into their car, which generates a static charge, which then creates a spark when they get out of the car. No doubt someone was on the phone when this happened, and hence the myth started.

ibanix

RottNDude

Seriously, if it's this repeatable, your local TV news would love this story. It'd let them beat the gas price horse a little more.

legerdemain

[www.cbsnews.com]

goller321

parse

goller321

Also, isn't there usually a weights and measures contact on a sticker on each gas pump?

Did he call the manager back to follow up? Maybe she forgot. It just says he kept trying the pump again and again (for some reason).

Also, yeah, a charge back from your credit card company would help.

KogeLiz

NickRB

ClayS

HalOfBorg

turingtest

And I know of several small towns with only one station, and it costs a lot to drive to another just to get gas - esp to pay more maybe.

The pump will have a tag with the last inspection info. I bet it has contact info of some sort.

HalOfBorg

ColonelDebugger

I agree with the chargeback, but this needs to be fixed even after he gets his so it doesn't continually happen to people less able to defend against it.

KyleOrton

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snoop-blog

PinkBox

rewinditback

rewinditback

alice_bunnie

that guy is an idiot for still doing business their.

and if its just one pump thats broke, it makes this guy a bigger idiot.

snoop-blog

homerjay- Smiling politely

That is jacked up though. I would have not left the first time it happened until I got a refund. If I went a subsequent time I would have not left until I got a refund. Then I would have never returned.

NickRB

Especially if he's never getting a refund.

Xkeeper

Hawk07