It’s a really great idea to try to prevent people from skimming credit cards at ATMs and gas pumps with anti-theft stickers –Â but the first important step? You gotta put the sticker in the right spot. Shell failed at this back in October, and it appears it’s still totally clueless when it comes to sticker placement. [More]
gas stations
Shell Still Can’t Figure Out How To Use Anti-Theft Stickers On Gas Pumps
By 6.5.12 — Updated: 12.5.13
Paying For Gas With A Credit Card? $1 Extra Per Gallon, Please
By 3.16.12
It’s not legal for a store to charge an extra fee or percentage when customers pay by credit card, but it is legal to offer a discount to customers who pay in cash. Great. The flaw in this plan is that, at least in New York state, there aren’t any laws regulating how big that discount can be. Which is why some Long Island gas station operators recently hiked the price per gallon of gas a dollar, then offered a one-dollar discount to customers who pay cash. [More]
New Device Lets You Pay Cash To Fill Up Your Tank Without Leaving Deposit
By 12.21.11
If you want to pay cash at the gas station, chances are you either need to pre-pay or leave some sort of deposit inside before the attendant will even unlock the pump. But a station in Saginaw, MI, is testing a new pump technology called Post-Pay that allows cash-paying customers to unlock the gas pumps with a mere swipe of a driver’s license. [More]
Those Anti-Skimming Gas Pump Stickers Don’t Work If You Do It Like This
By 10.11.11 — Updated: 7.30.13
Last month, we wrote about the new-ish practice of slapping stickers on gas pumps to prevent credit card skimmers. But someone at this Shell station seemed to have missed the point of the sticker completely. [More]
BP Thinks People Should Go 90 MPH On Main Street?
By 9.2.11
This is odd. Reader Kevin spotted a sign on top of a BP gas pump that has an image of a GPS device on it. In the GPS screen, it shows whoever is driving as going 90 MPH while going down “Main Street.” An attempt to subliminally encourage people to use more gas, perhaps? [More]
Orlando Shell Station Charges $5.59/Gallon, Shocking Drivers
By 8.31.11
Gas prices are high, but $5.59 a gallon? That’s what drivers pulling up to a Shell station at in Orlando, FL are paying. They say they don’t find out what the price is until they get their receipt. Talk about Shell-shock. [More]
The $2,300 Tank Of Gas
By 3.10.11
A man’s eyes popped out his head and went “Awoooga!” when they saw his receipt for pumping 13 gallons of gas: $2297.84! Since he paid with his debit card, that meant real money was immediately drained from his bank account, causing a $1,300 overdraft. At first the gas station manager just shrugged his shoulders and blamed the bank, but he changed his tune after news reporters walked in asking questions about the receipts. [More]
Updated: Buy Gas From Shell Last Weekend? Check Your Card For Double Billing
By 2.3.11
If you filled up with gas from Shell on Saturday, January 29 2011, (update: readers report double-billing throughout the whole weekend and Shell says they’re looking to expand the affected time period) and paid with plastic, you should check your card statement to see if you got double-billed. StorefrontBacktalk got hold of a confidential memo which said that a telco outage resulted in 401,120 double-billed transactions having to be reversed for a total of $12,135,608.19 in refunds. While the reversals should be automatic, some people with low balances did get charged overdraft and other fees because of the mistake, fees they should not have to pay [More]
Would You Let A Station Attendant Hold On To Your License While You Pump Gas?
By 9.16.10
Larry tells Consumerist that when he tried to pay for gasoline with his credit card recently, the station attendant didn’t just ask to see his driver’s license. She asked to keep it while he pumped gas. Have you run across this in your own travels? What would you do? [More]
Gas Pump Programmed To Say "An American Company. No Terrorist Gas!!!"
By 8.26.10
Tempers in the country are running hot, so much so that at least one gas station owner has turned the LCD screen on his pumps into a medium of personal expression. In a Consumerist exclusive, one of our readers found a gas pump programmed to say, “AN AMERICAN COMPANY. NO TERRORIST GAS!!!” at his local Valero gas station. [More]
When You Boycott BP Gas Stations, BP Can Profit
By 6.14.10
You need gas. On the right is a BP. On the left is a supermarket gas station. Which do you choose, and why? If you skip the BP to go to the other, you might actually be putting more cash in BP’s stained pockets.
Like this story? Check out, “BP Gulf-Sized Spilling Occurs In Nigeria Annually, But Nobody Cares.”
Why Don't I Get The Cash Discount For Gas When I Pay With My Debit Card?
By 6.10.10
David writes that he recently had a confusing experience at a gas station, and he wanted some clarification. He’s used to receiving a cash discount when he pays with his debit card at gas stations, but came across a gas station owner who wouldn’t give a cash discount for anything but actual greenbacks. Are this gas station’s policies illegal, David wonders? [More]
Show Your Support For BP By Filling Up At ARCO, AM/PM
By 5.31.10
Since BP is doing such a great job cleaning up that oil spill, it’s only right that consumers show their support for the quicker, thicker picker-uppers by bringing their business to subsidiaries ARCO and AM/PM, and greasing the wheels with BP’s Castrol Motor Oil. [More]
Costco Dispenses E85 Ethanol Instead Of Gas
By 5.14.10
A tank that customers at an upstate New York Costco gas station thought was full of premium gasoline may have actually dispensed E85 ethanol, damaging engines and fuel systems of cars not designed to deal with the fuel. E85 is a mixture of 85% corn juice and 15% gasoline that can severely damage engines not designed for it. [More]
To Tip Or Not To Tip: Full-Service Gas Station Attendants
By 4.1.10
Last week’s poll on tipping the pizza delivery guy certainly riled a lot of feathers, with over 300 comments on the topic and more than 12,000 votes tallied. It’s also brought up some good questions about tipping from Consumerist readers, like this one from Chad, who has just been introduced to mandatory full-service gas stations in New Jersey. [More]
Man Dies In Freak Gas Pump Fire Caused By Static Electricity
By 3.10.10
A Pennsylvania man died last Friday in a freak fire at a gas station. Authorities say that the fire was sparked by static electricity on the man’s body, and he died of inhalation of superheated gases. While this type of fire is very rare and fatalities even rarer, they do happen. To prevent them, you should do something terribly mundane: do not ever get back in your car while fueling, and make sure to touch a metal surface before fueling. [More]
Do Not Steal An ATM, Then Ram A Stolen Truck Into It
By 2.21.10
Police in East Peoria, Illinois say that an unidentified man used a stolen pickup truck to smash through the door and front window of a gas station and dislodge an ATM from the wall it was bolted to. He then hauled the machine to a parking lot where he attempted to withdraw cash by backing the truck into the ATM. He was not successful, and may have stolen another vehicle to leave the area. [More]
Please Prepay This Gas Station In Advance
By 2.21.10
Reader Neil found this sign on a gas pump near Cleveland. He’s disappointed, since he prefers to pre-pay after the transaction is over. [More]
