Like all the best scams I'm not sure if it was or wasn't!

I needed fuel and pulled into a filling station I've never used before - the roadside board showed unleaded c 90p. I pulled up to a 97 octane pump but there were no prices on the pump handles. I noticed a guy leaning on the kiosk wall staring in my direction and he comes walking over quite briskly. "Hi mate, how do you find the vRS? I work here and I see these coming in from time to time and really fancy one" , blah blah blah. So I pick up the pump and start to fill up whilst having a natter about how good the RS is. So he says I'll leave you to it and i put the pump back in to see that it's 115.9p a litre! Usually it's I think less than 10p a litre different. Clearly I couldn't say anything in the kiosk because thats whats on the pump underneath the number of litres dispensed and the price.

I'm going to contact the fuel company (no phone no on website, tho) and trading standards but I'm sure theres something odd going on here. In 30 years I've never been approached in this way by a filling station employee - never mind with such amazing timing.

I think I paid far too much for that tank full - easy money. I guess they know which cars used super plus unleaded.

Any views please?

Horse door bolt - but try Free UK fuel prices. 9,694 petrol stations covered - PetrolPrices.com

Thanks Burnsey thats a really useful site.

Searching by postcode it says the highest price for super plus unleaded in that area is 103.9p average 96.9p and lowest 91.9p so i've definitely been "had". I'm going straight to the fuel company.

Thanks again for your help

I doubt the guy had a remote button in his pocket to alter the price of the fuel if he caught a vRS driver unaware, or that he runs over to talk to everyone filling up with higher octane fuel in order to distract them from the price. Whilst the price is extortionate I would imagine the garage owner can put whatever price he likes on the fuel and as you admitted, when you looked the price was displayed bellow the ltrs on the pump. Afraid it is buyer beware and check more carefully next time.

A local garage to me has it's fuel at 2p per litre more expensive than anywhere else, he's the only garage for 6 miles so thinks he's got the monopoly.

I only ever use him for the free air hose now and on one occasion I put a tiny bit of fuel in just to get me to the next closest garage.

strangely enough, his forecourt is always empty!

Usually prices cant be changed during a dispense from any of the pumps. The forcourt must be shut down whilst the change takes place where the prices are digital.

The forcourts I've worked at that have printed prices, change these first THEN the till prices to comply with the law.

Searching by postcode it says the highest price for super plus unleaded in that area is 103.9p average 96.9p and lowest 91.9p so i've definitely been "had". I'm going straight to the fuel company.

The site doesnt cover all garages, only the main ones. Smaller garages charge more and this will not show on the petrolprices website as they are not included. The garage can charge whatever they want, the prices are not dictated by the fuel company.

I can't believe that this could ever happen in this day and age! :thumbdwn:

The site doesnt cover all garages, only the main ones. Smaller garages charge more and this will not show on the petrolprices website as they are not included. The garage can charge whatever they want, the prices are not dictated by the fuel company.

They get their data from tansactions done using the AllStar Fuel Card IIRC.

So any garage that doesn't accept this payment method won't be included.

It is good for giving a picture of what is going on - I get the daily email update from them.

One thing I have noticed over the last 18 months is that fuel is typically 3 pence per litre more expensive in N Yorkshire where I work that it is at home in Lancashire. You can guess where I try to fill up!

name and shame the garage so they cant do the same to any other member here.

Isn't it just a case of a smaller or rural garage charging more for fuel? Especially Super Unleaded which it probably sells hardly any of?

Rip-off? No doubt. But you didn't have to buy it

Steve

Thanks for all the feedback.

I went into the garage this morning and confronted them and they confirmed that 115.9p is the price they charge. As Wardy says, their excuse was that they hardly sell any of the Ultimate - hence the price. I asked for the phone number of the head office and rang up the customer relations unit. Although they are a franchised dealer ( and yes Mannyo, you're right, the fuel company have no control over what these people charge ) she got them on the phone whilst i was on the line and they confirmed to her thats the price at their station. The customer services person confirmed that yesterday the average price for Ultimate countrywide was 97.9p so the tankful cost me a tenner too much.

The fact the "dials" on the pump show the correct price is all that matters legally. If this guy hadn't have come across i'd have been watching the dials and would have seen the price and just put enough in to get me to the next place. I've told them to try and get the CCTV footage. As i said at the start I wasn't sure the thing was a scam but what they and the fuel company have confirmed is that I ended up paying almost 20p a litre too much and the rest is pure speculation.

Their normal unleaded is very cheap and right at the bottom of the "lowest price in this area" scale so it shows they can sell cheap fuel if they like.

I've got their franchise address but I think i'll just drop it now - it's hardly worth the effort for a tenner

Not a scam or dodgy attendant timing but i had a very similar thing once when I filled up my first car - a1L Fiat Uno 45 don't you know!

Stuck in £20 paid and went to leave. As i put the ignition on and watched the dials swing round I wondered if my fuel gauge was on the blink as this £20 had only got me about a third of a tank rather than the normal amount

once quick glance a the pump and i'd put in super unleaded by accident

One thing I have noticed over the last 18 months is that fuel is typically 3 pence per litre more expensive in N Yorkshire where I work that it is at home in Lancashire. You can guess where I try to fill up!

I live about 10-12 miles north of Birmingham, work about 10 miles south of it. Fuel is always cheaper near home, and the garage in the sticks near work is the most expensive by some margin.

The forcourts I've worked at that have printed prices, change these first THEN the till prices to comply with the law.

Unless prices are going down, of course :eek:

I think I must be missing something here.

They guy was charging a lot for super. Could be he doesn't get through much of it so has to keep the price high to make it worth selling. I doubt there was anything iffy going on there somehow.

If you're worried, then I hope you didn't pay by card because if a garage is going to do something dodgy, that's usually a first target

It was only a short time ago that you would have been queuing to get fuel at 115.9ppl! The guy didnt guide you to the super pump, you picked it up yourself. Maybe he was genuinely interested in your vrs. Dont forget you could save even more in fuel costs by buying a diesel!

It was only a short time ago that you would have been queuing to get fuel at 115.9ppl! The guy didnt guide you to the super pump, you picked it up yourself. Maybe he was genuinely interested in your vrs. Dont forget you could save even more in fuel costs by buying a diesel!

Not when derv is significantly more than super, never mind normal 95 RON unleaded.

Not wanting to start a petrol v diesel debate, but you dont buy a vrs with its fuel saving ability in mind. I thought that they ran better on super anyway? I'd have been testing the performance increase, not arguing with the garage over £10.

Should see what I have to pay for fuel :( 108p for normal unleaded (we don't get super), 113p for diesel...

Another sucked into the marketing for Ultimate fuels.

Thanks again for great feedback and comments.

One or two people (and the garage itself) have mentioned that they're charging that price because they don't sell much of it - but surely they won't sell much of it at that price if they displayed it clearly?

When petrol prices were sky high a while ago, I accepted that because that was the rate and everyone was in the same boat, as it were, but I'm just annoyed by the fact I paid 20% over the odds in these circumstances.

Cheers

Edited 12 March, 200917 yr by meskodasgone

Can you be more specific? Where was the garage?

It's a Catch-22 for them. If it were me retailing in that position, I probably wouldn't stock Super Unleaded at all, just 95 and diesel. You then have to ask yourself, if they don't sell much of it, how long has the fuel you've bought been sitting in the forecourt tank? :eek:

Steve

Thanks for all the feedback.

I went into the garage this morning and confronted them and they confirmed that 115.9p is the price they charge. As Wardy says, their excuse was that they hardly sell any of the Ultimate - hence the price. I asked for the phone number of the head office and rang up the customer relations unit. Although they are a franchised dealer ( and yes Mannyo, you're right, the fuel company have no control over what these people charge ) she got them on the phone whilst i was on the line and they confirmed to her thats the price at their station. The customer services person confirmed that yesterday the average price for Ultimate countrywide was 97.9p so the tankful cost me a tenner too much.

The fact the "dials" on the pump show the correct price is all that matters legally. If this guy hadn't have come across i'd have been watching the dials and would have seen the price and just put enough in to get me to the next place. I've told them to try and get the CCTV footage. As i said at the start I wasn't sure the thing was a scam but what they and the fuel company have confirmed is that I ended up paying almost 20p a litre too much and the rest is pure speculation.

Their normal unleaded is very cheap and right at the bottom of the "lowest price in this area" scale so it shows they can sell cheap fuel if they like.

I've got their franchise address but I think i'll just drop it now - it's hardly worth the effort for a tenner

So basically, to go back to the beginning, the garage guy wanted a friendly chat about the Octy because he obviously admires them, and because you weren't paying attention and checking the price on the pump (although we all know that small garages charge more than supermarkets) you had to pay an extra tenner? And because this displeased you (and because you seem to have a paranoid/victim complex and believed the guy had concocted some elaborate distraction fraud), you actually went to all the trouble of setting BP head office on to him, with the possibility the guy could have faced investigation and lost his job/home/family etc? I would suggest you do indeed drop it and try to enjoy life more

That's about the long and short of it - will do.