Petrol Company Rip Offs

[ManDownUnder]

Sounded like it, I only caught part of the promo.

I look forward to that. Cheers
MDU

[Skyryder]

Saw a promo for Fair Go Monday night. They were doing a fuel test of some sort. Any one see it or know what this was about??

Skyryder

[Phurrball]

Prepay upsets me in general, as I formerly worked at a full-service, independently owned garage in Dunedin. Yep, we even washed your windscreen while the fuel was going in, made up 2-stroke for yer mower or filled up your bike (if you wanted us to...) very carefully! *sigh*

Can't say I've ever had too much of a problem getting a pre-pay pump unlocked to fill my bike. The Gull I usually go to has a single pump for filling up at night, so I go to that pump.

Beware using Mobil's EFTPOS at pump with a credit card - they use some sort of odd $100 debit system that is refunded after a week as a form of payment insurance. Mrs P spotted discrepancies in her available Visa balance and phoned them (the bank) up. This is how we found out that Mobil do this odd thing. Fine if you have lots of available credit...but not so good when you're a student with a $500 limit.

My other gripe with EFTPOS at pump is that the card readers are always gammy. The farthest, least used pump is the best bet for a card reader that actually works!

That all said, support independent garages that offer actual service! Not the fuel company owned sites that offer till-monkey, button-pushers that couldn't make up 5L of 25:1 2-stroke if their life depended on it!

(no offence to those employees who I'm sure don't have choice in their job description, remember I used to be one too, but I got to know my regulars, and took pride in offering full service)

[Virago]

Never used pre-pay yet, hopefully I never will. Between three vehicles, I spend around $8,000 - $9,000 a year on gas, 90% of that at the same station. The day they ask me to pay in advance is the day I take my business elsewhere...

You're right Phurrball, about "the good old days". When service station staff where out on the forecourt, there wasn't the same "drive off" problem.

My biggest gripe with self-service at these huge "fuel barns", is that they will often have only one check-out operating, with a huge queue of customers waiting to pay. They've got you over a barrel, as having taken the fuel, you have to pay.....

[Quartida]

Yep, we even washed your windscreen while the fuel was going in

Wow, I actually had forgotten that that used to happen.

[SwanTiger]

(no offence to those employees who I'm sure don't have choice in their job description, remember I used to be one too, but I got to know my regulars, and took pride in offering full service)

Great Post.

Personally, if I come across a gas station that provides me with a great service I always make a mental note and use them again. The BP Service Station and occasionally the Kopu Mobil are the only two stations on the Coro Loop where I've "Enjoyed" there service.

A small amount of effort certainly makes a huge difference.

[Virago]

Great post.......

........And congrats on the 1000, swanny....

[ZeroIndex]

Never used pre-pay yet, hopefully I never will. Between three vehicles, I spend around $8,000 - $9,000 a year on gas, 90% of that at the same station. The day they ask me to pay in advance is the day I take my business elsewhere...

You're right Phurrball, about "the good old days". When service station staff where out on the forecourt, there wasn't the same "drive off" problem.

My biggest gripe with self-service at these huge "fuel barns", is that they will often have only one check-out operating, with a huge queue of customers waiting to pay. They've got you over a barrel, as having taken the fuel, you have to pay.....

with reference to "the good old days" in south africa, back in my ignorant days (driving a car), you never actually needed to get out of your car at a petrol station.. you would get there, click the petrol cap. tell the attendant "full it up, check the oil and water, and the air pressure in the tires, wash the windscreen".. then when that was all done, hand over your card/cash, you'd get your change back (you'd normally tip the attendant a 1 or 2 rand (south african currency).. not much, but for argument sake, just say $1 (if your car took $200 worth of petrol)

The only reason for getting out of your car, was if you wanted to get ripped off at the petrol station food thingy, or go to the bathroom..

[Motu]

Ah,the good old days ''on the pumps'' .I hated it as I'm not too good at mental arithmetic and giving change.I'd be out there with money stuffed in my pockets giving change on the fly with what I had on me,and we went down to the last cent in those days.I'd come back inside after 10 transactions and go oh fuck - and just ring it up as one sale.We had bulk oil on tap out there too...and a shot of RedX.It was a pain when credit cards came out - you'd be really busy,and some prick would say he wanted to pay by card....so you'd have to go inside and run his frigging card through the zip zap machine while keeping an eye on all the customers out at the pumps.There was no display at the till,you read off the pumps,and if they hung up it would go back to zero - ''oh,I just got a couple of bucks worth mate''...yeah right.Next day the office lady went through ''the tape'',and if it didn't all add up there was hell to pay...for real...out of your own pocket! Service with a snear.

[Ixion]

RedX. That's the stuff I was trying to think of the other day when people were talking about additives.

What happened to it?

"Gelignite Jack" Murray reckoned it worked, and HE oughta know. Anyone else remember Gelignite Jack, and the Round Australia Trial. Now that was a proper rally!

[Motu]

RedX? - shit,we just used ATF,looked the same and probably did the same job.My father always said - ''fill 'er up and a shot of RedX mate'' when we stopped for gas in the Humber 80.

The RedX Round Australia Trial must of been a huge test of cars back then - I wonder how far my Diamante would get in those conditions?

[sunhuntin]

Or they could make you syphon it back out?...

i work for bp....and have had a few people put the wrong petrol in their vehicle [diesel in a petrol and vice versa] fact is...it is then up to the customer to get their vehicle towed and drained...it is illegal to drain petrol on a forecourt [what my manager told me] and even if we could...where would we put it? as someone else said, the petrol once in a tank is contaminated and cant be used again.

my site doesnt have prepay, and im more than happy for any bikes that come in leave their lids on....i do when im filling. we work the forecourt....staff member out on the court about 90% of the time...we do oil, water, tyres, windscreens if asked. i know how to mix 25:1 lawnmower petrol....but only if its done by liters...being asked for $10 2stroke oil mix [$2per 200ml oil to 5 liters i think] i know youll get more than 5 liters for $8 [or thereabouts] so makes it tricky to work out. the owner of my site owns all 4 bp here in wangas....the 3 on the same side of the river are all bp2go...one of which runs 98, due to customer demand. the other 2 2gos run 95, and the 4th bp is just a regular bp which also runs 95 [i think...they are the ones with shitty service]

only time we fail to meet our customers expectations is when we are trying to get lpg bottles filled.... then its a case of the customer is allowed to fill their car, but not allowed to fill their gas bottle. we still serve cars if we get the chance, but dont really have time to do oil and what not.

ixion....we use valvemaster for an additive...im guessin thats the same as redx?

[Edbear]

Saw a promo for Fair Go Monday night. They were doing a fuel test of some sort. Any one see it or know what this was about??

Skyryder

Seen th thread about it yet?

[Quartida]

No...? Linky linky please.

/EDIT: Ahem. http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=31218

[Wolf]

One of the service stations near where I live is on permanent prepay, another nearby was still on prepay at 1 in the afternoon - pissed me off... To the point that when I rolled into another servo before seven in the morning and was able to just put the petrol in and go inside and pay I actually thanked the bloke for not being on prepay. He said they do have prepay for the middle of the night and I said "yeah, but it's not on now while your competitors up the road were still on prepay in the middle of the afternoon."

My take on prepay: perhaps if they stopped ripping us off, they wouldn't have to be so worried about people stealing it. (That is, the companies who set the prices and the policies.)