Raising Gasoline Prices Watch Out for Sticking Valves
Now I was at the station the other day and because the gas is so high I was watching the cost, to my utter amazement four cents clicked on the register before the gas even started going into the tank. I heard it, the gas was not flowing and there was a four cent charge. Now four cents isn't a lot, but what happens if for every customer who goes to this gasoline station is charged four cents and they don't get any gas for that four cents, that adds up to a lot of money.
So being the person that I am, I started to look around and do some research, I absolutely hate to lose money. What I found out is that some pumps will hesitate a second or two when the lever is squeezed and whap....there is another four cent profit for the gasoline station.
I called the number listed on the pump in Maryland and started to ask some questions. It appears that this problem is common knowledge to those inspectors. There is a check valve that sometimes sticks and needs to be replaced. Although there are mandatory inspections of the pumps, these check valves sometimes stick and the gas flowing into your car does not match that which the meter shows.
I was told by one inspector that there have been instances in which the check valve sticks intermediately while pumping gasoline and you can wind up paying up to $5.00 more for gasoline than you actually put into the tank. I was talking to my husband and we decided that the next time that we put gasoline into the car we are going to do a ten gallon test, we are going to watch the meter, when it gets close to ten gallons we are going to stop the pump and look to see if the cost that is registered matches the ten gallons that we put into the pump if not we are going to go into the station representative and demand our money back for the shortage if any and we are going to report the station to the appropriate authorities.
Published by Cathy Pelekakis
Retiree from the Department of the Army, Procurement Analyst. Mother of one terrific son. Love to go to the movies, read books, work on the computer, gardening, my pets Samantha and Missy. I have been publ... View profile
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28 Comments
Post a CommentWe pay enough as it is and we are still getting ripped off, thankyou for this valuable info
Great idea to calculate before you leave! Recently, one of my local news stations publicized a list of area stations that were not giving a full gallon of gas for each gallon's worth that was paid for. They are being penalized by the regulating authorities. You might want to do a search and see if there is such a list for your area as well!
Good advice :) Sheri
Good advice :) Sheri
Oh my gosh! This in outrageous. Aren't we paying enough for gas as it is?
Btw, whatever happened to electric cars? Why didn't they ever take over? Gasoline should be a thing of the past.
Thank you I did not know that I appreciate the information
I used to work at a gas station so I hope this sheds some light on this. The pump starts registering as soon as the gas leave the pump not when it enters your car. Most gas stations do not make a large profit on gas. General mark up per gallon is about 4 cents on regular, 8 cents on plus, and 14 cents on premium. More and more people are using debit and credit cards to pay for gas. The gas station pays a percentage for each transaction. Oftentimes they are loosing money, thats why many gas stations have service bays and groceries. They keep the pumps to draw people to purchase other services and products.
Thanks for the information.
yes it does, the pumps are suppose be checked at least twice a year sometimes this is not happening because of lack of personnel. I would suggest that he watch the amount that is going in and watch the amount that he pays for. good luck Cathy
I wonder if this happens on desiel pumps as well. My husband is a truck driver and it is nothing for him to spend 1500 to 2500 dollars a week for fuel.