Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Are you getting what you pay for?




OK, we all get those emails that we have to filter thru Snopes.com but I received this from a friend and she actually experienced the following. Read it for yourself and check it out the next time you are at the pump. You might just not be getting "what you paid for! It really made me think and I will definitely pump 10 gallons and stop the pump and check the amount due the next time I fill up! Keep me posted on what you discover, please.



This is a true story, so read it carefully. On April 24, 2008, I stopped at a Kangaroo BP gas station, located at 1325 Main Street , Cartersville , GA. My truck's gas gauge was on 1/4 of a tank. I use the mid-grade, which was priced at $3.71 per gallon. When my tank is at this point, it takes somewhere around 14 gallon's to fill it up. When the pump showed 14 gallons had been pumped I began to slow it down, then to my surprise it went to 15, then 16. I even looked under my truck to see if it was being spilled. It was not. Then it showed 17 gallons had been pumped. It stopped at almost 18 gallons. This was very strange to me, since my truck has only an 18 gallon tank. I went on my way a little confused, then on the evening news, I heard a report that 1 out of 4 gas stations had calibrated their pumps to show more gas had been pumped than a person actually got.

Here is how to check a pump to see if you are getting the right amount: Whichever grade you are using, put EXACTLY 10 GALLONS in your tank, then look at the dollar amount, if the dollar amount is not EXACTLY 10 times the price of the fuel you have chosen, then the pumps are rigged. In my case as I said the mid-grade was $3.71 9/10 per gallon, my dollar amount for 10 gallons should have been $37.19. If I had only check the pump. It doesn't matter where you pump gas, please check the 10 gallon price. If you do find a station that is cheating, contact the Georgia Agriculture Department, and direct your comments to Tommy Irvin, Commissioner. In other states contact proper authorities."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here we go with another urban legend.
1 out of 4 gas stations! I think not. If a news station reported on that, it would be a scandal ALL over the news and likely on the national news. The real story is that three CISCO truck stops tried this, were shut down, tried it again and were shut down again.
http://agr.georgia.gov/00/press/detail/ … 19,00.html
http://www.news4jax.com/news4georgia/15 … etail.html

The only method of telling that you have gotten a gallon of gas is to get a container that only holds a gallon and fill it and see what the pump says. If you are comparing the price on the pump and the amount on the pump, you will only see that last .9 cent rounded up to a whole cent. But I assure you that if they fixed it to lie in one place (the gallons), it will most assuredly lie in the other (the price).

Jim said...

Every time I go to fill up, it does cross my mind. I've noticed lately that most of the pumps in Georgia have a state seal across them, showing that the pump has been checked and calibrated. But regardless, at these prices I'll be keeping a close eye on the price vs output for sure. LOL