Cheating / Short Fuelling Tricks at Petrol Pumps

[searchingheaven]

I saw a small promotional clipping on Star News from one of their programs in which malpractices at petrol pumps were revealed. They mentioned date and time of the program "sansani" but I could not gather that.

What i saw in those few minutes as really an eye opener. The person whose identity was hidden (face darkened) told that the common practice is to maually intervene and stop flow of fuel a couple of times (even when auto-cut is activated) and deliver fuel in instalments/bursts. He told that stopping fuel 4-5 times in a refill is equivalent of short fuelling 1 litre to the customer. If a person is going in for full tank of fuel then he won't even come to know of this.

Also, it was revealed the more than required length of fuel dispenser pipe too contributes to saving on dealers part. Some of the fuel actually remains within the pipe and when they roll it in the excess is returned back. For next vehicle the pipe is again extended again creating some space.

I was thinking of putting this on site for some time now but managed to do so today only. I sorely missed not watching that particular program in full as it would have shown some other dark practices of this business.

I read at several places that the easiest way of adulteration is by adding Naptha to petrol. It has same density as petrol and does not leave any residue. Interestingly it is by-product of petroleum distillation process and years back I saw on Zee News how Naptha tankers from Reliance Refinery head straight to petrol stations. Naptha cost less in comparison to petrol. Besides selling major part of it for industrial consumption, certain part is sold at premium to petrol dealers and middlemen. Even at inflated cost it is profitable for them to use it as adulterant in petrol. This is one of the reasons why I am always suspicious about quality of fuel at Reliance petrol pumps. Although this does not mean that others are saint :)

Request you to add your experiences and comments for benefit of all.

 

[XenonPro]

Re: Short fuelling tricks at petrol pumps

Yes. What you said was really correct. Guys at the fuel pump will never take their hands off the dispenser. So what I do now is to get out of the car, look at their eyes and tell them to take off their hands off the dispenser. Thats the only way we can do on our part at least.

 

[shailinder]

Re: Short fuelling tricks at petrol pumps

Thanks for the information. Yes I also heard about the malpractice by petrol vendors and keep my eyes open while they re-fill. I generally, gets down to see ZERO and other things while re-filling. I guess with little proactive approch we can restrick them to some extent but adulteration. Nah ! We cannot do anything but pray.

 

[350Z]

Excellent topic, Thanks for initiating with this thread. Several malpractices are happening all across the countries, be it in case of fuel or edible items. I’m aware about the first practice, which is why I always get out of the car while re-fuelling to keep a check. However, rest of the practices are new to me and long pipe thing is definitely a shocker. Indian Oil Petrol Pumps have a list of things that you could do to verify the quantity and quality of fuel. Seen some people following them but never tried it myself yet.

Drive Safe,
350Z

 

[searchingheaven]

Yes sir, the edible items part is definitely correct. God knows who gives the courage to these people to play with someone's life.:(

 

[mastersquall]

eye opener information . thanks

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

What can we do , once we come to know , we could avoid the bunk.

if we complain , the bunk is owned by local politician or some one like that !

 

[searchingheaven]

This happened an hour ago with me. I was on my 220F. I asked for 500 Rs fill. The guy stopped at 100Rs and went on to place the dispenser back in the holder. At that moment I called him and said I wanted for 500Rs. The guy filled for 400Rs in the counter and stopped. When I questioned, he said he had filled for 500Rs. his logic being 100Rs filled initially and 400 later. But, unlucky for him, I was damn sure he didn't reset the pump. When I raised my voice, he duly filled another 100rs worth petrol, without a word, proving that I was damn right

Got the drift? I am sort of vary of petrol pump attendants and make it a point to stand and watch when they refill. Still this chap tried to trick me. I am sure most of the cases he would have got away.
-----------Next Post-----------

What can we do , once we come to know , we could avoid the bunk.

if we complain , the bunk is owned by local politician or some one like that !

Verbally it wont be of any use, but you can ask them to give a complaint book which is checked by officials on a regular basis. And this is something they are really serious about. So when you ask them they're gonna try and settle the matter there itself. I have seen it sometimes, trust me it works.

 

[smooth rider]

the pump attendants some time do dirty tricks to make a quick buck. once on our way from bangalore to kannur we were fillineg up from some pump on the way. the attendant distracted our attention by asking about the mileage of our car on petrol& lpg etc etc in a very friendly manner.my friend had handed a 1000rs note & asked him to fill for 1000rs. the fellow cooly filled for rs 500/ closed the tank and asked us to move on. luckily i had noticed this from the corner of my eyes. we asked him to hand over rs500/ which he sheepishly did.the attendants in kerala are mostly honest .must be they are an organised lot with unions and are better paid.

 

[gears1313]

Luckily we fill Diesel from the one and same pump every time and the guys there are very familiar with us. As soon as the car enters the pump; without saying anything these guy fill up our tank to full with Diesel. May a times or say almost all the they leave the dispenser/gun in auto cut off mode and go away to attend other customers. But even after auto cut; I insist them to fill more till the mouth of the tank.

 

[cooldhaya]

Oh i never knew such things are happening! I think we will never be able to find out even if they loot 1 litre , we will be thinking our car's FE has dropped a bit!


Luckily for us also its the same like Gears , we fill up at the same bunk and same pump! And its tank full most of the times.


Once when my friend went to fill petrol for Rs.1000 the guy was about to start filling from Rs.400 , luckily my friend noticed it and asked the guy to set to zero!

 

[searchingheaven]

Once when my friend went to fill petrol for Rs.1000 the guy was about to start filling from Rs.400 , luckily my friend noticed it and asked the guy to set to zero!

Man, thats daylight robbery. Do they think its so easy to loot someone like this?

 

[Umang]

very helpful tips!! i dont think we can trust anybody these days even if you have fixed pump. only checking ourself carefully will lesser the chances of being a fool made out us. btw, do you guys really think those complain books are checked?? i thought they just keep lying somewhere in dirt..[thinking]

 

[searchingheaven]

btw, do you guys really think those complain books are checked?? i thought they just keep lying somewhere in dirt..[thinking]

Oh yes, absolutely because when i had seen the program i asked one friend of mine whose family has 4 pumps, and he told that those officials check the complaint books regularly.

 

[basis]

Great informative post.

can anybody take the pain to list all these loop holes and 'how-to' avoid them?