Cheating / Short Fuelling Tricks at Petrol Pumps

[sethumurugan]

I have a doubt whether they sell autolpg, will confirm by the end of this week.

To my knowledge they don't. That is why I was surprised when you said that they have Auto LPG. In side city very few stations are having auto LPG. Mostly it is in out skirts only.

Safety measure?

Pls find attached xcel file which i have compiled all Auto LPG in tamilnadu (this is old. there could be new ones also)

View attachment Auto Gas Stations.xls

 

[Carma]

Is Chennai becoming the petrol pump scam capital of India?
Facebook video shows how petrol bunk employees allegedly tried to cheat customer in Chennai - The Times of India

 

[anshuman8]

The important part of the above report is -

The public can call 044-24320887 to register complaints. Chennai members can save this number.

Also this is very common in Bangalore. Other day I said the pump guy to fill 2000, he smartly typed 200 and was about to start to fill. Gave him a good smile and he went back to the machine and set it to 2000 and started filling.

 

[amit1km]

Also this is very common in Bangalore. Other day I said the pump guy to fill 2000, he smartly typed 200 and was about to start to fill. Gave him a good smile and he went back to the machine and set it to 2000 and started filling.

Where this fuel pump located,so that people can be careful.

 

[srinivas_gs]

The important part of the above report is -

The public can call 044-24320887 to register complaints. Chennai members can save this number.

Also this is very common in Bangalore. Other day I said the pump guy to fill 2000, he smartly typed 200 and was about to start to fill. Gave him a good smile and he went back to the machine and set it to 2000 and started filling.

1. Modern Petrol bunks have automated billing facility to print out the amount of fuel and total cost. In fact Oil companies are converting all old dispensers to new ones with such facility.

2. Another cheating is card skimming which is happens without our knowledge. To prevent ourselves from being victims, we need enable our mobile phone to receive SMS for all amount spent on Credit/Debit cards. It happened to me couple of months back, my card got skimmed. Later, I was surprised when I received a SMS that British Pounds 50 being spent in some cloth store in London while I was in India. I immediately blocked the card. As RBI has mandated to use PIN while using credit card, I would always recommend to ensure that no one is seeing the card machine when we enter the PIN. I ask the service guy to look the other way when I enter the PIN. If the card is skimmed and PIN is known, then the card will again get exposed.

The bottomline is that if we take some precautions, we can prevent ourselves from being a victim.

 

[Carma]

Another cheating is card skimming which is happens without our knowledge.

Yes. Chennai has the dubious distinction for this fraud too. Read this:
Bunk Staff Held for Card Cloning - The New Indian Express

 

[anshuman8]

Where this fuel pump located,so that people can be careful.

It is in Banerghatta Road, opposite new Brand Factory

Another cheating is card skimming which is happens without our knowledge. To prevent ourselves from being victims, we need enable our mobile phone to receive SMS for all amount spent on Credit/Debit cards.

Is skimming possible in the handheld machines also for card swipe ?

 

[ajit4u2k]

1. Modern Petrol bunks have automated billing facility to print out the amount of fuel and total cost. In fact Oil companies are converting all old dispensers to new ones with such facility.

2. Another cheating is card skimming which is happens without our knowledge.

Both good points Srinivas, I insist on the automated/printed bill every time and pay by cash only to prevent fraud to the extent possible.

 

[nishant5858]

If anyone senses doubt about quantity of petrol, then best thing would be to do "Measure Test" In this test, the fuel should not be short or excess. It should be exactly 5 litres in display. So ask for 5 litre measure if you are being cheated by filling less quantity.

 

[srinivas_gs]

Is skimming possible in the handheld machines also for card swipe ?

Any machine that swipes a card should be potentially seen as skimming device unless we have the entire transaction completed in single swipe and confirmation received on SMS. Importantly, we should not have attenders surrounding us when we entire our PIN. It's better to be harsh with them asking them to move out rather than ourselves regretting later .

The alternate way is to have the entire transaction completed in cash (as rightly pointed by ajit4u2k)

 

[amit1km]

Now a days the chip based credit card are better. It can prevent the skimming.

 

[raceready]

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-----------


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.

man these kind of frauds are really getting famous till date. the same issue happened with me while doing a tankful on my car and they filled my tank with rs200 petrol and showed as if they heard it wrong and i showed the same reaction.

 

[generalmax]

My way of filling petrol goes like this.(For known and unknown petrol pumps)
1)Stop the car.Remove the key.
2)Open petrol filling outer cap.
3)Get outside the car.
4)Look at the filling person.
5)Tell him the exact amount.
6)Look to the pump (The attendant will open the inner cap and put the feeder)
7)If not done ask him if the meter is set to zero?
8)Let the attendant fill the petrol.
9)Ask for a printed receipt .
10)Pay .

If you are filling at the same place more often or near to your home ,let them know that. This will reduce the chance of tricking you.Ask questions to the attendants about quantity and density once in a while. Let them know that you are noticing. One more thing is that fill it in bulk (for 2000 Rs /tankful )and keep a time in a week for that ,like Tuesday morning 8 30,by which you don't run out of fuel and no need to go to the fuel pump often. (Car owners can do that ).
The idea is the lesser the visit to petrol pumps the lesser the case of cheating. And when you are at a petrol pump be completely aware of whats happening using the steps mentioned.

 

[macsvin]

One more thing to add - Do not ask attendant to fill fuel of fixed amount like 500 Rs / 1000 Rs sicne they have adjusted there pump reading accordingly. Take change with you and ask for either no. of litres or odd amount like 520 Rs

 

[sethumurugan]

One more thing to add - Do not ask attendant to fill fuel of fixed amount like 500 Rs / 1000 Rs sicne they have adjusted there pump reading accordingly. Take change with you and ask for either no. of litres or odd amount like 520 Rs

Just wanna know how it differ from the fixed amount method. Anyway they have did tampering. So what is matter whether litre or amount.