I am at the office pantry with a couple of colleagues for the usual 4PM coffee break, when I notice that one of them is kinda glum. A slight prodding reveals the reason. The previous night he had dropped in at a gas station to fuel up his car and as is his usual practise, he asked the attendant to fill up the tank, which in his case takes up around Rs.1700 worth of petrol.
As the car is being fuelled up and while the meter is at Rs1400, another attendant comes over & tells him that the front tyre of his car has a flat. He moves to check out the tyre, which looks OK. Meanwhile the attendant mumbles some garbage about how using nitrogen to fill the tyres is a better option etc.
When my friend's gaze returns back to the fuel-meter, he sees to his shock that it has been reset to zero by the attendant who was filling fuel. On questioning why he reset the meter, the attendant says that the car had taken in a full tank of fuel coming to Rs.1700 and so he had reset the meter. Though not convinced, my friend pays up and leaves.
For anyone who is familiar with the cheating done at Chennai petrol-pumps, this is a clear case of diverting the customer's attention to cheat. The part about tyre being flat, when it is not the case, is a clear indication of fraud.
Anyway, after some 150kms of driving around, the fuel-gauge in his car is at 1/2 tank position, while it usually reaches half-tank only after running 200-odd kms. This is a clear indication to my friend that he has been cheated and like any normal person, it is not a good feeling.
I tell him that he has been cheated, but there is an option to get back. All he needs to do is go back to the pump, ask to meet the manager & request for the complaint-book which each gas-station has to maintain. I tell him that in all probability, the manager will dissuade him from entering his complaint and instead will make up for the loss.
Around 10PM I get a call from my friend. He thought he had nothing to lose out in trying out my suggestion and had gone to the pump. He told the manager what had happened the previous day and that he had been cheated. The manager predictably told him that they don't indulge in such practices. My friend calmly tells him to give the complaint book so that he can atleast make a complaint.
As I had told him, the manager tries his best to dissuade him from making his complaint and instead says that he will not only take action against the errant employee, but also make up for the loss by giving petrol for Rs500, which is more than what he had been cheated off. Friend accepts the deal and tells me that he is feeling good now. In most cases, we are not aware of what to do, when faced with a similar situation. And knowing the next course of action makes all the difference, as it did for my friend.
Having been dealing with the city gas-stations for many years now, I am aware of the dirty tricks they do and my modus operandi is simple. On reaching the pump, I get off the car, ensure the meter is reset to zero before fuelling & ask him to key in the amount (usually Rs2000) on the pump-keypad. Then I tell the attendant to enable auto-shutoff on the nozzle & after starting pumping fuel to take his hands off the nozzle. And ofcourse I ignore any other attendant who tries to indulge me in some discussion.
BTW, just so you guys are aware, this is the BPCL pump at Guindy - at the corner where the Velachery road meets Sardar Patel Road (opp old Concorde Motors).
