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Accidental 35-cent gas drives throngs to station, jams roads (http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20080411/ARTICLE/669960132/0/news01)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/gas_prices_0319_ap_03.jpgTyra Vaughn - StarNewsOnline.com - April 11, 2008

Immoral is not illegal. But what does this say if we've sunk so far--that nobody out of thousands who gassed up even said a word? - Ed.

Deshauna Canty is never in a good mood after filling up her Lincoln Navigator.

But she was all smiles today when she swiped her Visa credit card to pay after gassing up her sport utility vehicle.

Why wouldn’t she be? Gas was 35 cents a gallon.

Canty was among hundreds of people who found temporary relief from $3-plus gasoline prices today after an employee accidentally set the price at 35 cents at the Kangaroo Express station at 17th Street and Wellington Avenue, employees said.

The trouble started about 9 a.m. today when an attendant at the BP station punched in 35 cents instead of $3.35 for premium-grade gasoline, said employee Shane Weller. The mistake wasn’t noticed until about 6 p.m., when crowds jammed the pumps and caused traffic jams on nearby roads, Weller said.

By that time news of the low-priced gas had spread like wildfire through e-mail and word of mouth, he said...http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20080411/ARTICLE/669960132/0/news01

If it's ok for oil companies to gouge consumers and to accept subsidies while simultaneously reporting the highest profits of any company in American history then I say it's perfectly alright for consumers to gouge the oil companies every chance they get.

Some would say that two wrongs don't make a right but I say turnabout is fair play.

I find it near impossible to believe, that a mistake like this could happen at 9am, and not get noticed until 6pm. They didn't notice a HUGE linup form, and people filling their F350's and Hummers, paying next to nothing for their fuel? come on.

I find it near impossible to believe, that a mistake like this could happen at 9am, and not get noticed until 6pm. They didn't notice a HUGE linup form, and people filling their F350's and Hummers, paying next to nothing for their fuel? come on.

Sounds to good to be true.

I don't know, minimum wage gas station workers are unfortunately often not the brightest

28 gallon tank, sheesh. And at 13 mpg, thats only 360 miles. I easily get 600 out of my 12.4 gallon tank. I can't believe people pay so much for gas, and then complain about it as if its not THEIR OWN fault they bought a car that gets ridiculously bad FE.

28 gallon tank, sheesh. And at 13 mpg, thats only 360 miles. I easily get 600 out of my 12.4 gallon tank. I can't believe people pay so much for gas, and then complain about it as if its not THEIR OWN fault they bought a car that gets ridiculously bad FE.


Ditto

Hopefully, this was a corporate-owned station otherwise, it will take the owner a loooong time to make up those losses.

If it's ok for oil companies to gouge consumers and to accept subsidies while simultaneously reporting the highest profits of any company in American history then I say it's perfectly alright for consumers to gouge the oil companies every chance they get.

Some would say that two wrongs don't make a right but I say turnabout is fair play.

How much should gas cost? Gouging is often accused but seldom proven. I say seldom because I haven't heard of it being proven, despite the frequent charades that congress goes through when going after "big oil."

Big government sure gets its "fair" share in the form of taxes.

If it's ok for oil companies to gouge consumers and to accept subsidies while simultaneously reporting the highest profits of any company in American history then I say it's perfectly alright for consumers to gouge the oil companies every chance they get.

Some would say that two wrongs don't make a right but I say turnabout is fair play.

Hopefully, this was a corporate-owned station otherwise, it will take the owner a loooong time to make up those losses.

Kangaroo Express BP is likely a locally-owned station. It's not going to hurt BP corporate at all. They already got their pay for the truck of fuel. It's the station owner who's losing here, just like we do with the high prices. They're already running on slim margins, caught between the source, Big Oil, and the customer, us.

I don't know, minimum wage gas station workers are unfortunately often not the brightestMinimum Wage = Minimum Work.

11011011

Ahh. I am surrounded by corporate stations so sometimes I forget they aren't all set up the same way. If it's privately owned then I feel bad for the owner.


@98CRV: I know what you're saying about the true value of gasoline and I feel that it is worth much more than we pay for it. My issue is that just a few days ago a basket full of oil execs were sitting before the U.S. Congress and trying to explain, in some of the worst buzzword-dropping corporate double-speak and tap dancing I have witnessed, why they still need Federal subsidies despite the fact they just turned the highest profits in U.S. history. That's what I call gouging, although they are doing it indirectly via the subsidies vs. directly at the pump.

How much should gas cost? Gouging is often accused but seldom proven. I say seldom because I haven't heard of it being proven, despite the frequent charades that congress goes through when going after "big oil."During the Houston evacuation when hurricane Rita was looking to hit, a BP station sustained just such a charge. This was 2005 and they were charging 6.00 / gallon.

For the life of me, I can't find the newspaper anywhere, but it was all over the news here in Texas for a short time. We have pretty serious laws about raising the price of hurricane supplies such as water, plywood or other such staples.

11011011

A station employee said the company could trace back all of the people who used a credit card at the pump and get them to pay up for their deal of a lifetime.

Yea, RIGHT! Like that would work, sounds like the ramblings of the person that made the mistake. There is nothing illegal about pumping your gas and paying the price requested. I am sure anyone that had a second billing on their credit card for gas from that station would contest the charge and would probably win easily. If I were his boss, I would probably have to swallow the loss and fire the dip that did it. It is the price of doing business.

As for the people doing it, I can't beat up on them, I don't know what I would have done had the opportunity presented itself to me. Heck, with my luck, I would have had a full tank when someone told me about it.

Although I did have to laugh at the dumb person that was complaining because they had heard it was a few cents less then what it was. Sounds just like some of my companies customers, when we find they haven't been charged for a part of their services for several months and we add the charge onto their bill, without even asking them to pay for the months that they got it for free since it was our mistake. They will rant on & on that it has been free this long and should continue to be so.

Whether this is Snopes-able or not, it's a frightening example
of how mob mentality works and how easy it kicks in.
.
_H*

During the Houston evacuation when hurricane Rita was looking to hit, a BP station sustained just such a charge. This was 2005 and they were charging 6.00 / gallon.

For the life of me, I can't find the newspaper anywhere, but it was all over the news here in Texas for a short time. We have pretty serious laws about raising the price of hurricane supplies such as water, plywood or other such staples.

11011011

During Katrina, demand was way up, supply was way down. Prices should go sky high so that peple make rational decisions about the cost of gas and everything else. If it means temporary rationing, so be it. Prices communicate information, and anything that blunts that distorts the market.

Ahh. I am surrounded by corporate stations so sometimes I forget they aren't all set up the same way. If it's privately owned then I feel bad for the owner.


@98CRV: I know what you're saying about the true value of gasoline and I feel that it is worth much more than we pay for it. My issue is that just a few days ago a basket full of oil execs were sitting before the U.S. Congress and trying to explain, in some of the worst buzzword-dropping corporate double-speak and tap dancing I have witnessed, why they still need Federal subsidies despite the fact they just turned the highest profits in U.S. history. That's what I call gouging, although they are doing it indirectly via the subsidies vs. directly at the pump.

To the extent that the oil companies are subsidized, that subsidy should be removed. But then so should subsidies to corn growers, milk producers, sugar producers, wind farmers and solar producers. And, the subsidies that California farmers get which lowers the price they pay for water should be removed. Just a few...

Yea, RIGHT! Like that would work, sounds like the ramblings of the person that made the mistake. There is nothing illegal about pumping your gas and paying the price requested.

In this case, the price requested was posted properly on a sign above the pump, but was wrong on the pump.

If the gas station owner can't get the credit card transactions corrected, he's out many thousands of dollars and might face a loss big enough to threaten his business. The people charging the gasoline knew the price was wrong, and none of them made any attempt to communicate that with someone in the gas station? That's the same as stealing, and we all know it, since they knew perfectly well what gasoline sells for.

Harry

I think they should be charged so the station doesnt go out of business, and earthling is right, that is stealing.
however, they should be notified.

In this case, the price requested was posted properly on a sign above the pump, but was wrong on the pump.

If the gas station owner can't get the credit card transactions corrected, he's out many thousands of dollars and might face a loss big enough to threaten his business. The people charging the gasoline knew the price was wrong, and none of them made any attempt to communicate that with someone in the gas station? That's the same as stealing, and we all know it, since they knew perfectly well what gasoline sells for.

Harry

How many times have you had something ring up incorrectly on a cash register in your favor due to a computer error (no such thing really, its all human error) and paid for it and kept on moving? Some stores will even honor whatever price rings up even if you bring it to their attention and of course they will probably try to correct the error on their end. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that what those people did was right or the moral thing to do, but to deem it illegal and stealing is another thing.

Not to mention, how can you possibly have that error go on for that long, not everyone pays at the pump. I am sure many went in and paid for their $4 worth of gas right at the register. From everything I have read, the staff never did notice it until the police came for the traffic jam that was developing. It is a shame that it had to happen to any business, family or corporate but they have to accept some level of responsibility for the problem.

Again, I do believe that it was immoral to do what those people did and hope that should the situation present itself to me, I would do the right thing and report the problem. But you never really know until it happens to you. I would like to think that it will take more than $30 worth of gas to sway my mores.

Ironically, everyone who filled up for "cheap" that is getting crappy FE will be limping in for more at $4/gallon within a week or so......

:Banane13:

About the people who say the people who filled up should be stuck with the full price of gas--As morally correct as that is, it won't fly because at the bottom of the receipt, it says "I agree to pay the aforementioned amount" which is 35 cents per gallon.

I guess my morals are a bit more flexible when my money's on the line--at 35 cents a gallon I'd fill up my car, several gas cans, my water bottle, and then I'd call up all my buddies and let them know there's 35 cent gas in town.

How many times have you had something ring up incorrectly on a cash register in your favor due to a computer error (no such thing really, its all human error) and paid for it and kept on moving? Some stores will even honor whatever price rings up even if you bring it to their attention and of course they will probably try to correct the error on their end. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that what those people did was right or the moral thing to do, but to deem it illegal and stealing is another thing.

........

Again, I do believe that it was immoral to do what those people did and hope that should the situation present itself to me, I would do the right thing and report the problem. But you never really know until it happens to you. I would like to think that it will take more than $30 worth of gas to sway my mores.

The time the grocery clerk gave me $47 change back on a $3 purchase paid for with a 5 dollar bill, I sure pointed it out to him so he could correct the error--that seemed black and white to me (and worth fixing), just like this does now.

It's plain as day that the gal in the article who filled both her cars for a pump price different than the posted price intended to defraud the station out of fair payment for the product she received. I guess some places just make people immoral:(.

By contrast, my sister-in-law, the organic farmer in Michigan, picks melons (or whatever) puts them in a box by the road, has an unattended little cash box for people to put their money in and goes back to the field. I haven't heard of her having problems with it:).

If people paid by credit card, the sation can adjust the charge on the credit card. I ran itno a ripoff gas station in Houston that charged my credit card higher than on my receipts when I looked at my statements.

There are some really dumb minimum wage workers! The one at my local Shell is too stupid to use the Lotto machine after being trained!

If people paid by credit card, the sation can adjust the charge on the credit card. I ran itno a ripoff gas station in Houston that charged my credit card higher than on my receipts when I looked at my statements.

There are some really dumb minimum wage workers! The one at my local Shell is too stupid to use the Lotto machine after being trained!

Reminds me of that one time I called about a dozen gas stations in Ohio, looking to see if any of them had straight gas instead of the E10 stuff. I couldn't get a decent answer out of any one of them, sans mumbling and 'I don't know...'. Eventually I had to go up there myself and actually inspect the pumps at all the stations (I eventually did find one).

By contrast, my sister-in-law, the organic farmer in Michigan, picks melons (or whatever) puts them in a box by the road, has an unattended little cash box for people to put their money in and goes back to the field. I haven't heard of her having problems with it:).
Reminds me of the lady in NH I used to buy homemade jam from. Her roadside stand was guarded only by a huge, very friendly, and quite vocal cat, and the money was in a cigar box. Clever marketing in an odd way: I bought a LOT of jam from her over the years.

Some of the people I knew in NH considered it a point of honor to leave their doors unlocked, even when they were away on a trip.

When I was kid a friend of mine went and visted some friends in rural Alamaba. The actual shops were unlocked, and you could even go into the local diner, fix yourself some dinner and leave the appropriate few bucks on the counter. It was considered normal.

I always had the feeling that if anyone did get caught stealing up there it might be old time justice for them...I don't really like to think about that part.

I think 35 cents is what it cost in 1970...feel free to pinpoint exactly which year.

This reminds me of an ex-employee that stiffed a waitress (assuming the local gas station takes the hit). Guy at work whined incessantly about being wronged....goes to a restaurant with me at peak business at high noon...fifteen minutes later he does an obvious act pretending to have a near heart attack pleading he was to be at the desk within the hour or he's out of a job. I don't think I could pump the 35 cent gas.