These incidents have occured in Bangalore but my guess is this would apply to India.
I would like you all to go through this and please share if you have had similar experience or is it just my belief that I am being cheated at the petrol pump even after insuring "0" on the meter
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The other day I went to get petrol in my car, since all the petrol pumps now have a digital meter I decided I won't get out but make sure of '0' to avoid any petrol theft.
The petrol guy comes over to me, wishes me good morning and asks which petrol I would like and how much. After mentioning this, he showed me '0' and put the nozzle in my petrol tank. In the mean time another worker got me an economic times to read and said this is complimentary. I paid the money and left impressed. But then I realize that my petrol meter is showing much less petrol than I would expect, I am left puzzled but attribute it to the preoccupation that there is theft at all petrol stations.
Next week I go to another Petrol Pump and the while the guy has just put the nozzle in my tank, his collegue comes in and asks me for money, I asked him to hold on for few sec but he started talking to me some random stuff. This time also I feel that there has been petrol theft.
The third time I went with my friend in his car to get petrol, and this time I see that one of the guy has come immediately to my friend to talk, I fixed my eye on the meter and the nozzle this time and interestingly another guy comes and starts talking to me whom I completely ignore. It was interesting that its been few minutes but the person filling the petrol did not start the pump yet.
After him starting the pump, another worker tries to distract me but I fixed my eyes on the pump and did not even care to respond. After we got our petrol filled, I saw that the pump guys was signaling someone in a "No" and we got the amount of petrol that we had expected.
Since then, every time I go to a petrol pump, I make it a point to get down and open the tank lid myself and stare at the meter no matter what happens.
I am not sure how they cheat these electronic meters but I am very confident that they do.
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Petrol Pump - Are they still stealing petrol
Petrol Pump - Are they still stealing petrol
jn_mohit;91468These incidents have occured in Bangalore but my guess is this would apply to India.
I would like you all to go through this and please share if you have had similar experience or is it just my belief that I am being cheated at the petrol pump even after insuring "0" on the meter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The other day I went to get petrol in my car, since all the petrol pumps now have a digital meter I decided I won't get out but make sure of '0' to avoid any petrol theft.
The petrol guy comes over to me, wishes me good morning and asks which petrol I would like and how much. After mentioning this, he showed me '0' and put the nozzle in my petrol tank. In the mean time another worker got me an economic times to read and said this is complimentary. I paid the money and left impressed. But then I realize that my petrol meter is showing much less petrol than I would expect, I am left puzzled but attribute it to the preoccupation that there is theft at all petrol stations.
Next week I go to another Petrol Pump and the while the guy has just put the nozzle in my tank, his collegue comes in and asks me for money, I asked him to hold on for few sec but he started talking to me some random stuff. This time also I feel that there has been petrol theft.
The third time I went with my friend in his car to get petrol, and this time I see that one of the guy has come immediately to my friend to talk, I fixed my eye on the meter and the nozzle this time and interestingly another guy comes and starts talking to me whom I completely ignore. It was interesting that its been few minutes but the person filling the petrol did not start the pump yet.
After him starting the pump, another worker tries to distract me but I fixed my eyes on the pump and did not even care to respond. After we got our petrol filled, I saw that the pump guys was signaling someone in a "No" and we got the amount of petrol that we had expected.
Since then, every time I go to a petrol pump, I make it a point to get down and open the tank lid myself and stare at the meter no matter what happens.
I am not sure how they cheat these electronic meters but I am very confident that they do.
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Thanks for letting us know, this is a eye opener, moreover I feel in India there is nothing called tamper proof, In delhi all these auto meters when they were not digital were tampered , and same in other cities too, when they went digital in delhi, there were engineers offering to tamper them , this was reported in TV, this also reminds me of a colleague who had gone to India but decided to come back to US in 3 months as he felt everystep and everywhere people are there to rob you and cheat you in India, and incidently he was native of Bangalore and gone back to Bangalore before returing to US again. by the way his reasons of R2A was not just Indian system because he knows rip offs are in US too, his kids could not adjust in India, nor his wife,though he still wants to be in India.
Petrol Pump - Are they still stealing petrol
OP, yes we have had similar experience. We didn't realize it in time but later when we saw the meter reading, total fuel capacity and previous reading we immediately knew something was wrong. This happened at a petrol pump in Pune (most probably in Wakad area).
Petrol Pump - Are they still stealing petrol
Also mixing Kerosene with petrol is rampant. In AP recently, they busted a ring and was shown on Teja news.
I found Reliance to be the best in my visits in India (driver suggested and approved) as it's not franchised and all pumps are operated by the corporation and everyone is an employee.
I found Reliance to be the best in my visits in India (driver suggested and approved) as it's not franchised and all pumps are operated by the corporation and everyone is an employee.
Petrol Pump - Are they still stealing petrol
Reliance is closing most of its Petrol pumps throughout India. They cannot afford to subsidize the petrol anymore.
From Hindu business line
Reliance Ind to shut down 900 fuel retail outlets Unable to compete with subsidised PSU products Pricing woes Essar and Shell, the other two private players, continue with retailing business for now.
RIL suffered losses despite selling petrol and diesel at prices higher than the PSU retailing companies.
From Hindu business line
Reliance Ind to shut down 900 fuel retail outlets Unable to compete with subsidised PSU products Pricing woes Essar and Shell, the other two private players, continue with retailing business for now.
RIL suffered losses despite selling petrol and diesel at prices higher than the PSU retailing companies.
Petrol Pump - Are they still stealing petrol
lpax;91571Reliance is closing most of its Petrol pumps throughout India. They cannot afford to subsidize the petrol anymore.
From Hindu business line
Reliance Ind to shut down 900 fuel retail outlets Unable to compete with subsidised PSU products Pricing woes Essar and Shell, the other two private players, continue with retailing business for now.
RIL suffered losses despite selling petrol and diesel at prices higher than the PSU retailing companies.
[/quote]
That's bad news for consumers.
Petrol Pump - Are they still stealing petrol
OP, I have noticed similar thing when few 'attendants' start circling cars and one of them chats with the driver.
Scary thing is that even if you watch the meter carefully you are still being taken for a ride.
Someone involved with construction of petrol pumps recently told me that almost all pumps involve in short-selling. Short-selling is a practice where even though the meter shows 1 ltr, the actual petrol dispensed by the machine is less than 1 ltr.
Mixing kerosene is also rampant at many places.
Another practice I have noticed recently is that the pumps would only sell 'super' petrol, and they would claim that they have run out of 'regular' petrol. Their profit margins are higher on super petrol.
I usually get out of the car and stand near the attendant who is filling petrol in to my car. I picked up this after watching a taxi driver doing the same.
Another tip is to get your petrol from company owned stores. Nowadays BP, HP, etc. company own and operate few pumps in cities. These pumps are owned by these companies and one is reasonably certain about the quality of petrol at these pumps.
Scary thing is that even if you watch the meter carefully you are still being taken for a ride.
Someone involved with construction of petrol pumps recently told me that almost all pumps involve in short-selling. Short-selling is a practice where even though the meter shows 1 ltr, the actual petrol dispensed by the machine is less than 1 ltr.
Mixing kerosene is also rampant at many places.
Another practice I have noticed recently is that the pumps would only sell 'super' petrol, and they would claim that they have run out of 'regular' petrol. Their profit margins are higher on super petrol.
I usually get out of the car and stand near the attendant who is filling petrol in to my car. I picked up this after watching a taxi driver doing the same.
Another tip is to get your petrol from company owned stores. Nowadays BP, HP, etc. company own and operate few pumps in cities. These pumps are owned by these companies and one is reasonably certain about the quality of petrol at these pumps.
Petrol Pump - Are they still stealing petrol
would the car behind in the queue(in hyderabad there is always a queue for petrol) notice if they are stealing? How do they steal can somebody be more specific?
Petrol Pump - Are they still stealing petrol
In Bangalore, even if there are digital meters and even if starting '0' is ensured, we could still get cheated. It happened to us once and since then we learnt the lesson! Here's how it was done at the petrol pump...
-Go to the Petrol pump and buy for (lets say) 100 rupees.
-The attendant shows '0' reading on the meter.
-The meter never touches an exact 100. It stops at 99.XX.
-Attendant says meter caliberation is not proper and hence further filling would result in 100.XX instead of exact 100.
I dont know how many others encountered this situation. Hope this helps!
-Go to the Petrol pump and buy for (lets say) 100 rupees.
-The attendant shows '0' reading on the meter.
-The meter never touches an exact 100. It stops at 99.XX.
-Attendant says meter caliberation is not proper and hence further filling would result in 100.XX instead of exact 100.
I dont know how many others encountered this situation. Hope this helps!
Petrol Pump - Are they still stealing petrol
local rental car drivers complain about it too. One driver told me after a refill that the attendant has put in 100 rs instead of 200. he was visibly upset.