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Gas station worker accidentally sets price at 35 cents/gallon
The trouble started about 9 a.m. when an attendant at the BP station punched in 35 cents instead of $3.35 for premium-grade gasoline. The mistake wasn’t noticed until about 6 p.m., when crowds jammed the pumps and caused traffic jams on nearby roads. (StarNewsOnline.com)
April 11, 2008 | Permalink
Comments
This is the second time this has happened and it is just as funny this time around.
People are so tired of paying high fuel prices nobody is going to say shit when this type of thing happens.
Posted by: The Asshole Guy | Apr 11, 2008 3:43:28 PM
The owners of the gas station would probably want to sterilize him, but not me.
Posted by: Farmer Bob | Apr 11, 2008 4:24:57 PM
I have heard on CNN that everyone taking advantage of the situation paid with a credit card (of course, going into the station to pay would alert someone). And the station plans on reprocessing all the credit card transactions to reflect the actual price of the gas based on volume consumption.
Whenever God closes a door, He opens a window. Then He slams it on your fingers.
Posted by: msgelter | Apr 11, 2008 5:04:30 PM
msgelter they can't charge them for their screw up. The station owner will have to bite the bullet. I also looked over at CNN, watched the video and there was no mention of what you stated but that does not matter because they cannot reprocess the cards and charge them for an amount they did not advertise at the pump.
Posted by: The Asshole Guy | Apr 11, 2008 5:36:51 PM
whoops!!!
Posted by: AngrySockMonkey | Apr 11, 2008 5:53:20 PM
the oil corps already have a contract on him
terminate terminate terminate!!!!
Posted by: AngrySockMonkey | Apr 11, 2008 5:54:24 PM
I remember when gas was really that cheap, and I'm not exactly elderly.
Posted by: Phranqlin | Apr 11, 2008 6:08:46 PM
The gas price was a f**k up
so I filled my truck up
with change from my pocket
then drove like a rocket
before it went back to three bucks up!
Posted by: pawprints | Apr 12, 2008 2:28:28 AM
Finally the people get a little back from the fat cat oil barons.
Posted by: Charles Brobst | Apr 12, 2008 6:38:44 AM
Unfortunately, it won't be the oil barons who lose out on the screwup. The loss will almost certainly be absorbed by the station owner/franchisee. They don't make more than about a nickel or so per gallon when sold at full price, so imagine the hit of selling a few thousand gallons at $3 below cost!
Maybe, just maybe, BP will see it in their *cough* hearts (or at least see it as a worthwhile PR move) to reach into their billions of quarterly profits and reimburse the station the $15-20K the station could have easily lost.
Posted by: mianne | Apr 12, 2008 7:29:57 AM
It is a FEDERAL law that a product advertised at a certain price MUST be sold at that price or they can be sued. If I had been in that line I would have insisted it be sold to me at the price I saw.
I've called for a store manager more than once and bluntly said, sell it to me at that price, I know the law. They knew I was right, and they did it--of course they changed the price right after that sale, but if you SEE an advertised price, the item MUST be sold at that price or they are in alot of trouble.
Pawprints, you rock, I love that poem LOL.
Posted by: Just an Onlooker | Apr 12, 2008 7:30:30 AM
I work at a gas station and when you change the prices it is of most importance that you enter the correct price, if not you might as well say good bye to your high paying job
Posted by: anita | Apr 12, 2008 9:16:45 AM
Hey i would wait in line to buy the gas i dont know about anyone else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Dale | Apr 12, 2008 9:41:49 AM
TAG: Sorry that you didn't see the same story I did, but on CNN they DID say that the station was planning on reprocessing the cards. (I saw the story early in the morning, long before reading about it here. The stories tend to get abbreviated as the day goes on.) Another article this morning, on another site, says that police in that area already have credit card info for all the purchases, and that they will be contacting the cardholders giving them a chance to voluntarily agree to having the proper amounts added to their purchase.
JAO: Bull. There is no federal (or state) law anywhere that forces a retailer to abide by a listed or tagged price. I'm in retail, have been for years, and I know that in a free market you can charge whatever you wish, and you have the right to change the price of goods and services arbitrarily, including refusing to sell an item or service to anyone just because you feel like it. Now, that is BAD business, and will probably get you on your local BBB Ugly List, so it's not a good idea. But you can't be sued or charged criminally for this behavior unless it can be proved that you've acted fraudulently in the first place.
Simple case in point: Have you ever seen a posting at your local grocery store that corrects a price in a newspaper ad or insert? Sure you have. "The chicken breasts advertised at 9 cents a pound are actually 99 cents a pound. We are sorry for the inconvenience." This kind of thing happens in hundreds of businesses in America on a daily basis. You can't tell me that if WalMart has a boo-boo in an ad that lists a 52-inch plasma TV at $199.95 instead of the intended $1999.50 that they're going to let you walk away with that TV for 10% of the price, under any circumstances.
But hey, it was a computer/employee error on the part of the business, right? Case in point #2: Next time your bank misses by a couple of decimal points, and you suddenly have $100,000 in your account instead of $1000, go ahead and spend that money and use that same explanation to the bank and police, and see how far it gets you.
The difference here is that these people were absolutely certain that this was a mistake (just like the bank error would be), and that they were taking unfair advantage of said mistake.
Posted by: msgelter | Apr 12, 2008 11:30:04 AM
You need to do some research, there IS a FEDERAL law.. and if you refuse, then plan on being in court. As they say, ignorance of the law is no excuse. The merchandisers I dealt with knew the law and acted in accordance. They CANNOT rebill those credit cards unless they merely bully the people into agreeing. Not without their consent, can't be done.
Posted by: Just an Onlooker | Apr 12, 2008 3:13:27 PM
Show me.
As I said, I have been in business, mostly retail, for my entire adult life. In all the myriad government-required training courses, seminars, and other methods of information gathering I have had to take, not to mention the thousands of pages of federal regulations that are in my business library, I have never seen anything remotely close to the "law" you are talking about.
Put up, or shut up.
Posted by: msgelter | Apr 12, 2008 3:47:17 PM
quoted from:
http://www.myprofessionaladvertising.com/Legal%20Issues%20in%20Advertising1.htm
Advertising Law: Mis-marked Price
If a product is marked or advertised at a certain price, your state laws may require you to sell it at that price. Check with your state's Attorney General’s Office.
Posted by: nunya | Apr 12, 2008 6:55:19 PM
the law the guy is reffering to is called truth in advertising and it is a federal law. You dumb prick. I think your full of crap saying you have never heard of it in your "law books" BS I say any one with a law libary could easily find the law under advertising law its been out over 30 years. Oh and by the way I run anl ad agency and yes wal-mart would have no choice but to sell the tv's at that price as long as they were in stock same thing for chicken breasts. How stores get around there mistakes is to A. Buy the products themselves and wait to correct the mistake then put them back up for sale or B. Quickly run out of product and fire some people or C. Lie, Lie, and Lie and as a retailer you are not allowed to change prices or refuse service just cause you don't like someone. That went out with the blacks only lunch counter you moron.
Posted by: jason | Apr 12, 2008 7:00:38 PM
You know the weird thing is that I normally don't get a receipt when I buy gas with my credit card, there is a chance I may not have even noticed the savings until I got my bank statement.
Posted by: Cherie | Apr 12, 2008 7:00:42 PM
The truth in advertising laws are about intentionally misleading the public. Mistakes, honest ones, are not covered.
Is a price on a pump advertising? I think it is a offer, myself, but there is room for debate here, I suppose.
However, advertising isn't at issue here. I think they had a contract -- the store made an offer, these customers accepted, and there was an exchange of consideration (gas for money, through a credit agency). The contract was already fulfilled.
That is quite different from not honoring a shelf price at Home Depot. There, at the register, they haven't made the deal yet. Offer, acceptance, but no exchange of consideration (yet). Now if you drove across town when they told you a price, then didn't honor it, then you perhaps could argue that that gasoline was consideration.
Did these customers enter in to this contract in bad will? I don't know, some may have. They might have just thought it was a great deal.
Posted by: Sigh | Apr 13, 2008 6:33:25 AM
15 U.S.C. §45 (United States Code, chapter 15, section 45)
North Carolina has N.C. Gen. Stat. §75-1.1
Posted by: Sigh | Apr 13, 2008 6:57:10 AM
You could have gone inside and asked for like $15 on #3, then when you went back to the pump picked the grade that was 35 cents. No need to tell them what it cost at all. And they wouldn't have your credit card info. They couldn't do shit.
Posted by: Sneaky Whore | Apr 13, 2008 9:47:36 AM
rack one up for avg. joes. screw the real terorist big oil
Posted by: just keep screwing us | Apr 13, 2008 8:40:38 PM
The question is, how could they have gone all day and not noticed the mistake? I'd call this a tax on stupidity. Maybe the station owner needs to cough up a little more money so he can hire someone with a functioning brain to watch his business.
Posted by: * | Apr 14, 2008 6:21:56 AM
damn, I almost always pay with a debit card. Here's a good reason to carry cash!
Posted by: twerp | Apr 14, 2008 1:27:15 PM
