Sunday, March 14, 2010

Gas Station Rip-Off

We have heard stories of dishonest attendants but have not experienced any ourselves except for one case where they “had no change” and I paid $900 pesos for $860 worth of gas. In that case maybe he actually had no change, but I doubt it.

Today, we pulled in for gas just West of Campeche. I got out of the cab, pulled $1000 pesos out of my wallet and ordered $1000 pesos of Magna (Regular). He zeroed the pump and started pumping. Immediately his partner called to me to look at my tire. He was standing there pointing at it and speaking rapid Spanish. As I went to look I heard the pump stop and the ding as it was zeroed. I came back as the guy was pulling out the premium nozzle. He said he forgot I wanted premium but said he had only put in $158 pesos worth of regular. I said no, I wanted regular. He said he would give me the $1000 pesos less the $158 he had already put in.

There was no way he had time to put in $158 pesos of gas and he did not show me the meter before he zeroed it. Maybe $50 pesos worth had gone in so I was getting ripped off for $100 pesos. It was not worth arguing about it as he had several “witnesses” so I handed him the $1000 and openly put the $10 peso tip I had in my hand for him back in my pocked. “I think you already got your tip”, I said. He looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about and I drove off.

After probably 200 gas stops I got ripped off. Sad.

1 comment:

  1. That is the "look at this scam"!

    ALWAYS watch the gas being pumped. Then you can look at whatever the scam partner wants you to look at.

    ReplyDelete