Netlore Archive: Email rumor claims a consumer was cheated by a rigged gas pump while refueling at a BP service station in Cartersville, Georgia.
Description: Email rumor
Circulating since: April 2008
Status: Specific story appears to be false, though cheating does occur
Email example contributed by Kay L., May 2, 2008
Subject: cheating at gas pumps.This is a true story, so read it carefully.
On April 24, 2008, I stopped at a Kangaroo BP gas station, located at 1325 Main Street, Cartersville, GA. My truck's gas gauge was on 1/4 of a tank .I use the mid-grade, which was priced at $3.71 per gallon. When my tank is at this point, it takes somewhere around 14 gallon's to fill it up. When the pump showed 14 gallons had been pumped I began to slow it down, then to my surprise it went to 15, then 16. I even looked under my truck to see if it was being spilled. It was not. Then it showed 17 gallons had been pumped. It stopped at almost 18 gallons. This was very strange to me, since my truck has only an 18 gallon tank.
I went on my way a little confused, then on the evening news I heard a report that 1 out of 4 gas stations had calibrated their pumps to show more gas had been pumped than a person actually got.
Here is how to check a pump to see if you are getting the right amount:
Whichever grade you are using, put EXACTLY 10 GALLONS in your tank, then look at the dollar amount, if the dollar amount is not EXACTLY 10 times the price of the fuel you have chosen, then the pumps are rigged. In my case as I said the mid-grade was $3.71 9/10 per gallon, my dollar amount for 10 gallons should have been $37.19. If I had only checked the pump. It doesn't matter where you pump gas, please check the 10 gallon price.
If you do find a station that is cheating, contact the Georgia Agriculture Department, and direct your comments to Tommy Irvin, Commissioner. In other states contact proper authorities. Please don't delete this until you have sent it to all people in your address book. We need to put a stop to this outrageous cheating of customers. The gas companies are making enough profits at honest rates.
Comments: It's easy to see why folks would find this story plausible, coming as it did mere weeks after authorities closed the pumps at two Cisco service stations in Camden, Georgia because they were rigged to short customers on the fuel they purchased. State inspectors determined that customers were being cheated out of as much as a quart on every five gallons paid for. Department of Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin said the station operators may be subject to fines and criminal charges.
As well publicized as those closures were, it would seem unlikely that other stations in the state would risk being caught doing the same thing so soon afterwards. In point of fact, according to a report on Snopes.com, all the pumps at the above-mentioned BP station in Cartersville were tested by state inspectors in November 2007 and again in May 2008, and found to be accurate.
Gas pumps can indeed be rigged to cheat customers, but they can also malfunction, which is why most if not all states conduct routine inspections. As often as not, inspectors say, malfunctioning pumps err to the benefit of consumers. Of the 119,012 pumps inspected in Georgia last year (2007), slightly less than 5% were found to be inaccurate, according to Commissioner Irvin, and at least half of those were delivering more gas than customers paid for -- not that the idea of playing gas pump roulette will provide much consolation to consumers in this era of ever-rising gasoline prices.
The simple method for verifying the volume-to-price ratio described in the email -- often called the "Times 10 Rule" -- is one way consumers can catch possible cheats or malfunctions, though it is not infallible. Just because a pump displays the correct total in dollars per the amount it says was pumped, that's no guarantee that the volume itself was measured accurately.
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Sources and further reading:
Gas Pumps Shut at 2 Stations
Florida Times-Union, 13 February 2008Gas Station Owner Accused of Cheating People at Pump
Savannah Morning News, 6 March 2008Cheating at Gas Pumps
Randy Travis's Newsroom (MyFoxAtlanta), 8 May 2008Cheating at Gas Pumps
Snopes.com, 8 May 2008Faulty Gas Pumps Might Cheat You
Associated Press, 25 April 2008
Last updated: 05/13/08
