Posted on 12/10/2007 10:08:19 AM PST by John Cena
(AP) Dozens of drivers made a mad rush for cheap gas after a station employee accidentally changed the price to 33 cents a gallon.
An employee closing Trig's Minocqua Shell for the night mistakenly entered the price of a gallon of gasoline as 32.9 cents instead of $3.299 on Monday night.
He left about 10 p.m., but drivers could still use their credit cards to buy gas.
Word of the bargain spread fast in the rural northern Wisconsin community, with 42 people buying 586 gallons of gas in an hour and 45 minutes. One person had pumped 27 gallons and two purchased 18 gallons.
Local police saw the horde at the station and called store manager Andrea Reuland, who went to the station and pushed the emergency stop.
"There were cars two deep at each of my pumps," said Reuland, who knew many of the drivers and told them they were being dishonest _ the main store sign had the correct price.
"I was very upset that there's that many dishonest people," she said. "They knew there was a problem, and they took advantage of an employee's mistake and I think that's terrible."
The employee, who has been there for about six months, had changed the gas prices 25 times in the past six months.
"It was an honest mistake," Reuland said. "I could have done it."
Area residents were still talking about it Friday morning.
"Was it you guys?" a woman in the station asked Reuland. "Why do I always miss the good stuff?"
In this case, the last “Drive away and avoid” is the best answer. THERE WAS NO PERSON TO TELL AT THAT POINT!
Again, “theft” is a very strong word, which includes legal consequences. Let’s put it this way: people use gas stations at all hours, including at late & early hours, often not paying attention to what’s going on their quickly inserted credit card, although yes, they should check out all the posted details I suppose (should they also check the amount of gallons received with those charged and who knows if either are accurate if the pump has been rigged, which does happen, too). Now I don’t know how many people went to the gas station NOT KNOWING that the price seemed very low, but who knows, maybe it was a promo or something they were not aware of — give those people the benfit of the doubt. As for those who “heard” about it — who knows how — and took advamtage of what MAY have been a mistake — again, how would they really know the price was not MEANT to be that low, I suppose you can say it was “unethical”. But in no way do it eqaute to the photo posted of “folks” looting a store during Katrina nor does it equate to entering an unlocked store laye at night(BTW: what people are checking doors at stores late at night to see if they are locked).
No this was a MISTAKE that people either MISTAKENLY or DELIBERATELY took advatage of: like I said, you snooze, you CAN lose.
Not an unrealistic senario at all. I've seen the exact thing he was talking about happen many times while working retail loss prevention.
Accidental way I've seen it is two "identicle" products that came from different factories or different distributing centers will have a slightly different UPC number. Usually just one digit difference. Both UPC have to be entered into the database seperately though. One gets keyed in at $99.99 and the other at $9.99. Now at the register level they have different prices.
Dishonest shoplifter way is that on some items, clothes and jewelry mostly, the UPC is not actually printed on the package but instead is a sticker or tag. Shoplifters will remove the UPC sticker from a cheaper product and put it on the more expensive product. Unless the register operator is paying attention or the customer goes to self checkout it gets missed.
RFID's inside the packaging might fix that problem, but currently there are no stores in my area that use RFID.
Humans ain’t some times.........:O)
Stay Safe D1........good points. I agree on em all !
The station was doing the public a favor by allowing them to pump gas by credit card when the station was closed, and they took advantage of a mistake.
If I were the station owner, I'd shut my pumps down at closing time from now on.
The mere fact that HOARDS of people showed up like in the days of price-fixing to get gas from this place - EVEN WHILE THE PROPER PRICE WAS POSTED ON THE STREET, OFF BY 1 DECIMAL PLACE - indicates the vast majority of them were being totally dishonest and knowingly taking advantage of the mistake. Thus, it is a form of stealing.
Thanks Squantos. I figured we did. You take care, and have a great Christmas season.
Stealing - nothing more
This happened to me when I found an expensive item of jewlery buried in the mud on a golf cart path ... the stoner kid in the pro shop had a great big smile when he said ... let us have it and if anybody calls we'll return it.
I wish I'd had a camera to record his look when I said .. no, it's looks like it's been there for a while ... here's my phone number, if anyone calls have them call me and describe the item. His little "Christmas for me in July" look sure went away in a hurry.
I shall politely agree to disagree then.......
My primary point here is that these folks had to use Bank /Debit credit cards.....not Oklahoma Credit Cards !
Stay safe !
Not always. Many times sale items are not entered, and the cashier has to make an adjustment.
Never mind all the small street shops that do not have all that technology.
If the pump says "$0.329" while the brightly-lit sign looming over the roadway says "$3.299" would you still think that?
Jambalaya.
When the big sign casting its fluorescent glow across the station and nearby streets has foot-high bold black letters showing the price as "$3.299," then they really knew that the price was not MEANT to be that low.
I see nowhere in this statute where it refers to the “price” of the property. They didn’t pay for 5 gallons and take 10(amount of property) nor did they pay for water and then take gas (the nature of the property). And “reasonable measures” is a door big enough to drive a dump truck through.
I see ... and the station owner sells 586 gallons of gas at what is probably cost him $2.75 per gallon so nobody got hurt right?
Tell you what, you keep dancing through life like nobody's looking, I'll pass.
The station owner should publish the names of the “bargain hunters” — he should have the information from the credit transactions.
Better yet - ban them from future service and make them drive the extra miles to fill up from here on out.
They paid for 5 gallons, as you put it, ($16.50), and took 50.152 gallons ($16.50).
DON’T MESS WITH MY WEB PAGE SAYING
Then don't put it out there for the world to see how inconsistent you are.
“diamond ring I found in the restroom and turned in was then stolen by a customer service employee. You should have seen the eyes light up when I turned it in.”
Why do you assume that? Oh, I understand cynicism (look at this story here), but not everyone even if they’re excited by the find will “take advantage”.
Heck, my sister lost her wallet at 1 of her kids’ sports games, in a gym. (She didn’t realize she lost it until later looking in her purse.)
In a week she had it back with everything in it.
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