I still remember fueling up my 1958 Plymouth "Bat-mobile" at 17 cents per gallon.
My Bat-mobile was black in the areas where this one is red.
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?"
I just can’t believe you “Holier Than Thou” people that have no concept of the real world.
Paying the programmed price is not stealing. What the pump charges IS the price. Period.
Businesses don’t accept credit cards because they are benevolent. Sheesh. If you don’t accept cards you don’t get business!
The owner should not and probably will not lose a penny. Anyone that has been around food service knows the waiter or waitress pays for unwrung or stiffed items. The employee that made this mistake should pay every penny of what was lost. He alone is responsible and won’t make that mistake again should he retain his employment.
The owner has no legal recourse what-so-ever. The people paid what he was charging.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Read the article the PUMP price was on error, the STORE sign still had the correct price. So the people knew what they were doing was wrong.
With the advent of unmarked merchandise the laws were tightened somewhat to require that the recorded price must match posted price but there was never a requirement to honor an honest error. The U.C.C. and Arizona have made a concerted effort to avoid a single price system.
That may be the legal definition and it may be yours. My personal values are worth more than $40.
I've been in more-or-less the same situation a few times. Generally, when I point out the mistake, the clerks say "Oh that's right" and charge me the correct price. Others thank me for my honesty, and give me the lower price...(depends on their position, and whether or not it's a big box, or Mom and Pop place).
I've had a couple give me an argument..."This is really a 99c item, not 24.99". To them, I say "OK, it's a 99c item." So be it on their head.
To all on this thread who say "So what's the big deal?" I ask one question of them... "If they were *overcharged*, would they point it out and expect their money back?"
I still remember fueling up my 1958 Plymouth "Bat-mobile" at 17 cents per gallon.
My Bat-mobile was black in the areas where this one is red.
Do they prosecute drive-offs in Wisconsin? The only difference between this and the typical drive-off is the fact that some money changed hands.
This is in no way a drive-off. The merchant offered a product at an advertised price. The consumer purchased it at said price.
Mistake on the merchant's part? Yes. Illegal? Heck no.
Did I miss your sarcasm tag or are you really suggesting that charging the market price to customers who purchase the product of their own volition amounts to theft?
They didn't pay what was posted. The correct price was posted. The pump was set incorrectly. When people found that they could pump the gas at $0.329 rather than the $3.299 that was posted, they knew that they were getting their gas for $2.97 per gallon less than the posted price.
What will really be hilarious is if the station owner can have the cards that were used to make those purchases at the wrong price charge an adjustment to correct the error. Since each transaction had to record the number of gallons purchased and the price per gallon charged, it would probably be fairly easy to facilitate the adjustment. Furthermore, it would be perfectly legal to do so since the correct price was posted on the signs at the station.
The station owner will not likely have any access to credit card numbers from the transaction. If he has anything, it’ll be hashed numbers (a string of x’es with only the last 3 or 4 digits.
It’s a common security precaution that protects both the customer and the merchant.
Your analogy is not an accurate analogy, so let me provide a better one:
You go to the store to buy a new X-Box360 for your kid, look at the price-tag which is clearly marked $329.95, and consider $329.95 to be a reasonable price and decide to buy it. You go to the checkout counter, and the employee ringing it up enters it incorrectly for $3.29. Do you:
(A) inform the employee of the mistake;
(B) quickly swipe your debit card and hope nobody notices;
(C) tell the employee you meant to get 9 more units and ask him to simply change the quantity to 10 while you run back to pick up 9 more at this "bargain" price?
Nope, sorry, I run a merchant account as treasurer of a non-profit organization, and the full card number, CVV code if entered, and expiration date is available for review on my transaction records. The string of Xs on the receipt is to prevent someone who picks that receipt out of the trash from making a bunch of mail-order or online purchases.
Actually there's an excellent chance of recouping their loss. Every transaction used a card account of some kind and recorded the gallons purchased and the price paid. If you bought 20 gallons at .329 per gallon ($6.58), it would be very simple to record an adjustment transaction of $59.40 to reflect the correct price of the transaction of 20 gallons at $3.299 for a total of $65.98.
There is absolutely no way for any adjustment on the credit card transaction. Each sale or refund is unique. There is an authorization code that appears on each CC transaction...it is the validation electonically of that singular action. All account info is x’d out (save for the last four digits of the CC account...there is no revisiting the transaction.
That’s exactly right - and I’d love to see one of the customers try to fight that charge.
In this case, he’s legally wrong as well. The correct price was posted, but the machine was set to the wrong price. People who purchased the gas were doing so with full knowledge that the price was incorrect.
I appreciate the comment. It’s been interesting to watch people weigh in on this one. Thanks.
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