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?"
Excellent analogy!
thanks
You got it, total theft. Exorbident gas prices are horrible for a gas retailer and the average American is too dumb to know who to really blame. That is why government and big business elites keep fleecing the population, because Americans go after the problem they can see, touch and smell rather then going after the root of the problem which is bad politics in Washington.
Yes it is. And people wonder why I have home protection and some supplies set aside for emergencies. They are lining up in droves like this to rip off an American in an economy just getting tough? Give it a couple more years. In the meantime, I will stay packing.
“I was very upset that there’s that many dishonest people,”
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Is she talking about the oil companies executives and their cronies in Washington, D.C.?
Hotels, I think, have the most frequent use of add-ons and adjustments but it is available to other merchants also. If you can find the instruction booklet for your POS terminal, look up the section which is usually labeled just that: "add-ons and adjustments". One need only document that merchandise or services were received.
The right of a consumer to reverse charges is far more restricted than generally believed if the merchant choses to contest the matter. The issue usually goes to actual receipt and merchantability. If there is no actual fraud involved, the merchant can usually collect if he so chooses.
You would be surprised at the number of tag switching that did go on here. Here in NY, you will rarely see items indepenently tagged outside of the barcode.
My ex-wife, was charged with pettit larceny for switching tags. Which is why she’s my ex-wife.
Thanks for the comments. I agree that folks go after the easy target, when it’s not the fault of the guy you can see generally.
I probably stopped reading at the post that I responded to.
thanks :)
What did the price on the machine say when they went to fill up? That would be an “advertised price.”
LOL! Oh, Man, I wish! I was excited to find gas for $2.99/gal this week!
Mainly, I haven’t been here because I’m working lots of long hours schlepping Christmas Trees and Poinsettia at the Garden Center. I thought with the first Hard Freeze my life would be a breeze, but it’s not turning out that way...
Two more weeks to go, then I can go into Groundhog Mode and totally hibernate. Until it all starts up again come March. Grrrr!
(Hope all is well with you. I’m just a little CRANKY after 22” of snow and ice in the past 10 days!)
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