[vkivaturi]

Originally Posted by bravo82in

I pay up the total of initial ( before power failure) and final amount. Not sure if it’s some scam but worried since this has happened a couple of times.

Yes, this is a scam. Been in existence for many years. I got fooled once. And couple of years later, a HP Petrol Pump near my home in Hyderabad tried the same again. This time I asked him to give me both the receipts and then only I will pay the full amount. He backed out.

I later sent a complaint note to HP. Their CRM team called and investigated the issue. They came back saying the pump attendant was attempting fraud. How did they know that? They shared with me a complete log of fuel dispensed when I was at the pump. Looks like each time a fuel is let out, it gets logged on a remote server.

So yes, in case you see such things happening, report to the corporate office of respective company.

[BHPjunkie]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Reviving an old thread rather than starting a new one.

I have a trusted COCO HP pump near my house and I always fill from there.

Location: Napeansea Road, South Mumbai

Has anyone seen this modus operandi before?

I can relate to this. Happened with me a couple of times. I generally refuel when the tank is about 1/4 and if their tanker is refueling the tank I just drive away and return after few hours.

On one occasion I was leaving for Lonavala and had to refuel my Ameo diesel DSG at the Nepeansea Road pump. I generally fill only from that petrol pump and always fill regular diesel only. When I reached they said that the truck was refilling the diesel tank so only premium diesel was available. I went ahead and filled the same as I did not have another option and I did not want to refuel at any other pump on the way. The car felt different to drive immediately and felt more responsive. But surprise surprise!!! As soon as I reached the freeway the check engine light came on and the car refused to accelerate beyond 40 kmph. It started to shudder on pressing the accelerator beyond 40kmph. I was close to the VW Sewri service center, and was lucky that they accepted to receive the vehicle at 5PM in the evening. Later the same was dialogized to an injector related issue and the same had to be replaced. It was covered under warranty else was looking at a 25k bill. Now I am not sure if it was related to the fuel. VW suggested to stick to regular diesel only. I had to call for another car to take to my destination and it was just a nightmare of a situation.

After this incident I have never filled any premium fuel and always come back later if they are refueling the tanks at the pump.

[amol4184]

May be not related to issue on hand but has anyone filled up at Nayara? They have opened an outlet smack middle of residential area here and I am tempted to tank up my Thar tomorrow. I have not seen this brand before and usually fill up at out of town Shell.

[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Be Wild

No this not a scam, its actually the SOP to be followed during Tanker Truck Decantation at petrol pumps, which states that sales from the Tank that product is being offloaded into has to have the sales stopped for the said period.

While in Tejas@perioimpl's case, his first visit was at 2 pm followed by 2nd visit after two hours and the last one as per him is late evening(assuming that it's 9-10 pm). Does a truck take 7-8 hours to off-load fuel? If No, what could be the reason that they denied non premium petrol on both occassions? My guess is this bunk has unsold premium petrol for many days and trying ways to clear off the stock.

[asethi]

Originally Posted by roy_libran

I just came across this on Twitter. Apparently a pump refueled 63 litres in what the owner says is a 50 litre Fuel Tank (Duster)

TWITTER LINK

Errant Fuel Station-
Shri Krishna Petroleum Udupi (Indian Oil)

I've had similar experience with Essar petrol bunk near KA-AP border on AP side of Hyderabad highway. Those guys filled 38ltrs in a 44lt tank with auto-cut, while I still had 1/4th tank full before refueling. Even when my car's fuel level is drastically low, I've never been able to fill more than 36lts for the full tank.
Arguing with them didn't make sense as suddenly all of them said they only talk/understand Telugu!

[adisan]

Originally Posted by vkivaturi

So yes, in case you see such things happening, report to the corporate office of respective company.

Heard a few other cases as well where the petroleum companies take complaints seriously. That is encouraging. Apparently the complain book at the petrol station is a good option to raise complaints, even better is the online channel.

[Vignesh Mohan]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Be Wild

No this not a scam, its actually the SOP to be followed during Tanker Truck Decantation at petrol pumps, which states that sales from the Tank that product is being offloaded into has to have the sales stopped for the said period.

Secondly you will see this practice followed only at COCO pumps as they follow this sop with disregard to the sale loss it may result in due to the goodwill they have in the market. No private owned pump follows this SOP for fear of losing customer patronage.

Usually most trucks are at outlets being decanted around the lean business hours around 11-3 pm most pumps follow this process because when a truck is being decanted the underground product is mixed like a blender and no matter if its a COCO pump or a private pump each and every tank has gunk at the bottom and water which is mixed during decantation hence time is needed for it to settle so that its not accidently pumped into a customers car.

Hello All,
Yes it is the SOP , but the operators use this to fake the filling operation
The tanker usually stays there and many a times this has happened in BP near my place
I had refused to fill and came back after a while , the tanker was still there but doing nothing , but they still redirected saying we have only premium fuel
This time i decided not to fill tank and paid just 200 and I could see the frustration on his face .
I shouted saying unless you give normal petrol i m not going to fill my tank
A customer staying behind me said , they always do this and he left without filling.
SOP is fine but they misuse this.

[Abhikumar629]

This issue is very common in Shell. Irrespective of the outlet, there is a standard reply "regular petrol is over, only premium". I protested multiple times from asking for their register to meeting their manager to going to an extent of threatening them with escalation to Shell India management. It's only after you take a tough stand, the regular petrol surfaces out of nowhere. In India, learn to confront else be ready to be taken for a ride.

[Born 2 Be Wild]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

While in Tejas@perioimpl's case, his first visit was at 2 pm followed by 2nd visit after two hours and the last one as per him is late evening(assuming that it's 9-10 pm). Does a truck take 7-8 hours to off-load fuel? If No, what could be the reason that they denied non premium petrol on both occassions? My guess is this bunk has unsold premium petrol for many days and trying ways to clear off the stock.

Well sir your guess is incorrect , there is no expiration date for product in tank as long as it meets the required density parameters, hence there is zero pressure to offload product on that account, people stocking power 100/speed 97/ xp100 sit on the same stock for 2-3 months on account of measly sales. Also each and every bunk has different sales volumes and some COCOpumps are known to Decant upto 3 tankers a day Ms/Hsd as they have large volumes. Which may go upto 4 if its a monday. Also COCO pumps take complaints very strictly and they never push for premium fuels using unscruplous ways, on the other hand a pvt dealer might do so but never a coco.

Also most pumps are now automated via central
Server and during tanker decantation the automation system puts a lock on dispensing units and the lock is automatically lifted once product is offloaded, even if one wants to one cant overirde the auto lock.

Tanker takes 90 minutes to decant start to finish.

[FloatingCanvas]

Originally Posted by kosjam

While all 3 government owned refineries have COCO type pumps as well as private pumps, my experience has shown that IOC branded pumps have a greater propensity to have issues with bad fuel and pump rigging.

Has anybody else observed this as well?

While I have tremendous respect towards IOC for having pumps at the remotest corners of our country, I and very sceptical about using their pumps inside cities and even on highways.

Majority of malpractices like rigged meters or poor quality of fuel, in my experience, has been at IOC bunks. I have blacklisted 4 different bunks of IOC because I'm almost certain to be cheated there.

HP has been mixed experiences.

BP is my preferred outlet and have been visiting one that is 2.4km away from my home for getting fuel for all my vehicles since past 6 years.


I avoid shell because of long queues and the often "only premium fuel available today" situation, apart from pricier fuel.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by Vignesh Mohan

Hello All,
Yes it is the SOP , but the operators use this to fake the filling operation
The tanker usually stays there and many a times this has happened in BP near my place
I had refused to fill and came back after a while , the tanker was still there but doing nothing , but they still redirected saying we have only premium fuel
This time i decided not to fill tank and paid just 200 and I could see the frustration on his face .
I shouted saying unless you give normal petrol i m not going to fill my tank
A customer staying behind me said , they always do this and he left without filling.
SOP is fine but they misuse this.

Originally Posted by Abhikumar629

This issue is very common in Shell. Irrespective of the outlet, there is a standard reply "regular petrol is over, only premium". I protested multiple times from asking for their register to meeting their manager to going to an extent of threatening them with escalation to Shell India management. It's only after you take a tough stand, the regular petrol surfaces out of nowhere. In India, learn to confront else be ready to be taken for a ride.

Contrary to popular belief, the hold oil companies have over retail pumps is very high. I have faced all types of these scams in the last 20 years and most can be complained and rectified. The moment a formal complaint is lodged you can see the change in the attitude of the petrol pump. Only thing missing is the customer awareness.

Only exception to the scam that you cannot get money back is the cash change return when few rupee notes will be shown in front of you but one note will be given less. A decade back, I usually give the erstwhile 1000 rupee note to fuel my bike as well generate small change in 100 rupee notes for balance. Once, I fell victim to this in Bangalore HSR layout petrol pump in the corner of BDA complex road and ORR. After which I stopped and use my card for bike also. After 2016, there is hardly any cash usage or no more higher value notes are dispensed from ATMs, so this is no longer possible.

For the premium fuel available scam, in Shell, there used to be a display board that shows the stock level of each type of fuel in Kilo liters and it needs to be updated daily. I was once told only V Power available and got irritated with the tone of the attendant. So I just took a picture of the stock status board and sent a online complaint to Shell. I was called by the pump manager on the same day and he apologized and was offered a small voucher for fuel next time.

I think it is mandatory by all oil companies to display the stock status in pumps but it will be hidden. Please ask them the board and take a picture and complain if you wish. Because there is a reconciliation of fuel dispensed from each nozzle and the stock available.

Today, the level of automation is such that each transaction in petrol pumps can be monitored. Refer this requirements document from BP for pump automation

https://www.bharatpetroleum.in/pdf/t...ifications.pdf

The biggest concern for me on fuel is the adulteration which not only damages the wallet but the engines also.

[GeneralJazz]

Originally Posted by roy_libran

I just came across this on Twitter. Apparently a pump refueled 63 litres in what the owner says is a 50 litre Fuel Tank (Duster)

TWITTER LINK

Errant Fuel Station-
Shri Krishna Petroleum Udupi (Indian Oil)

Not sure of the situation now, but it used to be fairly common in Mahe (Puducherry UT) years ago. A family friend had once created a ruckus when they filled in 50+ liters in his M800!

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/1505...ahe-fuel-pumps

[amol4184]

Originally Posted by GeneralJazz

Not sure of the situation now, but it used to be fairly common in Mahe (Puducherry UT) years ago. A family friend had once created a ruckus when they filled in 50+ liters in his M800!

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/1505...ahe-fuel-pumps

What is the modus operandi here? Do they steal from every liter of fuel or just run the meter even after tank is full? From the news. IOC officials cleared the system/software as being culprits.

[Sach_511]

I can vouch that, the same techniques of the scam are quite prevalent in CNG stations and I have myself fallen into these scams many times and lot of times I am quite aware that I am getting scammed, however due to paucity of time and long queue behind me I let it go; Also CNG on highways are premium commodity so they have free hand to run this scams.

[pram_ind]

Originally Posted by amol4184

May be not related to issue on hand but has anyone filled up at Nayara? They have opened an outlet smack middle of residential area here and I am tempted to tank up my Thar tomorrow. I have not seen this brand before and usually fill up at out of town Shell.

Whenever I fill with Nayara petrol in Kerala, I see a better milage and the car runs smooth.

I used to cover a distance of 40 kms in Kerala. with cruising speed of 60 (Camers on road), and I used to get around 14.5 km/l in this streatch with Nayara petrol, while using BP petrol I used to get around 13.4. This was in the morning low traffic with my steed Hyundai Creta petrol AT