Petrol pump scam: HP COCO pump forces me to fill premium fuel

The truck was still there and I had 3/4 tank of fuel, but I just went to see if they fill her up.

BHPian Tejas@perioimpl recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

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

Location: Napeansea Road, South Mumbai.

Atleast 5-6 times a year I've noticed that whenever I go to fill fuel, there is a fuel truck there and when I ask them to fill regular petrol they will say, sir the truck is filling petrol so we can only give you premium petrol. Once you have reached the pump, you are like, hell with it, just fill it up!

3 days ago, I went with my wife's i10 to fill petrol and got the same answer. Sir the truck is filling the petrol underground tank and we can only give you premium fuel. This was at ~2pm.

I asked how much time will it take, to which they replied, 1 hour.

My wife has a bad habit of letting fuel run really low so I just filled 500rupees of premium and said I'll come back later. Then on a whim I asked, how about diesel, is that functioning? yes sir, the diesel tanks are full.

Ok I say and leave.

2 hours later, I take my Pajero to the same pump. Truck is still there.

I say fill up with regular diesel. Surprise surprise, well actually no surprise, I get the answer that the truck is filling the diesel tank and you will have to only fill hi speed diesel. With the facemask in place they did not know I had come few hours before and had asked the same question.

Demand to see the manager, who conveniently wasn't available. So I just left fuming.

Late evening, was going to fetch some refreshments to carry for the next day's off-roading and took the Polo GT this time.

The truck was still there and I had 3/4 tank of fuel, but I just went to see if they fill her up.

Same answer, sir - the tank is being filled, please fill premium petrol!

So, is this a scam to get you to fill premium fuel and make more money?

I can "understand" this practice with a private pump but a COCO doing it is shocking!

Has anyone seen this modus operandi before?