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Charged for gas before fuel pumped

Charged for gas before fuel pumped

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
August 3, 2013

About 1-2 weeks ago I read a news article about someone who noticed that the gas pump had rung up the beginning of a purchase before any fuel was pumped. I must admit that I was skeptical.

No longer. It happened to me this afternoon in McHenry. I stopped at the Clark station at 4713 West Elm Street. Before I swiped my card, I removed and discarded the previous customer's receipt; then I swiped my card, removed the pump handle and selected the fuel grade I wanted.

Before pumping, I noticed that the pump had cleared to zero and then was reading a sale of 0.063 gallons fof $0.24. Wait just a minute! I hadn't even placed the nozzle in my fuel tank yet!

It wasn't the 24¢ that I was concerned about, but the fact that the pump was charging me before I started the fuel flow! So I got the attendant and asked him to re-set the pump. He was polite enough and was trying to be helpful, but I don't think his training had included how to do that.

But he got it figured out, and the pump was back to zero. He told me to pump my gas and then come inside to pay for it. I removed the pump handle again and pointed it toward my gas tank, and the pump jumped to 0.031 gallons and $0.12!

At that point I thanked the attendant and headed up the street to buy elsewhere.

Has anyone else experienced this?