Petrol - Driving off without paying

Durzel · 22 Mar 2006 at 10:15

rcrossco_1 said:
Its only £40.

Id forget all about it, and think of the small amount you have made back from all the times prior that you/we have been hideously ripped off ragged.

Its £40 from the 95 Billon or so that Shell must be making globally, somehow I think that you are going to be able to sleep at night.

That opinion is a slippery slope tbh... where do you draw the line?

Mr.T · 22 Mar 2006 at 11:30

Conclusion: Phoned up this morning, gave them my number plate, they had the exact figure on the computer and I just paid for it over the phone. The guy on the other end said whenever this happens they get a crime reference number, so it must have been reported to the police.

rcrossco_1 · 22 Mar 2006 at 11:31

The world is a harsh place, populated with BILLIONS of people.

People get murdered, tortured, killed, contract terrible, horrific diseases all day every day.

I would go as far to say its relatively small minded to worry about £40 at a petrol pump out of 1000's of customers, on one day of the year, at one station in 1000's, in one country out of hundreds.

Its pretty insignificant either way.

If people worried more about the really important things, then maybe this country wouldn't be such a disgrace, and we would all be a lot nicer to people on a personal level. I couldnt give the slightest about a multinational, multibillion ££ corporation responsible for the destruction of the planet.

And yes, I know im partly to blame, but if they sold Biofuel that went as well as optimax and cost the same Id stick it in no problems.

We need to take a leaf out of brazils books, and stop lazily relying on these massive oil corps taking us all for mugs.

The weathers only got to get worse and the oil cartels put the price of oil up, so worrying about £40 seems a waste of time.

I cannot belive you called them back!

You could have donated that £40 to charity if you really wanted to do some good, or settle your "consience".

rcrossco_1 · 22 Mar 2006 at 11:39

Mr.T said:
The guy on the other end said whenever this happens they get a crime reference number, so it must have been reported to the police.

Yes, but did he say in this instance it had been?.

.SJ · 22 Mar 2006 at 11:59

Mr.T · 22 Mar 2006 at 12:14

Just checked mail and actually got a letter from police this morning basically saying how I got petrol and did not pay, and they are wondering whether this was a mistake or a actual crime. However, on the letter it says it has me on cctv and although they must have got me going in to pay the letter states ' The service station has no record of payment being made for this fuel' , so although some people here said it is cashier's job to ask if petrol was brought, the police on this occation just view it as whether you paid for it or not, regardless of what a cashier says.

R3DBuLL · 22 Mar 2006 at 12:26

Dogbreath said:
The "what a freak" comment was not aimed at you, it was supposed to be an ironic pop at the OP for having the honesty to go back and pay for something he was not charged for, though I can see how it was misinterpreted.

I hate having to explain stuff

oops

Bobbler · 22 Mar 2006 at 12:30

Standard practise for petrol stations is to report all drive offs to the police regardless of if they think you did it on purpose or not. If the police decide to follow it up or not is an entirely different thing. Our local bobbies have a policy of not dealing with them as they believe the petrol shouldnt be out on the forecourt for everyone to help themselves to before they pay for it :rolleyes:

On a side note I see that the contempt for forecourt staff extends to even here on OcUK. I really dont understand the mentality of people when they enter a petrol station or a branch of any fast food restraunt where they automatically become frustrated and angry within 2 seconds of picking up the pump/placing an order. I find it bizarre how these locations seemingly change mild mannered people into raging beasts who have got to be in and out like yesterday. Weird IMO.

Tdh1987 · 22 Mar 2006 at 12:32

Right, got it. Everytime I go to pay for my petrol grab a chocolate bar aswell. I ride a bike so no front number plate. It's only a matter of time before they forget to charge me.

This is a joke by the way.

D33 · 22 Mar 2006 at 13:06

Nice one on going back to pay, the attitude of some people in this thread is pathetic at best :/

Slackworth · 22 Mar 2006 at 22:53

Mr.T said:
Just checked mail and actually got a letter from police this morning basically saying how I got petrol and did not pay, and they are wondering whether this was a mistake or a actual crime.

Send this letter back:

"Dear Mr. Plod,

Thank you for your letter. I fancied a bit of free fuel that day and intentionally left without paying for the fuel. Please come and arrest me as soon as you are ready.

Regards,

..."

Lopéz · 22 Mar 2006 at 23:01

Mr.T said:
Just checked mail and actually got a letter from police this morning basically saying how I got petrol and did not pay, and they are wondering whether this was a mistake or a actual crime. However, on the letter it says it has me on cctv and although they must have got me going in to pay the letter states ' The service station has no record of payment being made for this fuel' , so although some people here said it is cashier's job to ask if petrol was brought, the police on this occation just view it as whether you paid for it or not, regardless of what a cashier says.

They are offering you the easy way out.

They are saying "Look mate, you did not pay for this fuel, we know you didn't and you know you didn't. Would you like to pay for this fuel sir? I think you would so that we don't have to prosecute"

It is not the cashiers job to ask if you had fuel - if you walk up to a Tescos counter with 2 bottles of champagne by your side and the cashier doesn't see them, does that mean you aren't stealing when you walk out with them?

Mr.T · 22 Mar 2006 at 23:38

According to Vbdub who used to work at total (page 2) they are meant to ask. I was just posting that to show the police agree with you, as do I really.

TripleT · 22 Mar 2006 at 23:39

See after that letter, then I would have paid

No harm done and if they hadn't have followed it up, happy days free petrol! No harm in trying eh?

Lopéz · 22 Mar 2006 at 23:52

rcrossco_1 said:
Its only £40.

Id forget all about it, and think of the small amount you have made back from all the times prior that you/we have been hideously ripped off ragged.

Its £40 from the 95 Billon or so that Shell must be making globally, somehow I think that you are going to be able to sleep at night.

You aren't ripping off Shell though, you're ripping off the guy who runs the garage. Shell will get paid for their fuel regardless of whether he pays the £40 back - think of them as the wholesaler in all of this (as the majority of garages are run on a franchise/contract type basis)

You are also supposed to check the amount and enter your pin/sign - you should have noticed the amount was incorrect and pointed this out. It is unintentional theft as someone said - but now that the police have informed you of this, and given you the chance to come clean then you should do so.

Another analogy, you walk into a bank to withdraw £10 from your account whilst they are counting out ten billion quid on the next till. One of the £100,000 bundles rolls onto the counter. You pick it up and nobody sees, you sign for your £10 withdrawal and off you toddle. But it's ok, right, because they didn't question you about the £100,000 bundle so you aren't stealing!

GlasgowTitan · 23 Mar 2006 at 00:02

rcrossco_1 said:
Its only £40.

Id forget all about it, and think of the small amount you have made back from all the times prior that you/we have been hideously ripped off ragged.

Its £40 from the 95 Billon or so that Shell must be making globally, somehow I think that you are going to be able to sleep at night.

People like you make MY life a misery, thank you pal. I work for Shell, and if we have a drive off, and I don't manage to note down the reg number (VERY hard to do when its Queued out the door and 15 cars on the forecourt, I've got enough on my plate thanks very much) then that £40 comes out of MY wages. So rossco you are NOT taking 40 quid from Shell, you are taking from the overworked guy on the till, on minimum wage, who only gets 40 quid for the whole shift.

For stealing that £40 you have just completly made my shift worthless. Don't do it. :mad:

We do not have number plate recognition software, so its up to me to get the reg plates, and I have a window of oppertunity of about 3 seconds of you hanging up the pump and driving away, until then I dont know you are not going to pay, and generally I'm not watching every car for every second when I have a queue of customers.

GlasgowTitan · 23 Mar 2006 at 00:07

.SJ said:
The customer has just as much responsibility to say I have fuel and which pump. The amount of people that go into the shop and just say 'yer I got the diesel' or '£35 petrol' is a joke. It just leaves you feeling like saying 'What pump you moron?'

YES! Everybody dont just come up to me and give me money, or say, "diesel". I'm not going to know what pump you came from if its busy.

And people who come in and put their card in the PIN machine without saying a word, if its quiet I have been known to do nothing and instead count money or something untill they tell me what the hell they want with my PIN machine.

PS. I should add I am nice and friendly and smiley though, but people are idiots.

DRZ · 23 Mar 2006 at 01:28

I bet most of the people saying steal it or that the cashier is an idiot dont have customer facing jobs in Retail

Id also bet that should you ever get a job in retail, your viewpoint would change from "The people behind the till are idiots" to "Almost every single person through the door is a total moron".

Yes, thats right - you, Mr I Sit In An Office All Day. I think you are a moron.

Jonny ///M · 23 Mar 2006 at 01:46

DRZ said:
I bet most of the people saying steal it or that the cashier is an idiot dont have customer facing jobs in Retail

Id also bet that should you ever get a job in retail, your viewpoint would change from "The people behind the till are idiots" to "Almost every single person through the door is a total moron".
Yes, thats right - you, Mr I Sit In An Office All Day. I think you are a moron.

***,ever since i started work before christmas my opinion of the common human being has dropped conciderably. A phonecall i had the other day.....

"long story short she if phoning up to say her bike was in for repair but it wasnt until she got it home she noticed the rear mudguard was missing."

She pauses for like 5 seconds so i say "give me a second i'll put you on hold and go have a look for it"

she then says "excuse me could you wait till i speaking please!!!"

I was like right mrs just **** on me........n she then tells me about how she phoned up the day before and the guy never phoned her back regarding it...Whats the final outcome gonna be here againI GO LOOK FOR IT myself like i was gonna do before she wanted to have a wee moan.

shes on hold,i cant see the mudguard so i ask my dept head what to do he says to check the display one and take it off that,no can do it doesnt have one.....so i picks up the phone to say that im sorry but i cant find her particular one but i will take the exact same one out of a brand new boxed bike.Shes not on the line,then the phone rings again and a tannoy goes out for "urgent call for cycles on line one" i was like FFS......she had actually timed that she was on hold for 6 minutes n then still moaned after i told her she was getting a new one. Do they think its just a instant service,if your soo bloody worked up over it come in and be a bitch to my face and you may get help quicker,customers do stop me when i walk though the shop and i cant just ignore them can i.Oh how urgent it was when she says she will come down in two days to collect it! :rolleyes:

People need to chill out and stop buying cheapo built barrat homes that put them in loads of debt cause they have to buy a poverty spec 316i to go with the area and so on.....so please dont come in all angry as i will be a **** back to you,if your happy im happy!

I have ,since i started working,been pretty considerate with cashiers in my daily life!

-Mike- · 23 Mar 2006 at 01:46

DRZ said:
I bet most of the people saying steal it or that the cashier is an idiot dont have customer facing jobs in Retail

Id also bet that should you ever get a job in retail, your viewpoint would change from "The people behind the till are idiots" to "Almost every single person through the door is a total moron".

Yes, thats right - you, Mr I Sit In An Office All Day. I think you are a moron.

I worked for the local texaco and we had a few drive offs over the time I was there. It never came out of our own wages, I'm guessing the company paid for it. We did manage to catch one or two of them though