sled4fun

Traveled I-5 south on Christmas eve. from Sacramento to L.A. and stopped in Coalinga for fuel. I don't usually buy from AM/PM -ARCO, but we had a few gift cards from our credit card rewards so I figured lets use them on the trip. I prepay with a $25.00 gift card and begin pumping. It is pumping rather slow so I kill time making room in the ice chest for the ice my wife is purchasing. The nozzle clicks off and I start to do the usual put it away stuff. It is only then that I see $25.00 for the amount and like 4.80 gallons of fuel. I say what the heck and look at the cost per gallon........$5.48 per gallon. ***! I thought I had warped back in time to summer time.

It was my fault for not looking first, but come on, this is major price gouging. If I see 4 stations next to each other I would always expect the ARCO to be the cheapest of the 4. The Shell station next door was showing $2.17 per gallon for diesel. I walking into the store and asked for a receipt and asked if there was some reason that their diesel was more than twice the amount of the going rate. The shift worker said that was the price that they paid for it. Yah right!

Well I just had to vent and the only thing I could do was to email my story to BP/ARCO and see if their customer service has any real answers.

Merry Christmas everyone

13ALPHA

That sucks man, sorry. I've seen 30 cent difference, but that's ridiculous!

Old Hat

Can you report them to the state of CA for price gouging ?

http://ag.ca.gov/antitrust/gasoline/

Bark

Funny how they raise the price of the fuel already in their tanks the second the price of oil goes up.

sled4fun

Thanks for this info. I filled out an online complaint and will let you all know of the outcome.

dslpwr81

I know I shouldn't laugh, but that is so funny. Those are the kinds of things that happen to me. Though, it is a lot funnier to hear it from someone else. Thanks for the good laugh. I needed it. "I thought I had warped back in time to summer time"

sled4fun

I didn't say this in the original story. But before we left for our trip my wife had been saving her Safeway shopping credits for fuel and it had grown to one time $2.00 per gallon discount. I filled up my truck for $7.10 the day before the trip. It was so nice to pump that much diesel for $7.10.........28+ gallons

The fuel gods must not have liked my idea and vowed to keep the price of a full tank of fuel where they want it.

Bark

Grrrrrr! I have to drive over 200 miles each way (to Anchorage) in order to use my safeway credits because our Safeway in Kenai doesnt do gas or fuel. It doesnt pencil out for me. Than when I finally do wind up by a Safeway that sells fuel, my credits will have expired.

sled4fun

That really sucks. Too bad they are so far away.

Coolride

Wow, if that's what they paid, it must pretty old fuel, or they bought a contract at that price trying to block higher prices in the future which never happened.

sled4fun

I received an e-mail from BP/Arco with the phone number and address for the station and a phone number to call for price gouging. So I call the number for price gouging and a guy answers asking me information on where I purchased it and how much. He then says thank you in which I reply don't you want my name and number. He says no, we just gather information and the federal government reviews it and does whatever they want with it. I said this seems like its going somewhere in a round file and told him he is doing a great job making a living at doing something very productive with our tax dollars..........yah right!

So I then call the AM/PM station I bought the diesel from and talked with the owner. He was very nice and said that the fuel is priced like that because he said he bought it back when prices were high and the station next door bought theirs at a much better price and has been selling it so cheap nobody is buying his. I said diesel does get bad over time and told him he is not going to sell it unless someone like me buys it without noticing it. He didn't seem to mind or care. I then thought.....what the heck ask him if he would right a wrong and reimburse me 1/2 of my charges. He said to fax him a letter of what took place and seem receptive to the suggestion. Time will tell if I get anything.

At least I feel a little better in at least doing something and not just rolling over. Usually I just say what the heck file it in the stupid things i did and not worth the time dealing with it.

sled4fun

Update 1-5-09. Received a check for $15.00 today from the owner of the station. He said in his letter that it was their mistake and that the fuel was from last summer. Now I'm really glad that it was only 4.8 gallons of stale diesel that I mixed with my 25 in the tank.

Lesson? I guess the squeaky wheel does get the grease!

Totallyrad

$25 - $15 / 4.8 = $2.08/gal. Not to bad. The only question that comes to mind is this. Around here the larger chain's stores are all linked to corporate via computer/satellite. The company calls and tells them when to change the price. The computers automatically change the price at the pump, the owner never touches them. All they do is change the price boards.

Dustybowls

there is a am pm around here with diesel about $2.00 more per gallon then the gas stations near it. been that way for a really long time