[Leopold Stotch]

http://www2.canada.com/burnabynow/news/story.html?id=2902413

OTTAWA - The federal government is set to introduce new legislation to crack down on gas stations that overcharge customers for fuel.

Details of the Fairness at the Pump Act will be revealed on Thursday when the bill is introduced in the House of Commons, according to a senior government official
"In some cases, customers were being charged an extra $1.50 to $2 on a normal fill-up. This is unacceptable. Families, individuals, and small businesses spend enough of their money on gas. They shouldn't have to pay a penny more due to inaccurate gas pumps."

Industry Minister Tony Clement is moving on the file after an Ottawa Citizen investigation showed that nearly five per cent of gas pumps tested in Canada - about one pump in 20 - shortchanged the consumer by giving out less fuel than indicated on the metre. The 2008 analysis, based on electronic records of more than 200,000 government inspections dating back to 1999, found that of the pumps that showed measurement errors, about 75 per cent were giving out less gas, not more.

The government official on Tuesday said evidence of "malicious" business practices or "gas pump tampering" is real.

In response to the May 2008 investigation, Jim Prentice, industry minister at the time, ordered beefed-up inspections and verifications. Prentice also instructed Measurement Canada, the agency responsible for ensuring measuring devices are accurate, to move quickly with a legislative proposal for mandatory inspections of gas pumps every two years.

Later that summer, government inspectors ramped up inspections and found pumps at 280 vendors running slow, with some overcharging drivers the equivalent of $3 or more on a fill-up.

isn't this bs?

sorry if this was already posted i did a search and found nothing.

[orange7]

i knew they were over charging me..... damnit..

[hal0g0dv2]

seems about right

[TomBox_N]

Wut a bunch of fuckers. These oil companies have no ethics wutsoever
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[vafanculo]

They just want to save us money so we have more money for them to take from new bullshit taxes, increases, etc.
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[underscore]

^ exactly what I was thinking.

They're spending tax money, to save small amounts of money on something that they are about to be taxing us even more on. Yes it sucks that we typically get ripped off a few bucks but really, we're already getting ripped off by gas prices anyways...

[Lomac]

Damn. Was hoping for something about price fixing instead of individual pump "inaccuracies."

[Meowjin]

Wut a bunch of fuckers. These oil companies have no ethics wutsoever
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gas station owners.

[ToneCapone]

Damn. Was hoping for something about price fixing instead of individual pump "inaccuracies."

straight up, that's the real problem.

[spoon.ek9]

Damn. Was hoping for something about price fixing instead of individual pump "inaccuracies."

i concur x10000000

[Manic!]

gas station owners.
We already get our pumps checked buy the government.The come randomly to check them.

This is all smoke and mirrors to distract people from all the problems the government has been having.

also the average gas station owner does not know how to change the pump measurement system. Gas station owners can't even buy the measurement container used to measure the pumps.

[Kim Jong Un]

we're lucky they're just overcharging the gas prices
in asia countries like vietnam they mixed gas and water and sell it to you...

[Manic!]

we're lucky they're just overcharging the gas prices
in asia countries like vietnam they mixed gas and water and sell it to you...

Water and gas don't mix.

[Leopold Stotch]

Damn. Was hoping for something about price fixing instead of individual pump "inaccuracies."

i wish it were true too

[lgman]

IIRC this practice was done in the states years ago.

[ericthehalfbee]

There were a bunch of stations in the US that got caught "cheating" with gas pumps. But they had a very clever system. If you pumped an even amount like $5.00 or $10.00 then the pump would be correct every time (this is why inspectors took so long to catch on). But if you pumped an odd amount (like when people fill up) then the pump would give you less than what it said. Essentially the pump changed speed (so after hitting $5.00 it would slow down so you would get less, but then it would speed up again as it neared $10.00).

That is beyond any gas station owner to do and would require someone with extensive knowledge of the pumps and software used (like someone who actually made the pumps).

[Vansterdam]

those scamming fuckers

[fishing666]

Water and gas don't mix.
gas and ethanol does...

and that's what they are doing to us here

[murd0c]

I have ctv and cbc at my work right now doing a story on this. The minister Tony Clement his doing a speech as well. It should be a interesting day for me lol
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[hotjoint]

They just want to save us money so we have more money for them to take from new bullshit taxes, increases, etc.
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:werd:

[Expresso]

Damn. Was hoping for something about price fixing instead of individual pump "inaccuracies."

No kidding, If they really wanted to do something how about reducing the taxes on fuel. THAT would save us money.

[7seven]

Something about this sounded familiar, I remember seeing a story on this on CTV news awhile ago, checked and here was the story from 2008


By: ctvbc.ca

Date: Tuesday Sep. 16, 2008 6:39 PM PT

About one in ten gas stations across B.C. have been found to be underselling customers anywhere from a few dimes to a few dollars on a fill-up.

Many station managers say they have fixed the problem since they were caught by inspectors from Measurement Canada, the federal government's gas station watchdog.

"It's few and far between but it does happen," said Petra Zatzke, a manager at a Super Save gas station on Highway 97 near Kelowna. "The older the pump, the more likely that there's going to be mechanical failure."

In 2006, Zatzke's station was tested by government inspectors. They found that of her 10 pumps, seven were working normally.

But two were holding back about half a litre of gasoline on a 50 litre fill-up -- about 75 cents' worth of gasoline. A third pump was underdispensing about 750ml -- more than a dollar per fill-up.

It may not seem like much, but it adds up to a few cents a litre -- equivalent to the price hikes of the carbon tax of the provincial Liberal government.

When Zatzke got the government report, she fixed the pumps, and now has an independent company check the pumps every year.

"Really and truly, in order for the customer to be fully protected on a regular basis, Measurement Canada has to regularly check gas stations," she said.

That Super Save isn't the only one. Gas stations across the province under most brand names have failed government tests.

In 2005, the Gordon Head Shell station on Shelbourne Street in Victoria was caught underselling by about 1.7 litres on a 50 litre fill-up -- or about $2.50 worth of gasoline.

It was fixed after the inspection and the station has since changed management, said the new manager, Serkan Tabanli.

"I didn't want customers to suffer," said Tabanli.

In 2006, Nakusp Shell Service east of Vernon was found to be giving out 2 litres less than its pumps were saying -- the most of any B.C. station in the past two years.

The manager, Warren Jones, said he shut the pump down immediately and hasn't reactivated it.

"I was very concerned about it," he told CTV News over the phone. "Measurement Canada does a good job and we look forward to them coming -- because it means our pumps get more accurate."

A spokesperson for Shell said that they investigate pump accuracy after they receive a customer complaint.

"We strive for accuracy and we do comply with federal and provincial requirements for pump calibration," said Jana Masters.

Cedar Hill Petro-Canada in Victoria failed in 2005 -- its first failure since 1999.

Petro-Canada spokesman John Hamilton said his company has standards that are higher than the federal standards.

"We have standards that we've set ourselves that are five times stricter. We don't want to leave any wiggle room, we want to be on top of that," he said.

All companies pointed out that pumps can be off in favour of the customer as well.

For example, the Super Gas owned by Grewal Motors on Scott Road in Surrey was doling out over two litres on a fill-up for free within the past two years.

But according to Measurement Canada findings, 75 per cent of the time it's the customer that loses out.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward


http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080916/BC_Pump_Fiction_2_080916/20080916/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome


Map of inaccurate pumps from 2008 story
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/pumpfiction/

[murd0c]

that question was asked and tony celement really beat around the bush about it. So basiclly nothing is going to be done for that.
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[Lomac]

gas and ethanol does...

and that's what they are doing to us here

You realize there's a huge difference between mixing gasoline with water and gasoline with ethanol, right?

[murd0c]

I think what he's saying is you can't tell water and ethanol apart which is true.
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[Manic!]

gas and ethanol does...

and that's what they are doing to us here

Switch to ESSO we have no ethanol in our gas.

[Manic!]

Funny thing a few months a go we had our pumps tested and calibrated and found 2 of our pumps were slightly over pumping.

[q0192837465]

So before this is corrected, the best way to avoid getting gipped is to preset the amount u wanna pump before pumping.

[murd0c]

Switch to ESSO we have no ethanol in our gas.

Are you on the island? If not all gas in the lowermainland has ethanol in it.
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[murd0c]

So before this is corrected, the best way to avoid getting gipped is to preset the amount u wanna pump before pumping.

Really nothing you can do except go to the corprate stations that get tested every year. Chevron for example get their pumps calibrated once a year. The tollerance measurmant canada has is +/- 100mm per 20 litres. Chevron has to be with in 25mm tho. We won't notice a difference but over the year it adds up to be a whole lot of cash with all the stations combined.
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[murd0c]

I actually worked for my old man doing metre calibrations for 5yrs now I work for his supplier national energy equipment as inside sales for petroleum.
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[fishing666]

You realize there's a huge difference between mixing gasoline with water and gasoline with ethanol, right?

burning the ethanol prematurely produces water and ethanol has less energy per unit of volume

[skyxx]

Shell on Oak is at 124.8 :lol But average of Vancouver/Burnaby/Richmond is 115

[hchang]

Gas stations always seemed sketchy to me.

Why can't they just make an honest days money instead of squeezing more per day?

It doesn't seem worth it imo if they're only making $2-3 per fillup in exchange for doing something illegal.

[Manic!]

Are you on the island? If not all gas in the lowermainland has ethanol in it.
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Yep on the island but Esso is going to be the last to switch to an ethanol blend. I'm pretty sure Vancouver stations still don't use an ethanol blend.

From there site:
Ethanol-blended gasoline
Ethanol-blended gasoline is currently available at participating Esso service stations in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. Stations selling ethanol-blended gasoline have a label on the pump indicating the gasoline may contain up to 10% ethanol.

http://www.imperialoil.ca/Canada-English/Products/Fuels/PS_F_FuelsProducts.asp

[vafanculo]

Gas stations always seemed sketchy to me.

Why can't they just make an honest days money instead of squeezing more per day?

It doesn't seem worth it imo if they're only making $2-3 per fillup in exchange for doing something illegal.

Oh it's worth it. Imagine making that much off every car per hour, multiply per day, per week and then per month...

And it's such a small amount that people won't even notice it until it's been brought to their attention.
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[Manic!]

Gas stations always seemed sketchy to me.

Why can't they just make an honest days money instead of squeezing more per day?

It doesn't seem worth it imo if they're only making $2-3 per fillup in exchange for doing something illegal.

Most gas stations are not doing this on purpose. Things do loss calibration over time.

The government should just make it mandatory to get pumps tested and calibrated every year. problem solved.

[Chopstick]

http://smartpei.typepad.com/robert_patersons_weblog/2010/04/outrageous-exxon-mobil-paid-no-income-tax-in-2009-speakeasy.html