Why guess that a pump is off?
Fill up a jerrycan and see for yourself, once and for all.

Then show the manager while you call the State trade commission.

 

All it would take is one aware (a.k.a. hybrid) owner to put 15 gallons into their 13.2 gallon tank and it's over. Could you imagine the lawsuit?

Gas companies rip us off plenty in front of our face. I doubt they'd resort to such tactics when they can just raise the price when they want for whatever reason they want. All they need is some penguin catastrophe in Antarctica and that will somehow disrupt the flow of oil and raise prices .25 a gallon... Oops there's cold spell in Canada - there goes another .10...

 

I believe JBarlow has already put 15gal in our tank.

Its hard to judge though because who knows how much of that is in the filler neck and in the evaporation canister etc.

 

I read somewhere that there is a law prohibiting gas stations from changing their prices more than once or twice per 24-hour period. I can't remember whether it was once or twice, but there is a limit.

Shawn

 

I heard there was a law somewhere that says you can't change the price of gas until your next delivery.

 

No one would ever reduce the amount of gas pumped because it would be immediately noticeable and ridiculously easy to trace back to that gas station. If someone normally pumps 13 gallons before the automatic shut-off, and they find themselves suddenly pumping 15, that would be a bit of a red flag, especially if they drive the same distance before they next run out of gas. Then it would be really obvious that place is a rip-off, and with several complaints against it, the government would investigate and shut it down.

However, I have heard of people selling 87- or 89- grade as 91-grade, and that sort of thing would be impossible to detect by a regular consumer.

 

Then there is the problem that most if not all petroleum products are shipped in the same pipeline with no separation. Some "stations" end up with jet fuel/diesel/heating oil/ mixes depending on when the *%$# gets to its destination. Some stations in the boston area have multiple lawsuits where 10's to 100's of car owners have purchased "bad" gas and damaged their engines.....and no one wants to 'fess up to what actually happened....you never hear the results of the lab analysis either.

 

We should bring back the pumps with the glass bowl up at the top with graduated gallon lines. You fill the bowl up to the gallon you wanted, then pumped it into your car!

(Forgive me if I got the actual procedure wrong. I've never used such a pump! I just always thought they were neat.)

 

I've seen pic's of them but when I was just a small lad the gas pumps had little glass windows with a propeller or something inside where the gas flowed and made the propeller turn. Probably just to keep the old folks who were used to seeing the big glass bowl fill with gas happy.....