Missing petrol
On a recent trip back from Seremban, I stopped at a Shell petrol station at the Seremban rest stop. I was at kiosk 11 and wanted to go inside the shop to "order" RM50 worth of petrol. However, I was instead attended by an attendant who just finished helping a customer at the kiosk just in front of me. As usual, I gave him RM50 and Bonuslink card and then he swiped the card and his access card to start the terminal. He then told me the petrol pump was ready for use. He then sauntered towards the shop.
However, when I inserted the pump into my car petrol tank and pressed its handle, no petrol came out! I looked at the screen on the kiosk: the petrol volume and cost figures were not moving (coincidentally, it was showing RM50, presumably from previous customer). The smaller screen initially stated that the terminal was "processing" and then a few seconds later it was "closed".
In the meantime, I was looking around for help from any attendant. Two of them told me I had to go into the shop for help. Coincidentally, the attendant who helped me earlier walked towards me. After I explained the situation, he asked me to move my car backward to kiosk 5. He managed to obtain a receipt, presumably from kiosk 11, showing the time 12.13pm and that it indicated that RM50 worth of petrol was offloaded. My watch at the time showed 12.24pm and so I thought the receipt was legitimate.
I then showed him my car petrol meter. It had only 2 bars and so it was impossible that I had RM50 worth of petrol because it would had shown all bars! Even if I started the tank near zero, it would had shown so many more bars than just 2. That was when he brought me into the shop so that he could alert his supervisor.
His supervisor said nothing like this happened before and highlighted that some customers had faulty petrol meter. Nevertheless, to further ascertain the facts, he asked his colleagues to get ready to test the kiosk petrol pump while he checked the CCTV. While we were waiting for him, upon request, I showed the petrol meter again. Yup, still 2 bars.
The supervisor emerged and told me that it was confirmed I was at the kiosk holding the petrol pump but I pointed out that I was frantically looking around for help instead. Then another person (his manager?) asked him to cross-check my Bonuslink card number with that on the receipt. In addition, he asked the attendant to end shift so that they could reconcile the cash amount he had with the figure registered in the system. He asked me to drive my car back to kiosk 11 (because there were other customers wanting to use kiosk 5), gave me a bottle of chilled mineral water and invited me to sit in the shop while he checked.
Lo behold, the card number was different! Also, the attendant had RM50 more than that registered by the system. Further check on the time of the CCTV showed that I was there at 12.16pm, not 12.13pm. Hence, it was clear that the receipt was not for me. He apologised profusely and instructed his colleague to fill my car with RM50 worth of petrol. He said that since this had never happened before, they were quite at a loss of what to do. He would ask Shell to look into this. I suggested that they close this kiosk in the meantime.
I think I spent about 30-40mins there @@ I am glad it was resolved in my favour. Phew! FYI, this was all done in a professional manner and in fact, the supervisor was quite friendly.
However, when I inserted the pump into my car petrol tank and pressed its handle, no petrol came out! I looked at the screen on the kiosk: the petrol volume and cost figures were not moving (coincidentally, it was showing RM50, presumably from previous customer). The smaller screen initially stated that the terminal was "processing" and then a few seconds later it was "closed".
In the meantime, I was looking around for help from any attendant. Two of them told me I had to go into the shop for help. Coincidentally, the attendant who helped me earlier walked towards me. After I explained the situation, he asked me to move my car backward to kiosk 5. He managed to obtain a receipt, presumably from kiosk 11, showing the time 12.13pm and that it indicated that RM50 worth of petrol was offloaded. My watch at the time showed 12.24pm and so I thought the receipt was legitimate.
I then showed him my car petrol meter. It had only 2 bars and so it was impossible that I had RM50 worth of petrol because it would had shown all bars! Even if I started the tank near zero, it would had shown so many more bars than just 2. That was when he brought me into the shop so that he could alert his supervisor.
His supervisor said nothing like this happened before and highlighted that some customers had faulty petrol meter. Nevertheless, to further ascertain the facts, he asked his colleagues to get ready to test the kiosk petrol pump while he checked the CCTV. While we were waiting for him, upon request, I showed the petrol meter again. Yup, still 2 bars.
The supervisor emerged and told me that it was confirmed I was at the kiosk holding the petrol pump but I pointed out that I was frantically looking around for help instead. Then another person (his manager?) asked him to cross-check my Bonuslink card number with that on the receipt. In addition, he asked the attendant to end shift so that they could reconcile the cash amount he had with the figure registered in the system. He asked me to drive my car back to kiosk 11 (because there were other customers wanting to use kiosk 5), gave me a bottle of chilled mineral water and invited me to sit in the shop while he checked.
Lo behold, the card number was different! Also, the attendant had RM50 more than that registered by the system. Further check on the time of the CCTV showed that I was there at 12.16pm, not 12.13pm. Hence, it was clear that the receipt was not for me. He apologised profusely and instructed his colleague to fill my car with RM50 worth of petrol. He said that since this had never happened before, they were quite at a loss of what to do. He would ask Shell to look into this. I suggested that they close this kiosk in the meantime.
I think I spent about 30-40mins there @@ I am glad it was resolved in my favour. Phew! FYI, this was all done in a professional manner and in fact, the supervisor was quite friendly.
Comments
They had given me some headaches before too.
Oh, like what?
Once I allowed the foreign attendant to fill but he refused to stop when the nozzle had stopped at the brim. He kept pressing and pressing while I yelled my lungs to stop him. In the end, it overflowed out to stain my car and blah blah. He didn't know that it is very dangerous to fill up petrol till full to max! It might cause explosions.
Sometimes they are so helpful to offer to wipe your screens and later their eyes would follow you to "hint for tips"....
End of my story for today.
Oh gosh, that's terrible!