Gas for 35 Cents a Gallon in Wilmington

Ruu_Old

Link here. Imagine the chaos.

People flocked to a Wilmington gas station that was selling a gallon of premium gas for a little more than a quarter.

For about six hours on Thursday, the BP Kangaroo off 17th Street offered the cheapest fill up in Wilmington, and likely all of America.

The going rate was 35 cents a gallon.

Phone calls and text messages about the $3.00 per gallon discount led to long lines, gridlock traffic, and some impatient pumpers at the gas station.

What some gas buyers are calling a gift from God all happened, because a glitch by one of the station employees allowed people to fill up their cars for under $5.00.

An employee said the problem started at 1:00 Thursday afternoon, each hour bringing more people to fill up for next to nothing.

Just as fast as the good news traveled, so did the bad. Police arrived and the pumps closed down, disappointing many who came to see the urban gas legend in person.

The station said they lost about $1,500 in profit.

Those who made it to the pump in time got the cheapest tank-full in Wilmington since 1969.

A station employee said the company could trace back all of the people who used a credit card at the pump and get them to pay up for their deal of a lifetime.

The station was back to normal Friday.

RoyalMarine

some head on him. 1500 lost in a day. did the enployee get sacked?

bluto63

I bet he was sacked and that's why he did it!

mikemac

A station employee said the company could trace back all of the people who used a credit card at the pump and get them to pay up for their deal of a lifetime.

WTF?
The price was displayed and the punters paid it. And now the garage is going to charge them extra to make back the lost profit, that's can't be right

4Xcut

@above:It's America

Rb

I don't think they could legally charge everyones cards the additional costs after having advertised it at a certain price and allowed customers to pay for it at that price. They'd get themselves in a heap of trouble, probably face heavy fines for it and lose a huge amount of customers as a result of it.

Irish Halo

rb_ie wrote: »

I don't think they could legally charge everyones cards the additional costs after having advertised it at a certain price and allowed customers to pay for it at that price. They'd get themselves in a heap of trouble, probably face heavy fines for it and lose a huge amount of customers as a result of it.

Think you're right the gas station made an offer 35cents a gallon, the customer accepted and the gas station took their money.

Also 6 hours? Did none of the employees notice and call their boss/manager or decide that selling gas at a severe loss was a bad idea and stop selling it (you know 'Uh the pumps are broken" etc etc) or did they fill up as well?

MarkR

Yep. Imagine the cost of defending that lawsuit, versus $1500. No contest, they'll never hear of it again.

RoundyMooney

Is it $3.50 ish a gallon over there now?

Cheap in our terms, but not in theirs...

Tha Gopher

Yanks are cnuts for petrol prices, they whine when it costs a fraction of what it costs here.

sdanseo

Irish Halo wrote: »

Think you're right the gas station made an offer 35cents a gallon, the customer accepted and the gas station took their money.

Also 6 hours? Did none of the employees notice and call their boss/manager or decide that selling gas at a severe loss was a bad idea and stop selling it (you know 'Uh the pumps are broken" etc etc) or did they fill up as well?

You're right but you really need to brush up on contract law. Displayed price is an invitation to treat not an offer

vorbis

i'd say they actually have a good chance of charging the customers for the extra amount. There is some protection in law for misprices. This was obviously a misprice. Both the customer and the gas station knew that.

bluto63

sdonn_1 wrote: »

You're right but you really need to brush up on contract law. Displayed price is an invitation to treat not an offer

True, but the worker still offered the price

testicle

Irish Halo wrote: »

Think you're right the gas station made an offer 35cents a gallon, the customer accepted and the gas station took their money.

Also 6 hours? Did none of the employees notice and call their boss/manager or decide that selling gas at a severe loss was a bad idea and stop selling it (you know 'Uh the pumps are broken" etc etc) or did they fill up as well?

Most filling stations over there are the type where you insert your card into the pump itself, negating the need for any human contact.

Overheal

wouldnt it be illegal for them to charge those people extra for the gas they took? They signed in to an agreement to buy gas for 35c a gallon. You cant force more on them after the fact. I can see them trying to get away with getting the cost-price back out of it: but not the profit.

Cianos

If the gas station change were clever they could figure out a way of gaining from this publicity which is worth many times more than $1500

jahalpin

sdonn_1 wrote: »

You're right but you really need to brush up on contract law. Displayed price is an invitation to treat not an offer

Once the seller accepts payment the contract is completed. The customer offered 35c a gallon and the petrol station accepted.

The cardholder only authorised a certain amount to be taken from their card as per completed terms of contract and that is all the petrol station can take from the card

Please note: Contract law as we know it only applies in England, Wales and Ireland and the law in the U.S. may be vastly different.

Capt'n Midnight

vorbis wrote: »

i'd say they actually have a good chance of charging the customers for the extra amount. There is some protection in law for misprices. This was obviously a misprice. Both the customer and the gas station knew that.

customer could claim they thought it was a publicity stunt - and the garage got more that $1,500 in publicity. Pubs have sold drink at 1960's prices so not unheard of.

something wrong with the maths though - at $3 a gallon difference , means over 6 hours and they only sold 500 gallons !
Their cars are bigger than ours and their gallons are smaller, it's like saying 20 cars got 25 gallons each

astrofool

In China it's illegal to take advantage of product mis pricing, and they can follow you up and make you pay the difference to the real price (remember watching this on CCTV4)

Capt'n Midnight

astrofool wrote: »

In China it's illegal to take advantage of product mis pricing, and they can follow you up and make you pay the difference to the real price (remember watching this on CCTV4)

I believe they no longer send the bill for the bullet to the family.

Echelle

All Very Well Talking About Cents/dollars/us Gallons But The Real Question Is "what Is The Average Price Per Litre Those Yanks Pay?

Steve

jahalpin wrote: »

Please note: Contract law as we know it only applies in England, Wales and Ireland and the law in the U.S. may be vastly different.

Eh what?

Since when did english contract law apply here or vice versa?

Steve

Echelle wrote: »

All Very Well Talking About Cents/dollars/us Gallons But The Real Question Is "what Is The Average Price Per Litre Those Yanks Pay?

$3.37 / gallon

http://www.gasbuddy.com/

US gallon = 3.785l

€1 = $1.57

=€0.57 / l

sdanseo

stevec wrote: »

Eh what?

Since when did english contract law apply here or vice versa?

Most of our legal system is based on the English one - a lot of our Acts are simply updated versions of ones which date back to pre-1900.

phantom_lord

how did no one on the tills not notice?

Sangre

stevec wrote: »

Eh what?

Since when did english contract law apply here or vice versa?

not vice versa but pretty much always.

weeder

as far as i know the pumps over there are like vending machines so you can swipe your credit card or put money inot the pump

Overheal

weeder wrote: »

as far as i know the pumps over there are like vending machines so you can swipe your credit card or put money inot the pump

yep.

mikemac

Cianos wrote: »

If the gas station change were clever they could figure out a way of gaining from this publicity which is worth many times more than $1500

Good point!
A bit like how Diagio lost a trailer load of kegs before Christmas when someone robbed them from St. James Gate. Approx loss was €60,000

But they got so much publicity, it was worth millions in free advertising

Tigger

sdonn_1 wrote: »

You're right but you really need to brush up on contract law. Displayed price is an invitation to treat not an offer

as per the ray darcy show?

irrelevant once money transacts the deal is done (treat treated)

Steve

sdonn_1 wrote: »

Most of our legal system is based on the English one - a lot of our Acts are simply updated versions of ones which date back to pre-1900.

Same can be said of much US legislation (in states that were british colonies pre-revolution).

The point is they may be similar but they are not the same.

The Real B-man

Willmington is the place to be

Irish Halo

The US split about 250 years ago we split 80 years ago so we'd be closer. Also the US made a point of ditching UK laws and what we base our contract law on is from a period after US independence so they would have dealt with it differently.

Also a mentioned only lost $1,500 in 6 hours? Publicity stunt?

Capt'n Midnight

micmclo wrote:

Good point!
A bit like how Diagio lost a trailer load of kegs before Christmas when someone robbed them from St. James Gate. Approx loss was €60,000

But they got so much publicity, it was worth millions in free advertising

You're not wrong there, I'd only ever heard of Murphys and Beamish before that little realising there was another stout on the marked :pac:

Wow. 35c a gallon.

Let me try and work this out compared to our prices.

A US gallon is 3.785 litres. 35 US cent is €0.22. Thats per gallon there. So at that moment they were paying only €0.06 per litre. Compared to our, what? €1.10 current.

SV

Deleted User wrote: »

Wow. 35c a gallon.

Let me try and work this out compared to our prices.

A US gallon is 3.785 litres. 35 US cent is €0.22. Thats per gallon there. So at that moment they were paying only €0.06 per litre. Compared to our, what? €1.10 current.

Where are you living?!

1:21 is the going price here..

ClioV6

ClioV6 wrote: »

Where are you living?!

1:21 is the going price here..

Really? I haven't checked it in a while