Petrol station fined over under measuring pumps

Padraig Mor

Was this place still charging the extortionate prices it was infamous for when it was Statoil?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/1107/breaking43.html

A service station on Dublin’s south quays has been fined €14,000 in the District Court today after pleading guilty to using fuel pumps which were “under measuring” the amount of petrol and diesel being sold to consumers.

In an action taken by the National Standards Authority of Ireland’s (NSAI) Legal Metrology Service (LMS), the service station, trading as One Oil pleaded guilty to twelve charges of breaches of the Metrology Act, 1996.

The petrol station pleaded guilty to offences connected to the use of an unverified instrument and short measure on sale of motor fuel under Sections 13 and 28 of the Act, respectively.

The action was taken after the NSAI received a number of complaints from consumers about the petrol station.

In August 2010, LMS inspectors visited the station, located on Ushers Quay in Dublin, to inspect the premises and verify instrument compliance. A significant number of non-compliance issues were uncovered and reported to the garage owners, who were instructed to immediately rectify the non-compliances.

However, in response to further complaints from members of the public in February 2011, LMS inspectors revisited the premises and discovered that the previously verified and rectified fuel pumps had broken seals and were significantly under measuring petrol and diesel being sold to consumers.

According to Maurice Buckley, the chief executive of the NSAI, its Legal Metrology Service visited almost 4,000 trader’s premises and tested more than 17,000 measuring instruments used in trade, such as supermarket weighing scales and taxi meters where the correct charge or cost to consumers is dependent on accurate quantity measurement.

In addition, almost 8,000 fuel pumps at 1,300 service stations were also inspected in 2010. More than 2,000 warnings, which require corrective action such as minor adjustments or recalibration of equipment, were issued to traders.

There were also 13 prosecutions taken for non-compliance, where a trader did not take appropriate corrective action following a warning, with 10 of these resulting in conviction. Each of those prosecutions was related to non-compliant taxi meters.

challengemaster

There was someone out testing the topaz pumps in ballina this morning, was wondering what brought that on.

Would anyone who purchased petrol at these stations have a right to compensation also?

Heroditas

No wonder they were selling it cheaper than everywhere else! :pac:

Our man in Havana

No change there then.

ThisRegard

Padraig Mor wrote: »

Was this place still charging the extortionate prices it was infamous for when it was Statoil

No, it had become one of the cheapest around, now we know why. There's going to be lots of angry taxi drivers.

Cill Dara Abu

Fined €14,000? They probably made that in a week ripping off customers.

Trampas

The fine could be less than what they made in short changing everyone.

kippy

Isn't it a bit rich that it took the authorities a few months (and the insistence of the consumer complaints by the looks of it) to revisit this petrol station and then take the required action?
14K is a pretty low fine, it would be interesting to know the quantities involved but it sounds very low.

coolbeans

I wonder what their response would be if I gave them a forty for fifty euro's worth of fuel. If they'd been ripping me off like that were I a regular customer I'd be sorely tempted...

ScouseMouse

challengemaster wrote: »

There was someone out testing the topaz pumps in ballina this morning, was wondering what brought that on.

Dont read anything into that. They came into my place and measured my scales. Got a clean bill of health.

They randomly check an area and visit everyone - like they did to me and my neighbours.

alexlyons

just very quick figures here, take €1.50 a liter, say they are giving 750ml when they say its a liter, thats actually charging about €1.88 a liter.

€14,000 at 38c extra is almost 37,000 liters

take an average of 35 liters per transaction and thats 1071 customers.

they'd go through that in a day or two.

Brian?

I choose to look at it positively, the system works and caught someone ripping people off

Wexfordian

alexlyons wrote: »

just very quick figures here, take €1.50 a liter, say they are giving 750ml when they say its a liter, thats actually charging about €1.88 a liter.

€14,000 at 38c extra is almost 37,000 liters

take an average of 35 liters per transaction and thats 1071 customers.

they'd go through that in a day or two.

You would have to think the margin was a lot lower then that though. A lot of people would have a good idea what their car would take, and if a fill suddenly showed 80ltrs going into a 60ltr tank you start querying it. Probably more like 950ml instead of 1ltr (at a wild guess)

Edit: Though granted there was a lot of complaints by the sounds of it, so...

Gophur

alexlyons wrote: »

just very quick figures here, take €1.50 a liter, say they are giving 750ml when they say its a liter, thats actually charging about €1.88 a liter.

€14,000 at 38c extra is almost 37,000 liters

take an average of 35 liters per transaction and thats 1071 customers.

they'd go through that in a day or two.

Where did you get the figure of 25% from?

Why not 50%?

Or could it have been 2%?


Why speculate?

Simple facts were the garage was caught and fined.

(I would question why no action was taken until a repeat offence was detected.)

cpoh1

This is rife in the petrochemical industry in ireland and despite the figures there is very little regulation. There's a couple of pumps in cork i specifically avoid because their metres at the pumps are way out of calibration.

One in particular fed me 49L of fuel when my tank capacity is 50L (including reserve) and my low fuel light hadnt even come on! A regular fill for me just after the fuel light comes on would be around 42L but this varies up to 47L depending on the station. Ive copped on to the stations that are pulling the piss at this stage. Thats close to €7 a fill they are coining in.

To put things in perspective the meters at terminals which supply the stations are calibrated every 6 weeks to make sure they are accurate. Stations have no calibration routines forced on them. They calibrate during maintenance but how often and to what tolerance is not regulated, and also rarely checked.

Gophur

cpoh1 wrote: »

This is rife in the petrochemical industry in ireland and despite the figures there is very little regulation. There's a couple of pumps in cork i specifically avoid because their metres at the pumps are way out of calibration.
........

Very serious allegations there!

Our man in Havana

No one named so all ok.

cpoh1

Gophur wrote: »

Very serious allegations there!

Relax Gophur, i would have thought it was pretty obvious to people that some pumps are overreading especially if you use more than the one station to fill up.

I worked in petrolchemical industry for over 2 years as an engineer designing, maintaining and upgrading oil terminals, im not shooting from the hip here with my comments.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1996/en/act/pub/0027/print.html#sec33

Penalties.

33.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under section 11 , 23 or 24 (1) (a), (b) or (c) shall be liable on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding £10,000 or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both the fine and the imprisonment and to forfeiture of the goods or instruments.

(2) A person guilty of an offence under this Act, other than an offence listed in subsection (1) shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,500 or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both the fine and the imprisonment, and to forfeiture of the goods or instruments.

(3) If the contravention in respect of which the person was convicted is continued after the conviction that person shall be guilty of a further offence and shall be liable on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding £100 for each day on which the contravention is so continued.

(4) The court shall determine how goods or instruments declared forfeit should be disposed of.

Cicero

BASTIDS!....total and utter BASTIDS! HOW DARE THEY!

I WILL NEVER....EVER...USE THAT PETROL STATION....EVER AGAIN.....EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...

I'm furious because I've used that petrol station many times in the past...:mad:

On another note- something happened me at another petrol station the other day....the fuel didn't stop pumping when my tank was full....anyone know what the cause of this was? Should I report it somewhere?

L5

horrible rip off bastárds. i use that station regularly, today even. Never going near it again.

Andrew33

I think more taxi drivers would use Mount Brown Filling Station in Kilmainham, that OneOil on the quays is a bleedin' kip late at night, you could be stood for ten minutes at the window waiting to pay while some junkie is paying for his stuff in pennies and more often than not, only 2 or 3 pumps are in working order.
What's the solution? carry a 5 litre drum in your boot and measure the fuel into it? messy!

Cicero

there's always queues for this petrol station because the price tends to be lower that a lot of other petrol stations....well...we now know why......

Devia

What are the chances of getting compensation out of these criminals if receipts can be provided?

Our man in Havana

Devia wrote: »

What are the chances of getting compensation out of these criminals if receipts can be provided?

None.

Devia

Our man in Havana wrote: »

None.

Good because I have no receipts.

johndaman66

Andrew33 wrote: »

What's the solution? carry a 5 litre drum in your boot and measure the fuel into it? messy!

I admire your enthusiasm but that I assume thats a joke as it would indeed be very messy. First off I stand to be corrected but I believe that the standard 5 litre drums don't exactly hold 5 litres and even if they did and you filled it to the brim each time your going to end up loosing so much fuel anyway and ruin your clothes into the bargain.

Imagine the tedious process of filling an empty Range Rover.

Andrew33

johndaman66 wrote: »

I admire your enthusiasm but that I assume thats a joke as it would indeed be very messy. First off I stand to be corrected but I believe that the standard 5 litre drums don't exactly hold 5 litres and even if they did and you filled it to the brim each time your going to end up loosing so much fuel anyway and ruin your clothes into the bargain.

Imagine the tedious process of filling an empty Range Rover.

I know, I was being facetious:D

Sobanek

well, isn't undermeasuring good for ya?

Under measured = you fill your tank with 50 litres they charge you for 49?

I fail at English.

Cuddlesworth

This is pretty rampant. You see it a lot more when you drive a motorbike and your only dealing with a 15 litre tank.

Also I fail to see the point in reporting it if there is such a toothless response. They would have minted far more then that fine in the meantime. They never even mentioned if they fixed the pumps.

Sobanek

Sobanek wrote: »

well, isn't undermeasuring good for ya?

Under measured = you fill your tank with 50 litres they charge you for 49?

I fail at English.

well the title says "over under measuring" so they have all angles covered:pac:

goat2

pure rip off, i do hope the customers go after what they are owed, it is hard enough on everyone paying full price per liter, but to think they were being overcharged and it not happening by accident is disgusting, where does this leave the customers

D500B

it seems that retailers should always have a crack at ripping people off - all they get is a warning first time. So why wouldn't they do it until caught then stop - seems like it is zero risk.

C4Kid

I think the best thing for Everybody is to Boycott the station.

I'm sure many people are doing so already but that would be far better then wasting time searching for compo which Your unlikely to get.

gernon

Cant see why a list cannot be published of all stations checked and passed within the last 3 months or so.

hmmm

That station catches a lot of tourists off the boat. They're not going to know about this case.

I'm disgusted, I've been in there once or twice.

I might not have receipts, but I have the credit card statements. Is there nothing at all the ordinary consumer can do? What about the quangoes stuffed with the Celia Larkins of this world who are supposed to be on the side of the consumer?

RandomAccess

In relation to this bit,

discovered that the previously verified and rectified fuel pumps had broken seals and were significantly under measuring petrol and diesel being sold to consumers.

What do the seals look like? May as well take a look see while standing at the pumps next time..

Guy:Incognito

Cicero wrote: »

On another note- something happened me at another petrol station the other day....the fuel didn't stop pumping when my tank was full....anyone know what the cause of this was? Should I report it somewhere?

The garage it happened in would be a start. The pump is faulty. I really doubt they deliberately want petrol all over their forecourt.

Fishtits

That place was a rip off as far back as the 80's

Architects, Planners and all the rest of yez. As they say.

A Fuel station on the Quays? There is no argument in hell to justify that.

****wits once again.

teednab-el

well they will be out of business after this, nobody will go there, thats the people who have sense to avoid the station.

To deal with this crime, the station should be forced to close down by law but this country always protects the criminal. 14,000 euros FFS, if they put another "0" onto that fine, it still wouldnt be half enough in my opinion.

sdanseo

That fuel station has always been a total kip, I avoid it unless I desperately need petrol in town and the traffic is mental enough not to divert elsewhere. Then again I live Northside so I'd rarely be nearer it than Top in Amiens St anyway.

It's justice really because if it was done up properly and opened up with a proper shop and deli, etc it would rake it in - they chose to defraud and spend no money on it so two reasons there why I hugely dislike it.

kippy

RandomAccess wrote: »

In relation to this bit,

discovered that the previously verified and rectified fuel pumps had broken seals and were significantly under measuring petrol and diesel being sold to consumers.

What do the seals look like? May as well take a look see while standing at the pumps next time..

Usually a lump of lead with a stamp on it which is holding together a piece of plastic "string". At least it was something like that on the optics and I think I have seen similiar on older pumps anyway.

robbie99

More info in the Indo...

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/dublin-service-station-fined-euro14k-for-fuel-overcharging-2927898.html

Apparently they overcharged €1.80 on a typical 50 litre fill which works out at about 3.5 cent per litre or over 2%.

Trampas

robbie99 wrote: »

More info in the Indo...

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/dublin-service-station-fined-euro14k-for-fuel-overcharging-2927898.html

Apparently they overcharged €1.80 on a typical 50 litre fill which works out at about 3.5 cent per litre or over 2%.

Not that many fills to clear €14,000

MrDerp

I once dropped herself off at the airport and went to fill up at a nearby (vague enough?) petrol station, as I was pleasantly surprised to find normally priced fuel at a location that easily could be used to rip off tourists.

Imagine my amazement when, them not being content with giving me a great deal, I also managed to fit 48.5L of their magic petrol into my 47L fuel tank, when the light had only been on for 5km or so! :rolleyes:

the_syco

I used to go there quite often, but now never again!

galwaytt

cpoh1 wrote: »

This is rife in the petrochemical industry in ireland and despite the figures there is very little regulation. There's a couple of pumps in cork i specifically avoid because their metres at the pumps are way out of calibration.

One in particular fed me 49L of fuel when my tank capacity is 50L (including reserve) and my low fuel light hadnt even come on! A regular fill for me just after the fuel light comes on would be around 42L but this varies up to 47L depending on the station. Ive copped on to the stations that are pulling the piss at this stage. Thats close to €7 a fill they are coining in.

To put things in perspective the meters at terminals which supply the stations are calibrated every 6 weeks to make sure they are accurate. Stations have no calibration routines forced on them. They calibrate during maintenance but how often and to what tolerance is not regulated, and also rarely checked.

I assume then, that armed with this information, you've passed it on to NSAI etc for action ? ...so that you're not letting all the other motorists in Cork be ripped off ....??

afatbollix

Anyone want to get a high vis jacket and a ladder and change the sign out side the shop to 900ml for the €1:50ish it is.. blank out the liter sign..



A joke. boycott the place!

Tea drinker

Fine them every time they are under and they would make sure the pumps worked right.
Would also pay for more inspectors at least in the short term until morale improved from the beatings.

deandean

briankeating wrote: »

I choose to look at it positively, the system works and caught someone ripping people off

Brian I'd take another angle: Reading the article I note the station owners were firstly told to sort out their pumps a few months beforehand. It was only after further incidents of under-metering visits that they were called to task.

That suggests to me that a retailer can recalibrate his pumps to his liking, and escape with just a telling-off if caught.

It's a downright criminal act.

afatbollix

THE first successful prosecution of a service station for using fuel pumps which "under-measure" the amount of petrol and diesel being sold to motorists has taken place.

Thats what is scary! How many more have been told to pull up there socks and never visited again?