For many car owners who will relax on their car seat and answer a fuel attendant the question of ‘How much Sir?’ and be carried away without monitoring the discharge and running of the meter, a victim has opened up on his experience in Lagos.
Otherwise, there are some digital fuel pumps that are now programmed by some fraudulent filling station attendants to scam fuel buyers especially when buying directly to your car tanks.
Whereas some victims are calling on the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to beam their searchlight on this particular fraudulent act, the experience of a victim (name withheld) goes thus:
“It had happened to me several times but my suspicion was not confirmable and contestable.
“Yesterday, I opted to buy N2,500.00 fuel. The attendant programmed the pump accordingly. As he was selling, I fixed my eyes on the amount meter as it was reading. The attendant tried to distract me to no avail.
“Surprisingly, when the meter read to N1,734.00, it tripped to N2,500.00. Immediately, I told him the meter has jumped. He did not argue. He pressed something and the figure of N1,734.00 reappeared. He then sold the balance of N766.00; this is the amount I would have lost on N2,500.00 purchase.
“Imagine my likely loss if I had wanted to buy N10,000.00 fuel.
Several motorists who spoke with our correspondents in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt on this matter on Wednesday, said there are other surreptitious discharging practices interchangeably deployed by several fuel attendants’ to defraud careless car owners especially flashy cars who usually go for a specific amount.
Some motorists say those that usually cheat on car owners are those who could not adjust their pumps to short-change buyers during rushing hours.
