To not transfer money at petrol station

Sounds awful I'm glad you didn't cave. I'm not sure if it's a scam as I suspect incompetent guy in the till is more likely but it could easily be.

I don't understand how the station manager can't understand that you might need a receipt with the actual vendor for tax/expenses purposes and that you might not even be able to do a bank transfer on the spot she even if you could you might not want a stranger who already knows your license details knowing your name etc from the bank transfer on their statement.

This makes sense

Errrr no!

OP you were 100% in the right - the mistranslation was between the man and the petrol station- absolutely nothing to do with you. And I agree it sounds very much like the cashier was in on it too, although how they let it get to the stage where the man was arrested is beyond me.

Good. You've done nothing wrong. I wouldn't have transferred the money either.

And that right there is how the scam works!

Shell garages around here are known for their shady behaviour. I’ve called the police myself when a Shell cashier got a colleague to block my car as I was “leaving without paying”, he just kept saying my payment had been refused and I had to give him cash, but I checked my app and the payment was showing. Then he said that the police would take too long and I would never get where I was going so just pay (and he said “again” so he DID know I’d paid). Police attended, checked my app, took my statement and told them to allow me to leave. Officer who escorted me back to the car said I’d done the right thing, that they’d been called to the same situation before and advised me to NEVER pay cash because then there is no real proof as they claim their till roll has run out. You did exactly the right thing OP!

The cashier must have been very new? Surely.

I cannot think of any circumstance where this would be proposed as the solution. I run a shop, btw,

Well of course if two people happened to have pumped exactly the same value of fuel but realistically that's very unlikely to be the case

It's ridiculous because not everybody puts in "the £20" of fuel that you seem to assume they do.

OP you were in the right. I can’t set up a payee without my card reader which I don’t carry.

If its part of chain I'd go to the head office with a written complaint. The bank transfer thing is total nonsense and no one in their right mind would do that. Who paid for his fuel then or was it the same amount?

Also, if he'd of already left before they realised then surely youe fuel should have been free if paid for?

That can’t really happen very easily as to log into my bank app it needs either my face or a three digit pin. So if someone did steal my phone, good luck getting into my banking app etc. if they try to change the passcode etc they then need a card reader and my card and separate pin. It was a soon in the arse when I changed phone.

This is awful OP. I hope you can forget about it soon. It could be a scam. But I’m wondering if the cashier was also feeling intimidated and didn’t want to refund the customer and face any aggro towards him? If your amount was less perhaps he thought angry man might’ve turned on him when asked to pay more? Then he felt safe to fix the transaction when the police attended?
obviously not saying that makes it right! He should’ve refunded for sure.

You should have said that you needed a VAT receipt for the value that you spent so couldn’t pay him, because he can’t give you a receipt. It’s unbelievable that even the manager said it would your problem and between you and the other guy.

I could not to a bank transfer in the shop anyway, I don’t have the bank app on my phone and don’t want it! I prefer to do online banking at home on my iPad when it’s private and I have time to make sure I don’t make mistakes. I worry
( possibly unnecessarily) that if my phone gets stolen, someone can access my bank account! My iPad never leaves the house.

@Phugs You did absolutely everything right OP and well done for standing up to what sound like a couple of misogynistic pigs. (I'm glad you got moral support from another customer too - that sort of intervention seems quite rare these days.)

What you did was 100% correct. The cashier should have corrected THEIR mistake and not made it YOUR problem.

Also, for all they knew, you might have been travelling on business and needed a receipt for your petrol to claim expenses.

I've accidentally paid for the wrong pump before. (Cashier just put it though and I didn't realise it was the wrong amount/pump until just after I'd paid). The cashier just refunded me, then I paid for the right pump. This is something that must happen fairly regularly and is easy to sort.

I'd be very suspicious in your circumstances too OP. Sounds really scary.

OP, that’s outrageous. Apart from anything else, not everyone does online banking. I most certainly wouldn’t have dreamt of transferring money to some randomer’s account, and I would also have wanted to know whether his petrol cost precisely the same as mine, because if not, why were they not refunding him and charging him what he owed and getting you to pay for your petrol? The whole thing sounds most unpleasant, and you, OP, were definitely not being unreasonable.

so in 2 werks time when the police came to arrest you for not paying for your petrol what proof would you have had that you had paid if you’d just transferred the money to other customer? No this is all on the other customer and the petrol station.

Well done to you for sticking to your rights . You did everything right . Ignore the idiot on the till 😱

You have done nothing wrong petrol station were being ridiculous. I’ve had it happen before and the staff had me pay what I owed. Their petrol cost more than mine by about six quid but they’d left but they reckoned they were local so would catch them next time.

I think they should of been able to refund bloke, less whatever his petrol was then you should of paid your bill. I assume bloke was rather dodgy given the car drive off and he got aggressive. I think there is a bit of me that can’t believe people behave like this.

You're right, I missed that bit, still doesn't sound like any kind of workable scam to me

How unnerving for you this must have been - so out of the ordinary.

Your contract for fuel was with the petrol station, so they are the only people you needed to pay.

They could have rung up £50 of mars bars if they needed to, in order to get your money.

Absolutely nothing needed between you and the random (ranting) man