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Original poster

To not transfer money at petrol station

367 replies

Phugs · 02/08/2025 11:50

Yesterday I put fuel in the car and went in to the petrol station to pay. There were a couple of people in front of me in the queue. When I got to the front I said pump 7 please and the cashier informed me that someone had already paid for pump 7.

The man who had paid was just getting back in his car so the cashier gestured for him to come back in from his car and said he had paid for the wrong pump. Immediately he turned aggressive and started shouting at me to pay him the money back by bank transfer.

I refused, I wasn’t going to transfer money to a random person in the petrol station and it immediately felt like a scam.

I requested the cashier just refund the man his money so that I could pay my bill and he refused and started pressuring me to just “pay the man what I owe him”. The customer who had paid my fuel then started calling me a fucking bitch, saying I wasn’t fucking leaving with out paying him his money and he would “do me in” if I tried to leave. He had clearly been drinking, and his friend, who was originally a passenger drove the car away from the petrol station. At this point another customer stepped in and called the police.

The customer then got really aggressive with the man on the phone to the police and started pushing him around, it escalated really quickly and I was asking the cashier again and again to just refund the man his money so that I could pay for my fuel. I asked him to bring a manager out and he said he was manning the station on his own and there was no one else to assist.

Two female police officers arrived and the man was increasingly aggressive with them, calling them both fucking bitches and insulting their appearances. Eventually he was arrested, the cashier then could magically create me another bill and I paid.

When I was leaving the cashier told me I could have avoided the altercation if I’d just paid the man what I owed him and when I’ve tried to lodge a complaint with the petrol station manager, she’s said the same and that it was between me and the other customer to sort out, that the cashier had done nothing wrong by refusing the customer a refund.

Im fairly certain I’m not in the wrong here, would anyone transfer money to a random stranger in a petrol station and walk away without any proof of payment?

OP posts:
LillyPJ · 04/08/2025 01:41

It sounds like both the cashier and manager should be sacked if they can't see that their 'solution' (to transfer money to the other customer) was a ridiculous idea and plainly wrong. I hope you get a good resolution and maybe some compensation for having to go through that.

taxidriver · 04/08/2025 01:23

the petrol station was so wrong, i would boycott that station in future and complain

noodlebugz · 04/08/2025 01:18

YANBU

Shell worker should have picked more reliable accomplices for a scam if that’s what was occurring! Not a drunk.

In all fairness, the cashiers reluctance to refund and sort the mess out escalated the situation NOT you. Good luck - I hope you get a sane response to your complaint!

Reallyneedsaholiday · 03/08/2025 23:35

I’m commenting more to find out the outcome, than anything tbh 😂
But I really hope you’re ok OP. That sounds really unnerving. You are legally obligated to offer to pay the supplier (not a random stranger) for your fuel. If the petrol station does not have a method of taking that payment, in the case of an error (and many don’t) then you can simply complete a form, and return to any “branch” within 7 days to make payment, without consequence. You did exactly the right thing. And as an ex petrol station cashier, I’d have booted his arse out of the door.

12DaisiesTwit · 03/08/2025 23:35

Definitely not unreasonable.
You must have been terrified.
The police would have been the first thing the statuon did and tbh I assumed they all had panic buttons as they're often targets for robberies as they carry a lot of cash and often have off licences as well.
The petrol station were totally out of order and should have refunded the neanderthal then you both could have paid the correct amount.
You need to escalate to their head office for an apology then take it to Twatter if they are still arsey with you.
It was their mistake, so it was up to them to sort it.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 03/08/2025 23:34

Meant to come back and say, I could see how it was a fraud after reading over. That the guys almost certainly hadn’t paid.

12DaisiesTwit · 03/08/2025 23:28

endofthelinefinally · 02/08/2025 12:04

Petrol stations have got form for cloning cards. I always prefer pay at the pump for this reason. There was definitely something dodgy going on IMO.

Aren't the pay at pumps likely to be cloning your card as well?
Thst asude, the pump pay system means you need a minimum of £100 (iirc, it might be more now) in your bank account to pay at pump as it earmarks a maximum amount. Thus was standard on smaller petrol stations then rolled out to supermarkets in 2021.
The difference between the £100 and the amount you put in isn'tt always retirned immediately, causing issues with bills and later card transactions.
Some supermarket pumps communicate with your bank if you have a lower amount in your account and reserve a lower amount, but it depends on the individual card issuer.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/07/changes-to-pay-at-pump-up-to-p100-withheld-from-customers-accoun/

Bonbon249 · 03/08/2025 23:17

I couldn't have done that either - don't do mobile banking. Don't understand why the guy paid for the wrong fuel - I always know how much I've put in my car so if I was asked for a different amount, I'd query it. Don't think all petrol stations do this but some ask for your reg number and visually check you're paying for the right pump. Maybe OP's fuel was much less than man's and he thought he'd get away with paying less.

Bananafofana · 03/08/2025 23:10

Just adding to the chorus of hundreds that (1) you shouldn’t have done a transfer to a random customer (2) the staff were bang out of order for suggesting you should have and (3) delighted you’ve raised a complaint

Pinkapie · 03/08/2025 23:03

Ahh this is horrible! No way should you have done a bank transfer!
I'd definitely skellington a complaint to the owner of the petrol station

Givenupshopping · 03/08/2025 22:52

Sorry OP, I haven't read the full thread, but did you at any time see the receipt that this guy presumably had, IF he'd paid for your fuel?

The reason I ask, is that it's possible he hadn't paid anything at all, hence that may be the way the scam was supposed to work, ie, staff member says it's already been paid, other man gets stroppy demanding you give him the money immediately by bank transfer, and in actual fact, he may not have paid out a penny, but gets a nice little earner of £55 straight into his account. They would then only have to wait for the remaining customers to clear the pay station, before trying it again with the next female customer.

Givenupshopping · 03/08/2025 22:45

Hankunamatata · 02/08/2025 12:30

If he paid your pump surely his pump hadnt been paid so you would pay for that?

Why on earth would the OP pay for the fuel he'd put into his car, it could have been a lot more than she'd put into her own?

dutchyoriginal · 03/08/2025 22:37

YANBU!

Complaint in review, and contact the CEO

4forksache · 03/08/2025 22:24

Ask for the cctv footage of the whole thing. Send to shell ceo.
If they refuse, as is likely, then that in itself looks dodgy too. Or ask shell to obtain it, or the police.

Act quickly. I don’t know how long it’s kept for.

JudgeJ · 03/08/2025 22:21

Hankunamatata · 02/08/2025 12:30

If he paid your pump surely his pump hadnt been paid so you would pay for that?

Surely that assumes the amounts to be the same but if the OP had pumped £20 of fuel and the idiot had pumped £60 of fuel then of course she should not have paid for his!

Frustratedandpissedoff · 03/08/2025 22:18

As someone who used to work in a petrol station, this is insane.
This situation happened relatively often and we would always refund customers via the till and ensure everyone paid what they owed, and fix the mixup.
The fact that the cashier even let the situation get to this stage shows that they can't do their job properly. You should put in a complaint against the petrol station. What a shambles, I'm so sorry.

4forksache · 03/08/2025 22:18

If they couldn’t do a refund then they need to review practices. Shell need to do this from the top. Don’t let it rest.

And if it’s a scam they need sacking.

RafaFan · 03/08/2025 22:14

It was without doubt a scam. The "customer" and the cashier were in it together, and it went south when you didn't go along with it, and another customer got involved. Well done for not folding.

MumMRM · 03/08/2025 22:12

Did the petrol station have an ATM where you could I’ll d have withdrawn the money and given it to the man?

OkimADHD · 03/08/2025 22:05

Definitely should make a huge complaint to head office. I also hope the guy was done for drink driving!

Oldwmn · 03/08/2025 21:55

Phugs · 02/08/2025 11:50

Yesterday I put fuel in the car and went in to the petrol station to pay. There were a couple of people in front of me in the queue. When I got to the front I said pump 7 please and the cashier informed me that someone had already paid for pump 7.

The man who had paid was just getting back in his car so the cashier gestured for him to come back in from his car and said he had paid for the wrong pump. Immediately he turned aggressive and started shouting at me to pay him the money back by bank transfer.

I refused, I wasn’t going to transfer money to a random person in the petrol station and it immediately felt like a scam.

I requested the cashier just refund the man his money so that I could pay my bill and he refused and started pressuring me to just “pay the man what I owe him”. The customer who had paid my fuel then started calling me a fucking bitch, saying I wasn’t fucking leaving with out paying him his money and he would “do me in” if I tried to leave. He had clearly been drinking, and his friend, who was originally a passenger drove the car away from the petrol station. At this point another customer stepped in and called the police.

The customer then got really aggressive with the man on the phone to the police and started pushing him around, it escalated really quickly and I was asking the cashier again and again to just refund the man his money so that I could pay for my fuel. I asked him to bring a manager out and he said he was manning the station on his own and there was no one else to assist.

Two female police officers arrived and the man was increasingly aggressive with them, calling them both fucking bitches and insulting their appearances. Eventually he was arrested, the cashier then could magically create me another bill and I paid.

When I was leaving the cashier told me I could have avoided the altercation if I’d just paid the man what I owed him and when I’ve tried to lodge a complaint with the petrol station manager, she’s said the same and that it was between me and the other customer to sort out, that the cashier had done nothing wrong by refusing the customer a refund.

Im fairly certain I’m not in the wrong here, would anyone transfer money to a random stranger in a petrol station and walk away without any proof of payment?

This is bloody mad! Until recently, I worked at a garage & the procedure is: refund the difference to cust A (they're then straight & can go) then create a wrong fuel (manual) payment for the amount owing for cust B. They pay & then they can go. There's some mucking about to do clear all pumps from the till but it all comes right in the end. It's pretty straightforward & takes longer to say than do.
There are possibly two issues here. Lone working & the worker being told not to do refunds because 'the accountants don't like it'. So many things can go tits up in a petrol station that lone working is a nightmare & there should always be a support worker on at the same time.
Lone working in these circumstances is bonkers because it leads to the sort of chaos experienced by you.

TeacheeTeacherson · 03/08/2025 21:42

PeachPumpkin · 02/08/2025 12:38

You did the right thing OP. It must happen once in a while that the wrong pump is paid for and there must be a set procedure for that (like refunding the customer who paid the wrong pump). I think it’s vanishingly unlikely that the procedure is for you to transfer the funds to the man. I would have done the same as you. It does look like a scam. I would want proof that I had paid the petrol station, otherwise if you had transferred the funds to the man, it could end up unfairly looking like theft on your part. Good for you for holding your ground.

I once paid for the wrong pump (pregnant, baby brain, said the wrong number 🙈), luckily the guy who had that pump came to the till next to me almost immediately and said the number and I realised. The staff refunded me immediately and we both paid for the correct fuel, took about 2 mins to sort. It must happen regularly, staff will know how to sort it.

DonnaSueWeloveyou · 03/08/2025 21:30

Phugs · 02/08/2025 11:50

Yesterday I put fuel in the car and went in to the petrol station to pay. There were a couple of people in front of me in the queue. When I got to the front I said pump 7 please and the cashier informed me that someone had already paid for pump 7.

The man who had paid was just getting back in his car so the cashier gestured for him to come back in from his car and said he had paid for the wrong pump. Immediately he turned aggressive and started shouting at me to pay him the money back by bank transfer.

I refused, I wasn’t going to transfer money to a random person in the petrol station and it immediately felt like a scam.

I requested the cashier just refund the man his money so that I could pay my bill and he refused and started pressuring me to just “pay the man what I owe him”. The customer who had paid my fuel then started calling me a fucking bitch, saying I wasn’t fucking leaving with out paying him his money and he would “do me in” if I tried to leave. He had clearly been drinking, and his friend, who was originally a passenger drove the car away from the petrol station. At this point another customer stepped in and called the police.

The customer then got really aggressive with the man on the phone to the police and started pushing him around, it escalated really quickly and I was asking the cashier again and again to just refund the man his money so that I could pay for my fuel. I asked him to bring a manager out and he said he was manning the station on his own and there was no one else to assist.

Two female police officers arrived and the man was increasingly aggressive with them, calling them both fucking bitches and insulting their appearances. Eventually he was arrested, the cashier then could magically create me another bill and I paid.

When I was leaving the cashier told me I could have avoided the altercation if I’d just paid the man what I owed him and when I’ve tried to lodge a complaint with the petrol station manager, she’s said the same and that it was between me and the other customer to sort out, that the cashier had done nothing wrong by refusing the customer a refund.

Im fairly certain I’m not in the wrong here, would anyone transfer money to a random stranger in a petrol station and walk away without any proof of payment?

You are totally not unreasonable. The cashier should have sorted it out.

Who is the petrol station managers manager? Is it a franchise? I would escalate it, the cashier and their manager are obviously in desperate need of some training.

I hope you’re ok, sounds like a bit of a nightmare. You are completely innocent and acted appropriately I think.

Thelnebriati · 03/08/2025 21:27

IDK if anyone has already said this but you could also raise it with your banks
fraud department, it sounds like a scam.

tommyhoundmum · 03/08/2025 21:17

TheBigFatMermaid · 03/08/2025 18:26

It's always telling how quickly police can turn up to some incidents.
it's almost as if they have a "favoured artist" system ....

The OP was in imminent risk of real harm. I'd expect them to prioritise that over say investigating a burglary that has already happened and there is no chance of catching the burglary.

They are usually much closer than you may realise

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