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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:
istheresomethingishouldsay · 02/08/2025 17:44

FurForksSake · 02/08/2025 16:38

I’ve heard of this happening multiple times, something to do with petrol station tills locking out and it just being “easier” for them to ask you to sort it out.

a lot of shell stations are franchises so they may pass your complaint on to the franchise holder and log it. It’s poor customer service that resulted in a near assault!

If that's true, that is completely unacceptable to expect customers to sort out a petrol station's employee failures/mistakes amongst themselves.

OP would have been within her rights to leave as her fuel was paid for.
Her asking the customer who accidentally paid for it to be refunded by the station so she could pay it herself, and acquire a receipt from the station, is a perfectly reasonable and expected outcome.

Brefugee · 02/08/2025 17:39

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?

escalate right to the top of the country. it is not your problem to solve, and the situation sounds scary.

WednesdaysChild50 · 02/08/2025 17:32

MalcolmMoo · 02/08/2025 15:05

😆 maybe because not everyone fills up with £20 each time…

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Exactly 👍🏼🤣

ItsameLuigi · 02/08/2025 17:28

Maverickess · 02/08/2025 17:24

I totally agree that it's absurd, but I'm not the only person to work under a similar policy even on this thread.
Me thinking it's absurd or the customers that it affected complaining about it, made absolutely no difference to the fact that I didn't have the code that meant I could do a refund, no matter how much it was obvious that's what needed to happen. And if there wasn't a manager on site, well there was no refund full stop. And absolutely nothing I could do about it. No matter how frustrating the situation was for everyone involved.

Absurd and ridiculous policy? Absolutely!
Within the power of the cashier to resolve? No.

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Omg I forgot about the fact only managers can do refunds. It's such a ridiculous policy if there's no manager on site. I get it needing to be approved but shops should find remote ways to get it approved now surely (been a few years since I was on retail lol!)

cyvguhb · 02/08/2025 17:26

LiveatCityHall · 02/08/2025 17:16

I used to work in a petrol station and this happened more than you'd think. If someone came in to pay and asked for the wrong pump and it was less than they were expecting, they would pay it and leave. Usually, we were able to rectify the situation as we had eyes on who was at what pump, howver sometimes it was so busy that we couldn't do that and these mistakes happened. We couldn't refund customers as we didn't have the ability to do that. Usually the other customer would end up paying what they owed and we took the remainder as a loss.

Are you sure you weren't running some kind of money laundering scam 😂

Apparently there's no way there could be a mundane reason

ItsameLuigi · 02/08/2025 17:25

I don't drive but have worked retail. They should have refunded the man, re charged him and then charged you for your petrol. You did the right thing.

Maverickess · 02/08/2025 17:24

LakieLady · 02/08/2025 15:33

It would be absurd for a cashier not to have the authority to do a refund. What if the cashier cocks up and charges the customer for pump 5 instead of pump 3, and the driver doesn't realis until they walk back to their car?

I live in a rural area, and a lot of our petrol stations only have one staff member on duty. I've often wondered what they do if they need to pop out the back for a a pee opr something, and someone comes in to pay. They also shut the shop bit in the evening, and you have to pay via a window instead.

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I totally agree that it's absurd, but I'm not the only person to work under a similar policy even on this thread.
Me thinking it's absurd or the customers that it affected complaining about it, made absolutely no difference to the fact that I didn't have the code that meant I could do a refund, no matter how much it was obvious that's what needed to happen. And if there wasn't a manager on site, well there was no refund full stop. And absolutely nothing I could do about it. No matter how frustrating the situation was for everyone involved.

Absurd and ridiculous policy? Absolutely!
Within the power of the cashier to resolve? No.

Zov · 02/08/2025 17:17

Blimey that sounds harrowing @Phugs Hope you're OK now. Flowers As has been said, it sounds like a scam. The man who paid for pump 7 (your pump) must have known it was the incorrect amount!

I put around £33 in my car last week, and the cashier said £15 please.' I was like 'eh?' I knew it was around £33and I said 'pump 9 yeah?' She said 'oh sorry, I thought you said pump 5! Oh yes, £33.07 please!' So I KNEW that £15 wasn't right. This horrible dickhead knew all right! You definitely do need to put in a complaint for sure!

LiveatCityHall · 02/08/2025 17:16

I used to work in a petrol station and this happened more than you'd think. If someone came in to pay and asked for the wrong pump and it was less than they were expecting, they would pay it and leave. Usually, we were able to rectify the situation as we had eyes on who was at what pump, howver sometimes it was so busy that we couldn't do that and these mistakes happened. We couldn't refund customers as we didn't have the ability to do that. Usually the other customer would end up paying what they owed and we took the remainder as a loss.

FurForksSake · 02/08/2025 16:56

Not all are franchises and not all have this level of customer service. I would not return to the one that the OP has visited! I’ve heard it happen at esso and Morrisons.

ThriveAT · 02/08/2025 16:55

It was the cashier's or the man's mistake. He should have sorted it out by giving a refund.

LardoBurrows · 02/08/2025 16:52

FurForksSake · 02/08/2025 16:38

I’ve heard of this happening multiple times, something to do with petrol station tills locking out and it just being “easier” for them to ask you to sort it out.

a lot of shell stations are franchises so they may pass your complaint on to the franchise holder and log it. It’s poor customer service that resulted in a near assault!

Actually this is a good point about Shell petrol stations being franchises and not something I'd even considered. I generally buy my petrol at my local Sainsbury's petrol station, although occasionally I use my local Shell garage, but will make a point of avoiding all Shell garages now if that is their modus operandi. They willingly put the Op and another customer at risk of physical harm through their own error, and were not in the least apologetic about it, worse in fact as they tried to put the blame on the Op.

Not exactly good customer service is it "Come to Shell, we will deliberately cause a situation that will ensure you, our customers, are subject to physical violence while we stand back and watch and then we will blame you for our error"

Helen483 · 02/08/2025 16:49

Paying what you owe to the cashier to cover the other person's petrol is one thing. Doing a bank transfer direct to the other person - absolutely not!!!

Once you've complained to the police and to the manager and/or higher up in the organisation you might consider a call to the local newspaper - they would probably be interested in running it as a warning to other motorists.

cyvguhb · 02/08/2025 16:48

Horserider5678 · 02/08/2025 16:28

Absolutely a scam and the cashier was part of it!

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How are you able to be so certain? It's absolutely impossible to know anything definitive from the account of only one of the three people involved.

Do you have some kind of special powers? What else can you know for sure without the full facts?

Tagyoureit · 02/08/2025 16:46

LakieLady · 02/08/2025 15:38

A lot of criminals are pretty dim. They're the ones that tend to get caught!

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😂 no denying that!

But, in this situation, I dont think its a scam. I think the cashier was working alone without a manager and couldn't process the refund. The manager shouldn't have left the cashier alone which is why the manager backed up the cashier even though it was the wrong thing to do.

SerendipityJane · 02/08/2025 16:44

I find myself wondering how many men this happens to ?

gamerchick · 02/08/2025 16:40

So who was going to pay for his petrol then?

it definitely sounds dodgy. Surely there's someone who regulates these franchises?

FurForksSake · 02/08/2025 16:38

I’ve heard of this happening multiple times, something to do with petrol station tills locking out and it just being “easier” for them to ask you to sort it out.

a lot of shell stations are franchises so they may pass your complaint on to the franchise holder and log it. It’s poor customer service that resulted in a near assault!

Poppyseed14 · 02/08/2025 16:37

LakieLady · 02/08/2025 14:26

I never do, either.

I hate filling the car up, so I generally wait till it's in the red and then fill it to the brim, unless I'm going a fair way away.

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Same!

zingally · 02/08/2025 16:33

Yet enough reason to stick with pay at pump where possible.

You hear so many horror stories of card cloning/scams etc, that it seems the simplest option.

For what it's worth, I don't think it was a scam in your case. A drunken idiot and a moron staff member. I don't think a chain franchise would risk losing their business over this.

istheresomethingishouldsay · 02/08/2025 16:30

Namechangedforthis2525 · 02/08/2025 14:01

I know you’ve said you’ve logged a complaint now but I would strongly encourage you to forward your complaint to the CEO inbox. For something so ridiculous and also dangerous given the way the altercation progressed physically to others trying to help, it should be raised top down.

You won’t get a reply from the CEO themselves but their direct team will handle it and ensure any actions with the store themselves will happen and not just a general sorry but not sorry/brush under the carpet

[email protected]

Agree with this advice.
Email a detailed complaint straight to the top. Along with your perfectly valid concerns about the whole thing being a potential scam between their employee and the clearly inebriated man. A refund was the only obvious solution, thus allowing you to pay the bill for what you had put into the car. The employee pretending otherwise is seriously concerning.

Horserider5678 · 02/08/2025 16:28

Londonrach1 · 02/08/2025 11:55

Lodge it with the police and the petrol station owner as sounds like a scam.

Absolutely a scam and the cashier was part of it!

purpleme12 · 02/08/2025 16:22

Wow I don't think you did anything wrong at all

And funny how when the man was gone, the cashier could then take your money but not before!

I don't even have the banking on my phone so I wouldn't physically be able to do that anyway

MotherJessAndKittens · 02/08/2025 16:21

Was about to say report to esso shell etc but I see you have. You were absolutely correct in what you did. They were wrong. Glad police came as it must have been intimidating for you.

notatinydancer · 02/08/2025 16:18

Hankunamatata · 02/08/2025 12:30

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

What ???
so maybe he put in £100 and OP pays when she only maybe put in £50 ?
what a ridiculous thing to say.