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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Row in the petrol station

143 replies

BishBashBosch · 29/10/2020 11:54

After filling my car, at the counter, I was told the price and put down my credit card on the counter. They had a portable card reader but it was facing the cashier.

The cashier puts my card in to the reader, presses some buttons, and hands me the reader with it on the 'enter pin' screen. There wasn't an amount visible.

I immediately think that's a bit odd because I should put the card in myself (particularly now), and I don't know what messages he saw when he was pressing buttons. I felt a gut instinct something wasn't right.

I say to the guy "I'm going to take my card out and start again".

The guy gets very annoyed with me. I forget exactly what he said. He took back the machine and asked for my card. I said I wanted to put the card in myself.

It turned into a standoff, him saying "just give me the card", me refusing to. Eventually he gave in and gave me the machine and I did it the way I wanted, but with him grumbling and tutting me the whole time. There was a screen asking if the amount was correct, I don't know what would have happened if I'd pressed 'no'.

Was I being unreasonable? Is there a scam where they change the amount and the customer doesn't see when they enter their PIN?

It was a national chain petrol station.

OP posts:

switswooo · 29/10/2020 15:22

@BishBashBosch

I put the card on the counter because it hasn't always been the case that the machines have a slot you can put in your own card. When I saw it was that type of machine I thought something was wrong.

This makes no sense. But I agree you should put your card in yourself.

He probably thought you wanted him to put the card in because you put it in the counter.

switswooo · 29/10/2020 15:22

Do you mean they still have swipe machines? They haven’t been used in years I thought?

vanillandhoney · 29/10/2020 15:24

@ilovepixie

I work in a petrol station and our card machines don't let you change the amount. The amount on the till is what you pay.

While that might be true, there's nothing stopping the cashier adding extra items to your bill. If the customer doesn't see the amount and doesn't ask for a receipt, they'll have no idea what's happened and the cashier is then free to sell the "extra" item for cash.

Do it regularly and you could make a tidy amount of profit.

Hell19art · 29/10/2020 15:53

@BishBashBosch I don't think you were 'making a fuss over nothing' as others have suggested (very rude of them to say that IMO) ... It's your card and money. They shouldn't be touching your card, and you shouldn't be pressing 'yes' to anything when you haven't seen the amount. I would write to the garage head office if I were you.. I hate bad customer service!

BlueThistles · 29/10/2020 16:12

He is NOT supposed to touch your card OP. You did the correct thing, and I hope you cleaned your card and your hands afterwards.

Alexandernevermind · 29/10/2020 16:30

I'm a small business with a card reader and I would never expect a customer to key in a pin without seeing the amount. My husband and mum both had cards cloned at petrol stations. You were right to question it.

TallFriendlyGinger · 29/10/2020 16:32

Eh he sounds like he was a bit brusque with you but tbh I used to do stuff like that all the time with card machines, sometimes you have to type in the amount to be paid and giving it to the customer causes a faff because it can time out or they can put in the wrong info etc.

Ponypizzy · 29/10/2020 17:09

There is a local garage near here part of a national chain where there have been problems with incorrect payments. It may be a national chain but could be a franchise. He was being awkward you did the right thing. I always check what the amount is before putting in my PIN especially at petrol stations because I’ve heard so many stories about wrong amounts being taken.

GnomeDePlume · 29/10/2020 17:15

As a fraudulent cashier you pick and choose your customers to defraud:

Avoid the ones who look like they will need a receipt for expense claims.
Avoid fuel card purchasers (many fuel cards dont allow non-fuel purchases)
Choose customers less likely to challenge back (the ones with children in the car, the distracted ones, the ones in a hurry, the ones in cars with foreign number plates)

If you do get challenged back have your plausible, honest face on or get a bit aggressive. You miss out on this fraud but they are more likely to take their custom elsewhere so you can carry on with all the others.

Dont get greedy, all it takes is being able to scam half a dozen customers a day with an extra pack of cigarettes and you have an extra £50 per shift.

Sometimes I wonder if I was a crook in another life!

ginandbearit · 29/10/2020 17:32

As above ..there was a franchised national chain near me that was double billing somehow ..just goes to show how few of us check our statements

Waspnest · 29/10/2020 17:40

I think the lesson from this thread is ALWAYS get a receipt and check it before you leave the till. The number of people that I have seen say no to a receipt in shops/petrol stations since lockdown started is ridiculous (and I have to say men seem to be worse than women). Scammers must be making a fortune.

Foofedifiknow · 29/10/2020 17:59

This is an established scam practice- I witnessed it happen to person in queue in front of me once- a row blew up and the 2 guys behind till were very aggressive to angry customer because he had basically caught them red handed in act of inflating then concealing amount to be debited from card. Why should that irritate the cashier to that degree ? Fishy!

Dontjumptoconclusions · 29/10/2020 18:27

Always check the amount, good you did that OP.
When out for coffee with a friend, I told the guy "we are going halves" and gave him my card. He tapped it and I ended up paying the whole amount.
He said he didn't hear me when I said what amount I wanted to pay. Even though i have a pretty loud voice and there was no one else in the cafe. 🙄
He just shrugged and walked off.
I mean, it wasnt a big amount, but that's not the point.

Now, when it's less than £30 (precovid) , they hold out their hand for me to give them my card, and I ask "isn't it contactless?" when they say yes, I hold out my hand so I can see the card machine.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 29/10/2020 18:56

@BLASTPROCESSING

The receipt would show you how much you paid?

It's a bit late then!

vanillandhoney · 29/10/2020 19:37

@Waspnest

The problem is, unless it's contactless, that the receipt will say "verified by PIN". ALWAYS, ALWAYS check the amount before entering your PIN number.

The cashier could easily argue you wanted the extra items - after all, you agreed to pay for them when you put your PIN code in the machine.

Tryingourbest23 · 29/10/2020 20:08

OP did exactly what trading standards and consumer groups advise- check the amount or ask for it to be re entered so that she checks & it is correct- petrol station worker clearly overstepped and clicked yes ok on earlier step pretending to be client

For those saying op is "paranoid " for following trading standards advice. Well ... umm... you are high risk of getting scammed & not notice..

GnomeDePlume · 30/10/2020 10:38

I'm not sure why so many posters have fixated on the OP putting her card on the counter.

The issue here is that the cashier for innocent or nefarious reasons had prevented the OP from seeing the value of the payment he wanted her to authorise. The OP objected and wanted to start the transaction again and to keep control.

Why was the cashier so difficult about it? Nothing the OP described of her own behaviour struck me as unreasonable. The cashier on the other hand would be making me wonder.

Some of the posters on this thread do seem to be woefully naive and oblivious to the risks of handing over a card and authorising a payment the value of which they havent seen. As enough of us have described it is easy enough for a crook to put through additional transactions without the OP knowing if they were so minded and the OP wasnt on the ball.

DGRossetti · 30/10/2020 10:44

Some of the posters on this thread do seem to be woefully naive and oblivious to the risks of handing over a card and authorising a payment the value of which they havent seen

The ingrained Englishness of "don't make a fuss" ?

Seeing the word "Brusque" upthread reminded me of Fawlty Towers - and having thought of that, there's another scene where a family is struggling with an inedible meal and rather than complain, the man would much rather We just won't come here again than "make a scene".

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