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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Hoppinggreen · 02/08/2025 11:51

You did nothing wrong at all
The petrol station staff are being bloody ridiculous

endofthelinefinally · 02/08/2025 11:52

You were absolutely correct. It sounds like a scam.

darknightslightmorning · 02/08/2025 11:53

Absolutely agree I would not have transferred money in this instance. The petrol station should have refunded him and allowed you to pay your petrol. I presume he would still have had fuel to pay for.

Always easy to put the blame/ responsibility on the sole female to fix the issue for the shouting man.

darknightslightmorning · 02/08/2025 11:54

Is the petrol station part of a chain? Complain to them

itsgettingweird · 02/08/2025 11:54

No I wouldn’t have done a bank transfer either. The cashier should have refunded the amount - plus the customer should have noticed what he out in and what he paid differed.

Moonnstars · 02/08/2025 11:54

You did nothing wrong. Glad the police attended. If you suspect he had been drinking hopefully the police will have breathalysed him for this and this whole altercation may have prevented a road accident.

Londonrach1 · 02/08/2025 11:55

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

WearyAuldWumman · 02/08/2025 11:56

He'd have been stuck if he'd asked me. I can just about manage an electronic transfer on my laptop at home, but wouldn't be able to transfer money to a new payee on my mobile phone.

ETA You behaved perfectly correctly, OP. Sounds like a scam to me.

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.

JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn · 02/08/2025 12:08

All sounds bonkers. You were right. Shouty men were wrong. No way should you be asked to pay
some random man. I’d be complaining to the manager’s manager about what happened.

MagicalMystical · 02/08/2025 12:08

This man made an error and paid for the wrong petrol pump.

This is nothing to do with you.

You therefore had no part to play in any rectifying actions. That transaction was between the man and the cashier.

If anything, I’d say you could have legally walked away and driven off with your petrol having been paid for. 😂

skyeisthelimit · 02/08/2025 12:11

YANBU, not everyone has online banking on their phones. The cashier should have refunded that customer and then you each pay for your own fuel.

He deserved to be arrested for being aggressive and drink driving.

A classic case of victim blaming and I would complain at a higher level if it is a chain or franchise.

Original poster
Phugs · 02/08/2025 12:12

MagicalMystical · 02/08/2025 12:08

This man made an error and paid for the wrong petrol pump.

This is nothing to do with you.

You therefore had no part to play in any rectifying actions. That transaction was between the man and the cashier.

If anything, I’d say you could have legally walked away and driven off with your petrol having been paid for. 😂

I did consider it to be fair 😁it was a ridiculous situation and I was just thinking, this is nothing to do with me just let me pay for my fuel and leave!

OP posts:
Original poster
Phugs · 02/08/2025 12:13

darknightslightmorning · 02/08/2025 11:54

Is the petrol station part of a chain? Complain to them

Yeah it’s shell, I’ve put a complaint in to their resolutions team now.

OP posts:
user2848502016 · 02/08/2025 12:13

No nothing wrong at all, I wouldn’t have wanted to do that either

Tagyoureit · 02/08/2025 12:20

That's so bad!! The cashier and his manager are complete twits!! They should have processed the refund and let the crazy man pay for his own petrol.

Out of interest, did the crazy man pay again for his own petrol?

RoadAtlas · 02/08/2025 12:22

Absolutely not your problem! I don't even have banking on my phone so couldn't have paid him by bank transfer there and then if I'd wanted to (which I don't).

Original poster
Phugs · 02/08/2025 12:24

Tagyoureit · 02/08/2025 12:20

That's so bad!! The cashier and his manager are complete twits!! They should have processed the refund and let the crazy man pay for his own petrol.

Out of interest, did the crazy man pay again for his own petrol?

He didn’t, it occurred to be last night when I was repeating it in my head that he hadn’t paid for his own fuel at any point. Hopefully an additional incoming bill from the petrol station for that! He didn’t get a refund for mine either, so the petrol station have actually been paid twice, but I didn’t care, I just wanted a proof of payment at that point so I could leave.

OP posts:
robinibor · 02/08/2025 12:25

Wow. That sounds terrible OP. I would have done the same infact I would have left without paying and called the Police.

ChompandaGrazia · 02/08/2025 12:28

It sounds like some kind of scam. In my experience the people working in the petrol station tend to know which pump you’ve come in to pay for.

I wonder if shouty man is known to the staff member. Shouty man purposely pays for the wrong one that he has seen is a lone female. He then forces the lone female to pay him by bank transfer.

plinkityplink · 02/08/2025 12:28

I don’t do internet / phone banking so they would have been screwed…

I could have posted him a cheque 😂

Beachwaves45 · 02/08/2025 12:29

It makes me wonder if the cashier could've been somehow in on this 'scam' with the man, as it's so unbelievable that the cashier wouldn't know the transaction has nothing to do with you and just given him a refund.

Hankunamatata · 02/08/2025 12:30

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

tempname1234 · 02/08/2025 12:33

Most definitely sounds like a scam. You owed the other customer nothing. You bought petrol from the petrol station. You have no obligation nor connection to the other customer. I’m glad someone called the police.

id be ringing the head office of the petrol station. Get the police report number to provide them too.

Judiezones · 02/08/2025 12:33

How would you, anyone, know that the cashier and "customer" weren't in it together and it wasn't some kind of scam? You did the right thing, so did the other customer who phoned the police.
A friend of mine went to the same privately owned petrol station every week. One week when she paid the cashier tried to charge her again, saying he saw her fill up a few days before and drive off without paying. This was rubbish and she told him so. He then threatened to call the police saying he had witnesses and cam footage. She preempted him by going to the police herself, who paid him a visit and there was no witness or cam footage.