To not transfer money at petrol station

[Phugs]

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?

I definitely think the attendant was in on it. There will be cameras in the store too - perhaps to a SAR to request it? I wonder if the guy did pay for anything.

If he did, it was probably on a stolen card (contactless) and then was after the cash back for it.

Hope you're OK OP. That would have really shaken me up. You definitely did the right thing and good on the other customer for sticking up for you too.

I agree! When told that a random man had paid for her petrol, the OP could have said "oh, how kind of him!" and just walked out and driven away!

Absolutely, I’d have been so tempted once he started shouting at me!! Consequences of A) Not paying attention, and B) For being an absolute dick!!

OP, well done for holding your nerve here!!

Seems the fuel station people are idiots too. They are probably used to the absolute dicks though to be fair in their line of work, sadly, not that that excuses it.

It could have all been avoided if said absolute dick wasn’t one and had been a reasonable human being.

Up to you if you want to pursue the complaint, but you were not wrong, OP, IMO, and that of many others.

What a hassle!!

No. Your business was with the petrol station. Not
the random drunk man

utterly ridiculous

I worked in a petrol station in my late teens.
The manager would be in mon-fri 9-5 but on weekends and before 9 amd after 5 on weekdays it would be just the cashier alone!
This situation would have been a nightmare for me as back then we couldn't refund a fuel transaction on the till but we had manual way of processing cards so I would have taken the correct payment from you that way and refunded the other customer the difference in the same way.
The only issue there is if either customer needed the VAT reciept!
Id never suggest a bank transfer, nor would i agree to one in a similar situation! Probably was just a simple solution to the problem but at the end of the day it leaves you open to be scammed so not worth the risk!!

What a horrible situation they put you in. Another example of men bullying women, bet the drunk guy or the petrol attendant wouldn’t have demanded a bank transfer and kicked off if you were a 6ft bearded tattooed bloke, pathetic. Complain for sure.

You were in the right and as soon as he got aggressive he would of had even less of a chance of getting any money from me . Well done to the man that stepped in aswell to many would turn a blind eye

I suppose pay at the pump eliminates people paying for the wrong fuel. However, Sainsbury’s for example only give you double nectar points receipts when you pay at the cashier til. You don’t get one when you pay at the pump.
I bet lots of Sainsbury’s customers don’t know that !
By you generally have to pay more than £35 and it seems totally random as to when they issue them..

It doesn't work like that.

That's the problem these days. They put someone half trained (being generous there) on the till with no support (to save money). Cashier doesn't really know what they're doing & has no one to ask. I can't say that the given example is a scam, I don't see how the cashier makes anything. More likely they were frightened of the aggressive man & then blamed the innocent customer. By the sounds of things, they've been left with a mess that they'll have to explain.

Could you not just have paid for the man's petrol? Therefore would be even.

No! What are the chances of them both having the same bill? Besides, it's the cashier's job to refund the incorrect payment.

I've seen a number of posts that say "just pay for the other person's fuel".

Are there pumps that only deliver set amounts ? I've never seen any.

Do you think most people spend exactly the same amount of petrol when they visit the pump?!

I wouldn't have paid for someone else's fuel..I only have a half tank so it's significantly less to fill it up than cars with a full tank.

Seriously? OP's bill was £55 and she doesn't know what shouty man's was - what if it was £75? Even, in the highly unlikely event he'd also filled up with £55 pounds worth of fuel, she wouldn't get a till receipt from him which she wanted. Finally, IT WAS NOT HER PROBLEM TO SOLVE! 🙄

I've only seen an option for set amounts at 'Pay at Pump' ones.