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 thought I was going to get a smack when he called me a fucking bitch just as the police arrived and I responded with “looks like it’s you that’s about to be someone’s bitch tonight” it was my one and only retort through the whole thing and I swing between being mad at myself for lowering myself to his level and being a little bit pleased with myself for not silently taking his shit.

Mine was not Shell, it was Morrisons Daily. Apparently it happens q often that people are paying for the wrong pump. I always check the amount when I go to pay which is how I realised.
Was a similar thing though attendant said there was no manager and he could not process a refund.

so if I put £20 in and he put £80 in I should just pay? don't be ridiculous people put in what they need, want and can afford which is different amounts.

Not only are you not being unreasonable, you were the only reasonable person involved. It was completely between him and the petrol station, no need for you to be otherwise involved.

You'd have had to open your banking app on 4G, always risky and petrol stations are known for scanning people's phones, cards etc.

No chance I'd have paid this guy. The contract of payment is between the petrol station and the man who allegedly paid. Nothing to do with you.

Yes definitely sounds something like this, especially if they didn’t seem concerned about crazy man paying for the pump he supposedly used, and only worried about you transferring the money that he had supposedly paid for yours.
I would possibly put in a complaint with the police also, flagging it as a potential scam.

I wouldn't have done it if the amounts were different though - £35 it costs me to fill up my car, what if it was a diesel costing over £100?

I love you r "bitch" reply - first class!

You have no idea if he really HAD paid for pump no. 7 anyway. The cashier may have been in on it mistaken. You then pay nutter by transfer, who hasn't paid for HIS petrol, he goes off with your money and free petrol, and you are left with no proof of anything

It wouldn't have been for the same amount and, in any case, why should she involve herself with this at all. She just wanted to pay for what she had used.

You did nothing wrong and the cashier was ridiculous. I don't know what kind of scam the drunken customer was trying to pull be it was quite correct to refuse to get involved. Your business is with the petrol station, not with a random stranger. They have no right to expect you to tangle your financial affairs with a stranger. You bought the petrol from the petrol station and have every right for your financial records to show a transaction to them (which you could need for any number of reasons which a bank transfer wouldn't substitute for)

I’ve actually had this happen to me too. I accidentally paid for the wrong pump. The cashier refused to refund me. I then had to sort it out with the other customer who were foreign tourists. It was nightmare. There was a huge queue of people waiting to pay and I was holding everyone up and the cashier just kept saying they can’t refund fuel. I can’t remember how we sorted it in the end. I think I’ve blocked it out as it was so traumatic. This was a BP garage.

I can’t believe what I’ve just read. I’d be reporting it to the company. I can’t believe the cashiers actions. I can’t believe the other customers options.

who was the random stranger? A woman of around 40 that’s fed up of all this shit? All hail the random stranger.

If you had just transferred the money there would have been no proof you paid for the fuel.

This, absolutely 💯

The cashier should have been able to refund him, and then get him to pay the correct pump, and you to pay yours.

I would escalate the complaint further because they are definitely in the wrong and it should not have been able to escalate like that.

I do not use petrol stations that are not attached to supermarkets. Too many scams (card details stolen/ cloned etc).
Sainsburys, Asda or Morrisons for me.

I worked in a petrol station, it was fairly common for someone to pay for the wrong pump number. I'd say not a scam but nowadays who knows. It sounds like the petrol station attendant wanted it sorted the easy way and unfortunately the male customer was a complete jerk who needs taking off the streets permanently. People who behave like this over a minor issue are the same people doing crime everywhere they go.

This.

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

And this

I wouldn't have transferred the money either

Scam and wonder if the petrol station are in on it?

Petrol attendant here. Cashier could have refunded the customer then he pays for HIS pump.
OR cashier refunds the difference if he’d paid too much, OR he pays the difference if it was more than his pump.
You OP pay for amount on pump 7
Customers do not transfer money if a mistake has been made. Cashier should rectify the mistake.

It's a shame that the OP didn't bother enquiring about the cost of each purchase.

If it was a few pounds difference, I'd have just paid his and asked him to put a few quid in a charity box or made him buy me a few packs of sweets/milk/coke or vice versa depending on who owed what.

Yes, the pump attendant was useless, but maybe the whole situation could have been avoided if you two and his sober driver had made a bit more effort to resolve the situation.

Is it possible that he paid your £30 with a stolen card by just tapping and then got 'real' cash back from you?

I really don't think you did anything wrong here, the only reason I can think that refunding wouldn't work in this situation is that you don't get it back for 3-5 days and if shouty drunk man didn't have enough to pay for the petrol he'd actually bought, because he'd paid for yours then that's going to be difficult. Bank transfers are normally pretty much instant so the money would be available for him to pay again.

It's not your problem and I don't agree with pressuring you to make the transfer, but I suspect it's what shouty man was trying to avoid and the cashier trying to avoid having someone who couldn't pay for the actual petrol they'd got after refunding him the cost of your petrol and shouty man kicking off at them instead.

It should have been rectified by you paying your actual amount you'd put in and letting you go, applying that amount to shouty mans bill and then either refunding or charging shouty man any difference between what he paid and what he owed. Well that's what I'd have done anyway. 🤷🏼‍♀️

This.

What were the values? Were they similar?

For example if you’d put in £50 of petrol and he had put in £60 you could have just paid the £60 and netted it off by him giving him £10 or whatever.

But to start shouting about bank transfers, shouting about anything really, is madness and he (and the cashier) are absolutely at fault.

Anyway, if the amounts were similar, and they’ve been paid twice for one and not for the other, they’ll probably just write off the small difference.