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?

it's ridiculous because what are the chances that the two amounts WOULD be the same?

Of all the tens of thousands of options between someone putting in a fiver in a mini just to get home because it's the end of the month and they're skint and someone in a range rover filling up £200 for a long journey, OP and angry!man happened to pay the exact same amount?

Not to mention that lots of people don't have bank apps on their phones or carry lots of cash. If OP had just said 'I don't bank online,' or 'I don't have my bank details to hand, I've just got a debit card,' what would the cashier have done then?

Yeah, I'd putting it on the local FB page.

Ive never heard of such a situation. How long were you there for ? Must have been ages?
Id also say I don’t do online banking so I can’t transfer him the money, even if I wanted to.

The petrol station attendant needs action taken against them.

The cashier and the manager have got to be in on it!!

Frankly that cashier needs taking behind the bike shed and given a bloody good thrashing. I bet he wouldn't have insisted a man transfer funds to some random who apparently had mistakenly paid for your petrol. I'd be naming and shaming him and the exact petrol station all over social media, warning others about this petrol station and their dodgy practices.

It was totally the responsibility of the cashier to rectify the error with the drunken Neanderthal and not involve you, it was their error, not yours

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.

I wouldn't have done a bank transfer in such situations - in fact would have claimed I was unable to do so.

I'd do a written complaint to the petrol station - to head office if possible and consider a police complaint - it's a sound extremly odd and scammy. As PP suggests might try one of the cusmoter reported in papers or BBC money box - and see where you stand legally becuase I think what was being asked was extremely odd.

You were right to stand your ground. Sounds ridiculous or a scam

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

Because

1). She would have been left without proof of purchase
2). If something feels a bit scammy you should not be pressurised into parting with money.

This is completely mental. Well done standing your ground and no of course your reaction/actions were the reasonable one.

This bit is the most bizarre 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.

What planet are they on? How is any of this your problem?

Exactly @NoSuchBass
Ridiculous amount of nonsense .
OP would have left with no proof of payment if she had done the transfer .

I'd have said I couldn't do that as no means to bank transfer. I'd have called the police on the very first threat to myself.

How could possibly know if you had online banking on your phone? He was a piece of shit. You can lie to people like him.

"No can do. I only have my debit card. Get the store to refund you. I have no means to transfer you anything"

my card was cloned atthe petrol station on Bostall Hill in Abbeywood, myDad alwayssaid, pay with cash for fuel- they say your card isn’t working and put it through twiceeventhough I remonstrated

the time before I had filled up with fuel, st back down inmycar for my bag with my card in,suddenly alarmsgoing off and she is shouting, we have you on camera, we hve your number plate, I didn’t realiseshe meant me! so blithely wentinto pay, people staring, she said, I thought you were going to drive off - I said what? sdeways, wth my legs dangling out ofthe car?

Petrol stations infamous, for this, mercurial staff, have a care.

OP what asurreal experience for you, hope youok.

it was a scam, course it was,

This.
Definitely sounds like some sort of scam. Must have been very scary for you. What a good job another customer phoned for the police.

Definitely a scam. And who was going to end up paying for the petrol the man didn't pay for?
I wouldn't have paid by bank transfer either.
The man deliberately paid for the wrong pump, his bill was probably much larger than yours

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

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.

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

Absolutely a scam and the cashier was part of it!

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.

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.

Same!

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!