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?

This is horrendous. I’m sorry you had to deal with that OP. If you don’t hear back from Head Office then try and contact the CEO and if again no luck, I would 100% name and shame the company on social media along with the named petrol station itself.

You’re so right to have done what you did OP.
His could have been way more than yours if you’d agreed to pay his.
Worse still, some fuel was contaminated a while ago, if you were unlucky enough for it to happen to you and it broke your engine you’d have no proof of purchase .
If it was a scam the garage could have picked you out on cctv and shown that no payment was made.

When I was a student I put some petrol my teeny tiny car and went inside to pay. Turns out another customer had filled up his massive van but gave my pump number when he went to pay. He’d obviously realised that my bill would be a lot cheaper than his and did it deliberately. He was long gone before anyone realised what he’d done. The cashier still wanted me to pay for his fuel though!

You did the right thing standing your ground.

Contact your local Councillor and local paper. Exposure the best way to get a resolution as complaints processes often a sham/whitewash. You did nothing wrong. The eejit paid for the wrong pump and your contract with the garage… you were right to continue to try and void the wrong transaction and allow you to pay.
Sounds a right carry on so hoping you got your heels up and a wine 🍷 at some point…

Don't credit notes exist anymore??

It sounds awful, if I were you I would’ve left well before the police came! I wonder if the petrol station man couldn’t refund the other guy because it was you asking for the refund, not the actual customer. Or perhaps he thought it was a scam between you both whereby you both drive off with free fuel after him getting the refund. Anyway the petrol station guy should’ve just done the refund when the man started violent and aggressive - in fact he should’ve called the police when it was clear the man had been drunk behind the wheel!

Paper credit notes from tills? Probably not I'd say

You could have given a promissory note…. IYKYK 😂😂😂😂😂

Good to know - at least now people know to say "call the police then" and walk out.

If/When the police arrive on the doorstep you have proof of payment on your phone. I think the police would be back to the garage to investigate.

At one level, whether it was a scam or a mistake/incompetence is a red herring @Phugs because either way, it was nothing to do with you. Your contract was with the seller, not some random inebriate off the forecourt and you were right to dig your heels in and insist on being billed for what you bought. I use internet banking all the time - I'm familiar with bank transfers, Google Wallet etc, but in your situation I hope I'd lie through my teeth and say I didn't have those things on my phone, rather than give in to that sort of pressure.

Ideally, financial transactions shouldn't be carried out when you're under stress and you were actually being threatened. Don't listen to anyone who tells you that you should have made nice and sorted things out. You should have done no such thing. The fact that Mr Drunk-and-Disorderly threatened you, assaulted the man who got on the phone to the police, then proceeded to insult the police officers who arrived to deal with him tells you exactly what sort of idiot he was and the foolishness of engaging with him.

I hope your response from Shell is satisfactory. Hopefully, they will ensure that in the future, their cashiers are able to issue refunds; the mistake you and others describe sounds common enough.

Thanks everyone for the reassurance. I was about 20 miles away from home, I’ve requested to join the local Facebook group so I can warn others in case it is a scam. If I don’t get anywhere with the resolution team at shell then I’ll be sure to contact the media too so others can be warned.

@Phugs please do update us if you hear from shell.

Oh my God that is awful and no you most definitely did the right thing! I can’t believe the cashier backed up the shouty man and said it was your problem!!!
Definitely sounds like a scam which the cashier was in on, otherwise he would have just refunded shouty man and charged him the correct amount for his pump. It has nothing to do with whatsoever.
Er no, you came and filled up your car with fuel and owe Shell £55 for it. You have no contract with the shouty man and owe him nothing.
I think they were obviously trying to prey on ‘vulnerable women’ and good for you that you stood firm and the other customer had the sense to ring the police.
Glad you are sharing this on Facebook and may be an idea to share it even further.

I work in a petrol station. This happens more often than you think. We always refund the first customer and start the transaction as new. The staff member was absolutely in the wrong there. You were correct. Don't give or take bank details from strangers.

Twice now I’ve said my pump number to pay and they argued with me and said that pump had already been paid so I just drove off

To everyone saying it's a scam...if it was, they wouldn't have hung around long enough to get arrested; they'd have just scarpered as soon as the police turned up.

OP did the right thing, though; this sounds far more like the bad fortune to encounter two complete idiots (one at the pump, one behind the counter) who couldn't think their way through a simple problem.

Fucking hell YANBU. Yet another example of a woman expected to fix the angry man as a pp said.

The error was between the petrol station cashier and the knob head that got arrested.
You were completely in the right.

100% the cashier should have refunded him and then billed you both correctly. Petrol station is in the wrong, I would avoid using it again.

I've just got back from Canada, and, there, you either put your card through at pump first, or in the shop first - and it 'pre approves' the maximum you expect to draw.

I’d have done the same. Def wouldn’t have transferred money to anyone. Cashier made a mistake & they should’ve corrected it. Make an official complaint to the company’s head office.

Thanks for confirming. Like everyone on here, I'm sure, I don't believe that this is something that has never happened before and for which there is no easy and obvious solution (the solution you have described). So what do you think the cashier's game was in trying to intimidate OP to pay shouty man? I wondered if maybe he was new to the job and panicked because he was working alone and had a queue of customers, but OP tells us his manager subsequently backed him up and said he'd done nothing wrong, which is even more bizarre.
I also wouldn't have paid shouty man - with ID verification in online banking now, OP's name would have appeared on his bank statement! 😬

Not if a different amount.
We once had tgat- wrong pump paid for and cashier asked if we would pay that one instead. Answer was a firm no - the other pump had double the amount if fuel. We weren't going to pay for fuel we didn't have.

Why is it ridiculous? Assuming it’s the same amount then surely that’s the solution? (I’ve not read the whole thread but that was my thought from the beginning) he paid for OPs, then OP pays for his. No need to transfer anything to anyone and could’ve saved OP a whole lot of trouble and abuse.

Heavens! This thread and your experience shows that there are some people who are employed as petrol station cashiers who definitely shouldn't be! 😬