Unpaid fuel fee

[HolaWeenie]

Hi all, I stopped at a local BP forecourt today and topped up our car with £30 of diesel (I only had my iPhone with Apple Pay, so didn't want to fill the tank up incase there was a contactless limit). I attempted to pay but they had a fault with their card machine, tried rebooting it etc, no luck, they couldn't accept card payment, I didn't have a card on me, so they completed one of those "no means of payment" forms that you have to pay within a certain amount of time.

I've attempted to pay, however the admin company want to add a £12 admin fee!!

I don't want to pay that, I had a method of payment, it was the garages fault they couldn't accept that method. Any advice on how I can get the £12 waived?

Thanks.

Did the garage accept apple pay? If so , I would explain what happened as it wasnt your fault if the machine didnt work surely?

Do garages normally accept Apple Pay? If so, I'd just pay the £30 and tell them that you're not paying the rest as it was their fault you couldn't pay.

But if the card machine wasn't working they must have lots of people being unable to pay as most people don't carry enough cash to pay for a tank of petrol these days.

So cheeky of the garage to charge an admin fee when it's not the customers fault. The issue is between the garage and the machine provider.

But I'd always have at least two available payment methods, with different banks, in case there is a problem with one of them.

I'd pay the £30 and tell them the admin fee is theirs to deal with as THEY didn't have the working facilities to let you pay by a method they claim to accept. Screw them.

Go in and pay. The admin fee is over the phone.

I've done this a few times

I think that the onus is on the customer having the means to pay. So if one means fail that you're obliged to pay using another. I would also think that given you couldn't pay with your chosen method and had no alternative, that when you signed the form, you accepted the £12 admin fee as part of the ts and Cs.
It appears unfair, but ultimately the onus is on you paying not them potentially chasing for payments with the associated costs this incurs, as for some this would be criminal charges etc.