This expose by PUNCH looks like a long story but it
will save you so much money if you read to the end.
Wow! You will never look at a pump attendant the same
way again.

Mrs. Bisola Ayeni, a businesswoman in her early 40s
confidently left her house at Egbeda (Lagos) with an
almost empty tank heading for Ikeja. The red light of
the fuel indicator was blinking nonstop but Ayeni knew
the quantity of fuel in her tank would take her to the
next available filling station where she had hoped to fill
up her tank. Indeed, as she got to the Lagos-Abeokuta
Expressway, Ayeni drove into the filling station and told
the attendant to fill her car with N5,000 worth of fuel
while she rummaged her handbag to bring out the
money as well as pick a call. That was her undoing.
Ayeni would tell PUNCH that she didn’t bother to look
at the pump while the sale was on because she didn’t
envisage any foul act, besides she knew the level a
N5,000 worth of fuel would rise to on her fuel gauge.
Ayeni only managed a quick glance at the meter and
when she saw that it was reading, she relaxed and
enjoyed her discussion on the phone. She said:
“When I finished, I looked at the pump and I saw
N5,000 on the price column, I paid him and drove
away. I expected the light indicating low fuel to go off
and the indicator to rise, but it didn’t happen. Even if
the rise in the fuel indicator would be gradual, I
expected a major shift. Lo and behold, the light never
went off and the indicator never rose. Oh my God, I was
confused and very angry, so I turned back, while
praying that the car wouldn’t run out of fuel. By the
time I got to the petrol station, I was fuming.”
Ayeni said she had almost slapped the attendant who
attended to her having shouted on him when the
station manager came out.

“On hearing what happened, the manager gave the
sales boy a resounding slap, apologized to me and
ordered him to sell the fuel again, and I heard him
saying the N5,000 would be deducted from his salary.
We both stood by him while he sold the fuel, the gauge
rose even before I left the station, which means he
cheated me earlier. I still wouldn’t know how he did it,”
she said.

Ayeni’s experience is common among vehicle owners,
who had at one time or the other thought they had
bought fuel but later found out they either bought
nothing or were short-changed in terms of the quantity.
A cross section of vehicle owners who spoke to our
correspondent alleged that they had noticed same at
one time or the other but said that there was nothing
they could do since they really could not establish any
foul play.

In case you once bought fuel from a filling station and
it seemed like nothing was added to your fuel tank after
you have left, or you felt what was sold to you wasn’t
commensurate with what you paid for or expected, you
may have been cheated under your close watch even
with your eyes wide open. Saturday PUNCH had a
revealing chat with fuel attendants of some popular
filling stations in Lagos and they explained how they
make quick but huge cash from unsuspecting
customers.

One of them who identified himself simply as Owolabi
John, while devouring a massive plate of hot and spicy
pepper soup and a bottle of chilled beer Punch
correspondent, Tunde Ajaja, bought for him, said he
earns N10,000 as a fuel attendant. He wants to pursue
a university education. There is no other help from
anywhere else, as such John admitted leaving no stone
unturned to take advantage of gullible customers to
make some money from what he described as “the
customers’ carelessness.”

“Ideally, when we resume, we take the reading on the
meter on the fuel dispenser, which we call the opening
meter, and when we close, we take the reading, which
we also call the closing meter. Then, we multiply the
difference in the readings by the cost per litre, which is
the amount we deliver to the manager. If there is any
surplus, it belongs to the attendant, and if there is loss,
the attendant will look for money to make it up. If the
shortage is a lot of money, the manager may allow that
the money be deducted from the person’s salary if the
person is not sacked,” he explained.

However, that surplus money may not have been a
miracle or manna from heaven; it could simply be a
product of manipulation by the attendants. According
to John, there are different types of fuel dispensers,
such as Marathon, Sanki, Eagle Star, etc, and each
machine has its peculiar way of being adjusted.
“On the keyboard of some of them, where we enter the
number of litres or amount, which is either in front or on
the side, there is usually a button labelled ‘Recall, TIM/
CAL’ or any other label, depending on the machine. The
essence of the button is to enable the attendant to see
the past sales. If you want to see your last ten sales,
you just press Recall, then the number you want to see
etc, depending on the number you want, and it shows
you the amount. Beyond seeing our past sales, we use
it to make money.

If I sell N2,000 worth of fuel to a customer, and the next
customer also wants to buy N2,000. If I observe that
the second customer Isn’t paying attention, I will sell
some quantity, maybe N1,500 and press Stop or
Cancel, depending on the machine press Recall, 1, then
press Ok. With that, N2,000 will appear on the screen
and that is what the customer will see on the meter,
believing the sale is complete. This can be done in less
than one second. That is one of the ways, and at the
close of business I remove mine which is the excess of
the actual litre sales.

Imagine if I do that for about ten customers in a day,
with varying gain from each case, which depends
largely on the amount of fuel the customer is buying
and how sensitive the person is. I could make up to
N10, 000 in one day,” he explained.

According to him, attendants could go to the extent of
writing out some past sales on a paper where they can
easily have a glance to know which number to recall
when a customer is distracted or looks away, since
many people prefer to buy based on price and not litre.
“When customers come, we observe them and see if
they are tired or we try to distract them, sometimes
with the help of our colleagues by engaging them in a
chat or doing things that could easily distract them. As
soon as they look away, if the seller has made an
appreciable sale, he/she would have mastered or
checked his paper to see the last time he sold that
particular amount, as soon as it is possible, he will
press it, and press OK. Before the customer looks back,
the sale will appear complete,” John explained.

John’s revelation explained one of the ways Ayeni
might have been cheated. Another fuel attendant, who
simply identified himself as Owode Kabir, told PUNCH
that the use of Recall or TIM button is the easiest way
to make quick money because the customers would
think the machine was fast, so they wouldn’t always
suspect anything, even though some come back to
complain.

However, Kabir stressed that not all attendants are
involved in the act, but that many of them do it as long
as there is opportunity and that in some cases, they
settle the station manager at the close of work if they
are able to make some money, which they do everyday
anyway. Kabir also revealed the second method:
Even though many people know that when the nozzle is
hanged on the pump, the readings revert to zero, fuel
attendants have also found a way to manoeuvre it to
make some money.

What we do is to gently place the nozzle, such that it
won’t click to rub off the old sales and revert to zero,
so, we fake it, which means the dispenser is still
running, so if anyone comes, we simply continue from
where we stop and that is why sometimes it seems like
we are rushing the customers. It is easier when the last
sale is a small quantity. Even though the use of the
Recall or TIM/CAL’ button on some of these machines
is the easiest method, faking the nozzle is another
viable way to make money.

If the previous sale is about N200 maybe by a Keke
NAPEP and Okada rider, or even commercial buses
(danfo) drivers, because they are the ones who buy fuel
in bits, we will gently place the nozzle, and naturally,
when you see that we remove the nozzle from the
hanger, that is, from the engine, you believe that it
started from zero. However, it is not always the case,”
he said.

Kabir was quick to add that some station managers or
managements know about their tricks but that once
they are caught or reported by a customer, such person
could be sacked. He added that attendants usually sell
in all cases but such sales might not start from zero or
could be recalled to a previous sale that had the same
amount, which would be an incomplete sale for the
customer.
“Sometimes we could gain up to N1,000 from one sale,
it depends on the quantity that the consumer wants,
and those that are caught are usually the greedy ones,”
he noted.

He added that in filling stations where their dispensers
do not have Recall or TIM/CAL only the last sale could
be recalled, hence, once the last sale is not the same
with the current sale, faking the hanging of the nozzle
might be the only way to make money through such
pump.

Station owners and managers also dupe customers
A female attendant with a major oil marketer company
in Lagos Island, Seun Jegede, told PUNCH how station
managers and filling station owners also cheat their
customers.

She alleged that most filling stations alter their meters
to under-dispense fuel at the detriment of customers,
which is a known phenomenon among consumers.
Even though this could be a product of greed and
inadequate regulation, she said they also do that to
make up for some loss they might have incurred during
sales.

“Based on experience, I can tell you that almost all
filling stations, including the ones being run by
government, adjust their meters and what they do is to
settle the officials from the Department of Petroleum
Resources if or when they come for inspection.
No attendant can alter the meter on his own, except the
manager sanctions it because it involves the engineer
changing the panel and doing some mechanical
readjustment. That is why many filling stations that
alter their meters have to bribe their way through
because the engineers are not always there, except the
manager recommends a trusted attendant to be trained
so as to put the pumps back to normal if DPR comes.
The adjustment is easier with the marathon machine
because it has a key in front of the meter. This allows
for quick readjustment of the meter so as to scale
through the due diligence check by the DPR, which
could be once in six months,” Jegede explained.
She added that the decision to alter the meter could
either come from the owner of the station or the station
manager in connivance with the engineer, adding that
whoever orders the adjustment takes the money made
from the unsold quantity.

Station attendants also cheat their employers
According to John, not only customers are open to this
fraud, even the management that the attendants work
for are not immune to their fraudulent acts, through
what he called ‘no reading’. In this case only the price
meter reads while the litre reading does not move. He
said this could be a product of frequent repairs of the
pump or any other mechanical fault, which could make
it malfunction.

“When there is ‘no reading’ on the litre menu, and the
management is not aware, there is no way the
management will know the actual number of litres that
have been sold. What we do in such cases is to sell on
the basis of amount only and we sometimes negotiate
with the customer for settlement because we can sell
more to make money. I can even call someone from
home to come and buy and keep for me, before the
management finds out that the litre is not reading.
Even though the ‘no reading’ issue rarely happens, it
becomes a free for all if it happens to the diesel or
kerosene pump that usually has no attendant attached
to it. With that, tracing who sells what quantity may be
difficult, even though an attendant must be smart to
avoid being penalized.

Another form of ‘no reading’ is when some attendants,
especially those attached to diesel or kerosene that
have lesser patronage compared to petrol, gently press
the nozzle (just like a one-touch press) that may not
read on the meter whereas some fuel will still come
out. It can also happen when they finish selling and
instead of hanging the nozzle, they place it inside the
keg for the little quantity to drip into their kegs. It may
appear little, but over a long time, the gentle one-touch
press and the leftovers become a large quantity. That
is why you see some attendants having kegs beside
them,” John explained.

The attendants further explained that they make more
money when there is epileptic power supply which
force people to buy fuel in kegs.
“When there is no power supply and people struggle or
force your nozzle in their kegs, many of them don’t care
about starting from zero, which is a plus for us,” he
said.
They however said station attendants find it difficult to
cheat if the customer comes out of the vehicle to stay
with them, adding that those who sit in their vehicles
can easily be distracted or shortchanged.

Source: The Punch Newspaper

y read...evrytin
waitin for d short version

Now, that's some revelation! Robbers everywhere. Little wonder supposed ten litres of fuel last jes few hours. The menace of vicious circle of poverty!

Nice piece of info

There was a day I suspected that I hv fallen victim'.I was inside my car when she was attending to me bt later noticed that my gauge is still on the same point after d sales.I bought 1k fuel that day. This is an eye opener to me.

I always open my tank door when I come out of the car pretending that I forgot, by that time I must have seen that the meter was zeroed.

Can any of the mods Please make this a front page piece! I learnt a lot ot in this.

Went to a particular filling station. Asked the attendant to fill up full tank. Full tank should cost me 3k as my tank was already half tank. The tank filled at 6.5k. I looked at the attendant and told him the dispensing machine was faulty. I gave him 3k. EOD. He didn't argue.

Burger01: Went to a particular filling station. Asked the attendant to fill up full tank. Full tank should cost me 3k as my tank was already half tank. The tank filled at 6.5k. I looked at the attendant and told him the dispensing machine was faulty. I gave him 3k. EOD. He didn't argue.

Nice, but it is possible he still cheated you even if it is by 500 naira.
Best to monitor them all thru the sales.

davit: Can any of the mods Please make this a front page piece! I learnt a lot ot in this.

Seconded!
This should be on front page, very informative

I think I had been a victim before. But the dimension revealed here is something else. Moderators, Homepage please!

fedimol: The attendants further explained that they make moremoney when there is epileptic power supply whichforce people to buy fuel in kegs.“When there is no power supply and people struggle orforce your nozzle in their kegs, many of them don’t careabout starting from zero, which is a plus for us,” hesaid.

This poo jt happened in Abuja last 2wks.. No Light for 4days and no fuel... so those that has fuel were playin we us.. charging 2h-5h per keg.. what a pple.. nd them wnt coruption to disapper frm we country... I wipe.. they also charge #50-100 if u cm to buy with keg on a normal day telling u it illegal to sell fuel to a person with keg.. so u kne the law nd u r breaking it..