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.
360wired..nl/2014/09/exposed-dirty-tricks-
petrol-stations.html?m=1

419, everywhere you go

front page pls

Pls those who have read should help summarise this important epistle

Too long but I learnt something reading it. An eye opener. Front page contestant

;DToo long but I learnt something reading it. An eye opener. Front page contestant

9ja 4U, nobody wan carry last 4dis race.......wen d heads (our leaders) re bad, wat do u xpect frm d rest bodies

Well, unfortunately I have been a victim of fuel attendants over and over. However, one would need to pay extreme attention when buying fuel... The detective in me shall emerge each time I drive into any fuel station. Since these 'smart' attendants ain't dulling no more, no more dulling for Lavidah.