Dirty tricks petrol stations, attendants use to cheat
customers
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 our correspondent 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, apologised 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,
said there are many ways fuel attendants cheat customers
who have come to buy fuel, which many people are not
aware of.
Devouring a massive plate of hot and spicy pepper soup
and a bottle of chilled beer our correspondent bought for
him, John readily exposed all the tricks on how they make
money.
By the way, John 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 our correspondent
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.
But ‘Recall or TIM/CAL’ button is not the only way to
make money from customers, Kabir would tell our
correspondent. There is yet another way!
Even though many people know that when the nozzle is
hanged on the pump, the readings revert to zero, he said
they (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 our correspondent 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 penalised.
“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.
A Director in DPR, Mr. George Osahon, had strongly advised
in a television programme recently that it was better for
vehicle owners to buy specific amount of fuel rather than
using number of litres as a yardstick.
“When you go to a modern filling station and you ask for
N5,000 worth of fuel, they simply punch a pad and when
it’s complete it stops by itself, and it is better to stand by
the seller or keep a close watch from your car if you
choose to sit in the car.
“The reason the same worth of fuel would vary in quantity
at different filling stations is because some under-
dispense. Nobody will ever over-dispense, people will
either dispense normally or under-dispense, so if you see
such differential, it is very necessary for you to call the
attention of the DPR to it,” he had said.
Osahon had also said people should stop using statements
like ‘fill-up the tank’ not minding how much fuel was inside
their tank or the quantity coming into it, saying there is a
lot of wastage in that, which is not necessary.
However, while some filling station attendants who spoke
to our correspondent denied the fraud allegations, a few
others admitted that some attendants do it and that it
depends on the circumstance and the type of pump, as
pointed out by John.
A cross section of station managers who spoke to our
correspondent also dissociated their filling stations from
those who cheat their customers, adding that none of their
staff would survive such an attempt.
Mr. Adebola Durojaiye, who is a manager of a filling station
in Ikeja, said, “People say all filling stations under-
dispense but that is not true. One good way to identify
those who do it is that they don’t have good patronage
because whether we like it or not, customers know the
good and bad stations, so, the generalisation is wrong.”
The Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers
Association of Nigeria, Ejigbo Satellite, Mr. Ajayi Adebayo,
said recently that any member of the association found
indulging in sharp practices would have his/her office
sealed off alongside other sanctions, while urging members
to be transparent and objective in their business
transactions.
In a telephone conversation with our correspondent, the
Executive Secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of
Nigeria, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, said no member of the
association could be involved in under-dispensing or
fiddling with the pump, adding that anyone with proof of
such malpractice against any MOMAN member should feel
free to contact the association to complain.
“I am not aware that any MOMAN member engages in
under-dispensing. However, I cannot swear an oath or beat
my chest and say there is no such thing by those that we
contracted to run the stations, that is, the dealers. I am
not saying they do it, but anyone with proof that it happens
should contact us and we will take immediate action,”
Olawore added.
DPR Spokesperson, Ms. Dorothy Bassey, said the agency
was doing its best to check the fraudulent practices by
some filling stations through its random inspection, while
describing the bribe allegations against DPR officials as
untrue.
“I am confirming to you that it is not true that officials of
DPR collect bribe, what kind of money are they going to
pay DPR staff? That is why we shut down stations once we
have any indication that they carry out any malpractice.
“It happens but not as rampant as people make it look
because nobody is a fool or wants to be cheated. That is
why we do a lot of public engagement for people to watch
out.
“We may not be 100 per cent, but certainly, we are working
to ensure that everybody is happy. We have operation
offices nationwide where people can go to complain,”
Bassey said.
Meanwhile, a report culled from dailyfinance.com says
filling up the tank may be another way to lose money and
fuel, because when the pump clicks off automatically, no
additional fuel enters the tank. “Instead, fuel is likely being
diverted through the pump’s vapour recovery system and
back into the station’s tank, which means you are paying
for gas that you are not getting.
“More importantly, the car needs space in its tank for fuel
vapours to expand. Overfilling can force gas into the car’s
carbon filter, leading to poor performance, reduced mileage
or costly repairs. So, the next time you want to buy fuel,
don’t top off your tank, it’s good for your car and even
better for your wallet,” the report said

A lot of things are revealed here.
Thanks for sharing @ OP.
I'm gonna pass this write up over to my colleagues that are not on NL.

Before now, I have some filling station where I hardly go to buy fuel due to shoddy
deals. They've played on me several times and I've learnt my lessons.

Very true, this boils down to corruption in nigeria.. When are we going to arise from this darkness and self-destruction.. Many of them am sure go to church and give biggest tithes,,

I remembered driving into a total filling station at stadium r/about in kaduna about four yrs ago.
i told the attendant i want #1,000 fuel. he started selling and when it got to #700,he stopped and removed the nozzle and wiped the pump sales screen.

he now told another attendant to collect the #1,000 from me,i just locked the car's fuel tank and entered the car and drove away. the other fool tried to follow me.i was so angry cos i hate cheats. i now noticed its majorly their way of cheating. eg if u say #3,000,they sell #300 to you slowly or #800. you l get #700 for #1,000

virtual7:
I remembered driving into a total filling station at stadium r/about in kaduna about four yrs ago.
i told the attendant i want #1,000 fuel. he started selling and when it got to #700,he stopped and removed the nozzle and wiped the pump sales screen.

he now told another attendant to collect the #1,000 from me,i just locked the car's fuel tank and entered the car and drove away. the other fool tried to follow me.i was so angry cos i hate cheats. i now noticed its majorly their way of cheating. eg if u say #3,000,they sell #300 to you slowly or #800. you l get #700 for #1,000

Nice act on your part. I'm referring to the part u zoomed off without paying. Guess its a fair deal when the cheat becomes the cheated. Quite funny though.