I need to share this with all of you to warn you of a potential fraud at a BPCL gas station. Some of you may be taking fuel from here and may be other gas stations also use this technique to fleece us. So here goes.....

This is a complaint I filed with BPCL for their gas station on Rashbehari connector which has an IN & OUT store and a SUBWAY.

Last week I visited the gas station to top up my car. The attendant, punched in INR 1500.00 and set the meter to zero. He showed me the zero. However, while walking towards my car's gas tank, with the hose in his hand, the meter jumped and showed a reading of INR 4.13 and 0.08 points worth of fuel dispensed. I got out of my car and complained and asked him to turn the hose upside down. To my surprise, no fuel came out. I asked him how the meter had jumped. He said that the lever had got pressed by mistake and that he will set it back to zero.

My brains went in overdrive and I asked this guy that if the meter had run, some fuel should have been dispensed. He could not give me a satisfactory answer. Neither could the manager provide me with an answer. I left my card with them telling them to give me an answer else I will take it up with the company. I din't hear from them, hence filed the complaint.

Here is my take on this. Every time they press the lever, the meter jumps 0.08 units but no fuel is dispensed. So in the time that the attendant is filling up your tank, if you are not attentive, he could be pressing the lever many times and making the meter jump. So in a transaction of 1500, if the lever is pressed 4 times, you have effectively lost INR 16.52 but not gotten any fuel for it. And you have no way of knowing.

BPCL has gotback to me and assured me of looking into this at the highest level. However, after the initial call from them, I have heard nothing on what actionthey are taking to correct this. For me this means, nothing is going to be done about it, hence, I have decided to avoid the HPCL petrol stations completely.

Balinder