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Unbelievable day at the pumps - Are these gas companies doing illegal stuff?

3K views 21 replies 15 participants last post by  YardPro 
#1 ·
I'm out and about today, its about 11am... many gas stations start at 2.98-2.99 a gallon. Wawa gas was $2.83, Shell has their Thursay 5¢ off special at $2.79 a gallon. I'm thinking to myself, everyone is gonna go crazy for gas and run to that poor little Shell station. By 3:30pm, Wawa raised the gas to $2.98, all others I saw were the same as they had been. Shell was still $2.79, and had 3 lines, 2 lines blocking lanes of the highway. I usually fill up nights, to beat rush hours and such. I figured I'd stop at Wawa and save the hassle of waiting at Shell. WELL, Wawa raised the price once again, to $3.09. Other stations went up over $3. I drove to the Shell and waited in line. Still $2.79 a gallon. I get up to the pump, and theres signs taped over the regular buttons saying "no regular please". Now naturally, everyone fills with mid grade instead, because its still only $2.91, and they figure shell must have run out of regular. I look at the mowers, truck, and the 5 gallon tanks and think "I better give regular a shot". Guess what. I filled up with regular for $2.79 a gallon today.

Shell doesn't have the special running on mid-grade, only regular. All I can figure is they had to keep the special, but they placed these signs over the regular buttons to upsell to the mid-grade. I spread the word to others, one guy got mad and ripped all the signs off of the buttons. I was waiting for them to beat down the clerk!

Are there laws against this stuff? Multiple price changes throughout the day? Not honoring advertised specials?
 
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#3 ·
hell i wouldve taken the golf club out of the truck box and beat down the clerk and told him my fill up was on the house today if he wanted to keep his @$$ out of a fed hole or worse yet the mob in the middle of the hwy!

maybe not but i'd be very tempted to. :realmad:
 
#4 ·
I pulled into a station tonight with my guys at 8:30.. 3 mowing rigs (6 mowers, probably 20 gallons into cans, and 3 F-350s all around 1/4-1/3 full).. Was told my the clerk, I was limited to 15 gallons total..

Was tempted to jump over the counter, but said "ok" and went out and filled everything we went there to fill.. $555.75 later finally pulled out of there..

A station attendant has no right to tell me how much fuel I can buy.. The only reason they would limit quantity, is so they can keep the last delivery longer, and not have to refill the tanks.. Thus saving money because they have to pay more too.. So they can keep their price with everyone else and have to spend less because they are not having their tanks refilled.. Thats not fair
 
#5 ·
BaileysLawnServices said:
I'm out and about today, its about 11am... many gas stations start at 2.98-2.99 a gallon. Wawa gas was $2.83, Shell has their Thursay 5¢ off special at $2.79 a gallon. I'm thinking to myself, everyone is gonna go crazy for gas and run to that poor little Shell station. By 3:30pm, Wawa raised the gas to $2.98, all others I saw were the same as they had been. Shell was still $2.79, and had 3 lines, 2 lines blocking lanes of the highway. I usually fill up nights, to beat rush hours and such. I figured I'd stop at Wawa and save the hassle of waiting at Shell. WELL, Wawa raised the price once again, to $3.09. Other stations went up over $3. I drove to the Shell and waited in line. Still $2.79 a gallon. I get up to the pump, and theres signs taped over the regular buttons saying "no regular please". Now naturally, everyone fills with mid grade instead, because its still only $2.91, and they figure shell must have run out of regular. I look at the mowers, truck, and the 5 gallon tanks and think "I better give regular a shot". Guess what. I filled up with regular for $2.79 a gallon today.

Shell doesn't have the special running on mid-grade, only regular. All I can figure is they had to keep the special, but they placed these signs over the regular buttons to upsell to the mid-grade. I spread the word to others, one guy got mad and ripped all the signs off of the buttons. I was waiting for them to beat down the clerk!

Are there laws against this stuff? Multiple price changes throughout the day? Not honoring advertised specials?
My friend owns a gas station ... so I called him with your question. He informs me that there is really only two tanks in the ground, regular and super (no mid-grade). The mid-grade is a mixture of both the regular and super at the pump. He said he covered his regular up and only sold mid and super today ... the reason is that he was almost out of regular and could make it go twice as far if he sold it as mid-grade. That way twice as many people could get gas at a lower price and people would not be forced to pay the much higher (20 cents a gallon) for the super gas that they did not need.

Hope that helped!?
 
#7 ·
I noticed that Diesel was up to $3.15 at one station here. As far as the price gouging is concerned, It is only considered to be gouging if they raise the price beyond what is fair and reasonable. The stations here always raise their prices the same day as when oil prices rise but it takes them 3 to 5 days minimum to drop their price when the price of oil decreases. That way they make extra money on what is in their tanks when it is on the rise, but when the price drops they hammer us for another week on average.
 
#8 ·
Brianslawn said:
hell i wouldve taken the golf club out of the truck box and beat down the clerk and told him my fill up was on the house today if he wanted to keep his @$$ out of a fed hole or worse yet the mob in the middle of the hwy!

maybe not but i'd be very tempted to. :realmad:
Now that's intelligent. Beat the **** out of the poor guy making $6/hr. Those clerks have no control or say about the station operations or pricing. At least call out the manager, even tho they usually don't have much say in pricing decisions either.
 
#9 ·
Gas stations are only allowed to set their prices when they receive a shipment. Once the gas is in the tanks they can only lower it. Its illegal to raise the price on the same shipment. So if you had the time you could sit and watch the station, and if they raise prices without a new shipment you could bust them... It happens all the time and they never get reprimanded for it. :dizzy:
 
#10 ·
Could you point me to where that law is written? How about lawnboys not being allowed to raise their prices until a full cost analysis is done and submitted to a controlling federal agency? Sorry, most gas stations are privately owned, whether it be an individual or a company. They can charge what ever they want.
 
#12 ·
lawnwizards said:
Gas stations are only allowed to set their prices when they receive a shipment. Once the gas is in the tanks they can only lower it. Its illegal to raise the price on the same shipment. So if you had the time you could sit and watch the station, and if they raise prices without a new shipment you could bust them... It happens all the time and they never get reprimanded for it. :dizzy:
Um........ I think your mistaken......
 
#15 ·
BaileysLawnServices said:
Shell doesn't have the special running on mid-grade, only regular. All I can figure is they had to keep the special, but they placed these signs over the regular buttons to upsell to the mid-grade. I spread the word to others, one guy got mad and ripped all the signs off of the buttons. I was waiting for them to beat down the clerk!

Are there laws against this stuff? Multiple price changes throughout the day? Not honoring advertised specials?
No offense but I would've kept a tight lid on the regular special rather than starting off some chain reaction like that. I'm not thrilled at the price haggle either, but as there exists NO law preventing US from charging extra 5, 10, 20 or ANY +++$$$ dollars for a grass cut, NO law exists concerning fuel and that is the way it SHOULD be, although rumors exist IF a gas-station owner WERE to push prices BEYOND $6/gallon then there would be some investigation. Hell for the most part, gas-station owners are LOSING money, too, and the whole thing with the mid-grade push is most likely NOT a money thing, but it was done so as to make you pump LESS because there is a S H O R T A G E ... sigh

Now for the FIRST time since prices have shot over $2/gallon, FINALLY there appear to be LESS cars on the road and it really is about HIGH time this happened, but I also know as soon as mofos get USED to paying the $3.50/gallon, we'll be right back to wasting it just like we've been doing all along, and of course I'm not entirely innocent, either.
Personally, I *LIKE* the fact gas is so high because Leaded Racing Fuel is only a couple more bucks/gallon ($5/gallon) and once mixed with Bp premium, I get a 95-to-96 semi-leaded super-high octane purple fuel that kicks such @$$ nobody running puny 87 crapane could even remotely pretend to envision. So keep on complaining about 87 until you try pumping MY fuel, ain't nobody really got no room to talk, what we driving these gas hogs all around and complaining about the price, wtf...
The ONLY thing that frustrates me about the whole thing is that it's influenced and it didn't have to be this way, THAT burns a bit, but other than that, we're only reaping the fruits of our own labor and really, it serves us right because you have to admit, WE LOVE TO DRIVE and RUN *BIG* POWERFUL PETROL-EATING engines, yes *I* do.
 
#16 ·
lqmustang said:
Could you point me to where that law is written? How about lawnboys not being allowed to raise their prices until a full cost analysis is done and submitted to a controlling federal agency? Sorry, most gas stations are privately owned, whether it be an individual or a company. They can charge what ever they want.
Procut says your mistaken, no your DEAD WRONG!!!!
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by lqmustang
Could you point me to where that law is written? How about lawnboys not being allowed to raise their prices until a full cost analysis is done and submitted to a controlling federal agency? Sorry, most gas stations are privately owned, whether it be an individual or a company. They can charge what ever they want.

lawnman_scott said:
Procut says your mistaken, no your DEAD WRONG!!!!
Actually, he was saying that lawnwizards was mistaken. :rolleyes:
 
#18 ·
lqmustang said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by lqmustang
Could you point me to where that law is written? How about lawnboys not being allowed to raise their prices until a full cost analysis is done and submitted to a controlling federal agency? Sorry, most gas stations are privately owned, whether it be an individual or a company. They can charge what ever they want.

Actually, he was saying that lawnwizards was mistaken. :rolleyes:
since it came from the mouth of Ashland Oils CEO "John Halls" mouth, i guess he would be the one who is dead wrong. It may be a state to state thing so you all need to read up on your state instead of bashing the messenger. i'm just trying to help your sorry asses and all you can do is call me a liar. no wonder lawnsite has 25,000 plus members and only about 100 post, because of pricks like you. take it as you see it.
 
#19 ·
lawnwizards said:
since it came from the mouth of Ashland Oils CEO "John Halls" mouth, i guess he would be the one who is dead wrong. It may be a state to state thing so you all need to read up on your state instead of bashing the messenger. i'm just trying to help your sorry asses and all you can do is call me a liar. no wonder lawnsite has 25,000 plus members and only about 100 post, because of pricks like you. take it as you see it.
I never bashed anyone, I asked to show me where I could read the law. I never called you names, the least you could do would be to show me the same respect. Maybe this is why there are 25,000 plus member, and only about 100 post. :sleeping:
 
#20 ·
lqmustang said:
I never bashed anyone, I asked to show me where I could read the law. I never called you names, the least you could do would be to show me the same respect. Maybe this is why there are 25,000 plus member, and only about 100 post. :sleeping:
sorry for the confusion. it was lawnman scott who said i was "Dead Wrong" who this was directed to .
 
#21 ·
Well, the Speedway stations here had so many complaints to the state hotline, they lowered prices to 2.99. They stated in the news that since the gas in the tanks was still pre-hurricane gas, they didn't want to be investigated and fined for gouging... They were completely swamped all day.
 
#22 ·
Brianslawn said:
hell i wouldve taken the golf club out of the truck box and beat down the clerk and told him my fill up was on the house today if he wanted to keep his @$$ out of a fed hole or worse yet the mob in the middle of the hwy!

maybe not but i'd be very tempted to. :realmad:
GREAT ATTITUDE there....
also love all those positive quotes you have in your sig line.......

tells a lot about you...

the poor clerk that you would like to vent your rage on is just a minimum wage employee that had nothing to do with the price except changing the numbers on the sign like he was told to by his boss.....
 
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